Have you ever asked yourself why do I fall prey to impulse spending? We all do it but some of us are admittedly more compulsive than impulsive. In fact, I know a woman who is so driven by purchasing on sale items that she has over ignored her debts, which are growing by leaps and bounds. When I asked her why she spends so compulsively she said, “I don’t know – It just makes me feel good.” Those famous words that often lead to destruction – it feels good.

I have counseled many of women whose marriages, families, and children were destroyed because of the lack of spending disciple. Actually, compulsive overspending is a symptom. Studies show that often times over spending is directly tied to low self-esteem or some other emotionally unresolved issue. 

In order to overcome the habit of compulsive overspending I recommend several steps:

1. Accept yourself. God made you fearfully and wonderfully. You are a brilliant demonstration of God’s best on earth. Affirm yourself. Be positive.
2. Forgive yourself. Frequently, the mistake we made once becomes the mistake of 10,000 times, because we never forgive ourselves and move on. As such, we beat ourselves up and do not release the pain instead, we dig a deeper hole. Let it go!
3. Love yourself. The greatest gift is love. Sometimes we find it easier to love others and because of our life circumstances, we have low self-love. How can you truly love anyone else without loving yourself? Celebrate your self-daily! Find something wonderful about YOU to enjoy, everyday.

Know Your Financial Programming

Learn your financial behavioral programming. When you were growing up were you rewarded with gifts or going shopping instead of love from your parents or guardian? On the other hand, was there lack in your financial life and now that you have disposable income you are making up for lost time? What is your attitude towards money? Do you appreciate the value of money? For example, if you earn $45,000 per year that would be approximately $21.63 per hour. If you spend $200.00 on a dress or trousers that would be approximately 91/4 hours of work for such purchase. In reality, you could say for one day’s pay I bought a dress or trousers. Imagine waking up in the morning and saying “I am going to work today to buy something beautiful that I may not need and I am going to overspend, get myself into years of debt, add a financial burden to my marriage and family, ruin my credit and possibly be depressed once I realize what I have done.”

Take Responsibility

The first step is to pray and ask God for inner strength and courage. Then take responsibility for your actions. 

• Pay your bills off and don’t create new ones
• Get on a budget and stick to it
• Learn to plan your purchases
• Ask yourself “Do I really need it” and “What will happen if I don’t buy it”
• Only spend cash and learn to stop BEFORE it’s gone
• Become accountable to someone who will hold your feet to the fire
• Know that your greatest successes occur when you conquer your greatest challenges.

Self-control is a virtue and one that bodes well for all of us to build into our repertoire of financial behavior in order to have a victorious life.

About the Author

Catherine B. Eagan

Catherine B. Eagan, a former Private Banker to multimillionaires, herself became a millionaire and has dedicated her life to teaching women how to become financially intelligent.  As a financial life coach through Kingdom Millionaires Unlimited, she has taught people worldwide, fundamental wealth building principles.  As an ordained minister, author, Harvard University graduate, and international speaker, she along with her husband, Dr. J. Victor Eagan have authored the best selling books Dominating Money and How to Discover our Purpose in 10 Days. . She has helped thousands of women become financially empowered through The Wealthy Women, her bi-weekly teleseminars to women worldwide.

 

Contact Catherine B. Eagan: info@CatherineEagan.com 
Visit her websites: www.CatherineEagan.com

by Terri Pilcher

“There was a janitorial custodial individual in the Detroit county schools about 10 or 15 years ago, and he made news upon his death because he gave a million dollars to the United Negro College Fund tells. He never made more than 30,000 dollars a year. His attitude toward money was different than other people who have that same amount of income and spend their entire life saying, ‘I never have enough money. I never make enough money.’ It’s not how much you make, it’s how you leverage what you have,” explains Catherine Eagan, a multimillionaire entrepreneur, former Vice President and Private Banking Officer, ordained minister, and financial coach.

More of us could do this if we had a little financial intelligence. If our parents didn’t teach us how money works (and chances are that they don’t know either), we probably will never learn how to manage our money. We’ll be strapped for cash our entire lives.

