A number of years ago, I was sitting in my doctor’s office and saw this quote hanging on the
wall:
“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took
to blossom.” – Anais Nin
This quote has been applicable to a variety of areas and decisions in my life. It is also applicable
to financial stress and changing money habits. We often keep doing the same thing, even if it is
destructive, because the pain is tolerable. It is once the difficulty can no longer be ignored that we
become ready for something different.
Recent studies have highlighted that 3 out of 4 people live with financial stress – that’s 75%!
Those same studies often show that at least 25% of us are unable to escape financial stress. For
these reasons, personal finances often affect our emotional well being, faith, personal
relationships, employment, physical health, and, of course, our financial stability. Acute financial
stress can also impact our immediate living situation and create difficulty in acquiring or
maintaining basic essentials, such as food, shelter, clothing and transportation.
Because personal finances affect virtually every area of our lives, financial planning must be
comprehensive. Sometimes, we cannot change external circumstances. In times like these, we
will be more open to changing ourselves and our habits. Change is often perceived to be more
painful than continuing with our current plan.
When the pain of continuing on the same path becomes too much, we become open to making
changes. In the meantime, the building financial stress can have a greater impact on our lives
than we want to admit. The value of seeking help from knowledgeable professionals is that they
can help us assess how continuing on the same path or making changes might affect us. They can
help us explore each path before we actually make the change. They can help us see over to the
horizon when we are unable to see beyond just getting through today.
R. Joseph Ritter, Jr. CFP® EA is the Executive Director of Zacchaeus Financial Counseling,
Inc., a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in Lake Junaluska, NC which specializes in tax
services and financial counseling and planning for low and middle income households.