What do you mean there’s water everywhere?
You’re telling me your car won’t start, and you’re stuck where?
Crap, I totally forgot that bill was coming.
We’ve all been there. Those gut punches life throws our way, often accompanied by hefty price tags.
What's In This Post
Shifting the Perspective
For example, just last week, we received an email from our tenant stating that the dishwasher wasn’t working. This was after we had spent a small fortune preparing the house for new tenants only a few months ago.
During the same week, my husband had an unexpected trip to the ER in the middle of the night, complete with blood work, IV drugs, and a CT scan (don’t worry, he’s fine).
All this happened against the backdrop of rising grocery and gas prices, while my income hit an all-time low ever since I decided to break free from the traditional career path. It’s easy to make this post a saga of difficulties and how to navigate through life’s tough punches.
But that would be an incomplete picture.
The Negative Thinking Habit
More often than not, we tend to fixate on the negative, the unexpected challenges that rear their heads. It’s in these moments that thoughts like “I’m broke,” “It’s never enough,” and “We’ll never get ahead” start creeping in.
If you’re not careful, these thoughts can overtake your mindset and become the only reality you acknowledge. Consequently, they become your truth, simply because you’ve allowed yourself to live with them running on repeat inside your head.
Seeing the Bright Side (aka. the full truth)
But that same week, I basically had my medical insurance deductible for the whole year magically erased (totally different explanation about how that worked out), essentially saving me $2,800 in healthcare costs over the upcoming year.
Additionally, we now have a brand-new dishwasher in our rental property, and even my car seems to be having fewer issues following the $1,200 repair we had done in November. My husband’s car is running smoother and likely safer after its $1,200 repair in December.
Life’s Expenses Are Inevitable
Life is full of financial surprises, and sometimes, it’s far from pleasant. It’s okay to acknowledge the unlucky breaks when they happen, but it’s equally essential to move on.
Most of the time, it has nothing to do with luck; it just is.
For instance, a dishwasher that’s over 15 years old is bound to give out at some point. A new one not only resolves the problem but also improves our daily quality of life (trust me, my dishwasher is in my top five favorite things in my house, and I hope our tenant feels the same).
Similarly, when you cross the age of 40 (my favorite gift for turning 40, by the way), your body might start doing unpredictable things, like giving you kidney stones (ouch!). You’ll need medical care, sometimes in the middle of the night. It’s not bad luck; it’s just a part of being alive past a certain age.
In practical terms, we should strategize for life’s uncertainties. Implementing a three-layer savings strategy and having financial buffers in place are excellent ways to prepare for the unexpected.
However, we also need to adjust our mindset. It’s crucial to understand that expensive surprises are a part of life. You can’t control when they happen, but you can control the story you tell yourself about them.
Shifting to a “No Sweat” Attitude
Choose to react with a “no sweat” attitude of gratitude. When the dishwasher breaks, consider it fortunate that it’s not the furnace or a tree crashing through the roof.
A trip to the ER might be an unplanned expense, but the fact that comprehensive, state-of-the-art medical care is accessible and that you have medical insurance to mitigate at least part of the cost is an incredible blessing.
Even if life’s surprises come with lessons to be learned, don’t dwell on them for too long. Cap the amount of time you spent being annoyed and then move on. If you’ve learned the lesson you needed (and paid for it), be grateful for the hard-won wisdom and move forward.
Mastering Your Mindset
While I often write about the logistics of strategic money management, it’s essential to remember the importance of managing your mindset. You can achieve this by acknowledging your financial wins, no matter how small they may seem.
And next time a surprise expense pops up, choose to view it as a math problem, not a mindset problem. Costly surprises should be treated as challenges for your spreadsheet, not reasons to doubt your financial future.
Learn to think rich, not poor. Monitor the thoughts that cross your mind when an unexpected expense arises. Cultivate a positive “All is well” outlook and see how it transforms your reality.
The way you frame your thoughts about money may be the biggest secret to achieving success in personal finance.
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