Friday Morning Update: Today I’d like to focus on the opportunity to press reset. Many of our financial lives, and the lifestyles those incomes support, will be turned on their head. I don’t say this flippantly; I say it out of respect for your hard work and the truth. 1/

To classify this upheaval as a blip, is to do a disservice to the life you’ve built for yourself. Some of us are going to get kicked in the teeth, in fact, some of us have already gotten kicked in the teeth. 2/

Thus, not only is your income disrupted, but so is your ability to maintain the lifestyle you previously established for yourself. This undoubtedly hurts, and I’m sorry you’re going through this. I would feel the exact same way you’re feeling right now. 3/

But I want you to consider letting go. Not giving-up, but letting go. Consider letting go of expenses which have forced you to work a job you don’t really like. Let go of choices you made years ago, but now feel trapped in. 4/

I want you to press reset, if it’s appropriate. That’s not giving-up. Giving-up would be never going back to work again. Giving-up is not paying your bills, even when you’re able to. Pressing reset is different. 5/

I’ve know several people who’ve used incredibly adverse times as an opportunity to press reset. And anecdotally, they’re amongst the happiest and most balanced people I know. Which came first? The happiness or the reset? The reset did. 6/

Admittedly, this thread isn’t for everyone. It’s specifically for moderate to moderately-high income earners. Unfortunately, a person making at or below living wage doesn’t have the luxury of near-instant reinvention. 7/

As your career developed, so did your lifestyle. At first it was modest, and with more money came the ability to increase your lifestyle — so you did. This concept is called lifestyle creep. Your income creeps up, and so does your lifestyle. 8/

Before you know it, you’ve trapped yourself into the need for a certain level of income. This income trap occurs whether you love what you’re doing at work or you begin to fall out of love with the work you’re doing. 9/

But, since you’ve established a relatively demanding lifestyle, you slog-on. This is called escalation of commitment. It’s when despite increasingly negative outcomes, you continue-on instead of altering course. 10/

If your income, and the lifestyle it supports, has just been turned on its head, then it’s possible you can get out of this trap. Always hated sales? Then get out. Did your dream to open a flower shop not really work the way you thought it would? Consider making a change. 11/

What makes this possible is your ability to rebuild your lifestyle from scratch. This next part is morose, so I apologize. If you’re about to go through the next few months of shear financial pain, you have to tear-up your lifestyle anyway. 12/

Why not rebuild it to be less demanding? I’m not telling you to give up, I’m suggesting you might have a chance here to let it go. I’ve talked to several people in the last three weeks who NEED the six-figure jobs they hate, because of the lifestyle creep they’ve experience. 13/

As of now, that lifestyle is decimated. Please don’t do anything foolish. And if you want to walk through the logistics of how exactly to pull off this reinvention, reach-out, and the @callheymoney will put a plan together for you. 14/14