Have you experienced financial disaster at some time through your life? I am sure most of us probably have. There can be so many different reasons why we get into these situations. You may have school bills that are eating you up, or maybe you have had a sick loved one or a loved one that has passed away and you are left with all the hospital bills, or maybe it has been just because of your own foolishness. It really doesn’t matter so much how you got there but now the question is what to do about it.
All the time I have been married we have had financial difficulty. It has been better at some times than others. I remember when I got pregnant with our third child I cried, “We can’t afford this.” But after she was born and losing her five weeks later, I learned that money is not everything.
But then again we do have to figure out how to make it in this world and when we don’t do things right it can be a disaster. When you ignore things and hope they will go away, it does not work, I am speaking from experience. The one thing about the banks, they will keep giving you credit cards and more credit until you are in big trouble. There is no bank out there that is really interested in your good. They are interested in making money.
One of the hardest things is when you and your spouse are not together on your finances. That was our experience. Sometimes you, along with the family, have to suffer until there is change. But sometimes that is what it takes for some people to get to the bottom. Financial Disaster! When I told my husband it was looking like we were going to have to bankrupt he finally started to listen and wake up.
Are you feeling overwhelmed right now with your situation and wondering what you should do? I am going to give you some steps that we have taken. I hope this encourages you to make the step.
- Start with your local Bank. I went to our bank. We had credit cards, lines of credit, and a personal loan. Some banks are not as workable, as I discovered but our main bank was, on most accounts. Most of our accounts, with our request, lowered the interest rates for the life of the loan, which lowered the payments and made it more affordable to pay.
- Contact all other credit cards or loans. After working with our local bank I called each of our other cards from other banks and lenders. Most of them were workable also. But there were a few that did not work with me. I pay all those that worked with me first and if I don’t have enough to pay the ones that did not work with me, I either don’t pay them or pay what I can. I have had them call me and be willing to lower the interest some after they did not receive full minimum payments. It isn’t easy but you have to make a plan.
- Do the snowball plan. If any of you are familiar with Dave Ramsey you know all about the snowball plan. You list all your credit cards and loans down, starting with the one you owe the least on. Pay the minimum on each one and as you pay one-off add that minimum to the next one bill in the list and so on. It is amazing on how it works. I did use this method once before in our life and got us completely out of debt. It does work.
- Take on extra work. We have been running our own family business for many years, which I have been a part of. But at this point I went out and got an outside job. The Lord provided me with just the right job for me.
- Trust in the Lord! I believe starting with asking the Lord for His forgiveness for our wrong choices is definitely a start, if we have brought this upon ourselves. We can’t just ask forgiveness and sit back and wait for God to do something. But as we step forward to make efforts, He will come along side us and help us. I found that to be so true when I was looking for a job. Not only did He provide me a job, as I was looking, but He also provided a job that will come to me at His bidding. Where I work they call me in when they have extra work. So my prayer has been that God will provide the work that He knows that I need to have. I have had to trust Him because sometimes there has been a lot of work and other times there has not been. But I have a job and I leave it to Him to bring in the work through that Job. I do understand why He has given me some slack time, which I can’t get into here but I have learned that I can trust Him.
There are many other things that can be done that I will be sharing in coming blogs but for now this is a few steps that has led us along the way. We have not arrived at the debt free status but we are heading in that direction.
Dear Father,
There are many that are suffering financially. You know their need and I pray that You will provide wisdom and strength. Give us peace as we do Your will. Thank You for Your help and guidance.
In Jesus Name,
Amen
Remember to trust God through the hard times and He will guide you through. Take the steps that you need to take a He will provide.
Love you all.
Have you had financial difficulty? What steps have you taken to get financially free?