Disgusted - now it's time for a change

Some people need to get disgusted, mad, enraged or scared before they'll change stubborn habits.

Have you hit bottom? Do you need to?

We put up with lots of bad behavior and bad decisions because we aren’t mad enough to do anything about it. Get mad enough now about your current situation so that you vow to change it and never go back.

Your financial future depends on you making such commitments.

I hit financial bottom once, and it was unnecessary in many respects. For me, I felt like I needed to go all the way through to financial disaster before I would get mad enough to get back on top and head toward financial freedom.

And, that's exactly what I did. With all the debt piled on my back, I was one motivated man with a mission of financial survival and climbing back out of the hole that I had allowed myself to fall into.

I’ll never to go through it again, because I know through sad experience that the frugal mindset works well for me and other "devil may care" approaches to money management are for other fools and their followers.

My problem was that I didn’t know when to cut and run. I should have seen it much earlier – way earlier. You need to be able to recognize trouble when it approaches and then know how to avoid it. Avoiding trouble is the best way to stay out of it.

Like Elvis Costello sings, "I used to be disgusted, now I try to be amused."

Well, I didn't find it a bit amusing then, and I don't find it amusing now. It certainly was an education, but it wasn't the least bit amusing.

To keep myself from getting into financial trouble again, I've set my trigger points quite low. In other words, I'm much more sensitive to trouble approaching. I don't need to wait until I'm mad enough to do something to protect my best interests - I head it off, nip it in the bud, and tell all those potential troubles to "talk to the hand."

Been there, done that, and I ain't doing it again.

Get mad, get disgusted, get riled up real good. Whatever it takes to shake yourself up and get you sufficiently motivated to put an end to what's killing you financially. Your future depends on it.

Done with Disgusted, back to Mindset of Frugality