You may have heard the phrase “choose your hard” if you’ve been browsing social media recently. It’s from an anonymous poem that motivational and fitness influencers alike are using to encourage people to complete tasks that are difficult like getting in shape or applying for a new job. The short version is, doing the tasks are hard, but the consequences of not doing the tasks are hard as well.

While this attitude might not apply to all situations, it has a lot of merit. It’s especially worth thinking about which hard to choose when in the world of personal finances.

Budgeting

Nowhere else is the concept of choosing your hard is more obvious than deciding whether to budget or not. People have a lot of reasons for not creating a budget, from the fact that it’s tedious work to feeling like making a budget means they’ll never be able to buy something nice for themselves ever again. In other words, creating a budget is hard.

However, not having a budget is hard too. If you don’t have a budget, you don’t know exactly where your money goes each month. You could use the money in your paycheck to buy that new video game system, but are you sure you’ll have enough left over to pay for your necessary expenses, like electricity, Internet and food?

Not having a budget also makes saving for a long-term goal hard, if not impossible. You might want a new car, for instance, but if you don’t have a plan for how much to save each month, you’ll inevitably use the money you wanted to save on impulse buys.

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Saving Money

Saving money is another area where the choose your hard saying applies. Saving money is never as fun as spending it, and if you have a tight budget, you might even wonder if it’s possible to save money at all. However, if you don’t save up any money, you’ll won’t be prepared when a financial emergency strikes, and you’re more than likely end up going into debt to get the emergency taken care of.

Of course, as previously mentioned, saving money is also important when you’re trying to achieve your financial goals. If you don’t regularly save at least some money (and maybe have budgeted out how much money you’ll save), you’re never going to achieve your goal.

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Taking out a Loan

Taking out a loan is another hard financial task. It doesn’t matter whether the loan is for a house, an automobile or just a home repair project, applying for the loan and talking with a lending advisor takes some effort. Some people are also worried about whether they’ll be able to make the monthly payments on the loan, and what happens if they can’t make their monthly payment because they got laid off.

Unfortunately, taking out a loan will always have some risk associated with it. However, you need loans if you’re going to achieve many of your financial goals. In some cases, like buying a house, taking out a loan (aka a mortgage) is practically a requirement.

Deciding whether to get a loan or not isn’t like budgeting or saving. There’s advantages and disadvantages to both choices, and no matter what path you go down, you will face some difficulties. The best thing you can do if you’re not sure which hard to choose for a loan is to talk with a lending advisor about what you’d like to do with the loan and what plans you have to pay it back.

Make Hard Decisions Easy With First Alliance Credit Union

The world of personal finance is filled with a lot of tasks that can seem hard. However, not doing those tasks can lead to other hardships. You’ll need to choose what kind of hard you’re going to get.

Fortunately, if you don’t like the hard you chose, it’s rarely too late to change your mind. Even more fortunately, if you’re a member of First Alliance Credit Union, you can use our products and services to make some of these difficult tasks easier. We have guides on how to create a monthly budget and build up your savings, and our blog gives you information on everything from buying houses to planning your summer vacation.