The Money Coach
  • About
    • Meet Lynnette
    • Media Kit
  • Contact
  • Subscribe
  • QR Code
  • Books
  • Categories
  • Coaching
  • Hire Lynnette
  • Money Coach University™
  • The Money Coach Recommends™
No Result
View All Result
The Money Coach
  • About
    • Meet Lynnette
    • Media Kit
  • Contact
  • Subscribe
  • QR Code
No Result
View All Result
The Money Coach
No Result
View All Result

How to Get Off Your Financial Roller Coaster

Lynnette Khalfani-Cox, The Money Coach by Lynnette Khalfani-Cox, The Money Coach
in Debt
Reading Time: 4 mins read
rollercoaster
11
SHARES
190
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedIn

So what’s best part of a roller coaster ride for you? Is it the ascension – that nerve-wracking buildup when you know the coaster is painstakingly rising to the top of some ridiculous 300-foot drop that’s just ahead?

Is it the stomach-churning feeling you get when the roller coaster is going loop-de-loop or speeding along the track at a breakneck pace?

Or perhaps you enjoy the ending of a roller coaster the most, the moment when you’re in that cart and you slowly grind to a close, grateful in the realization that you survived. You didn’t have a heart attack. You didn’t fall out of the ride. Nor did you wet your pants (hopefully).

The interesting thing about roller coasters is that no matter how exciting, terrifying or fun they may be, nobody ever asks to get off the roller coaster. (Well, almost no one).

People may scream their hearts out, pray to God for safety, or even break out in a cold sweat. But the overwhelming majority of roller-coaster riders – once strapped into that ride – almost never summons the courage to say: “I changed my mind. Let me get off now.”

Likewise, when most people find themselves on a financial roller coaster, they act as if they’re powerless to change course and remove themselves from a potentially crazy economic experience.

A financial roller coaster is that up-and-down emotional extreme that many individuals experience when their money problems emerge – either consciously or subconsciously.

So for anybody who’s ever had financial woes, here’s a look at how the financial roller coaster manifests itself. The following applies to anybody: people with jobs or without; those with money and those who are constantly broke; individuals deep in debt or those flush with cash. Everybody goes through this at some point in life.

Denial – you act like everything’s OK. You just keep going on as if all is well. Don’t worry about anything, you tell yourself. Any day you don’t wake up six feet under is a good day as far as you’re concerned.

Frustration – You’ve got that overwhelming feeling of being in a pressure cooker. You get mean and snarky and you have a sharp tongue. You fall into self-destructive behaviors: binge shopping or binge drinking. Maybe you over-sleep to avoid life. But you’re generally in a bad mood and you act out because of your financial problems.

Anger – You’re ticked off at your employer, spouse, kids, the tax man, the government, your neighbors … basically you’re angry at anything that moves, or doesn’t move fast enough. You feel that life has dealt you a bad hand. And you’re mad that you aren’t where you think you should be financially at this point in your life.

Despair – You’ve thrown in the towel. You feel like there’s nothing you can do to get out of your economic predicament. You’re accepted the fact that you’re not going to get that raise, and that lottery scratch-off ticket is not going to be your way out. You feel that your prayers have not been answered. You’ve just given up. You’re merely waiting to die. You just feel like you’ve screwed up and you’ve got to lie in the bed you’ve made and deal with it. You think you’ll just end up in a nursing home just existing, and your gift in life is merely being alive and that’s all there is to it.

Despair is frustration without emotion, sometime calls ambivalence.

Regret – You spend an excessive amount of time going down memory’s long lane. You keep pining away for “the good old days.” You think about every high point in your past and how much better you felt back then. Like a dream turned into a nightmare, you think about every mistake you made. Your memories get destroyed. No pleasant memories, you’re only got good moments. You kick yourself over what you did or didn’t do in the past to contribute to your current economic plight.

So how can you get off the financial roller coaster?

The first thing is to recognize the highs and lows – and to consider whether you’re consciously or subconsciously addicted to the thrills of those extremes.

You next need to figure out how to “smooth” or flatten out the extremes in your financial life.

For example, why do you keep loaning money to others or over-spending when you know you’ll regret it in just a few short weeks or months? That’s the equivalent of hitting yet another low on your financial roller coaster.

Maybe “smoothing out” this part of your financial roller coaster would be too boring. Maybe having a calm financial life would seem” too quiet” or “not normal” to you, and you’d jump off that peaceful roller coaster and seek the next exhilarating adventure.

The problem is that when you get to a certain age you don’t want to experience life’s highs and lows. You just want stability. Especially financial stability. You don’t want to feel like you’re at life’s financial blackjack table.

So the next time you find yourself on life’s financial roller coaster, why not reach out and ask for help? Some of you might even scream for help. Just try not to shock your spouse, family member or co-workers by going completely off. You could just as easily make a calm request for help – by doing something like getting a financial advisor, seeking credit counseling or calling your student loan company to get those dreaded student loans out of default.

The bottom line is that you might need to close your eyes for a moment, hold someone’s hand if necessary, or even flat-out cry – just like you might on the most terrifying roller coaster you’ve ever ridden.

