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Gaining control of your finances and moving toward financial freedom requires motivation. Motivation is that burning desire in some of us to better our lives and to achieve more than we have achieved thus far. Motivation may flow from a dissatisfaction with who we are or what we have, but that’s not always the case. Some people are motivated to improve their finances by the birth of their first child. Others are motivated to get out of debt when they’ve hit rock bottom.

Some, like me, are motivated to achieve some reasonable level of financial freedom so we don’t repeat the financial mistakes my parents made. I know all too well the sick feeling in the pit of your stomach when your family fears they may lose their home. I don’t want that for me or my family, and that’s in part what drives my motivation. But the key is that we need something to motivate us. And once we’ve found that something, we need to hold onto it like gold.

A few years ago, I joined Jenny Craig to try and lose some weight. At the first meeting, I completed an application form that asked me, on a scale from 1 to 10, how motivated I was to lose weight. I penciled in an 8 because I was highly motivated. The intake person reviewing my application, however, asked me what it would take for me to be even more motivated to lose weight. I thought about it for a moment and replied, “I guess I’d have to be fatter.”

Losing weight and keeping it off are hard for at least two reasons. First, good and bad decisions about what we eat do not have immediate, visible consequences. I can make a “good” decision by avoiding a candy bar in the afternoon, but I won’t lose ten pounds from that one decision. Likewise, eating the candy bar won’t cause me to gain ten pounds, either. I have to string together hundreds of healthy eating choices to see positive results. Second, once I’ve lost a certain amount of weight, my motivation to make healthy choices tends to wane. Like I told the intake person at Jenny Craig, to be more motivated, I need to be fatter. And so it is with money.

Living below our means, paying down debt, and investing require us to make many individually insignificant decisions that don’t have an immediate, major financial consequence. Do we save $100 a month that in 20 years at 10% interest appreciates to $76,000, or do we spend that money for immediate gratification? And how do we stay motivated once we start to see positive results? So often, folks get motivated to pay down debt, but as their debt gets paid off, lose the motivation, and go out and borrow again. I’ve seen this cycle repeat itself over and over again.

So I’ve assembled eight articles that each describe a tip on how to get and stay motivated about money. I hope they will help you find your motivation, cultivate it, and then use it to achieve your financial goals.

• Motivation and Money Tip # 1: Remember the Past
• Motivation and Money Tip # 2: Remember the Future
• Motivation and Money Tip # 3: Think Small
• Motivation and Money Tip # 4: Create Milestones
• Motivation and Money Tip # 5: Track Progress
• Motivation and Money Tip # 6: Slow Down
• Motivation and Money Tip # 7: Be Thankful
• Motivation and Money Tip # 8: Listen

Saturday Night at the Movies uses great films to explore some aspect of personal finance. Published Saturdays at 7 PM, get your front row seat by subscribing to The Dough Roller.

The Truman Show, starring Jim Carrey as Truman, is a story about a man who since birth has lived inside a giant Hollywood dome, which is the made-for-TV town of Seahaven. Everybody he has ever known, from his friends to his wife to his co-workers, are actors hired to play those roles. Unaware that his world is artificial and that another world awaits him outside of the dome, the movie traces Truman’s life as he begins to question everything he’s learned and believed since childhood. Watch this short clip from the movie, and then we’ll look at what The Truman Show can teach us about life:

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Saturday Night at the Movies uses great films to explore some aspect of personal finance. Published Saturdays at 7 PM, get your front row seat by subscribing to The Dough Roller.

