Hope, a simple word but one which carries with it the very fabric of existence. The effects of hope are undeniable and should not be underestimated. 

I am going to tell you why I believe hope is the most important motivator that exists. There are not many things that can break a person as quickly as a lack of hope can. This is true of any situation that you want to apply it to: goals, lifestyle, freedom, marriage, finances or even a shipwrecked victim. I will tell you how to keep hope alive or reignite it if it has gone out. 

To begin with let us define hope. 

• Hope is defined as-a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. That is generally true but I believe hope is that unseen force that keeps us moving forward and gets us out of bed every day. Deeper than that is the fact that will power is a finite thing. We only have so much will power to go around beyond that we need something more to pull us through the hard times.

Take goals for example

• Any goal is really fine, the specific goal doesn’t really matter because the underlying concept is the same. Any goal you set has a largely psychological side to it. It is not something tangible that you can touch or feel. Despite this it is always in the back of your mind (literally) telling you you're going to succeed or fail.

•  Dave Ramsey (a well know financial coach) advocates paying your debts off from smallest to largest. This may seem counter intuitive because it would seem to make sense to pay the highest interest debt off first. Paying off your smallest debt gives you a feeling of hope in the form of progress. If you don't feel like you're making progress that will power is going to fade and you're going to lose hope. No hope means what's the point of continuing to try? 

POW and Shipwrecked victims know it well

• These are both classic example that many have probably read in a book or seen in a movie. Take a shipwrecked victim on a deserted island or a prisoner in a foreign land for example. Both are in some of the most extreme circumstances you could imagine. What keeps a person going in a situation where they are in extreme or complete solitude? If you said HOPE then gold star for you. Hope can take many different forms, for a prisoner it may take the form of hope that he will be rescued or hope that he will see his family again. Hope will look different for different people but without it most will fail.

Don't let hope die

So all this to say that you need to keep hope alive. If you are lacking hope then try re-evaluating your goals. Set smaller more achievable goals or set daily, weekly and monthly goals. You don’t need to focus on the final or end result, if you are struggling just focus on today or tomorrow. Focusing on a goal that's to big can seem unachievable and cause you to lose hope of ever reaching it. Celebrate your success, don’t wait till you reach your final goal to celebrate. You need to keep hope alive and celebrate the weekly or monthly successes.  

Dont be house poor, three things to consider before you buy

You may or may not have heard of the term house poor, not to be confused with the poor house. It has a meaning just as it sounds, having a house that is making you poor. Along with your mortgage payment you should consider how, taxes, utilities and Home Owner Associations as well when looking for a home. Don't roll the dice on your future, have a plan.

Firstly you want to consider taxes, because unlike your mortgage payment interest rate taxes don't remain fixed. 

• For example, if you live in a big city like San Antonio, Texas that is rapidly growing then you have likely noticed home prices climbing. While on the surface this may seem like a good thing, along with the climbing home prices are climbing property values. 
• Why does this matter you might be thinking, it is an important factor to keep in mind because as your property value goes up so does your property taxes. In San Antonio, Texas taxes increase by as much as $200 a month in a single tax year for a average priced house. This means that your formerly affordable payment is no longer so affordable. 

The next thing to consider is the price of utilities and any extras that may be involved. For example does the home have a pool, hot tub or water softener? 

• If so what are your cost going to be to maintain said equipment. If it is a pool, you will have to pay to have it cleaned, there will be equipment repairs and the extra electricity usage for the pumps and equipment. 
• The average cost of owning a pool is $256 a month, this adds $256 to your monthly expenses. Water softeners will use electricity but more importantly many systems run on salt which has to be regularly replenished. There is also the consideration of whether the system is rented or owned. If it is rented then what is the cost associated with transferring ownership over. 

The final thing to consider also has the potential to cost you the most. Carefully consider the HOA (home owners association) before you sign on the dotted line. 

• While this may not seem like a significant deal but if you have a mandatory HOA then there can be significant expense associated in the form of dues. But beyond that the HOA has the authority to enforce any and all the bylaws. This can cover anything from the height of your grass, to exterior paint color and even the breed of you dog. 
• Depending on the laws of your state many HOA's have the ability/authority to foreclose on your home or sue you for things like unpaid dues or fines. It can get extreme and sounds a bit crazy but I have seen it happen, people lose everything over a dispute with the HOA that they legal may not be able to win. 
• This being said your realtor should ensure that you get all the deed restrictions and information related to the HOA. Make sure that your realtor does a mandatory HOA addendum to protect you as the buyer. 

The biggest problem with money is...

How much do you value money over happiness? 

According to a pew research poll men are more likely than not to put earning over enjoyment when it comes to work. Why is it that men put money over enjoyment of their job? I want to examine a few questions below that I and I am sure some of you have struggled with.

How much is enough money to make me happy? 

• While the answer to this may vary from person to person it is probably along the lines of "enough so I don't have to worry about it". This is an understandable and reasonable response to the question but is it true? If you didn't have to worry about money would you really consider it enough. Maybe, maybe not, people tend to adapt to their circumstances whether they be good or bad. 

• If you had enough money that you didn't have to worry about it and could maintain your current lifestyle would you really be happy? I tend to think not, the fact that you didn't have to worry about money would satisfy until you tired of not working or got tired of your current lifestyle. 

Why we work...

• I believe that people work for a purpose, even if that purpose is not something that satisfies them. You are working because you love or enjoy what you do or you are working for the money. You really cant have it both way though. If you are working because you enjoy what you do then money is a bonus. If you are working for the money then you are not working because you enjoy what you do. Most people that take a job for money over enjoyment (which is most men) are doing it because they value money or something that money can bring more than they value job satisfaction. There is nothing wrong with this, I have had more jobs that I hated and did for the money than I did jobs that I enjoyed. 

Do you want something different

• I am a fan of changing things that I don’t like. I have had numerous different career paths since I was 18 and it took me a while to get it right. I knew I didn’t like a job so i went back to school to get a different specialty. I did this numerous times making progressively more with each job change. What I didn’t get with any of them was more job satisfaction. I had convinced myself that if I could make enough money than my job would be worth it.

•  I can say after 12 years of searching that this is not true. It is not an easy thing to take a job strictly because you love doing it. It may seem like a luxury that you can’t afford but I would challenge that you can’t afford not to. Money can’t buy happiness and when you spend 40 hours a week doing something you deserve to enjoy it.  

The How to 

• For me I had to reach a tipping point where I was going to make a change or likely be stuck where I was forever. There will never be a perfect point at which to do this and it will likely be very uncomfortable. But picture yourself at your job till you are in your 60's, does that really sound like a full life to you? If not then ask yourself one question, if I could do anything and money was not a factor what would I be doing? If you can honestly answer that question then you are likely well on your way to finding a job that you will enjoy going to every day till your in you 60’s and beyond . 

Do you hate budgeting or dieting more?

Debt is like that extra 10-15 lbs. of dead weight that you want to lose. Whether you have a lot or a little to lose you won't get there without a plan in place.

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.