Living with bipolar disorder and maintaining a good credit can be a daunting proposition. A discussion of how you can get out of a certain financial situation is beyond the scope of this article; I will be discussing basic ways to get your finances under control.
Being hypomanic certainly has its benefits. In addition to increased productivity, you may be creative, charming, and sexy, possessing all of the positive attributes of man. But with hypomania comes a downside, as hypomania seems as good a time as any to party and engage in risky activities.
Someone may come up with a terrific business plan buying shoes at a retail store later planning to sell them in a huge markup. A bipolar man may decide to take a trip to Vegas that he can’t afford at the spur of the moment. Here are four ways to deal with bipolar disorder and debt.
1.) Tear up your credit cards
Of course, you should pay them off first. If you have outstanding balances on your credit cards, you should be doing everything possible to pay these off.
If it is going to be years before you’re able to take a pair of scissors to that plastic, then hide your credit card, or give it to your family and tell them not to return it to you under any circumstances.
Why pay more for something now, when you can save yourself a bunch of money by purchasing it in the future?
A debit card can be used just the same as a credit card, so be sure to set limits on what you’re willing to spend. Most people don’t realize how easily the little things add up to large monthly statements.
2.) Budgeting
To become a successful person, you must learn how to successfully safe and spend your money. Your goal should be a save as much money as possible, so that you can invest it and receive more money down the road. In addition, you never know when you will lose your job due to mania or a major life event will happen to you.
To start with you should do the following:
Make a list of all your weekly expenses.
Cut out all the items that you don’t need.
Total up all the items that you have left, and add a little additional for spending money.
Now when you have this amount, take it out of the bank in cash, and when you go to spend that cash, keep the list in your wallet or purse. If the item you want to buy isn’t on the list, and is greater than the amount of your additional spending money, don’t buy it.
Better finances for those you have bipolar disorder are easy to achieve, as long as you learn a little self control and discipline.
3.) Debt consolidation
If you racked up a whole bunch of debt on clothing, a trip to Vegas, and student loans, you may be able to consolidate your bills. Credit companies hope to collect their money, and they would prefer that you do not declare bankruptcy, in which case they may not get a penny.
For this reason, there exist debt consolidation companies, which can put all your monthly payments together into one bill a month, saving you a lot of trouble on calculating your bills. Be careful though, as the credit card consolidation ads seen on TV are for profit scams, which will cost you a lot of money in the long run. To find legitimate organizations go to the Federal Trade Commission’s web site and search for “not for profit debt consolidation companies.”
4.) Bankruptcy
Chapter 13 bankruptcy is a last resort measure, which will allow you to keep your home and car, even if you are still making monthly payments on them. Such a bankruptcy will destroy your credit rating for years to come and is not recommended, if it is at all possible to avoid such a situation. Usually, the state that you are in will also require you to make monthly payments to pay off a certain amount of your debt (although the total amount will be greatly reduced) over the next 3 to 5 years.
Money management is not difficult if you’re bipolar. My personal philosophy is to be as free as possible, and spending now will make you a slave to other people later. Keep that in mind when considering rash purchases, expensive vacations, and risky financial situations.