This is something that I’ve talked about before, but it’s just as important today as it was back then. The long quest for success, no matter how you define it, will be met with obstacles upon obstacles. Whether or not you will ultimately succeed and attain the goals that you’ve set for yourself largely depends upon how you deal with these obstacles and handle difficult situations.

A couple of years ago I was shown an equation which I think speaks volumes. It’s possible that I liked the equation since I’m an engineer and all engineers love equations, but the information conveyed is definitely for everybody.

Persistence + Failure = Success

All of the successful people that I’ve talked with have told me that failure is part of the journey. And it’s not just one or two failures either. There will be failure after failure all along the journey. Success only comes to those who choose to be persistent through those failures and are willing to keep trying again and again. Even with what may be my limited success I’ve experienced failures along the way. They haven’t caused me to give up yet and hopefully I never will.

In order to be able to work through some of the difficult times though, you’ve got to be able to maintain a positive attitude. It’s incredibly easy to let negativity creep in to your life, especially as you encounter obstacles. And if it weren’t enough for negative thoughts to naturally enter your life, you’ll surely encounter plenty of naysayers along the way. To some of your ideas you’ll hear things like, “that’s not possible”, “you can’t do that”, or “why would you try something like that”.

In the midst of negativity, you’ve got to be able to ignore the negative, focus on the positive, and succeed like only you know you can.

I’ve run across a couple interesting articles recently, and I thought I would share them with all of you as you may find them of interest as well.

The first is a book review of a book review. It’s called measuring my performance against the Edelman secrets and is a review of the book by Ric Edelman. This is from a blog that I recently found and am looking forward to seeing more from.

Here is an article from Yahoo that discusses when you can tap an IRA. Taking money out of a retirement account usually isn’t a good idea, but for some situations, like purchasing your first home, it could actually make sense.

In the typical large company raises usually come out once a year. Sure there are those occasional promotions and new positions every now and then, but some sort of pay raise is generally expected about once a year. It’s a time that is usually looked forward to, but then quickly forgotten as people move on to other things. So how is it best to handle a pay increase before it quickly gets absorbed into our spending and then forgotten?

Make a Concerted Effort

First of all, tell yourself that as far as your lifestyle is concerned, it never happened. If that’s too tough for you to handle then pretend that the raise was significantly smaller than in actuality. It’s important that you get your mindset right before you take any action with it, otherwise you’ll soon wonder how you ever “scraped by” without it. Keep your lifestyle in check and then you can move on to what you actually should do with the few extra dollars.

Just as there are a lot of stupid ways to spend a bonus, there are equally as many dumb ways to fritter away your raise. Even if you don’t purposely change your spending or buying habits, the tendency will be for any little extra amount of money to somehow get spent. Somehow the lifestyle will inflate to fill the means if not consciously kept in check. I don’t want to get into all the unwise uses for your raise though; I’d rather focus on the more savvy uses thereof.

Savvy Ways to Spend a Raise

1. Increase your contribution percentage to your company sponsored 401(k) or other retirement plans. This is probably the simplest way to ensure that you don’t just spend the extra funds since they’ll be deducted automatically from your paycheck and you’ll never see it. It’s also one of the few ways to actually save all of the raise since contributions to these qualified plans can be exempt from any tax.

2. Set up automatic transfers, or payroll deductions if your employer has the capability, to a high yield savings account and you’ll again never miss the money since it’ll never pass through your hands. This is a great way to bolster the emergency fund, save for a down payment, or achieve any other financial goal that you have. It won’t take much time at all to set this up and then you can leave it on autopilot.

3. Use the extra funds to pay down any debt that you owe. I will caution you though, that this won’t make a bit of difference if you don’t also resolve not to rack up the debt again. Paying off debt shouldn’t be free license to go out and spend again putting you back in the same situation you were to begin with. And once your debt is paid off, go back and see number 2.

4. Consider donating to a charity or helping others in need. This is a great way to remind yourself of what’s really important in life. Being able to give and help others is one of the greatest feelings around. And it’s just a side benefit that you don’t have to pay taxes on these funds either. You’ll be surprised at how rich you’ll feel when you’re able to help someone in need.

I’m sure that you can think of many other great ways to make use of your raise, but the point is to make a conscious effort to use the funds wisely and improve your financial situation or that of another. What are some other ideas you have to make the best use of your raise?

Many people are struggling financially these days for a variety of reasons. It could be due to a job loss or some other struggle, but for many it’s because of debt. Overpaying for a house they couldn’t afford and rampant consumer spending can quickly catch up with people and they find themselves in a situation that they can’t seem to find a way out of. If you find yourself in a situation like this, then you may want to consider Debt Counseling.

