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Seven Tips for Tough Financial Times

Seven Tips for Tough Financial Times

Chances are the current economic uncertainty is messing with your life. Recent data indicates roughly six million people are currently unemployed. Many more are underemployed. People are hurting.

Maybe you are one of the 44 million college graduates have student debt, averaging nearly $30,000. Nearly half of students graduating this spring are expected to move back home, held back by the economy in establishing lives of financial independence.

Perhaps you were laid off from a job. The timing couldn’t be worse with a new baby or a new mortgage.

All of the above is the “now” problem. Meanwhile, a larger “later” problem is brewing. The clock keeping tally of America’s national debt has officially run out of digits to record the soaring figure. The U.S. National Debt Clock was installed in Manhattan in 1989 to highlight what was then a $2.7 trillion debt. But when the total crept over $10 trillion, owners of the clock realized they needed another digit—a fourteenth digit, to be exact. Today our national debt is over $30 trillion (up significantly from the $19 trillion just a few years ago). Who’s going to inherit all that national debt? You!

Regardless of where you find yourself, you may be feeling the brunt of the economic crisis on all sides. You probably feel helpless and outraged—and that’s true whether you have a job or not.

On a purely practical level, there are several things you can do to help dissipate the financial anxiety and struggle of the current economic crisis including:

1. Create a budget.

By making a budget, you will become aware of where you are spending money, how much you owe and where you may need to cut back. There are a number of free budgeting apps available that allow you to plug in every aspect of your finances and calculate what’s going where—and what should stop going where.

2. Curb credit card use.

Just because you have credit available doesn’t mean you should be using it, so start paying with cash more often than credit cards. This will help you feel more in control of your finances and save you from receiving a large bill at the end of the month that you may not be able to pay in full, and therefore fall deeper behind.

3. Don’t stress over what you can’t control.

Just as you can’t control if it’s going to rain tomorrow, you can’t control if the $600 billion bailout package is going to improve the economy. What you can control, however, are your own finances, which will help build confidence and reduce stress. Stop stressing about stuff you can’t control; focus on the things you can.

4. If you have one, be glad for your job.

Maybe you hate your job, and it’s not what you want to do long-term. The good news is that you do in fact have a job when many people don’t. This may not be the best time to quit your current job and pursue other ambitions. It’s all a matter of timing. Keep the job, do it well, be thankful and pursue your other ambitions on the side for now.

5. Place a priority on saving.

You’ve heard the phrase “save for a rainy day,” right? It’s raining! If you’ve been living from check to check and maxing out your credit cards, you’re in trouble. If I could convince you of just one financial principle, it would be this: Save a minimum of 10 percent from every paycheck, until the day you retire. Make sacrifices wherever you can, and live within your means.

6. Work together.

Twentysomethings are masters of collaboration and social networking. Apply this mentality to dealing with the present economic crisis. Whether it’s your neighborhood, church small group or a Facebook group, form networks where people can pool ideas, information, resources and possessions to help each other out. Such networks could also pool resources of compassion to help others in the community in dire need.

7. Apply truth.

There’s a spiritual principle that says “you reap what you sow.” If you sow a life of dependency upon financial and career success as a source of identity, security, peace and fulfillment, then you will reap the volatility of these attachments deep in your soul. Markets fluctuate positively and negatively, stocks rise and fall; companies are born and die; jobs are created and dissolved; 401(k)s go up, go down and sometimes go away altogether; homes are bought and go into foreclosure—as they say, “It is what it is.” Even if you are responsible with your own finances, there are many things still left out of your control.

Jesus said that His peace is “not as the world gives.” In other words, the peace of God is not contingent upon circumstances. God’s peace is never threatened or diminished by economic conditions. You can experience the present reality of the Kingdom of God even if you lose your job or are forced to move back home. As you become more familiar with the presence of God within you, allow the stresses of daily life, including ways you are negatively affected by the economic crisis, to prompt you back to that place of awareness, allowance and reliance upon the Kingdom of God.

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