There is no 12-step process for financial recovery. To comeback from financial demise or financial ruin requires grit and tenacity. There must be an insatiable determination to right the financial wrongs. Financial elevation may also require isolation and separation from the environments and individuals that placed you in a financial decline. Patience will be inevitable and necessary.
Remember there is no easy fix or easy way back to the path of financial prudence. Financial recovery will require greater sacrifices than may have been made to create the financial destruction. A plan will have to be established to reestablish the financial foundation. Strict guidelines and philosophies will have to be adhered to.
There has been recent federal legislation that disallows unpaid medical debts from being reported on your credit. Contact your creditors and make arrangements with them so that you may become whole. Create a definitive, written recovery plan, exercise discipline, and patiently execute the plan.
During your financial recovery, you will have to resist the urge to throw financial lifelines to family, friends, or frenemies. Your focus has to be selfish and singular. Identify your capacity to create additional streams of income. Give the additional streams of income specific assignments within your recovery plan. For example, all the income earned from providing shared riding services will be utilized to rectify overdue mortgage balances. Any income that is generated from taking online surveys will be utilized to rectify student loans. Other freelance income will be utilized to rebuild my retirement savings. Any bonuses, incentives, and raises from the W-2 wages will be utilized to build an emergency fund. (Note: This is an illustrative suggestion and should not be perceived as absolute or credible. Results will vary based on individual circumstances and discipline.)
While your financial demise may have occurred in less than five years, your recovery may take 10 to 20 years. Stay the course, keep looking ahead, and move forward. My father always reminded me that the rearview mirrors were smaller than the windshield because what lies ahead of us is so much greater than what lies behind us. Mistakes are building blocks and learned lessons for a better and brighter future.
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Nicole Michelle
Finance and Money Wiz
January 5, 2024
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