Day Nine - Mo' Money

I am so blessed to have bills, because it means that somewhere in my past I was able to get a product or service that I needed or wanted without having to wait for it.

Recently, I just paid off a personal loan. It was a loan that I had struggled with paying for years. I didn’t get it to buy a house or car, when the loan officer sold it to me he talked about all the things I could take care of with it. Now I’m sure that I must have used it for some useful things in my life but the most notable experience that I can remember using that money for was a trip to Italy with my daughter.

So many of you who are responsible with your money are thinking how foolish I was and in hindsight. I doubt I would do that again. Over the years, I had come to resent that bill. I paid it when I was able. I stopped paying it at times and eventually it ended up in collections. I finally decided last year that I was going to put the bill on a regular payment plan and get rid of it. (Just to clarify this picture for you my daughter was in first grade when we went to Italy. She will graduate from COLLEGE in May this year.)

Well, I was reading a book by Louise Hay last year and one of the things that she mentioned was to be grateful for our bills. WHAT?!!? How could I be grateful for these things that are looming over me and in some ways binding me? We can be grateful because the bills represent things that we were able to do or have without having to wait for them. Now I know delayed gratification is a good practice when it comes to things that we don’t need. However, there are things that we do need like education, medical assistance, shelter, and transportation. For many of us, we do not have cash on hand to support all of our needs up front. And even if we use credit to purchase things that we wanted to have like clothing, vacations, or other luxuries. The real reason we can be grateful is because we are enjoying the things we desired to enjoy.

So today’s practice is again about money. We are going to turn our thinking around and be grateful for what our bills represent. The idea is finding more ways to be positive about our situation. That positivity and gratitude will turn into opportunities that will open doors of change for you. As my story started, I told you I just paid off that bill. But it wasn’t by continuing to pay regular payments until payoff. I actually received a bonus at my job and negotiated a discounted payoff with my creditors. Not having an account in collections and having access to more residual income allows me to tackle other things financially.

Take some time today to say thank you for your bills.