Knowing When To Let Go And Live A Little With Finances

Financial freedom is one of the key attributes in life we all try to achieve. Having the freedom to live our lives without the constant stress of money is wonderful. Unfortunately, the road to this goal can be long and tiresome. We often pick up habits along this journey which we carry long past the freedom marker. It is these habits we then have to re-learn carefully and strategically.

Release The Clenched Wallet

So many of us hold on tight to our wallets during the journey to financial freedom. When we finally reach financial freedom, we are so fear driven to relinquish our tight grip on our money. This is definitely something I have had to learn over the years. When we started out, money was so tight. I was constantly trying to account for every dollar. Spending $10-$20 here or there was a huge deal! Having walked the journey though has created bad habit now that we are far from where we once were. I still nickel and dime the items we are spending money on. When the reality is, we now have the ability for the occasional splurge. It takes time and instances of forcing myself to endure the pains of splurging.

Checking The Accounts Multiple Times A Day

Alerts and mobile apps for banking is great! However, for compulsive people like me, it can be detrimental. Again, through this journey I had developed the need to check the accounts or set up alerts multiple times a day. The accounts had likely not changed, but it was a sense of control that I thought I had. If there was money going out, I figured knowing about it as soon as possible would allow me to correct it. This was hardly ever the case. It was also a way to ensure others were not overspending on the accounts. Through trust of the other person and being able to let go, I have been able to just check the accounts once or twice a day.

Needing To Make All Payments Manually

Bill pay is a great feature of banks online. Having the auto payment feature is also a huge benefit for online bank users. Unfortunately, feeling the need to double check all of the money meant I needed to submit all payments manually. Thus, I would set time aside on the first and fifteenth of the month to ensure all bills were submitted. This was no different than making them through auto payments, but doing this gave me the sense of physical affirmation of control of my finances. Obviously, if you have read some other posts about automation, I no longer do this. In fact, I have nearly everything automated and only check in on it every few months.

Ultimately, most of the issues many of us may deal with after making the trek through financial struggles will be with control or fear. It is the strong compulsion to want to control everything going on and the fear of being back where we were. However, you have to trust in the struggles and the things you have learned. It will keep you from going back there!