Picking Yourself Up After Failure

Driving to work this morning I saw a sort of home made looking bumper sticker on the car in front of me. It read "There is no bigger success than picking yourself up after failure". I haven't been able to get that out of my head - how true it is!

My financial story is not one of huge failures. Sure, I wish I'd been more frugal and saved more in my early 20's, but I had great parents who took the time to teach their kids about finances (and send me to college without any student loans!) and so I never found myself in debt or struggling with any huge problems.

My husband didn't have as sound a financial upbringing, and did have to climb out of a hole before he could start getting ahead, but compared to a lot of people that hole was pretty shallow. Even though he has come a long way with his savings, it also hasn't been too difficult for him since I have headed up steering on this ship. Don't get me wrong, I'm very proud of him for paying off debts, and working so hard to come up with that money, but his financial story is one of autopilot.

When I read stories like Quest's I can't help but feel that her story is so much more impressive than mine will ever be. I'm grateful that my story has been a relatively easy one, but I'm always amazed when hearing stories of people facing seemingly insurmountable debts who plow forward anyway. Reading stories of people who had to pay thousands of dollars (even hundreds of thousands!) in debt just to get to zero is so inspirational, and makes me even more committed to tackling my own financial goals.

If you're feeling overwhelmed or hopeless, educate yourself and start chipping away at the problems. I believe in you, and you are my inspiration.