You may be to broke to pay attention

Identifying the issue

I once heard a prosperity teacher jokingly say that some people are too broke to pay attention. He was emphasizing in a lighthearted manner how much easier it is to focus when you have enough money to supply your needs. The congregation laughed but over the decades I began to realize there just might be some truth to this statement and it could explain a few things. When life flows smoothly you go to work, pay bills, set money aside for emergencies, and have a routine. When that flow is interrupted, however, it has the potential to bring chaos.

You may know someone or perhaps you, yourself have worked 30 or 40 years without ever being laid off or taking a pay cut. Perhaps you may have maintained A1 credit and always had the money for every need and retired well. This is not the case for everyone and some individuals fall so low they cannot get back up. I’ve heard far too many individuals say they feel cursed as if everything always messes up for them while others succeed. This may be a result of losing focus causing problems so let’s explore.

Bad credit ruins your life in more ways than one

When your credit is bad you are unable to have a method of finance except for your cash on hand. You may have to wait a while to purchase a vehicle or other necessities where before you just went out and bought y In ou want when you wanted to. There are also some places where. without an actual credit card, you cannot rent a vehicle. Lack of credit affects you in other ways as there are companies that will not hire employees based on a credit score. I used to say that a credit score does not indicate what type of employee you will be, but now I realize that in a way it does.

You cannot fully pay attention to the duties of your job if your creditors are blowing up your cell phone and or calling every your employer every day. They may even begin showing up at your front door or place of employment with a summons for you to go to court. This is embarrassing and employers do not want to deal with it. A creditor also might garnishee your paycheck which affects the payroll department as will have to calculate the additional deduction for each pay period. I don’t know if it still happens today, but decades ago you could be fired if your wages were “attached”. A garnishment also leaves you with fewer funds to work with which only adds to the stress.

You will really be on edge on your job and unable to focus if you are watching out every day to make sure the bank or car lot does not repo your vehicle. The pressure of knowing your method of transportation will be taken from you is ginormous. If your vehicle is repossessed you now have the added financial and psychological burden of trying to figure out another method of transportation. Learning bus schedules, waiting on corners, or the expense of Uber or Lyft can be a shock if you had been used to just getting in your vehicle and driving at will. When your mind is overtaxed it is easy to become forgetful.

Stress from lack of finances

If you go to bed each night worried that you might lose your furniture, home, or vehicle and wake up the next morning with the same issues, this can cause you to become forgetful. You might leave food cooking on the stove and end up with a smokey kitchen. You may begin to forget appointments or to pay a bill by the cut off date. If your cable, lights, phone, Internet or heat is turned off, this will only increase your anxiety. People around you may begin to wonder what is wrong and consider you to be scatterbrained, but if they had a clue they might run for the hills.

You could be going so fast that you shut the door to your home and lock your keys inside or get to work and lock your car keys in the vehicle. You could be late to work because you are running all over your house looking for things you misplaced such as keys or a purse. I know people who asked if anyone had seen their glasses and they were on top of their heads. I know someone reading is smiling and nodding because they can relate. You might find yourself singing, like the scarecrow on The Wizard of OZ, "If I only had a brain".

Personal hygiene suffers

You may find that you stay up late and oversleep the next morning. You might run out the door without bathing, combing your hair or brushing your teeth because you simply forgot. You could put on shoes or sox that do not match or drive off to the post office without your mail. I have even heard people say they went out and forgot to put on underwear. This i s a result of being too broke to pay attention.

Clutter and hoarding

There are individuals who have shared that they have been so overwhelmed by financial issues that they just come home and jump in bed. They become so stressed out that are unable to pay attention to detail. They begin losing keys, brushes, combs, CDs, and especially cell phones. They are unable to find their wallet or purse on a regular basis. Looking for lost items takes up more time and adds to the stress which may affect your paying attention even more. You might forget to take out the trash or feed your pets. You may no longer have a desire to read your mail, do laundry or wash dishes and everything begins piling up.

When you do need to go somewhere you are unable to find clothing to wear and stress over the time it takes to look. This is why you see so much clutter in low-income neighborhoods. Those who have money can keep up their homes and vehicles, go to the SPA, the gym, and on vacations and cruises. They can do all the things that relax them and keep their minds fresh. Poor people, like Cinderella, go home and sit among the cinders of their bad situations. They might be living without heat, lights or water, and be ashamed. The furniture might be falling apart and they no longer want anyone to come inside their home. This is what causes some people to live in clutter or become hoarders.

Brain freeze

With all of this stress on the brain, there is the probability to not pay attention in traffic and get a ticket or cause an accident. Perhaps you go to the grocery store and forget the very thing you went for. You might not return phone calls or remember to get the dry cleaning. The more this happens the more your memory lapses come routine. When you live like this it's easy to overdraw a checking account and incur overdraft fees. When you pay bills late there are also late fees and the money you have is being eaten up in fines and fees which leaves you less to budget with.

If you don't have the money to pay a traffic fine or you forget and pay it late you could lose your license. You might be one to drive anyway which adds extra stress because you don't want to be pulled over and end up with more fines and fees. This is a never-ending cycle for some who cannot find a way to pull themselves out of poverty. When you are too broke to pay attention it cause all kinds of chaos. I hope this information helps someone who is dealing with this issue. I wanted to bring it to light because there may be people who don't understand what is happening to them. When I find some solutions they will be shared in another article.

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