What is the importance of paying yourself first?
I, myself, have been in the situation to where I'm stressing about bills and wondering how exactly am I going to pay each one. I have been in situations where I calculated my bills for the month and coming up with a negative balance. So where does that lead one to get ahead? So where does that lead one to even be current?
It's a snowball effect. On the top of the mountain, it's the size of a small pebble. As the days go on and on and different bills get shuffled around in a sense robbing Peter to pay Paul, that small pebble becomes an insurmountable avalanche of debt.
In a sense, you only can do so much and can only do what you can only do. In this case, constantly shuffling around bills and trying to pay some this month and some the next aren't really getting you anywhere.
It boils down to communication. You communicate with your debtors and as painstaking as it may be, work out a smaller payment plan.
Instead of paying that credit card the full bill of $100, make two payments on different paydays for $50 or $30. Really calculate out what you can reasonably do and stick to it. This will take some work on your part. Most companies will work with you in this manner and will either freeze their late fees. In some cases, they will take them away as long as they are getting some amount each pay period.
As important as it is to pay certain bills, you should make yourself the number one bill you need to concentrate on. In the same manner as working out a payment schedule with your debtors, you need to provide the same for yourself. Work out that budget and start to give yourself a little credit and create for yourself a little room. Just as that savings may be a small pebble at the top of that mountain, in due time it will grow in size.
It may take some trail and effort on your part. Like the saying goes, if you always do what you have always done nothing will ever change. Or the definition of insanity which is doing something over and over and yet still expecting different results.
Put that savings in a separate savings account or another bank account. Make it a pain in the neck to access that account to withdraw funds to discourage going to it for those times you want just a little extra. Always pay yourself first.
It's a snowball effect. On the top of the mountain, it's the size of a small pebble. As the days go on and on and different bills get shuffled around in a sense robbing Peter to pay Paul, that small pebble becomes an insurmountable avalanche of debt.
In a sense, you only can do so much and can only do what you can only do. In this case, constantly shuffling around bills and trying to pay some this month and some the next aren't really getting you anywhere.
It boils down to communication. You communicate with your debtors and as painstaking as it may be, work out a smaller payment plan.
Instead of paying that credit card the full bill of $100, make two payments on different paydays for $50 or $30. Really calculate out what you can reasonably do and stick to it. This will take some work on your part. Most companies will work with you in this manner and will either freeze their late fees. In some cases, they will take them away as long as they are getting some amount each pay period.
As important as it is to pay certain bills, you should make yourself the number one bill you need to concentrate on. In the same manner as working out a payment schedule with your debtors, you need to provide the same for yourself. Work out that budget and start to give yourself a little credit and create for yourself a little room. Just as that savings may be a small pebble at the top of that mountain, in due time it will grow in size.
It may take some trail and effort on your part. Like the saying goes, if you always do what you have always done nothing will ever change. Or the definition of insanity which is doing something over and over and yet still expecting different results.
Put that savings in a separate savings account or another bank account. Make it a pain in the neck to access that account to withdraw funds to discourage going to it for those times you want just a little extra. Always pay yourself first.
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