Your Payday Ritual May Not Get You Out of Debt, but It May Give You Clarity About Your Finances
The people who tell you that the secret to happiness is making a major life change probably stand to gain financially from you making that change. Happiness does not come from nutritional supplements or from quitting your job and moving to Portugal on the advice of a travel blogger. Instead, it comes from celebrating the small wishes that come true amidst the many other daily frustrations that you endure in life. Yes, you work all the time and live paycheck to paycheck. You only allow yourself to order one takeout meal per week, but you enjoy every bite of it, and every so often, the restaurant messes up your order and gives you more items than you pay for, so you get a free order of fries that somehow taste even better than the fries that cost money. Positive psychologists call these micro joys, and they contribute to our long-term happiness even more than peak experiences do. Most working Americans are so stressed about money that even receiving a paycheck adds to their stress, but you can turn your payday into a micro joy for the brief moment before all the money disappears as you pay your bills. This attitude adjustment will not, by itself, get you out of debt, but it can give you the emotional resilience you need to contact a Philadelphia debt relief lawyer.
Micro Joys Might Be as Good for Your Financial Health as Budgeting
Regardless of whether you track your expenses or whether you have made a formal budget, you are probably painfully aware that, after you finish paying your bills, there will be little or no money left for splurges. Despite this, you can turn the moment of seeing your bank account balance after your paycheck has been deposited into a micro joy by engaging in a payday ritual. According to a recent Dollar Scholar column on the Money website, a payday ritual can give you the emotional strength to get through the next pay period even if most of what happens during that pay period is bad news.
Your payday ritual does not have to involve a splurge; if you need a payday ritual to cheer you up, then you probably cannot afford a splurge. The author of the Dollar Scholar column paints her nails on payday, using supermarket nail polish that she bought months ago, if not years ago. While she is waiting for her nails to dry, she thinks about her financial decisions for the coming pay period, whether she means to or not. If you do this, then you might find subscriptions you can cancel, meals you can cook during the coming week without buying new ingredients, and other budgeting decisions; you might even figure out that you need professional help with debt relief.
Contact CONSUMERLAWPA.com About Embracing Your Payday Ritual
A Philadelphia consumer law attorney can help you if minor changes to your financial habits are not enough to get you out of debt. Contact CONSUMERLAWPA.com to set up a free, confidential consultation.
Source:
money.com/dollar-scholar-payday-ritual/