“The school systems do us a disservice,” says Catherine, “You can matriculate through 12 grades and never learn the practical task of managing money, and yet it’s something you do your entire life.”

After twenty years enjoying her work in the commercial lending department of a bank, Catherine realized that God wanted her to combine her love of finance with her love of teaching. “I believe I am called to help raise up the financial intelligence quotient so that people can really manage resources appropriately and as a result achieve success. It’s not how much you make, it’s how effectively you manage,” she says.

Many women rely on men to take care of the finances for them, but because 50% of women get divorced and almost all of the rest outlive their husbands, every woman must deal with money at some point in her life. Catherine says, “No woman should look to a man to solve her financial intelligent quotient.”

It’s a shame when we let men take care of our money, because research shows that women make more money at investing than men do. “When women actually begin to take on the mantle to invest, research shows that women are more profitable in investing than men, because they are less emotionally driven than men,” Catherine explains, “Men tend to take a higher level of risk and get in and out of different things, where women are more methodical.”

Through her free Wealthy Women seminars, Catherine teaches women about all aspects the financial world. She covers real estate investing, paying off debt, stocks, bonds, index funds, and more. She says, “I teach very practical information you can use almost immediately. How to buy a car, how to buy a home, how to look at rates, how to negotiate a deal. All of the basic, practical personal finance information that an individual should know, period.”

In addition, she covers information essential to today’s entrepreneurs. In the future, Catherine plans to talk about, “global economics and what that means for the United States of America. I think we are now truly in a global economy. People need to have a good working knowledge of what that means and be globally equipped financially. Otherwise, they may end up running into financial problems because they aren’t prepared for what it means to be a 21st century mom, employee or entrepreneur.”

Sign up for the free Monday night Wealthy Woman Teleseminar at: http://www.catherineeagan.com/TheWealthyWomen.htm.

Don’t forget to increase your financial intelligence quotient in other ways. Read books (I recommend starting with Dave Ramsey and Dr. C. Thomas Anderson, two Christian millionaires), open a small savings account that you’ll use for investing, and go to local SBA (Small Business Association) classes. We’ll keep struggling with our poverty mindset unless we learn a new way of thinking.

By Catherine B. Eagan

For every successful venture, I have yet to see complete, undaunting
achievement without accompanying failure. Often times we think of failure as
a tragedy; it's true that it can be a temporary setback. Nevertheless, every
great endeavor has a degree of darkness in its past often masked in the
clothing of risk. Call it a calculated or uncalculated risk - some failure
is inevitable.

Most people are trained to view failure as defeat. It shatters self-esteem
as opposed to being a bridge to success. Consequently, failure is not
embraced as a tool for learning.

Failure Is the Mother of Invention and Innovation

I'm reminded of a story Joe Dudley shared with me. He is the inventor,
owner, and distributor of Dudley Hair Care Products a multi-million dollar
company. He failed first grade and was labeled mentally retarded. He had
learning disabilities, struggled with his grades throughout school and was
written off as a failure. His life changed when his girlfriend and would be
wife dropped him. It devastated him. He converted his failure into his
greatest success. He went back to his grammar books and learned how to read.
His career took off, he married a wonderful woman, and by 1995, he was
awarded the prestigious Horatio Alger Award after achieving tremendous
success.

I look at modern day icons like Donald Trump touted as one of America's
successful, billionaire real estate magnets, yet he has filed bankruptcy two
times and restructured over $2.8 billion dollars of debt. At first, the look
of failure was devastating however; he bounced back stronger both times.
Moreover, what about Walt Disney who had failed ventures before the colossal
success of Disneyland theme park and Disney motion pictures? Or people like
MC Hammer, Henry Heinz, Henry Ford, and a host of others luminaries who have
had bankruptcy as a part of their resumes. Great achievements are often
surrounded by high risks that can sometimes result in failed outcomes.

