What is your monthly income? This may seem like an obvious question, but I have become absolutely astonished at how many people don’t know the answer to it. They really do not know exactly what their monthly income is. Now, in some cases they don’t know because their monthly income is variable. But in others, they don’t know because they have not really paid attention to this vital piece of information. It’s easy in an age of direct deposit to miss it. The money goes into their account with deductions completed and they really don’t know their monthly income. Perhaps the only time they get the whole picture is when they are filling out their personal income tax and then they say, “Wow, that’s a lot of money! We really made that much money this year?” Or perhaps they are stunned that it really is so little compared to their spending. Thus the problem; they are in debt.
By not knowing their monthly income people are missing a major emotional resistor to spending at the check-out counter: “That’s my hard-earned dollar going from me to you.” As well, the person who does not know the exact figure for their monthly income fails to take responsibility for how every dollar is saved, spent, invested, or given. So one of your first steps in getting out of debt is : go determine the exact amount of your montly income. Then, you can begin to take appropriate responsibility for every dollar.
