Author: Tim Lemke / Source: Wise Bread
If you’re struggling to make ends meet, or are crushed by debt, it’s not a great feeling. It’s easy to feel despondent when you can’t seem to get ahead financially. But don’t get discouraged! If you make the right choices, things will come together for you and your money.
There are many small things you can do to make yourself feel better about your financial situation.Try a few of these ways to give your financial self esteem a boost. Positive things will snowball from there.
1. Pay off one credit card
You may be battling a giant monster of debt from credit cards, student loans, auto loans, and more. And you probably feel pretty cruddy about it all. But you can give yourself a little psychological boost by targeting one credit card and working to get that balance down to zero.
Even if you pay off a credit card with a relatively low balance, it will make that debt pile seem a little less overwhelming. From a money-saving standpoint, it makes more sense to pay off the credit cards with the highest interest rates first. But those cards may have higher balances and take longer to pay down. Prioritizing paying off small-balance cards in full, otherwise known as the snowball method, gives you valuable momentum that encourages you to keep chipping away at other debts.
Once you pay off that first credit card, stick it in a drawer and say, “I’m done with you!” You’ll feel great and will be eager to tackle the next one. (See also: 6 Secrets to Mastering the Debt Snowball)
2. Buy some shares of stock and wait a few months
This one won’t give you an immediate self esteem boost, but it will make you feel awesome if you are patient.
Select a popular stock or common index fund and buy a few shares. The size of the investment does not matter here. A few hundred dollars invested will suffice. Leave the investments alone for about three months and check the price. In most cases, you will find that the investments have risen in value since you bought them. Congratulations! You just made money as an investor and you hardly had to do anything.Of course, this strategy can backfire if the market takes a dive, but if that happens, just hang in there and wait a few more months. You will be rewarded for your patience and will feel a lot better about your finances. And who knows? You may fall in love with investing and start on the path to making a ton of money in the markets. (See also: 9 Ways to Tell If a Stock is Worth Buying)
3. Recognize that everyone has money troubles
I am not a big fan of schadenfreude — that is, the act of getting joy from the suffering of others — but you can feel a little bit better about your own financial problems when you realize that few people are free of money stress. Household debt is practically ubiquitous. Student loan debt is common. And no one feels like they have enough saved for retirement.
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