A number of weeks ago I watched Suze Orman on the Oprah show. She addressed a number of people in the audience head on with no holds barred truth. These were people who were struggling with everything from dodging creditors because they couldn’t make payments to facing the wrath of a mortgage payment that was set to double or triple due to earlier “creative” financing. Suze looked each one of them in the eye and told them to Admit the Truth.

So much of the agony we can experience in our financial world has to do with telling ourselves stories. You know the kind:

• I’ll worry about it later
• I’m only a little late (or only late on certain bills)
• I can afford it, after all I have a good job
• Assuming your partner has their own financial ducks in a row and that you share the same money values
• I can’t do anything about it - that is just the way it is.
• Sure, I know where my money goes (when in fact you haven’t tracked it dollar for dollar

All these stories do are disempower us and leave us stuck for years or decades all because we don’t want to admit to what is really going on. After all, what would it mean about you if you fessed up to the reality of your finances? I don’t mean the facts like you have $X debt or are Z days late on a payment. Those are just facts of a situation and are extremely important. What I am referring to is the reality that is even more powerful than the facts — what you make it MEAN about you. When our money stories are at play we have given the interpretations ultimate power over us and we are at the mercy of a force far more powerful than reason - emotions. Read the rest of this entry »