Have you ever been to physical therapy?
What do you see?
Mostly likely people lifting light weights or getting a massage. It’s not the gym type atmosphere you would expect and there are no sign of NO PAIN, NO GAIN on the wall.
But the truth is most of those people are dealing with lots of pain.
They endure to stand up, to touch their toes and even to take one step. These are very small gains…
People at physical therapy are healing.
Something broke or got infected and now it has to be fixed. What’s amazing to me is that they are doing basic movements to get better. No crossfit or P90x or kickboxing, just basic stretching and weight training. It’s these activities that the body needs to fix itself.
This got me thinking about people who need financial physical therapy.
Maybe they have high credit card debt, bad investments, or they are behind on tax payments…
Either way, something in their financial world is infected or broken and needs to be fixed.
They need some healing.
As a financial planner, I would recommend organizing all debts, tracking cash flow and cutting expenses to free up enough money to tackle the problem.
This is as close to light stretching and weight training they are going to get.
It’s amazing how doing those 3 things can make a world of difference.
I know because I have seen clients battle back from thousands of dollars of debt, tremendous losses in the stock market, layoffs and mishaps.
Everyone’s road to recovery started the same way.
- Organization
- Tracking
- Cutting
Through organization you can see the actual problem and determine how severe it really is.
By tracking cash flow you will determine your true prioritizes (how we spend our money shows us what’s most important)
By cutting out waste/excess you can free up more cash and hit the problem head on and have a path to recovery.
Like physical therapy there is no quick fix. Your credit score and financial situation will heal slowly and there will be pain along the way. But at the end of the day, you will recover.
Let the healing begin!
-Jared Friedman
