Monday, September 20, 2010

Have you gone Mental? (XXII)

One of the difficulties I've had throughout my life is how I handle my finances. This, I've found, is a universal problem. I lost my job in March and am not able to work now due to my mental and emotional problems. My wife is a para-educator. It so happens she works 9 months and gets paid nine months. This leaves us now (virtually) with no paycheck in July, August and September. We were blessed with a severance package when I lost my job and by now, even with careful and frugal handling, the well is almost dry. My wife will get a partial check the last day of September and then begin receiving full checks in October. This "forced frugality" has taught us how much money we have been wasting and what we can to get along without what we once thought were necessities. Because we have "found ourselves" in this situation we decided that now would be a good time to get some help.

We attended DA (Debtors Anonymous). I didn't like it and felt that we needed a more focused approach including education. We decided on Dave Ramsey's "Financial Peace University". After attending two sessions of our 13 week program we believe this is the program that is right for us for an investment of about $100.00. We are learning there is a process to getting out of the mess that we created without feeling overwhelmed (like we feel at the outset of the program.) It took us a while to get into this mess and it will take a while to get out.

There is no quick fix for this situation we have "created ourselves". We have decided to take this journey. Most of us know how much stress financial problems put us under both as individuals and couples. In fact problems with finances is, arguably, the top cause of marital problems that end up in divorce. This does not help depresion-anxiety. In fact it "supports" each disorder. For those whose depression-anxiety is situational it is a "killer". a serious problem. For those whose problems with depression-anxiety is an ongoing long term disorder, like myself, it adds one more devasting problem to our lives.

What is the way out of this mess? We are putting our eggs in the basket of Dave Ransey's material as we begin. His book "Financial Peace Revisited" is a great resource and provides a simple, well wrtten, account of the state we are in and practical steps to get out.

Dave's web site is www.daveramsey.com. Here we find practial help. Combine this with with Dave's "Finacial Peace University" and hope begins to form. It is easy to find the "Unversity" which is offered throughout the Portland-Vancouver area and other places through the US.

Let me encourage you to address this stressor in your life. Although this repesents a departure from my usual blog, I believe it is important enough to address as a part of our recovery from mixed depression-anxiety. Find a class near you, go to the first session and get a taste of the wisdom and see if this program is for you. I think you can find classes and locations at www.daveramsey.com. I heartily recommend it.

No program is perfect. Debtors Anonymous is free and many have found help there. This program requires us to make an investment of $100.00 which you may need to save up for. At any rate if finances is a problem for you as an individual or a couple, GET HELP. Commit yourself to a program, stick with it, until you find help.
Once again, this is my opinion and I stated that I think many of you find yourselves in trouble finanially. We are doing something about it and I hope you will too.

Typos and all, God bless you... to our health!

1 comment:

  1. LOVE that you guys are doing this. Dave Ramsey is the bomb.

    ReplyDelete