Posted on 10/14/2010 9:39:59 AM PDT by CSM
Debt loves to tell you, "It's too late to start."
Debt talks trash.
It does. The closer you get to wrangling it into a manageable pay-off schedule and the closer you get to actually paying it off completely, the louder Debt gets. It will throw out excuse after excuse about why you shouldn’t be so worried about Financial Peace.
“Relax! What’s the panic for? Let’s just live our life. This is our time to enjoy ourselves. Charge it! You deserve it. Who wants to be one of those pencil-pushing budget nerds? Not me. Not you. Not us!”
Debt will continue to talk trash, and one of its favorite excuses is about timing. Debt loves to tell you, “It’s too late to start.”
When you start reading Financial Peace or go to a live event, that slippery fiend called Debt will pipe up and tell you that you’re too late. “If you were younger, sure, you could have gotten your money in order. But it’s too late now to start saving for retirement and worrying about the future. You’re in your 30s or 40s or 50s. Financial Peace is a young man’s game. Give up. Give up.”
This voice gets louder when you read some of the examples of people who have started saving. When you see a chapter where a fictional character started saving at 19 and by 32 had a bajillion dollars, Debt will get all fussy.
“See, Ben started saving when he was 19! You’re not 19! It won’t work. It will never work.”
But even though you might hear something like that, even though Debt might try to step up and complain about the timing of your transformation, there’s a simple truth you need to hold close:
“It’s never too late to start.”
It’s never too late to change your life. It’s never too late to lean in hard to a new budget or a long-term plan. It’s never too late to set things in motion for the generations after you. Randall Wallace, the screenwriter of the movie “Braveheart,” started when he was 41. Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken, never sold any chicken until he was 67. Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel at age 78.
And the reason why it’s never too late is that this is how life works. You’d never say to someone who was running out of a burning house with a photo album clutched in their hands, “Drop the album. You didn’t save the whole house, so it’s too late to save anything. Give it all up.”
You’d never tell someone who smoked for 10 years, “It’s too late to stop, you should just keep doing what you are doing.” Not at all. You’d say, “Start today! A new day, a new you can begin right here and right now. It’s never too late.”
Fictional Ben might have started saving at 19, and you might not be that age anymore. But don’t let an example of long-term saving convince you it’s too late. It’s not. That’s the beauty of hope.
It’s never too late to hope.
Hope doesn’t feed the bulldog, Dave.
But I know what you mean.
Enjoy....
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Hope doesn’t feed the bulldog...
However, there is no reason not to begin wherever a person is-and make positive changes. Options change, situations change, and life changes.
“Options change, situations change, and life changes.”
I’m living proof of that! I’m on my third ‘life’ right now, and it’s darn exciting! Every day seems to just keep getting better. Angels everywhere! :)
BUMP!
I’m digging myself out from under again. *SIGH* I thought I was done with this cr@p (and debt IS cr@p!) but here I am again! (Situation beyond my control; I’m not at the mall 24/7, LOL!)
At least I have the skills and the mindset to make it happen...or to die trying, LOL! :)
Keep it up, you will make it!
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