Dictionary.com defines failure as receiving an unintended result. If we
receive unintended results all we have to do is learn from them, change our
strategy, and do something different to achieve the intended outcome. Thomas
Edison, after hundreds of failed attempts to invent the incandescent
electric light said each time "I am not discouraged, because every wrong
attempt discarded is another step forward."

Have the Courage to "Do Something Different"

Sometimes we need to take a different route to achieve success. Most of his
college professors probably dubbed Bill Gates a failure for dropping out of
Harvard in his junior year but today, according to Forbes Magazine he is the
richest American with a net worth at $46.5 billion and loving it. He is also
significantly philanthropic with a foundation of over $32 million. With a
passion for developing computer software programs Gates decided to do
something different.

Often times doing something different requires you to take a risk. Whether
calculated or not, taking a risk can potentially result in failure.
Generally, the greater the risk the greater the reward. It is far better to
take the risk and shoot for the stars than not to risk at all. Perhaps you
are the next world changer.

Failure is a part of the Learning Curve
Thomas Edison once said, "Many of life's failures are men who did not
realize how close they were to success when they gave up." Once you realize
that failure is a part of the learning process you can recognize it as
instructional, move on to accomplish your goals, and achieve your dreams.
Press through the hard places and achieve your success.

Be Proactive - Take Action to Get Pass a Failure
The following actions will insure the proper response and provide a stimulus
for growth, development, and self-improvement:

1. Recognize that now you know more than you did before.
You know what not to do and thereby you increase the probability for
success.

Remember the two benefits of failure. First, if you do fail, you learn what
doesn't work; and second, the failure gives you the opportunity to try a new
approach.
Roger von Oech, author of A Whack on the Side of the Head

 

2. Change Your Assumptions and Look for New Opportunities.
Donald Trump got partners to help share the risk and to attack the
problems.

Incorrect assumptions lie at the root of every failure. Have the courage to
test your assumption.
Brian Tracy, author of Success is a Journey

When one door closes another door opens; but we often look so long and so
regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for
us.
Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone

3. Don't Give Up.
Thomas Edison kept trying new approaches to obtain success and he
succeeded with over 1,090 inventions. After 10,000 unsuccessful attempts to
develop his electric light bulb over one and a half years, Thomas said, "I
have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." Edison
discovered that men do not fail; they give up trying.

Success means not giving up.

Don't fear failure so much that you refuse to try new things. The saddest
summary of a life contains three descriptions: could have, might have, and
should have.
Louis E. Boone, author of Contemporary Business

4. Reinvent Yourself or the Project.
Take a fresh look at the challenge and have the courage and creativity to
strategize a different approach. Toss the problem up in the air and look at
it from all angles.

Because a fellow has failed once or twice, or a dozen times, you don't want
to set him down as a failure till he's dead or loses his courage - and
that's the same thing.
George Horace Lorimer, former editor of the Saturday Evening Post

5. Encourage Yourself.
A failed project does not mean you are a failure. Never give up hope.
Failure is an event. If you have 10 failures, you are a person who had 10
failed events. You are not defined by your failures. List 10 amazing things
about yourself daily.

History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered
heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused
to become discouraged by their defeats.
B. C. Forbes, founder of Forbes Magazine

6. Evaluate and Make Adjustments.
Take time to identify the unexpected outcome and do what it takes to be
successful. Evaluation is a continuous part of the success equation. Always
evaluate and then make the necessary adjustments - don't be afraid to change
your plans.

The majority of men meet with failure because of their lack of persistence
in creating new plans to take the place of those, which fail.
Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich

7. Take the Risk.
I once heard someone say there are three types of people; those who make
it happen, those who watch it happen, and those who say "what happen." In
order to experience, success take the risk.

Forget past mistakes. Forget failures. Forget about everything except what
you're going to do now - and do it.
William Durant, founder of General Motors

When you recognize that failure is part of the process, you can use it to
catapult yourself to your next level of success.

An old proverb says, a wise man falls seven times but he gets back up.
Failure is not an option.