Life can be so challenging — especially when you’re trying to better manage your finances, get out of debt, raise children or build a career. Perhaps you’re currently doing all of these things simultaneously.

Everyone experiences financial setbacks from time to time. But many of us do not know how to cope with our financial problems.

We spend our lives on financial and emotional roller-coasters, often having moments of financial success followed by one unexpected setback after another. And when we watch our savings dwindle or our debts spiral upward, everything can seem out of control.

The following advice is not the typical financial Q&A you may normally find on this blog. Nor is it a “how to fix it” article that you may have become accustomed to reading here on AskTheMoneyCoach.com. 

Instead, I just wanted to share a copy of a poem someone very dear to my family sent to my husband, Earl, back in 2002, more than a year before I would meet him.

During that time, Earl was still recovering from his first marriage, which ended in divorce in 1999. The lingering effects of that breakup left Earl facing a crushing amount of debt and foreclosure. But this poem helped him mentally get through those tough times – and it continues to inspire us both even today.

There is a bit of controversy over the identity of the original author of this poem.
Nonetheless, the words are powerful and can be uplifting when you are feeling down. We keep a copy of this poem pinned next to our bathroom mirror.

I hope you will enjoy – and remember – what is known as “The Don’t Quit Poem.”

Don’t Quit

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest, if you must, but don’t you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about,
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don’t give up though the pace seems slow–
You may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than,
It seems to a faint and faltering man,
Often the struggler has given up,
When he might have captured the victor’s cup,
And he learned too late when the night slipped down,
How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out–
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems afar,
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit–
It’s when things seem worst that you mustn’t quit.