Laughter Is The Best Medicine

You've heard the saying that laughter is the best medicine. When feeling a little down, watch a comedy, have a child tell you their favorite jokes or do whatever it is that makes you laugh.

Energy Boost

I've learned to carve out time each day for myself for exercise. Today is a low energy day for me and when I am done with this entry, I'll go and put in a 3 mile walk. This is the most consistent way I've found to rev up my energy level. Since I've been walking daily and doing my hand weights 3 times per week, I have never felt better emotionally and physically.

Exercise has been the greatest gift I've given to myself. I will be intentional with carving out time for myself daily for exercise

Reflection – Day 200ish

The point of living a life of gratitude for me, is to live my life with the intention of becoming the best person I can be. These are the things I've done that seem to have the greatest impact on others feeling better about themselves around me and what I've learned along the way about myself.

Others seem to appreciate when I listen to them, smile, say hello, ask how they are doing, say thank you and show real appreciation for their help. I also believe it has been very helpful to just recognize how difficult of a time people may be having, but that I recognize their efforts.

Since I've started intentionally living a life of gratitude, I feel much happier because I realize what an amazing life I have. I feel more able to ride out difficult situations and I am more likely to stay positive by looking at the good in each situation rather than focus on the not so good. It has been a very enlightening and appreciative experience for me and I am looking forward to the next 100 days journey.

Making Peace With Your Money

This topic of money, emergency funds, having your savings and spending in line with your values and dreams, paying yourself first, enjoying your money and automatic savings are all important issues. I wrote a book for my daughters 3 or 4 years ago on the topic of finances and what they needed to understand about investing, emergency funds, debt, saving and other slightly advanced financial topics.

I'd like to explore in greater detail the baggage we come with to our adult life from our parents and families about money. Also, I want us to understand how to not have the stress of living a life filled with debt nor do I want us to live a life of financial self denial. It's about enjoying our money, making some sacrifices to reach our ultimate dreams and goals in life. Stay tuned for my new blog called MakingPeaceWithYourMoney. I'm going to take a few months before starting this blog. Please join me in November and we'll make peace with our money together.

Have An Emergency Fund

What happens when a financial emergency happens. For me, I just paid a $500 vet bill and I have a 10 year old car, kaching. I need to be able to sleep at night and I can do that a lot better knowing I have an emergency fund for unexpected expenses. Whenever I get below a certain amount of money in my emergency fund, I redirect money back in that bucket until it is built up to an amount I am comfortable with.

Check how much money I have in my emergency fund and make changes if it is low.

Pay Myself First

I'd read many years ago, when I started on my financially informed journey, that you pay yourself first from each paycheck. That means before you pay the bills or spend your money, you put money aside for important dreams. I like to think of it as buckets of money. If I want to save money for my daughter's college, I put x dollars in the college bucket. I'd do the same thing for retirement, a house or whatever else may be important to me. I've come to learn that if I don't want to feel like a martyr, I also need to put aside money for myself; for something not as noble as college or retirement. We could call it a dreams bucket. I've been doing this for at least a decade, possibly two. Now I want to look over my finances and get them in line with my dreams and values. When I wrote my wishes list there was an awful lot of traveling dreams that I wrote down. I'm thinking it is time to start a travel bucket. I will spend time looking where I can make some cuts to fund that important wish I have. ..No time like today.

Also remember to leave enough money to cover your bills and other fixed costs: food, gas etc.

Credit Card Debt

If you find that you need to use your credit cards to buy your groceries, pay your water and electric bill and you can't pay off the debt at the end of the month, then you may be living beyond your means. This may be the time to meet with a debt counselor to help you with your finances.

If you are using shopping as a form of therapy for yourself, or your addicted to clothes, shoes, craft purchases, and you can't pay off your monthly credit card bill, then it may be time to reexamine your values and goals list. Is your spending in line with your goals? Is it in line with your values? The interest rates on credit cards are high and if you miss paying the minimum amount once or are late with the payment, those rates generally are increased to an exorbitant amount.

If you have credit card debt and your spending is on non essential items, then come up with a plan to pay at least the minimum on each card. Take the card with the highest interest rate and pay extra on that card until it is paid off. Then do the same thing with the next card with the highest rate. If you can consolidate the cards to the cards with the lowest rates, then that is a first step that should be taken. Meeting with a debt counselor may be a good idea as they can help you with budgeting and truly understand your financial situation.

It would be very difficult for me to live a life of gratitude, if I felt weighed down by debt.