Don’t Forget Your Finances, but Don’t Let Them Slow You Down!
Posted on May 11, 2009 2 Comments
When life gets busy, people can choose to cope one of two ways: they can slow down, take time to relax and get their life in order; or, like me, they can take on more. It seems totally counter intuitive, but I thrive on the chaos. On any given weekend, if I have 10 things to do, you can bet I’ll add another three to the mix. It’s a mindset that’s worked for me, and amazingly, everything usually gets done.
Usually.
Lately, my impromptu projects seems to get bigger — there was the $500 DIY wardrobe from IKEA that I bought on a whim, an “on the fly” trip to visit my cousin at her university and a reorganizing of my apartment that had to be done NOW. But the biggest project I’ve taken on recently has been training for a triathlon. I’ve committed to be in the gym five to six days per week for a total of 10 weeks leading up to the main event, and it’s left my blog unattended to, my apartment a mess, my friends upset because I’m never out and my work schedule in shambles. It’s a mess.
But truth be told, I feel amazing. I have five weeks of training left, and I’m already in better shape than I’ve been in for the past two years, I’m sleeping well and I’m less stressed. (Yay me!)
I do feel guilty about neglecting my life outside the gym, but not enough to apologize for prioritizing my fitness above the cleanliness of my apartment or trying to leave the office with enough time to workout. We all make choices, and sometimes the best choice for me means that some other areas of my life won’t be picture perfect; I’ve got to be OK with that.
One area that shouldn’t be neglected during busy periods is finance. It’s easy to forget about when you’re preoccupied… I haven’t looked at my accounts in weeks. But the problem with neglecting finances is that, unlike your harmless laundry pile, neglected finances could actually hurt you. If you miss even one credit card or mortgage payment, your credit rating could drop — leaving you with a lot more problems and less time to tackle your next big challenge.
I logged onto all my accounts today for my May check-in (which I’ll share tomorrow), and was surprised to see how tight I cut my payments to due dates this month — within days. I also forgot to make a student loan payment in April .. Yikes! (Luckily, I’m ahead of the student loan repayment schedule so I’m not in default.)
Moral of the story? Take care of yourself, but don’t let your finances fall by the wayside. If you have to adjust your priorities, it’s better to stop watching America’s Next Top Model than stop paying your bills. Better yet, get an online service like Quicken or Mint to e-mail you (at a working e-mail address) when your bills are due, or set up all your accounts for automatic bill pay. Then, you won’t have to worry about stopping to smell the flowers, er, pay your bills.
Category: Life
Tags: Priorities
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2 Responses to “Don’t Forget Your Finances, but Don’t Let Them Slow You Down!”
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October 18th, 2009 @ 3:43 am
Agree that it's pretty easy to let your finances fall by the wayside. If you try and set up essentials like bills on autopay, it really helps. Making a list of your top priorities in terms of financial goals also helps you to keep focussed.
March 23rd, 2010 @ 2:06 am
Great information. Its those times we get busy with so many other things in life that we let our guard down and get in trouble financially. These are watch out situations that we find ourselves in that we need to pay special attention to our finances. As hard as that may be it is worth it in the long run, and I'm not talking about triatholons.