Today, almost everyone knows someone, whether a friend, a colleague, a relative, a neighbor, or perhaps yourself who has lost a job, a home or his/her investments or life savings. With so many Americans experiencing financial turmoil and problems which they are (or feel) unprepared to handle, the need for help and support is greater than ever, but the dearth of availabe resources is both appalling and alarming.
With so much financial uncertainty nationally and globally, feelings of fear and powerlessness are rampant, and they are impacting us all no matter what our financial circumstances as we each struggle to make sense of this new world order. Many women and men need help with their mortgages, with extended unemployment services, with putting food on the table, with keeping their health insurance, etc., but the type and depth of the help which is so desperately needed goes far beyond financial help.
In these very trying financial times it is critical to remember that the loss of a job, a home, someone’s life savings or retirement represents the loss of hopes, dreams, goals, sense of self, self-esteem and so on. Experiencing this combination of emotional and financial loss can be overwhelming and make healing and taking steps toward a healthier financial future much more challenging and taking back control of your money, your life and your future a much more daunting task.
I believe that one person choosing to change creates the opportunity for more people to choose to change and makes it much more likely and possible for all people to choose to change; therefore, I want to open up a conversation with readers around the country and around the world to learn your thoughts and ideas regarding how the work of the Center for Financial Social Work can make a difference in the lives of everyone who truly wants to create long-term financial behavioral change.
That is why in January 2009 we will be announcing a number of methods for providing everyone who wants a voice in identifying and determining what is needed to help men and women everywhere to become more money-wise will be heard. Our mission is to provide everyone with a sincere interest in developing the skills, the tools and the information to create a better future for themselves and for their families, access to the expertise and knowledge of Financial Social Workers and Educator/Coaches.
Financial Social Work is about cause and effect, but not exclusively about what caused the financial meltdown in this country and around the world. FSW focuses more on how individuals interpreted the economy and the economic opportunities they chose and how their behaviors contributed to their financial problems; how to help these men and women to change the thoughts, feelings and attitudes that created their current financial circumstances in order to engage them into the process of long-term financial behavioral change.
In 2009, we hope that with blogging, offering courses through the “More Money-wise University” and adding message boards (and possibly even support groups) you and those you know and care about, personally and professionally, we will have what is needed to create a healthier relationship with money, and a more stable financial future.
I want the Center to provide much more than reminders about the importance of paying attention to your personal finances and to maintaining balance in your financial life by focusing on:
· Spending and saving (less of the first and more of the second.)
· Reducing/eliminating debt.
· NOT increasing debt levels.
· Asset building (assessing, inventorying and increasing.)
· Planning (saving) for future expenses and purchases (cars, college, retirement.)
My goal for the Center is to provide a forum where men and women struggling with personal financial problems and the collateral emotional problems which accompany them and the professionals working with these individuals can come together in a manner which honors and benefits all stakeholders and creates the synergy for long-term financial behavioral change.
And so, as we end one year and enter another, I wish all of our readers holidays filled with love and loved ones and a new year with decreased debt and increased assets……
The Center for Financial Social Work is dedicated to helping men and women to feel less overwhelmed and hopeless by their daily interaction with the economy and by the financial situations they may be currently experiencing, and to be a TRUSTED RESOURCE which provides knowledgeable guidance and support in all economic times.
The Center provides free and fee based materials that contribute to LONG TERM FINANCIAL BEHAVIORAL CHANGE - because until and unless behavior changes - NOTHING changes!
Reeta
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Reeta Wolfsohn, CMSW, is the founder of Financial Social Work; she can be reached at 800.707.1002 or at
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Currently, Certified Financial Social Workers, Counselors and Educators/Coaches across the US work with cancer patients, dialysis patients, HIV-AIDS clients, domestic violence, adolescent pregnancy, the EAP department of several national and international companies, the US military, veterans, schools, the elderly, families of autistic children, criminal justice, Departments of Social Services, the federal government and in private practice.
In the fall issue of our newsetter we had a drawing for a $50 gas card. Anyone who forwarded that newsletter to 12 or more people suggesting they register to receive their own FREE copy was entered into a drawing for a $50.00 gas card. Our winner was:
Marion NIchols
Augusta, Kansas
Mid Kansas Community Action Program, Inc.
Interim Executive Director
Ms. Nichols donated her prize to the Mid Kansas Community Action Program Inc.
Begin 2009 by Rethinking and Recreating Your Financial & Personal Future
There are countless reasons that men and women avoid their money problems and issues, but none of them are beneficial. Some people feel undeserving or guilty about wanting things for themselves. Others feel unable to overcome the fear of poverty, or unable to do anything right when it comes to money. Still others feel they don’t have enough money for it to make a difference; others feel unable to give up the fantasy of having someone else take care of them. Most people avoid their financial situations because they have been conditioned to do so.
If you have behaved in ways which have prevented you from creating a more emotionally and financially stable life in the past, now, as 2009 begins, is the perfect time to choose to change by:
• Recognizing and acknowledging your ability to grow, to learn and to change.
