Is This Thing in Drive or Reverse?

Greetings and Salutations-
  How is every little body doing out there in cyber land? I hope great, reading, and keeping at it like the little engine that could!! I want to point out something that may help anyone that is having problems getting any or all of this going.  Should it over whelm you to think about going backwards and looking at the LAST 2-3 months worth of bank statements-- spend the NEXT 2-3 months keeping track of what and where you spend.  Get the energy moving forward. This was an excellent point brought up to me by someone that I have been "coaching on the side". She has an excellent point and one that I like as an alternative for anyone that can't even get the gear out of park, much less into reverse.
  The other point I want to reiterate is that when this stuff starts to make you swimmy-headed, and for a lot of you I know it will and does, work on it in the smallest amounts of time bites that you can stand to chew. Never underestimate how slow and steady wins the race. Make the goal to read a chapter a week in one of the books. Just no matter what you do keep at it and don't give up. Buy a calendar and mark your paydays and 3 bills on their respective due dates. Just do something. It gets easier--I promise!!
  One of the quotes that I read every day is "Never Never Never give up" by Winston Churchill. You just can't. Stay at it and it will happen. This is a truth no matter what the subject in your life is before you. Persistence will pay off you just have to stay at it until you get there. No matter how long it takes. The truth for most is we say "are we there yet, are we there yet" but we take no concrete steps to achieve our goals. Do it and make every effort count no matter how big or small.
  One of the other categories that I wanted to touch on with your spending plan is the importance of the unexpected expenses. This is just plain out preparing for what you know is going to happen eventually. So maybe I should call this the "expected unexpected" expenses category. Any amount of money you can put aside here saves you that much on the other end.
  I can not begin to express how once you get any portion of this going how it quickly snowballs into money growth, accomplishment, and most of all pride in yourself. When you learn to manage your money with increased skill- it is a building block for so many other things in your life. You start to take responsibility for more and more actions. One of the first steps in managing your money better is to take a real hard but mostly truthful look at yourself and realize that YOU are the only one that can change any aspect of your life. Accountability and honesty with yourself and those in your life is difficult at best to even think about but the key to any real personal growth.
  My goal is to plant the seed of perseverance and confidence it will take to get this thing off the ground for you. I believe in my heart and soul that all things can be conquered. This does not always mean it works out with the current choices you are making. Remember choosing to do nothing is a choice in itself. It doesn't mean it is going to come easy or without a lot of hard work. You have to learn the difference between futility and when its worth the battle. Sometimes backing up and punting really does win the game.

Tootles
Heather :)