My step father was a hard worker. As a child I helped him do a lot of work around the house, including building a screened back porch, roofing the house, installing a fireplace and raising the floor of our family room (don’t ask). Whenever I got tired or frustrated along the way, I had the habit of saying I couldn’t do whatever he asked me to do. His response was always the same–”Can’t never did anything.” That always annoyed me, to be honest, but it was a good lesson I never forgot. The “can’t never did anything” philosophy reminds me of Rocky Balboa, a fighter who never gave up. Check out this motivating clip from the movie Rocky (1976), and then we’ll apply the “Can’t never did anything” philosophy to personal finance:

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I had a disturbing conversation with a friend yesterday. We were talking about careers, family and even blogging. And he pointed out, as he’s done many times in the past, that I’m perpetually restless. I’m always looking for some new challenge to occupy my time. Whether it’s blogging or 1,000 other things (e.g., training for a marathon, remodeling the house, starting a new hobby), I’m always in search of the next thing. I mentioned my desire to write and publish a novel, to which he responded (and this is the disturbing part), “You’re too freakin’ old.” I’m 41.

Now his point was not that I was literally too old to write a book. His point, although he didn’t express it this way, was as follows: “You have a good job, you’re raising two teenagers, you have a nice home, and everything seems to be going fine. Why not just enjoy what you’ve got, rather than trying to climb the next mountain. As to writing a book, you’ll spend a huge amount of time on it and the odds of it actually amounting to anything are slim.” In other words, your doing OK, and shouldn’t that be good enough.

Maybe it should, but for me it’s not. To be clear, my restlessness is not motivated by money or the desire for material possessions. Rather, it is born out of a desire for purpose and clarity in my life. For all my restlessness, though, I often feel as if I lack both. I’m perpetually wondering what I’m going to do when I grow up. Some would call me a dreamer. You’ve heard the expression, “your eyes are too big for your stomach.” For me, it’s more like my imagination is to big for my reality. I can dream big, which keeps me restless, by then the realities of life hit home.

Now, after my disturbing discussion with my friend, what did I do? Well I went home and am blogging about it of course. Isn’t that what anybody would do after have a conversation like that? Hmm, I guess I’m restless. So I ask you–When is OK good enough?

I love the story of Job. The book of Job in the Bible is considered by many to be the oldest book in the Bible. It is the story of a man who lost his family, his health, and his wealth, but not his faith. It is the story of man who had wealth, but managed to avoid the love of wealth. But it also is the story of a man who, though righteous in all his ways, did have one Achilles’ heal: fear. Perhaps the most significant passage in the books is found at Job 3:25:

For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me, and what I dreaded has happened to me.

What do you fear? Having grown up in a home that was in continual financial crisis, I have many fears about money and security. I even have fear about my fears! Here are some suggestions to help you deal with fear when it comes to personal finance:

• Identify your fear: Sometimes we are troubled by something, but we can’t put our finger on exactly what it is. I find it helpful to think about fear so that I can identify its source. Whether you fear bankruptcy, foreclosure, loss of a job, or something else, you can’t attack it until you identify it.
• Recognize that fear can attract trouble: I’m convinced that, like Job, our fears can actually attract the very thing we fear. I can’t prove this scientifically, of course, but our fears cause us to act and react in such a way that can bring about the trouble we hope to avoid.
• Understand that fear can be useful: Just like fear of real danger can help us avoid it, fear of financial ruin can be our best friend. If you are about to make a silly and dangerous financial move, you should be afraid. That’s your opportunity to reconsider the decision. The trick, of course, is knowing when your fear is warning you of real trouble and when it’s not, which comes from experience. If you lack experience, seek the advice of somebody you trust.
• Describe the worst-case situation: Whenever I have a fear, I imagine the worst-case. It goes like this–”I lose my job and can’t pay the mortgage. My savings will last x number of months, and then I’ll have to sell my home. My family and I will either rent or move in with family until we get back on our feet.” Now, that would not be a happy time. But let’s keep it in perspective; it would not be the end of the world, so I shouldn’t waste my energy fearing this possibility.
• Talk about your fears: Keeping your fears bottled-up can, over time, cause the fear to take control of your life. Discuss your money-fears with your spouse, parent, friend or somebody else that you trust. It can help keep your fears in perspective.

Not a sermon, just a blog.