Who do you hold yourself accountable to in your life? A boss? Perhaps your children? Your spouse?
It is pretty easy to hold ourselves accountable to our boss with regard to work. Our boss expects certain tasks to be completed in a timely manner. However, I doubt most of us hold ourselves accountable to our boss when it comes to our personal lives. We want to keep that as separate from work as we can.
Being accountable to your children can be good as well. If you make promises, then you may be challenged to grow or be uncomfortable to meet those promises. We want to do this because disappointing our children is usually a less desirable outcome than their smiles and laughter when the promise is kept.
Being accountable to your spouse, if you have one, can be tricky. For some things, like family decisions or work to be done around the house, it can be easy. We remind and can be reminded about tasks on a regular basis and, depending on the relationship, it isn't much or any of a problem.
Why then, is it so difficult to hold yourself accountable to someone for your finances?
I suspect because we keep our finances very close to our chest. It is a quite personal area that we don't want others knowing about. Whether through shame or fear of rejection, we avoid the conversations as much as possible. Even with our spouse, money discussions can be difficult because, if you have children, the whirlwind of activity can keep you both in dust cloud, unable to see a path forward.
Perhaps it is time to start reaching out for some other perspectives on how to handle your money. Be vulnerable to someone or a couple you trust to help you see a bigger picture outside of the dust cloud of the daily routine. I encourage you to not wait too long, justifying it as "waiting for life to settle down." You may find yourself keeping busy just to keep the cloud going because it is familiar and "comfortable." While that may be true, I suspect there is a brighter future for you outside of those circumstances. Take time to allow someone to help you see it.
Thanks Todd. These words illustrate the difficulty in the discussions of this topic. Watching people struggle and never ask. And even when an offer of help is made it is mostly rejected. And then over the years asking and then going without help. Worth more thought, as are many of your posts.