Financial Stress and Depression
A recent report shows a link between financial stress and depression. 72% of the population indicates that they were stressed out about their money.
Financial stress has a way of bringing about an array of emotions to the surface. They can range from worrying about paying your bills to feeling like you are a total failure.
Money has a way of touching nearly every aspect of our lives. The lack of it or worrying about money influences our mental health, emotional health as well as our physical well being. Taking
control of the money we steward is vital. I know that money makes an excellent servant but a terrible master! Isn’t it time to master your money, rather than allowing it to master you? Let us
show you how to never worry about money again!!!!
Part of this post is excerpted from The Dark Link Between Financial Stress and Depression by Elizabeth Renter. Read the full post at:
Greatest Financial Books of All Time!
As a financial coach, I am constantly looking to enhance my financial education through a variety of means (books, courses, audio, seminars, etc.). As an avid reader, my preferred choice of continual learning is through books.
I’ve read dozens of finance related books over the years. Some good, some bad. But today, I want to save you some time and effort, by listing 5 of the greatest financial books of all time.
1. Rich Dad, Poor Dad – Robert Kiyosaki – this book is the one that got me serious about financial education. I would read a financial book every now and then, but not really implement what I was learning. After reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad, I began to understand why I would take one step forward towards financial freedom but then two steps back. Making more money doesn’t do anything for you if you don’t know what to do with it and how to keep it.
Primary takeaway: Definition of an Asset vs. a Liability
Financial Mistakes That Can Wreak Havoc in Your Married Life – Avert Them to Stay Safe
It is nothing new that disagreements over financial matters is one of the primary reasons behind couples ending up in the divorce court. Although financial advice for married couples is readily available, yet they prefer continuing their fight over petty fiscal issues. If you and your partner are like most other couples, chances are high that you fight about money.
While you might hear advices that tell you to talk about money with your partner, talking is not always the only trick that works. In fact according to a study by a famous magazine group, it has been found out that 75% of couples talk about money every week. Still where's the problem? The problem is that most of us don't know how to talk about money as most couples tend to be emotional and reactive about money rather than being strategic. When emotions take a grip on you, you tend to take wrong fiscal decisions and this leads to couples drowning in debt. If you want to follow a debt free life, educate yourself on the most common fiscal mistakes that can wreck your married life.
- Combining your finances: One of the biggest issues that the newlyweds usually face is how to handle their finances. Most couples are struggling with this as they wonder whether or not they should merge everything and have a joint single account or whether they should have individual personal accounts and a joint account only for household expenses. A survey shows that 65% couples put their money in joint accounts and the rest of them keep everything in separate accounts. For the newlyweds, the choice should be somewhere in the middle as you should have some autonomy money. When one spouse enters into a hefty debt load, the other spouse can use his/her funds to help the other.
Debt Settlement: Is It a Sin or Scriptural?
I recall my pastor mentioning once in a sermon on the subject of money that is very valuable for someone looking for a breakthrough where their debt and finances are concerned. So let’s start with something that is important to God – your character.
I am a firm believer that a person’s character is one of the best indicators of how much success they attract in their future. We all have areas under construction, but at some point victory should be won! So here is one area we’ll consider today.
Let’s say you and I have a similar passion and interest and think we would make a good team. We begin tossing the idea around about how to take what we love to do and make profits. We set up meetings, research, obtain new information and educate ourselves through seminars in an effort to make this a success.
We start a company and are making money! It gets good and we lean on one another for our various strengths as we recognize how to bring out the best in one another. But after awhile, I don’t keep appointment times, I cancel meetings, I don’t return your calls as quickly as before and you are carrying the load.
Which Debt Should I Pay Off First?
Once you decide to take charge and get on a high powered debt reduction plan, you might wonder: is it better to pay the smallest debts off first or the highest interest ones first?
Well, both ways have their advantage, so depending upon what’s most important to you, you’ll have to decide.
Smallest debts first – the benefit of paying smallest debts off first is that you actually get to see progress quicker. When you can see the list of people that you owe start to shrink, it makes you feel good and you know that you’re plan is working.
Highest interest first – the benefit of paying the highest interest debts off first is that you save more money over the long term than if you were to let the higher interest rate linger on.
A good rule of thumb to use: If you have more than 4 debt accounts, use the smallest debt first method; otherwise pay the highest interest rate debts off first.
Create Your Own Personal Finance Strategy
If you’re like me, when making a decision, you like to
research and compare different methods before deciding which way to go. This has definitely been true for my wife and me as we’ve pursued our wealth journey. And once again, if you’re like me, what you’ve probably found is there are so many different perspectives on how to build wealth. It could be enough to drive you mad!
So who’s right? Believe it or not, I would go so far as to say that much of the financial information, strategies, etc. out there is good in it own way. Until discovering my own personal finance strategy,we tried a lot of different things before just narrowing it down to what has worked consistently for us. So I’m not one to say that there is one specific philosophy to follow. Heck, I even encourage you to contrast different “gurus” to see which one works best for you. Because you will find that you are able to pick and choose from different advisors and tailor it to your needs in order to reach financial freedom.
From 6-Figure Debt to Financial Freedom: My 4-Step Plan
Guest post from Trea S. Branch of Trea's Two Cents
- We dream of being able to support family financially without being set back
- We dream of traveling at will, all over the world
- We dream of sending our kids to college, completely paid for
- We dream of quitting the 9-5 gig waaaaay before we’re 65
- We dream of not having to work for money
- My husband and I dream of financial freedom, and here’s how we plan to get there
A Simple Formula on How to Attain Financial Freedom
After several years of research, reading all types of money making books, investing in all types of business opportunities, Gina and I realized a simple way that’s helped many people become financially free.
I won’t pretend that I have the magic formula that will: make you $100,000 in 3 minutes while you sit on the couch, or allow you to retire next week without ever leaving the house! I’m not saying that folks who sell those programs are lying because I haven’t done them all, but years ago, I tried a couple of them and let’s just say the only thing that happened while I sat on the couch was I made an imprint!
Let’s face it: If you truly want to get rich & achieve financial independence, it’s going to take some work! However, if I told you that you could become rich and increase your net worth (regardless of how much money you currently make) by using a tried and true formula that consists of 3 simple steps, would you believe me? Well you should, because it works!
How do I know? Because We Have Used This Formula to Continually Increase Our Net Worth Over the Past 20+ years!