Are You Letting Yourself Be Controlled?

It's not a pleasant thought that you may be letting yourself be controlled. But if this thought disturbs you, it is wise to examine ways that you could be letting others control you and take appropriate action.

In the article entitled "9 signs that you are setting yourself up to be controlled by other people," there were several signs that may be helpful to review with an emphasis along financial lines:

• Under "Not taking care of yourself," check to see if you are taking care of your receipts, budget, income and outgo. If you haven't been keeping up with your receipts in the past, start today. Then do it at the end of every day. Don't let them pile up. You can do this.
  
  
• Under "Not following through on your obligations," check to see that you're paying back any outstanding federal student loans that you may have acquired to go to truck driver training school. You cannot use the excuse that you "didn't learn anything" in school before you got hired by a trucking company. If you were able to be hired, you had to have learned enough to get hired. So pay back what you owe.
  
  
• Under "Refusing to say no," we know of a couple who had been debt-free at one time in their lives and just got a little loose with their credit card. Over a period of time -- and because they refused to live within their means -- they ended up with over $7,000 in revolving credit card debt! Ouch! It was so much fun racking up the bill, they said, but how long will it take them to pay off what they owe just because they refused to say no?
  
  To their credit, after realizing the attitude that got them into this trouble, they began a period of self-imposed austerity -- or as we have said, they pulled in their financial belt tightly -- to begin work to pay it off. When a particular temptation came along the very first month, both of them said, "No, we don't have the money, so we're not upgrading that basic expenditure."

Someone we know once said, "If you wish to be master of the seven seas, you must make yourself a slave to the compass." You are either controlling yourself or letting yourself be controlled. How can a person master his or her own personal finances unless he or she is willing to exercise financial discipline?

If you have been "letting yourself be controlled" and you don't like it, the first step you must take is to realize just where things went wrong. Examine your attitudes and actions.

Once you identify any problem, you can begin to correct it. Learn to set goals for yourself, the first of which may be to complete a 30-day spending diary (available through our free downloads) to see just where you're spending your money.

We hope that each of our readers makes it a goal not only to be debt-free but to have sufficient savings to accomplish a personal dream come true, whatever that is for you.

We wish you great success. Furthermore, we wish you safe travels and lots of money saving opportunities on the road.

Return from Are You Letting Yourself Be Controlled? to our Budgeting page or our Truck Drivers Money Saving Tips home page.