2. Golden Rules
If you are willing to do only what’s easy, life will be hard. But if you are willing to do what’s hard, life will be easy. -T. Harv Eker
1) Always keep looking ahead: Don’t let the mistakes of your past drag you down into more mistakes. Look ahead to the future. The choices you make now won’t affect the past – but they definitely will affect the future. Think back, and remember how the bad choices you made earlier are costing you now, and constantly remember to not make those mistakes now so that they don’t cost your future self.
2) Don’t beat yourself up when you make a mistake: Even if you make ten good choices, it’s easy to beat yourself up and feel like a failure over one bad choice. If you make a big mistake and realize it, think about why you realized it now instead of then, and try to apply that later on. The memory of that mistake can end up being very valuable, indeed.
3) Never give up: Whenever the struggle against debt feels like it’s too much, go read a personal finance blog and remember that there are a lot of people out there fighting the same fight. Read around through the archives and learn some new things – and perhaps get inspired to keep going, no matter what.
4) Make a monthly budget: This doesn't have to be a complicated number-crunching exercise. A simple Excel sheet or the planner in your mobile will suffice. The idea is to keep track of your monthly expenses and plug any unnecessary spending. Start by listing your fixed expenditure like transportation cost, food, etc, and keep aside money for these. The balance can then be used for discretionary expenses like shopping, gifting or partying.
5) Kill your debt first: Simply calculating how much you spend each month on your debts will illustrate that eliminating debt is the fastest way to free up money. Once the money is freed from debt payment, it can easily be re-purposed to savings. Plus, the sooner you pay off debt, the less interest you'll pay, and that money can be saved instead. I