DebtConsolidation.com is just such a service that wants to help you take control of your finances. You can get help with debt analysis and credit repair. If you’re goal is to eventually become debt free and you’re not sure you can do it on your own, then you might want to check them out to see what they have to offer and how they can help.

There are many more than just eight reasons why people fail to get ahead financially. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list, yet these are some of my thoughts about why so many people continue to struggle financially.

1. Failure to Plan

You’ve all probably heard the saying that goes something like this, failure to plan is planning to fail. While this does cause one to stop and think, I don’t actually think anyone reading this site is deliberately planning to fail. The concern though, is not having a workable plan for improving your financial situation and thereby staying content with the status quo. Very few people wake up one day and are suddenly financially free and successful. If you haven’t already, take the time to develop a financial plan and start moving forward.

2. Focusing only on Yourself

If you look at charitable giving as money you could otherwise put to better use, you’re missing the point. By reaching out a helping hand and giving to others of your time and means you’re shifting your focus away from yourself. You will realize that it’s not the new flat panel TV and the hottest car that ultimately makes you happy. It’s much easier to control your spending in order to get ahead when the focus isn’t always on you.

3. Not Making Savings a Priority

How often have we all heard that we should start and maintain some sort of emergency fund. For one reason or another things just happen that we weren’t expecting. Your savings, or emergency fund, is one way to plan for the essentially unplannable. Make your savings regular or even automatic, and you’ll find that getting ahead is within reach.

4. Impatience

It’s no secret that we live in an On Demand society, but financial freedom and stability don’t play by these rules. You can’t be impatient and expect unreasonable results. Learn the virtue of patience and you’ll actually be surprised by the results.

5. Lack of Follow Through

This goes hand in hand with impatience. Once you’ve created a plan and set things in motion it’s imperative that you execute and follow through. Opening a savings or investment account and then failing to contribute after six months is a recipe for the same. Little adjustments here and there will be necessary along the way, but getting ahead is going to take some doing.

6. Underestimating the Little Things

How often have you heard others or even yourself say, “it’s only $x.xx”? I hate to break it to you, but all of those little things add up over time. Just $5 for lunch every day at work adds up to over $100 per month or over $1200 for the year. That just happens to be about the amount of the coming tax rebate. Just think, by saving just about $23 per week you could give yourself the equivalent of this tax rebate every year. The small things add up.

7. Have Now, Pay Later

It’s a depressing feeling when the bulk of your paycheck goes to pay for things that you don’t even remember buying. Because you have to have the latest gadget, you end up mortgaging your future earnings. How do you expect to get ahead and plan for the future when you’re constantly paying for the past?

8. Lack of Financial Knowledge

How can one contribute to a 401(k) if he doesn’t know what it is or how it works? Having a goal of a million dollars or so seems impossible if you don’t understand the principle of compounding. It’s also difficult to grow any semblance of a nest egg without at least a basic understanding of investing. Getting ahead will require some effort on your part, and that includes learning at least the basic tenets of financial management.

About a year ago I wrote a post entitled, Living is Giving. With all of the focus that we put on our finances and trying to improve them, it’s important that we don’t forget what really matters: people.

In this spirit, I wanted to make everyone aware of an opportunity to give. JohnChow is asking for the help of his readers to support the Union Gospel Mission for their Easter meal. Apparently so far the support has been lacking and he has stepped up the incentive. He will personally match every donation 2 to 1 as well as recognize the readers who made a donation in a blog post some time today. You’ll want to check out his call to action so you can participate. It’s as simple as a PayPal transfer. Nothing complicated here.

As John says on his blog, the true measure of success is not how much you make but how much you give. Every little bit helps, and even just a donation of $2.59 is enough to feed one person. I’ve already made my donation and wanted to make you all aware of this opportunity as well.

As an added incentive, if you decide to make a donation, I will also provide a link to your site here at Fiscal Musings. I’ll be trusting and ask that you just leave a comment to this post, with your website address, stating that you donated. You don’t need to divulge the amount. Thanks in advance for your support.

Now that I’m going back to school this fall, one of the things that has been on my mind is the possibility of getting scholarships. I’ve been looking around trying to find different opportunities, and one of the ways that I’ve come across to find financial aid scholarships is through the website Scholarships.com. You just need to create your profile so that they can try and match you with opportunities, and you’ll have access to their entire database of scholarships and grants. If you’re looking for scholarship opportunities as well, you ought to check out this website and see if there’s something there for you.