Financial Runes – Stones 4, 5 & 6

This is an in depth look at the second 3 stones in the New Year. New You. New Finances ~ “Your 2021 Financial Forecast” blog post.

Related Post: Financial Runes – Stones 1, 2 & 3

 

Let’s recap the second 3 stones that were cast for our 2021 financial forecast.

4. Berkan (Prayer)

Delve into things deeply, with care and awareness. Resistance must be dispersed first, then work may be begun. If you have dark corners, clean them out now. If you need help to clean the corners, seek an expert. Only then can the harvest ripen.

5. Gebo (Trust)

A union is at hand. However, do not make this a total union, keep yourself. Let the winds of heaven blow between you and your partner.

6. Telwaz (Courage)

Look within and delve down to the foundations of your being. There you will find your deepest needs, and most powerful resources. Examine newly formed partnerships, for there may be great works for your both to perform together. This is a rune of dedication and perseverance. Patience may be called for now. Your real enemy just might be yourself.

And the Summary:

You are being guided to reach out and ask for help, for guidance, for assistance to support you in determining what parts of your system are not working. The second stone, the trust stone, cautions you about putting everything in someone else’s hands, it is important that you stay involved in the process. And finally, to go deep and determine what drives you. What fears do you have about money? What motivates you? What are your desires? What have you been taught about money? All of this will offer great insight into what steps you need to take to improve your financial situation.

 

Now, let’s expand on each of them…

 

PRAYER

I love that this stone is entitled Prayer and the message is “ If you have dark corners, clean them out now”. Let’s face it, that is not always a comfortable thing to do. Ok, it generally NEVER a comfortable thing to do.

Earlier this week I updated my finances. What do I mean by that? I reviewed my transactions on MINT to make sure everything was posted to the correct account. I typically try to do that weekly but in this case I was over a month behind. And that timeframe had my holiday spending in it. I knew I overspent. And I knew I had to take stock to see just how much I overspent. I didn’t want to look at it. But not looking at it doesn’t make it any less real.

And…I had put the charges on my credit card and needed to pay it off. Because there is no way in (you know what) I am carrying a balance over the year for my overspending. That only makes it worse. My “gift fund” was already overdrawn and I knew when I looked at the numbers it would be worse.

Resistance must be dispersed first, then work may be begun. Ugh!

So, I made an event of it. I set up shop at a coffee-shop (covid-friendly of course), got myself a yummy Café something….I don’t know the names, but a coffee with foamy cream on top, and started reviewing.

I am horribly afraid to tell you what I found out. Please don’t judge me. I am human. I make mistakes too!

We, as a household, spend almost $10k on gift last year.

I think I am going to be sick.

And the majority of that was at Christmas.

Good Lord! Now that is a dark corner. Something I cannot let happen again this year.

But…now I see it. It’s in my face. It’s painful. And the memory will stay with me throughout the year.

That’s what we mean by cleaning out dark corners.

The last part of the message was …. “If you need help to clean the corners, seek an expert.”

If the thought of reviewing your finances terrifies you and you have no idea where to start, or what to do, or how to pull it all together, don’t panic. Pick up the phone and call Debt Busters. I’m kidding, that doesn’t exist. Not to my knowledge, anyway. But it’s a good name. And I can help you by offering advice or referring you to another professional better suited to your needs. So reach out if you need some assistance.

And say a little prayer 😉

 

TRUST

This is a perfect segue from the last comment …

The essence of the TRUST stone is, “Do not make this a total union, keep yourself. Let the winds of heaven blow between you and your partner”.

I just said, reach out and ask for help. But…do not expect someone else to do it for you.

If there is one brick wall that I see most people hit, it is the one that appears when you realize you have to do the work yourself. You have homework to do, tasks to complete. It can be very overwhelming.

So, let’s break it down and make it a tad simpler for you. There are three questions you want answered when you review your finances:

1. What did I earn last year? (net income)
2. What did I spend last year?
3. Did I save anything or did I incur credit to make up the difference?

Let’s look at each of these:

1. What did I earn last year?
   1. You could get this information from your tax return at the end of they year. But, I never find that completely accurate as sometimes your T4 misses deduction and it doesn’t include other income. For example, side hustles – selling stuff, cashback purchases etc.
   2. You could keep the paperwork (ie paystubs) and add it all up from there
   3. You could review your records (ie bank statements) to get the info that way, or by using a program, like MINT, to track your income and expenses.
2. What did I spend last year?
   1. You could keep receipts and total them up.
   2. You could review bank and credit card statements.
   3. You could pull a report from a program that you enter everything in, like Mint, or your bank program or some other program.
3. Did I save anything, or did I incur more debt?
   1. This one is a bit easier, look at your opening balance for credit cards/lines of credit etc. and look at your balance on December 31^st
   2. Look at your opening and closing balance of your savings account, TFSA, RRSP
   3. By they way, you can collect all of this in MINT as well 😉 Or, bank at one institution and have all of the info at your fingertips.

The important part is to start somewhere. If going back over last years records seems daunting, then just start a new system this year and set a resolution to check on monthly, quarterly or annually, whatever works for you. And ‘Trust’ that all will work out in the end 😉

 

COURAGE

For those of you having a small panic attack after the first two stones action items, this one is for you 😊

This is a rune of dedication and perseverance.

You don’t have to do it right. You just have to do it. Start somewhere. Meet yourself where you are. Begin a new system. Test it. Fine tune it. Test it again and so on.

Patience may be called for now.

If you get frustrated, take a deep breath and try something new. Even if you don’t have all of the details, you will have some of them.

I don’t look at my entire income and expense now. My main concern is whether or not I am paying down my debt. If I am paying down my debt then I am spending less than I make. That’s my measurement.

And then I look at certain expenses to see how I am doing. Like gifts and Christmas. And also groceries. Any my power bill. I may only focus on those things this year and next year I may look at something else.

I love the last statement of this stone…

“Your real enemy just might be yourself’

Get out of your own way 😊

Recognize your strengths, your challenges, seek help if you need it, help others if you can. Know what triggers you to overspend and what motivate you to save. I already said this once, but it’s worth repeating. Meet yourself where you are. That means, don’t try to do more than you are capable of, or can handle in this moment. Just do what you can. Have the courage to do just a tidy bit more as you feel ready.

 

IN CLOSING

This message was all about getting out of your comfort zone and out of your own way. It was about having the courage to take that next step and that next one and that next one.

So, your homework is to take ONE action step.  And, if you feel up to it, please report back to me on what step you took. You can post it on my Facebook page if you’d like, comment below or email  me, confidentially, at info@drdebt.ca

Next week we are going to tackle the next three stones – Shame, Faith & Denial.

Until then, wishing you all happy, healthy finances!

 

Wishing you all happy, healthy finances.

 

 

 

Mary Ann
aka Dr Debt

(Licensed Insolvency Trustee, Allan Marshall & Associates Inc.)