Staying Motivated

It seems about once a month something does not go as planned in our budget.  Either something unexpected comes up or we just spend more than we should in a particular category causing us to make less progress than anticipated.  When this happens I can’t help but feel a little defeated and sometimes even feel like giving up. So how do I stay motivated to stay on track? 

Review Progress Already Made

I know that just by keeping track of our spending alone goes a long way to help us financially.  I can honestly say that since I found the perfect budgeting software for me, I have been keeping track of every penny and this really helps me to know where we stand at all times and also keeps us from spending uncontrollably.  I always remind myself that we have already made great progress since rebooting our effort with the new software just two months ago.  While our debt has not decreased drastically just yet, this is mostly due to the fact that we found a couple old debts we had forgotten about when we made our original list.  We have drastically reduced our spending and are currently paying $800 a month towards debt. On top of that, we have starting saving monthly for things like gifts, Christmas, car maintenance and repairs, and our Amazon Prime membership to avoid having these expenses creep up on us.  When our Amazon Prime membership comes due again, we will already have the money set aside for it. In fact, when something unexpected comes up, we think about whether that is something that we should also be setting money aside for each month to avoid the same thing happening again in the future.  I think that if we keep adjusting our budget as we go, we will have less and less unexpected situations arise.

Remember Goals

I remind myself what our goals are and I know that if we give up, we will never reach these goals and we will be right back where we started. I remind myself of our goals every day and every time I consider making a purchase of any kind. I even have motivational pictures saved on my phone and my laptop to view whenever I need to remind myself of what we are working towards. This is not because I am depriving myself and hating life at that moment.  It is more to keep myself on track and remember why it is silly to spend on items that are not meaningful to me.  If you do not already have your goals written down somewhere, you need to do this now!  Simply writing down your goals and reviewing them periodically is a great motivator.  Be sure to break large goals down into smaller ones so that you can feel progress being made.  Set goal dates as well so you will be pushing yourself to meet those deadlines. 

 Seek Support

This is a great time to post a little rant on your favorite forum to seek motivational support and guidance from others who are either in the same situation as you or, better yet, have previously been in your position and have already made great progress.  I also find this to be a good time to read success stories on my favorite personal finance blogs and forums.  There are always others out there who have started out in worse situations and worked their way out of it.  I know if they can do it, so can we. 

Prove Others Wrong and/or Make Others Proud

This might seem strange to some, but I want to prove to certain people in my life that we are strong enough to fight through this and come out on top.  If you have any judgmental people in your life, you know where I’m coming from here.  I try not to be around judgmental people, but sometimes it is unavoidable, especially when they are family.  There are also certain people in our lives who I know will be very proud of us if we can accomplish this.  I can’t wait for the day that we can tell everyone we know that we are retiring from our full time jobs to live our dream.  

Set an Example

If we are able to retire at an early age, our kids will be young enough to learn from that and start saving much earlier than we did and retire at a very young age.  I also want them to understand that living a normal lifestyle is not a smart lifestyle to live.  Wasting money on eating out, fast food, soda from the gas station, coffee, etc. all adds up very quickly and takes away from things they would value much more.  I want them to live a life full of wonderful experiences and memories that will last a lifetime.  Whether that means traveling the world, skydiving (yikes!), mountain climbing, whatever their hearts desire is all that matters.  The important thing is they will not be able to do any of this if they are wasting all of their money on meaningless things.  It is hard to preach something like this if you are not living it yourself. 

Accept Mistakes and Move On

So when I find myself feeling down because we aren't progressing quickly enough, I will do one or more of these things until I feel better again and understand there are going to be bumps in the road.  At the end of the day, I just have to accept that and keep moving forward.  We may not reach our goals in the perfect amount of time, but as long as we keep working at it, we will get there.  If we give up, not only will we end up right back where we started, but our situation will likely get progressively worse.  I have also found writing this blog has been a great source of therapy and helps me to stay on track.  I should also mention that if you have a spouse, you should be on the same page and help motivate each other as well.