8 Ways to Build Your Financial Self Esteem

By Tim Lemke | Wise Bread

If you’re struggling to make ends meet, or are crushed by debt, it’s not a great feeling. It’s easy to feel despondent when you can’t seem to get ahead financially. But don’t get discouraged! If you make the right choices, things will come together for you and your money. There are many small things you can do to make yourself feel better about your financial situation.

Try a few of these ways to give your financial self esteem a boost. Positive things will snowball from there.

1. Pay off one credit card

You may be battling a giant monster of debt from credit cards, student loans, auto loans, and more. And you probably feel pretty cruddy about it all. But you can give yourself a little psychological boost by targeting one credit card and working to get that balance down to zero.

Even if you pay off a credit card with a relatively low balance, it will make that debt pile seem a little less overwhelming. From a money-saving standpoint, it makes more sense to pay off the credit cards with the highest interest rates first. But those cards may have higher balances and take longer to pay down. Prioritizing paying off small-balance cards in full, otherwise known as the snowball method, gives you valuable momentum that encourages you to keep chipping away at other debts.

Once you pay off that first credit card, stick it in a drawer and say, “I’m done with you!” You’ll feel great and will be eager to tackle the next one.

Full article at Wise Bread