Fight Back!

Yesterday I read about Frank Bettger, a man whom at the age of 11 got up at 4:30 in the morning to sell newspapers to help his widowed mother make ends meet. He seldom had anything for dinner but cornmeal mush and watered down milk. At 14 he had to drop out of school to work as a steamfitter’s helper. There was no welfare, no unemployment, no food stamps, no HUD housing, and no, no-child left behind programs. You worked or you went hungry. You had to take care of yourself and if you had children, they helped. When Frank was injured in an accident at age 29 and was forced to give up his decent paying career he didn’t look for an unemployment check or file a workman’s compensation claim. Instead he started selling life insurance to make ends meet because that was the only job he could get without experience.

Some people would say that Franks story is a sad one, but not Frank. He wouldn’t trade it for anything because it was during those hard times that he learned how to work and work hard. He was forced to do his best or get fired and he learned the value of a dollar. He learned to save for the things he wanted and to make wise purchases. You see Frank’s story didn’t end here; the lessons life taught him the hard way are what gave him the drive and experience to become successful. So successful that he could have retired at 40 years old.

Today; hard work, dedication, commitment and saving for the things we want in life are rarely found. Doing what it takes to put food on the table and keep a roof over our heads, even if it means taking a lower paid job is a rare trait as well.

Now we have government systems that hurt people and drain the economy by making them dependant on a hand out. We are bombarded by commercials to buy the latest and greatest while our mailboxes are filled with credit card offers. Then when we over extend ourselves because we can’t control our need to shop we have commercials from law firms telling us to fight back and file bankruptcy. Fight back? How is intentionally not paying a debt fighting back? To me fighting back means getting a job, two if you need it, making payment arrangements and paying what you said you would, even if it takes 5 years to do so. Fighting back means selling the new car and getting an older one, moving into a home you can afford. Fighting back means learning how to shop on Craigslist and Goodwill until you can afford to shop name brands, and fighting back means eating more rice, spaghetti and beans and less steak and prime rib.

Fighting back also means cutting up the credit cards until you can discipline yourself to use them wisely and since the Christmas season is upon us, fighting back means not going into debt to buy presents for your loved ones. If you are in debt, swallow your pride and tell everyone that you love them but you cannot afford to exchange gifts this year. If they get mad, they don’t deserve a gift anyway and if they don’t give you one because you didn’t give them one, write them off your list for next year too!

Folks, the economy is shaky, unemployment is extremely high and if you haven’t been affected by the recession yet, hang tight because you may. Use wisdom and look for ways to succeed and do what it takes to hang onto your job.

Lastly, get educated in finance and stop trusting others to take care of your future. Look; our financial institutions need a bailout, and our politicians cannot even balance a budget and you want to trust them? Read, learn and take care of yourself! The government may bail them out, but you and me? Yea right! The bible tells us to be the lender and not the borrower. It tells us that if we don’t work we should go hungry and that we should even look to the ant if we want to learn how to work hard and prepare for tough times. Gee you think God may just know a thing or two about success? Go figure.