Forget the Setbacks - Focus on Your Goals!

Today's Success Story is condensed from an e-mail I received from Trish and John.


A doctor told Trish that she wouldn't be able to have children so when she fell pregnant in Feb 2000 it was quite a shock to say the least.

Trish and John worked 7 days a week during the pregnancy to make sure they paid off any debts they
had such as credit cards etc. They managed to pay off $10,000 in that time but then, one month before the baby was due their car was stolen.

To add insult to injury, John lost his job two weeks later so all their best laid plans went to waste.

Four months after their daughter was born, their home was robbed. Not having insurance they were only able to replace the most essential items. (I hope you all have insurance - it is just not worth taking the risk of being without it!)

John managed to get another job working shift work. They rented a very cheap place in a nicer area than
they had been living in and began saving for a house deposit.

They had saved $12,000 when out of the blue John lost his job yet again. That was it! They'd had enough! It was time for a change of direction.

John spent a lot of his free time tinkering on his computer so Trish convinced him to go and use their
savings to do what he loved and become a computer technician.

In October 2001, part way through the course, they were a bit short of cash and were sick of living in Sydney so moved to the Gold Coast. One advantage was that this allowed John to be close to the institute his course was with and the cost of living was lower.

They decided that they weren't moving house again until they bought their own house. They wrote some
new goals and made Trish's 30th birthday the deadline for purchasing their own home.

By June 2002 John had a diploma and a new job which he loved. Now it was time to work on their next goals.

Trish went back to uni to complete a degree in teaching which eventually led to a permanent job which she loves.

At this point they felt they should have been doing OK. They both had good jobs which they enjoyed and were earning more than ever before. The strange thing was that they were still living week to week and when a bill came in they struggled to find the money to pay it. The big bills like yearly insurance premiums always meant they struggled for weeks to come and Trish was sick of it.

With about $200 in a bank account and $3000 in credit card debt the only excuse they had for their poor financial performance was that their 4 year old daughter was autistic and required a lot of expensive therapy but they knew that this was not really the cause of the problem.

In 2005, Trish convinced John to attend a Simply Budgets Cash Flow Clinic I held in Brisbane. In one
of the sessions I commented that we are all limited by beliefs about ourselves and that we only earn what we believe we are worth and not a cent more.

The strangest thing was that Trish and John had just been discussing their salaries in the car the night before the clinic and were complaining that they felt they were being underpaid.

They both went to their bosses and asked for a pay rise. They were insistent about it and as a result, Trish received a $12,000 p.a. pay rise and John received a $9,000 p.a. pay raise. This amazed them both.

They then used my Simply Budgets system to map out a plan for their new financial future and began following the plan. However, they were about to receive a big surprise! In September they found out they were expecting triplets! What a shock! After crying about the fact that their budget would be in tatters, they decided to make some serious changes to it.

They saved like crazy and in January 2006 they bought their first house. They moved in on the weekend of Trish's 30th birthday! While they were unpacking they came across the piece of paper that they had written their goals on a couple of years earlier. It read:-

'Purchase our own home by Trish's 30th Birthday'. They smiled at one another.

(Isn't it amazing how following age-old tried and true principles actually works!)

To make it sweeter, they bought the house at a great price because the seller was in a hurry to sell the house.

The triplets were born in March 2006.

In her e-mail, Trish wrote:-

'Using Simply Budgets eases my mind tremendously. I can foresee any problems that might arise up to a year ahead and I take small steps to fix them now before they become a problem. We were able to see that I needed to return to work only one day a week to make the budget work for us. I've done that and we're coping just fine.

We did receive a $9000 baby bonus for the triplets but let me tell you that anyone who goes through a
couple of hundred nappies a week and $250 worth of formula each month knows it goes fast. Three cots, three car seats, a $1500 pram etc and the list goes on.

I can't tell you how many times people hassled us saying we were going to miss out if we didn't hurry
up and buy a house, or criticised our decision to go back and study full time. Sometimes we began to
believe them, but if you can look at your list of goals and know where you're going and when you're going to get there you will be alright.

We have achieved more now than some of the people who were hassling us previously but who have now lost everything they had due to poor decision making and a lack of goals.

My daughter turns 6 in November and I smile every time I think of how much we've done in the past 6
years. I hear so many people with autistic children talk about how terrible life is, but you have to set goals and you have to take time in every day to appreciate what you HAVE been blessed with rather than focusing on the hardships! It's all in the mindset. We wouldn't have achieved anything without a goal and then a budget to back it up.

Thanks again for your help...

Trish & John

I couldn't agree more with Trish's comments here. Your attitude makes all the difference. I have to say that I was very touched when I read that I had played a part in helping her and John achieve their goals.