by Diana Woloson

 In Dear Abby’s column on June 14, 2000 there were responses to an earlier column regarding a woman who ran up $17,000 of debt of which her husband wasn’t aware. One widower responded that because his wife was in charge of their finances, he had no idea how much indebtedness he was under until she died. The column, in a nutshell, was telling the men (and women!) to pay attention to their financial world and not just leave it to their partners

Abuse of those poor credit cards seems to be the culprit in most instances. In the column, credit counseling was recommended as well as communication between partners. Until someone is ready and willing to get to the root, the cause, of their spending habits, credit counseling is a quick “fix me, so I can go do it some more.” What was really being pointed out was taking responsibility and becoming aware of what is happening in your life, instead of totally turning things over to someone else.

What a lot of people have chosen to not understand is that credit cards are a luxury, not a necessity. Yet, most “can’t live without one.” If responsibility isn’t taken, then at some point a person may have to live without one. Wouldn’t it be better to start curbing ourselves on the “quick fix,” “gotta have it now” spending? I don’t know about the rest of you, but I wouldn’t want to be without my credit card as it is a convenience and comes in real handy in an emergency.

One of the things I do is to set my own “limit.” I try to keep the outstanding amount down to about 1/5 of whatever the actual limit is on the credit card. Yes, I do go over my own limit and when I do, I make a concerted effort to pay it off immediately. (I always pay over the minimum amount due, regardless of my balance. I’m usually not far from paying it down to a zero balance if I haven’t kept it there.) I’m not willing to be in debt where I can only pay the minimum balance and there’s not enough cash or credit card availability to be able to buy the necessities. Of course, there are those who will spend any way they please and don’t care whether their debts are being paid — and the rest of us are paying for that attitude.

Keeping up with current trends can be expensive. Unless we are earning the income to cover those luxuries, we need to think hard about how we are spending our money.

How do we do this? We always want to ask ourselves: “Do I need this or do I just want it?” It’s called prioritizing. Does this mean we can never have something we want? Absolutely not! Save those pennies. Manifest through prayer, meditation, visualization, whatever works for you to let the Universe know what you need or want. Is it really necessary to get a brand new car every year or two? My car is over five years old, looks new and I have no car payment. When I turned in my prior car, it was almost ten years old and was like new. Hypothetically, my choices with the money that would normally be used for a car payment are: (a) put the money aside towards another car, (b) invest (c) pay off credit cards and other outstanding bills, (d) take a vacation that wasn’t taken due to not enough money to do it before, (e) use it to buy some of those luxury items I’d been putting off or (f) do a combination plan of all of the above.

Are you dependent on your credit card to get the necessities? What are the necessities of life — food, shelter and clothing? Then we go from there. That new CD player (or even a CD) is not a necessity. The television bit the dust? It isn’t a necessity either (even though it may feel like it sometimes!) Maybe this is an opportunity that’s being presented to explore other forms of entertainment that may be more enriching for us.

How many of us have created a business? Has everything been turned over to a bookkeeper or accountant assuming they know everything? I had a client who did exactly that, let someone else take charge of the books in every way both personally as well as professionally. It was assumed that everything was being taken care of properly. The result was embezzlement, audits of all kinds and financial chaos because the client chose not to accept the responsibility of being aware of what was going on with the business. There were no procedures of checks and balances, nor was there a professional advisory team in place to help the client understand what was happening with the business.

Does this mean the owner has to do the books? No. Yet that person needs to be aware of not only the money coming into the business, but where it is going. Is the money being disbursed to the correct accounts? Clerical errors and misunderstandings can create some hefty outflows to government agencies when those errors aren’t caught and corrected.

If balancing a checkbook is not our forte, does that mean we never do it and depend on the bank’s information? This is a great way to create expenses in the form of overdrawn accounts and bounced check charges if money is tight. ATM charges can also mount up.

What happens when two are using the same account and writing checks and/or making ATM withdrawals? Unless both are aware and communicate with the other, this can also create chaos... financial as well as otherwise!

Yes, most times, it is convenient for one person to be in charge of keeping the books; however, that doesn’t mean the other should not have a clue about what is happening with the family or business finances.

Will you continue to assume that everything in your financial world is OK and risk the possibility that it really isn’t? Or will you choose to take responsibility for your life and know what you think is happening is the reality?

It’s Your Choice!

Diana is a writer, motivator, healer and workshop facilitator. For help with creating a personalized spending plan leave msg at 702-228-7118, Las Vegas. She is also the founder of Mystical Enlightenments and works with aromatherapy - Essential Oils.