I just want to point out an excellent resource that a friend of mine brought to my attention last week (Thanks, Catharine!). This is a post titled “24 Quick Actions That Can Change Your Financial Life Forever.” Actually, it goes beyond finances, strictly speaking, which is why I called it an economic makeover, but even that doesn’t quite cover it.
These “quick actions” are simple steps, exercises, and suggested changes in your lifestyle and attitude that will make your economic picture stronger, more stable, and easier to keep track of. Some examples are:
Employ the Clean Slate Approach to Clutter
Get 1 Paying Client
Automate a Large, Regular Bill
Cancel Your Cable
Create One Single Product from Scratch
Intentionally Negotiate Something
Arrange a coffee or lunch meeting with a person you look up to financially
Each action is described in brief, and includes a paragraph on how this changes your life. It’s good stuff. In looking back over the list, I see that I’ve done most of these things both during my period of unemployment and even in the months before I was actually laid off. Others had not occurred to me before and I think are worth trying.
The current economy has become very treacherous, even hostile if you don’t think carefully about your money, credit, and what you do with it. What I like about this list is that it helps you to disentangle yourself from some of the more obvious aspects of our economy, such as de-cluttering your life and pulling the cable. But it also insists that you educate yourself and become a smarter consumer. These days, that practically counts as subversion.
Which is a good thing.
