My wife and I started a low carb diet about a month ago. We have gotten great results from it in such a short time. While my wife didn't really need to lose any weight but she was doing it to support me (thanks babe you're the best). The point is that a budget is like a diet for your wallet it only works as long as you stick with it. So how do you keep the debt or weight out of the picture?
Stop dieting...
That is right I said stop dieting, diets only work as long as you stay on them. It is to easy to lose the weight and then gain it right back. You diet and lose the weight which is great but then what happens when you stop dieting and start eating without a plan? Unless you're a superhero (in which case you didn't need to diet in the first place) than the weight comes right back. This same concept applies to a budget. A budget is great for removing the fat (debt) from you financial life. But like a diet it only works as long as you do it. Stop the budget and start spending without a plan and the debt comes back. So what is the alternative?
Make a lifestyle change...
As we discussed in the previous paragraph it is not enough to make a temporary change you need to make a lifestyle change. A lifestyle change is changing your way of living permanently. This is not to say that you can't use a diet (budget) to get where you want to go but you need to have plan in place to implement for when you get where you're going. My old drill instructor used to say that failing to plan is planning to fail. While I would never have admitted it at the time he was right. It is incredibly likely that if you do not have a plan in place you will slowly slip back to your old ways of doing things. If you were really ok with the way things were you wouldn’t have made a change in the first place. So why not make your hard work and sacrifice count for something by having a long term plan in place?
The how (the way I did it anyway)…
Accountability is key, and will make the difference between success or failure. So find a person or people that have been where you want to be and ask for their advise. This is one of the simplest and surest ways you can get to where you want to go. There is no reason to reinvent the wheel or go at it blindly. It doesn’t even have to be a physical person, find an online community or website that has the plan in place for you. Wisdom comes with experience and most people are happy to share it with you if you will just ask.
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