Let me share something with you today that is somewhat easy to do, and at the same time, has a payoff that can be worth more than you might imagine. It’s an almost foolproof way to always keep your goal in front of you. It’s a method that is nearly guaranteed to keep you focused and on track towards achieving your goal.

When we are in the process of getting out of debt, we sometimes get to a certain debt that may take longer to pay down and pay off. When this happens, we find ourselves in this lull of sorts where we are continually attacking this debt balance that we owe, but it feels like it is taking an incredibly long time to complete the goal of paying it off.

I’ve said it before and will continue to remind you that your credit score is important. A healthy credit score is a necessity, and if you heard that it isn’t a necessity to have a good credit score, that’s simply not the case. Credit scores are used for much more than simply allowing entities to know who they should and shouldn’t extend credit to when an application is submitted. It’s also used to determine insurance premiums, mortgage rates, and even whether or not you will be hired or even considered for employment at some companies.

We’ve all been through some hard times. This is especially true when it comes to our finances. Whether that’s in the form of a job loss, increased prices on pretty much everything, needing to rely on credit cards again after paying them down, or anything else that ties in with this current economy and record inflation. The simple fact is that these are definitely harder times than most of us have been used to previously.

When was the last time you felt truly unstoppable? When was the last time that your goals and your actions were in sync, and each action that you took was directed towards a particular goal in order to see it through to full completion?

Fear is an interesting concept. It is actually useful in the sense that it protects us from many different dangers, but what happens when fear has the ability to slow down or even stop our plans due to fear of the unknown?

I’m a spreadsheet guy. I like spreadsheets. I like automatic calculations on a spreadsheet. I like to nerd out and enter numbers and watch those numbers become a total or other data that I can use for whatever it is that I’m working on. I decided to create a simple spreadsheet that would automatically add up what I expected to make in a given month, and give me a total that I can then apply to my monthly budget.

Let’s face it. Credit cards are easy to use. They’re super convenient. They are these small pieces of plastic that we can just pull out and use to pay for all kinds of goods and services. Remember when you got your first credit card? Remember the feeling when you could just swipe and know that you didn’t need to pay for it right this minute, but you could put off the painful part until another time? How did it feel? Let’s be honest. It felt good, didn’t it?

How often do you feel pulled in multiple directions? How many times do you feel like you don’t have enough hours in the day to complete everything that you set out to accomplish the day before?

Consistency matters. We have hobbies, we have jobs, we have chores, and we have daily tasks. The question is: are we being consistent with the things that matter the most?

One of the biggest issues that I have had over the years with personal finance advice is the concept of creating a one-size-fits-all solution for everyone.