But in the end, you can ask someone for help to get off the financial roller coaster. You can be proactive about your situation, and you can turn things around.

Ultimately, though, if you find yourself screaming about your predicament, ask yourself this: Are you screaming out of fear and despair, or out of excitement and happiness?

If it’s the latter, you’ll know that you’ve at least taken off that seatbelt in the roller coaster. Now you just have to step out of the wild ride you’ve been on – and exhale.

Tags: over-spending
Previous Post

How Will You Spend Your Tax Refund Check?

Next Post

The 5 Deadly Financial Sins

Related Posts

household debt

Household Debt Reaches $16.51 trillion in Q3 2022

by Lynnette Khalfani-Cox, The Money Coach

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York's Center for Microeconomic Data today (November 15, 2022) issued its Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit . The Report shows an increase in total household debt in the third quarter of 2022, increasing by $351 billion (2.2%) to $16.51 trillion. Balances now stand $2.36 trillion higher...

Debt Snowball Vs. Debt Avalanche: Which is the Best Approach to Pay off Debt?

by Guest Blogger

Anyone who’s ever been in debt knows one thing: it doesn’t make life easy. In fact, debt can have many negative effects on one’s livelihood. For example, having large amounts of outstanding debt can negatively affect your ability to obtain any type of credit, such as a credit card or...

FDCPA

How To Deal With Out of State Debt Collectors

by Lynnette Khalfani-Cox, The Money Coach

Q: Hi, Can a debt collector that is based in and licensed in the state of Delaware, collect a debt from me in California? Also, I know California no longer requires California agencies to be licensed, however they have broken 3 possibly four of the FDCPA rules  and I would like to report them,...

debt collectors

5 Tips to Protect Your Paycheck from Wage Garnishment

by Lynnette Khalfani-Cox, The Money Coach

Do you have a lot of unpaid debts? If so, your creditors may threaten your paycheck with wage garnishment. Wage garnishment occurs when a court issues an order to withhold a percentage of your paycheck until your debts are paid off. For large debts, this can be financially devastating. Is...

get out of debt

The Pros and Cons of Paying Off Someone Else’s Debt

by Lynnette Khalfani-Cox, The Money Coach

Managing your personal finances wisely is one of the hallmarks of a responsible and mature person. Unfortunately, not everyone is able to or willing to handle their own financial affairs. Sometimes money problems occur as a result of circumstances; other times poor decisions play a role. Either way, it can be...

jail debtors prison

4 Crazy Times People Got Thrown In Jail Because of Their Debts

by Lynnette Khalfani-Cox, The Money Coach

Debtors prison was abolished in America well over a century ago. But that doesn’t mean you can’t get arrested or locked up for past-due debts. Here are four crazy instances in which authorities have hauled people off in handcuffs and taken them to jail in connection with having overdue bills....

debt detox

The 5-Step Debt Detox That Improves Your Finances and Health

by Lynnette Khalfani-Cox, The Money Coach

If you’ve resolved to improve your finances in 2016, now is a great time to do a debt detox. Many people are still in their holiday debt hangover, so the beginning of the year gives you a good opportunity, and a good reason, to get back on track financially. If...

Load More

Popular Posts

  • Car repair

    What to Do If You Can’t Afford a Car Repair Bill

    1376 shares
    Share 550 Tweet 344
  • What to Do if Your Spouse Stole Money From You

    1164 shares
    Share 466 Tweet 291
  • What to Do If You Can’t Afford to Leave Your Spouse

    1102 shares
    Share 441 Tweet 276
  • Here’s Why I Pay My Kids For Good Grades (And Maybe You Should Too)

    1008 shares
    Share 403 Tweet 252
  • What Do All Those Strange Codes In My Credit Report Mean?

    813 shares
    Share 325 Tweet 203
  • Do This Now If Your Wages Were Not Reported

    743 shares
    Share 297 Tweet 186
  • How to Find Out if a Debt Collector is Licensed to Collect Your Debt

    722 shares
    Share 289 Tweet 181

All information on this blog is for educational purposes only. Lynnette Khalfani-Cox, The Money Coach, is not a certified financial planner, registered investment adviser, or attorney. If you need specialty financial, investment or legal advice, please consult the appropriate professional. Advertising Disclosure: This site may accept advertising, affiliate payments or other forms of compensation from companies mentioned in articles. This compensation may impact how and where products and companies appear on this site. AskTheMoneyCoach™ and Lynnette Khalfani-Cox, The Money Coach® are trademarks of TheMoneyCoach.net, LLC.

©2009-2023 TheMoneyCoach.net, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

RSS / Sitemap /Submit an Article / Privacy Policy / LynnetteKhalfaniCox.com

No Result
View All Result
  • Books
  • Categories
  • Contact Lynnette
  • Get Coaching
  • Hire Lynnette
  • Money Coach University™
  • The Money Coach Recommends™
  • Home
  • Subscribe to Newsletter
  • QR Code

©2009-2021 TheMoneyCoach.net, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist