The lessons I learned when having no money

 I finally received my salary on Tuesday, January 12. Before this were 2 weeks of holidays with no money at all. That was my personal financial crisis. It is not like I lost a job or something. I have two jobs. One is covering my rent (accommodations is too expensive here in Kyiv, Ukraine), though salaries are higher too, the other job supports my other needs like food, fun, clothes, traveling and so on. So how it happened? I went for a one-week mountain holiday in the end of December right before the holidays. We had lots of fun, like skiing and snowboarding, playing mafia games in the evening and so on. But on coming back home I found I had few hryvnia (Ukrainian bucks) left in the pocket. I was not bother about this, cause hoping to get my salaries soon. My flop. Never trust the company. Who cares about you having no money? There are hundreds of other employees with their own problems. ;-)

Then the was a call from an apartment owner saying I want to get the payment before the holidays, so that we don’t starting a year with debts. Does she care about my problems? Of course, not. So I paid her the money I received from other project (thanks God I have at least one employee who cares about my problems ;-) ) And again empty pockets and banking cards, I forget to mention a debt on a credit card. Whooh! What a life!

Thanks God, I have a great family and friends who care about me. I spent great holidays with my relatives and friends.

Now I set all the debts and what to share with you the lessons I made during this time:

1)      Save money for rainy days. Give them to a friend you trust, so that there is no temptation to spent them on fun things.

2)      Buy Christmas presents for your friends in advance. It would be less stressful for your pocket and would prevent you from going bankrupt on a Christmas shopping spree.

3)      Don’t hope on the good will of your employer. As I mentioned above, he doesn’t care.

4)      Check your friends. It is a good opportunity to check which of your friends are ready to help you in need. There is a friend of mine, whom I helped a lot this year, when I asked her to borrow me some money, she gave me the money and said she wouldn’t take them back. There are times for giving and receiving.

5)      Learn what in life is available with no money to be paid. I found out that I can still enjoy my life with empty pockets and that there are people that still enjoys my company knowing I am poor as the church mouse. I also examined my home library and found there are so many books I have never had time to read )))

6)      Revise the priorities. I got time to think what is important for me in life and made some changes to the priorities: FAMILY, FRIENDS and only then WORK AND MONEY.

7)      Learn to be happy like a child. Looking at my niece and nephews I realized how important is to be childish. Kids do not need money to be happy! Learn from them.

8)      Dream and set the goals for future. Seeing yourself in a bright and happy future will uplift your mood and help you to survive the rainy days.

9)      Shed credit-card debt. Of course, the best way to avoid creating problems for yourself in 2010 is to use your credit cards cautiously and sparingly, always being sure to pay the entire balance off in full and on time each month.

10) Set the debts, as soon as the situation is changed. Pay the debts to your friends and relatives, if they refuse to accept the money do something good for them this would show to them that you made lessons from the situation and evaluate their help.