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This morning before Colin went to work we gave our financial situation a good stare. As much as I hate to do it and avoid doing it, I have to admit that I always feel a little better when I do, even if I get bad news. My uncle Brent (of marketsurfing.com fame) gave us a copy of The Richest Man in Babylon a few years ago along with a spreadsheet to help us keep track of our money and our goals. We've been less than faithful about following his advice, but when I do follow it we do better. Now that we're looking for a job, I thought it would be wise to try and plan for what we'll do with money once we get some and to figure out how much money we'd like to spend in a comfortable situation in case someone wants to offer us some.
So, we worked on figuring out how much we're spending now and on what, and where we can improve. Then I worked on figuring out what debt we're in exactly and how long it will take to get rid of it at different salary levels. I found a neat Debt Elimination Calendar/Calculator online to download and use for the purpose.
A couple of weeks ago I went through the LDS Church Family Finances Tutorial online, which was helpful in getting me to deal with some of the emotional issues surrounding money and in knowing where to start. In case you've never experienced it, it's particularly uncomfortable to deal with your finances when looking for a new job. It's slightly less uncomfortable if you have an adequate old job and have been responsible with your money there and you either still have the old job or have savings built up from the old job. It's very tempting to simply say to yourself "there's no way I have money to pay the bills, so I'll just ignore them." Like other temptations, giving into this one merely brings more discomfort. It's better to know where you're at and do what you can rather than ignore it and mentally create horrific scenes of your imaginary financial state. It really does help to know.
Plus, once you know where you are and what you need, it's fun to dream up ways to save money and to think of how much you could do with a little more. It's inspiring to think of what we could do with an extra $5,000 a year if we were organized. And we certainly have the ability to think up ways to make another $5K in a year, we just need to use it wisely as a goal and with plans of how to spend it and any other money that comes our way.
Like Colin said the other day, Heavenly Father only gives you what you can handle. If you can't handle the money you have, he probably won't give you more.
