I try to take two walks every work day, one in the morning, one in the afternoon. This afternoon, as I was taking my walk, I was also thinking about what I would write about today. There were a few possibilities about work, a conversation C and I had last night, maybe the second post in the “jobs high schoolers have never heard of” category, but in the end, I was feeling more philosophical than concrete today, and I couldn’t help but realize how managing your personal finances is a lot like taking a walk in the rain.

Taking the first step is key. I have come to look forward to my daily walks, but some days I look at the weather and think to myself “do I haf’ta?”. The answer, I know, is that once I get out there, I will be glad I’m there, rain or not. The same is true of taking care of your personal finances. Taking that first step is the hardest. You may not want to face your spending habits or your student loan debt, but the truth is, there is power in knowing, power in doing. Once you take that first step, you’re not likely to regret it.

Being prepared makes it more enjoyable. I live in the Seattle area. It is winter time. There will be rain. If I were going to let rain stop me from walking, well, there’s be 6+ months a year I did not take my walks, and that would be bad. So instead, I choose to be prepared. I bring a beanie to work every day. During the really cold weeks, I bring gloves, too. I have a poncho that lives in my office (much easier to walk in a poncho than carrying an umbrella). When I am prepared for the weather, my walk is much more comfortable and enjoyable. When I am prepared, managing my finances is a lot easier, too. Tracking my spending, creating a budget I know we can follow, planning for big expenses- much like remembering to put on my poncho, all of those things make it easier and more enjoyable to manage my finances. Because I am prepared and have the right tools, I am not worried about ending up soaked.

Don’t let unexpected events derail you. Today, I forgot to grab the beanie on my way out of my office. It didn’t look like it was raining much either, so I didn’t grab the poncho. Not quite a quarter of the way into my walk, it started to rain harder. I didn’t have hat or a poncho. I could have turned around. Instead, I pulled up the hood on my sweatshirt and continued to walk. Sometimes in our finances, when we think we’re doing just fine, things turn on us, too. The water heater breaks and floods the basement, you run over a nail and blow out a tire, or an unexpected bill comes in. Who knows what it is. When those things happen, you could just give up, decide you’re never getting ahead and quit. Or, you could turn to your emergency fund, rejigger the payment plan for the month and keep moving forward.

You set the pace. When I am walking, I decide how long it takes me. I can speed walk, or amble. No one has control of the pace but me. When it comes to getting your finances in order, you set the pace, too. Dave Ramsey may advice gazelle like intensity, powering through all your debt in as short a time as possible, and for some people that works. For others, it does not. You are the one who makes the decision about how fast or slow go. This is not a race.

The world is not passing you by. When I’m out walking, I cannot help but wonder where all the people in cars who drive past me are going. Why aren’t they in an office right now? What exciting things might they be doing? When you are working on paying down debt and trying to live within a budget, it can often feel like everyone else is in a car while you’re walking. They are doing all these amazing things and you can’t, because you cannot afford to. But if I take a moment while on my walk to realize that I am walking because I want to, because it relieves my stress, it feels good, and I love having the time to notice that the trees are starting to bud, I no longer care about the people in cars. And when you are getting your budget under control, you are doing it because you want to, because the long term rewards outweigh any short term pains, and the truth is, slowing things down and finding low cost and free activities is hugely rewarding. You are there because you want to be. Enjoy it.

Even if you are walking alone, you are not out there by yourself. There are often other people out walking while I am. Some are going the opposite way around the block, some are going the same way but slower, others faster. Some are out there smoking a cigarette. I am not alone, and I have to pay attention and be courteous to my fellow walkers. Some people smile as you pass, others ignore you, but you are all out there together. And as much as it may seem like you are the only person in the world trying to get your budget in order, you are not alone. Not everyone is going at the same pace or taking the same route, but there are other people out there. You can chose to ignore them or to smile encouragement at each other. You might even decide to walk together for a time. But the important thing to know is, you are not alone.

I look forward to my daily walks, even the ones in the wind and the rain. I always feel so much better afterward, and I miss it when I have to skip a walk. And while it’s taken me a while to get there, I look forward to budgeting, to figuring out my cash flow and it bothers me when I have uncertainty in our finances. I simply feel much better knowing that I have control of the money.