Financial Woes

This picture is my home before as it was being worked on, it has nothing to do with my financial woes, sorry if it worried anyone. Lots of people that know me tell me I work a lot. I often work seven days a week. I have a weekend job teaching for ten hours on Saturday and Sunday in addition to my weekday job. I only work three weekends at a time, but sometimes that three weekends is back to back. It is also why I sometimes run on two consecutive days, because that is the weekend I don't work. I enjoy my weekend job, but it gets very tiring to work so many days without a day off. I find that if I don't work on the weekends I sometimes get problems financially. I make a good salary in my full time job. I enjoy it very much and think I am making a difference to people's lives. I have had many jobs and careers in my life. I was an Army officer, I owned a small business, I taught English in Korea, I worked in the IT training industry. I also had many temporary jobs, I worked in a shipping department, I sold boxes to businesses, I even sold encyclopedias (I have said before I have found I am not a salesman.).

This week I had a financial problem. I haven't had the weekend job for the past 5 weekends and I haven't been miserly with my money so I thought I was in big problem. I thought my mortgage check would bounce. I checked my bank and realized the funds I thought were going to be deposited weren't going to make it in time. The funds were not deposited, so I thought I was going to have problems. When I have financial problems I think the whole world is going to come to an end. I don't see any way I can survive problems with money. Sometimes it feels like my life will come to an end if I get in trouble with money. I would rather live on the streets than have financial problems. I would rather be in a job I hate than not be able to meet my bills. I would rather work seven days a week, ten hours a day than not meet my financial responsibilities. When I decided to get divorced my biggest problem was my wife didn't work and I didn't make enough to support two households so I lived in my office for ten months so I could meet my financial obligations. I found something affordable and figured things out. I ended up living in a mobile home because I could afford to buy something and live alone. I was out of a job for 2 years and still required to make child support and alimony payments. People told me to go to court to reduce the amount I needed to pay, but does that mean the amount to support three children will be supported? So, I found ways to keep that up. It is why my debt is very high. I'm able to handle everything right now until the balance is disturbed. This time I KNEW I was in trouble, the bank balance showed a negative and I didn't expect it to be positive for a week, until my weekday job paid me. I looked into my bank account yesterday and found there was a positive balance. The bank recognized my problem and they helped me. I say it often, but I LOVE my bank. I have had several instances like this where the bank was able foresee my financial problems and help remedy them before they get out of control. Whenever I have financial problems I think about a phone call I made to my sister Sue after I got my paycheck. After I graduated college I joined the Army and I went to the East Coast where my sister lived. I can remember getting my first paycheck in a career job. I called Sue and asked her what I should do with all the money I made in one month as a Second Lieutenant. I was used to spending a very small amount every month when I was in college. I just didn't have any idea what to do with my whole paycheck of $650.