• Releasing your concerns about what others think or say.
• Beginning the process of healing your sense of self.
• Practicing self-acceptance.
• Understanding that you are already good enough and can continue to work to become even better.
• Accepting that you are where you need to be and are doing what you need to do to move your life forward.
• Acknowledging that you have the right, the ability, the fortitude and the wisdom to become more money-wise.
• Realizing that you alone possess the answers to your questions, as well as the solutions to your problems.
• Valuing who you are and why you are that way.
• Welcoming the opportunity to set limits and boundaries and to say “no,” if and when you don’t feel ready, able or
safe to say “yes” in a situation.
• Listening to, validating, considering and learning from your feelings. Your feelings keep you connected to your
inner most reactions regarding what is happening in your life. If you can’t hear or understand their messages, it is
because you aren’t paying attention.
• Permitting your feelings and instincts to guide and to lead you toward your hopes, dreams and wishes.
Learning from the Holiday Credit Hangover by Elizabeth Lipscomb
Holiday over spending has become such a phenomena in America that financial experts have dubbed this event the “Holiday Hangover”. December brings the anticipation and excitement of shopping, and January brings the credit card bills and the harsh realization of just how much was spent. Credit card bills on top of heating costs,a looming tax season and normal expenses cause huge post holiday headaches for consumers!
December encourages American’s to say “Bah Humbug” to the budget and proceed with a spending binge which results in the need for financial crisis intervention in January. Two key points which are critical to helping to return or to move forward in the direction of financial success are:
Get back on the budget: Overspending is similar to going off a diet for a day, or an alcoholic having a drink. It happened, but this is a new day to get up and get back on track. The temptation to throw out the budget and go back to old ways is often very strong, but isn't healthy. Working toward good financial management may have lapses into old behavior – what is important, however, is to get back to the budget as quickly as possible.
Explore what the emotion and motivator might be behind the over-the-budget spending: This is key to preventing relapses into overspending in the future because emotions are usually behind our money habits. Often it is guilt; sometimes it is desire; it may be other deep seated and painful emotions. Whatever it is, it is important to have this insight in order to stop emotions from controlling money habits and to find better alternatives for expressing these emotions.
With the proper feedback and insight, growth will usually follow a painful experience. With the economy in such severe crisis, 2009 may provide plenty of opportunites for financial and personal growth, so don't view overspending as a failure, but as a step on the road to success that is shared by so many. Financial Social Workers are trained and positioned to help others to facilitate the journey to long-term financial behavioral change not only in January, which is also, unfortunately, our coldest, gloomiest and most depressing month, but in every month of the year and in all economic times.
May 2009 bring prosperity and peace to you, yours and those you work with!
Elizabeth Lipscomb is an MSW, LCSW, ACSW and a Certified Financial Social Worker. Her background includes work in the financial industry and in the medical social work field. Elizabeth has recently returned to her lifelong home of Baton Rouge, Louisiana and is a regular and valued contributor to the Financial Social Work Newsletter.
Is where you are on your life journey where you want to be?
No one can predict the future, but each of us can play a role in creating our own destiny. Reeta Wolfsohn
If it is, you have much to celebrate. If it isn’t, what do you want to do about it; what are you willing to do about it? If it isn’t, do you know where you’d rather be? If you don’t, what can you do to figure out where you want to be and how to get there?
Don’t spend your life waiting for your destiny to be revealed to you – go out and begin to create it. Your future is in your hands. You possess the power to shape the dreams you have today into the life you want tomorrow. Take charge of your own future or someone else will; no one else knows what is best for you.
You will make some mistakes along the way but the alternative – staying stuck where you are – would be the biggest mistake of all. By risking nothing you risk everything – so take some risks (based on thorough research and sound information gathering).
Five tips to help you to get started:
1. Identify a minimum of two (2) positive things about your life today and stay focused on them. (Focusing on the positive will help you to move your life forward.)
2. Identify two (2) specific areas of your life you want to change. (Until and unless you know what you want to change, you are not likely to create change.)
3. Identify two (2) specific actions to create change in each of the two (2) areas you identified above.
4. After taking those actions, continue to identify additional actions that will move your life forward. Continue this process of identifying and implementing new actions and you will be on your way to moving in the direction of your hopes, dreams and wishes.
5. Be more accepting of who you are while working to change. (Negativity keeps you stuck. You are the sum of all of your previous choices and that is ok. Tomorrow, next week and next year you can be in a different place based on the sum of the choices you begin making today.)
Consider This- How might the course of your future life journey be altered if you:
§Change your thinking?
§Change your behavior?
§Get to know and to understand yourself better?
§Expand your sense of self?
§Increase your self-esteem?
§Learn how to take control of your money and to gain control of your life?
§Discover that wanting to accomplish more, striving to accomplish more and working to accomplish more is what living is all about?
Learning from the Holiday Credit Hangover by Elizabeth Lipscomb