I have been a long-time fan of self help techniques. I have read many different books, went through many different courses online and just done a lot of research on the subject in general. I had a low point in my life within the past 6 months. Some issues I have had with managing money and a variety of other things, that I was trying to learn. Then over that period of time I started putting together a strategy in my head to help me get through these bad times. I was able to come up with something that has helped me through, and gotten me back on my way to success again. I call it IBMBM (Incremental Bench Marking Based Management). You can use this for just about anything in life. I want to start off with an example related to trying to manage house work and keeping things clean. Then I want to expand on that in the financial category, where I can see this applying the most to someones life.

Basic Theory

First let me cover the basics behind how this works. Anything you are doing..you can consider the lowest point, the bench mark. This lowest point is generally the identifier that people use to live by. They always base things by their thresh hold. It's the level of comfort. It's where they consider themselves safe at. It's the medium they use to measure everything else related to it, around. The idea behind this theory, is to incrementally increase that thresh hold, while continuing to maintain the current thresh hold. Then, reward yourself at each bench marker. Once I describe this in detail in the next two or three example sections, it'll make a lot more sense.

Example: Cleaning/Maintenance

The first example of applying this to real parts of your life, is cleaning. Let's start with a clean house. Everyone uses a bench marker that they place on their house cleanliness level. That cleanliness level is what they use to maintain their house. If they are a really dirty person, then generally their bench marker is pretty low. They might consider a sink full of dishes, non-vacuumed floors, rotting food in the refrigerator, and other dirty habits, a standard bench mark for what to clean by. If things start getting worse, they generally try to maintain that bench marker. If they don't then after a small amount of time their standards and bench marker go down even further.

Using the strategy that I have developed, they can actually get the bench mark up a lot higher, and maintain it. Eventually their house would be sparkling and the steps are pretty simple. First they would take their current bench mark, and actively decide what that is. They would consider each area of the house and set a bench mark for how dirty it currently was. Their goals for a few days would be to maintain that level consciously. Within a few weeks, they would start performing additional special work. They might take a few hours one day to suddenly do a bunch of dishes. Maybe now they have 1 sink full of dishes, instead of 2. Then they maintain that for a few days. Suddenly their bench marker has went up more.

Then they maintain that. No matter what they do not go below their bench marker. A few more days later, they increase it again. After they feel each level of Bench Mark, they reward themselves. They clean an entire room. Giving them a major bench mark increase, and a lot more self esteem. Over a period of a month, their house would be almost spotless, not to mention they would have it at that bench mark. They would use that level of cleanliness upon which they build their clean level. From that point, they make sure it stays that clean or cleaner. If it ever falls below that, they go into emergency mode to try to maintain that level of benchmark.

Example: Finances

It is a little easier to explain all of this using Finances as an example. If someone is broke. Their bench mark for funds, is around 0. They hover around that. When they get money, it's generally gone. It goes out towards bills, or whatever seems urgent at the time. However, always it seems that 0 is their bench mark. IF they go below 0 they are in negative. They want to stay out of negative, so they work hard to try to keep at 0 or above. Whenever they get too far above it goes towards something. There is a way to get that 0 bench mark up to 1000, then 5000 then 10000. Even if your working an average job. It works using the system I am about to detail out.

First off, their bench mark is 0. Let's assume you get paid. You want to get the bench mark up. Generally you pay all your bills and find yourself low. If you bench mark yourself, let's start at 1000. You get paid. If you have 1500 pay check at the end of the month, or every two weeks..what should you do? Well first you are above your bench mark. So you go ahead and pay 500 dollars worth of bills, or whatever. Push off what you can safely push off without them hitting your credit, getting turned off, or causing problems. Then just let your money keep coming in. Do this. Make 1000 your bench mark. Act as if it's 0. Try not to go below 1000 dollars. Try to stay above it, or right at it. That is your bench mark. It's there if you HAD to use it, but in your mind that is your bench mark. You can't stand going below it. Its like going into negative.

Now what happens. You wait for awhile, get more money. Then slowly make your way to a 2000 bench mark. Then you bench mark it at 2000. Anything above that goes towards bills for awhile. You just made your way up to another 1000 dollar bench mark, so your bills may suffer. You may have to wait awhile at 2000 for your bills to fluctuate and you to be able to manage them without dipping below 2k. Then you work your way up to three. You continue doing this incrementally until you hit 5000. This is the first major hall mark. You take 500 dollars now. You put it towards the most aggravating and long standing debt (tax debt, credit card debt, medical debt). Then you get your bench mark back up to 5k. Then sit on it awhile. Then start incrementing up to 6k. Eventually you get to 10. If you have a full time job, believe me, that'll happen faster than it seems, but will go into more detail than that.

Now when you get to 10, you take 1000 for reward money. Put it towards debt, then get your level up to 15,000 slowly, then take 1500 and put it towards debt. For every 5000 dollars, you take 500. This may seem not possible, but you just bench mark each level. Go slow, and be careful. If you have to put off some bills, it may seem like your getting behind, but the money is there if you HAVE to have it. Knowing you have a bench mark and are about to go below it, makes you hesitate and triple check each transaction you make. Also helps with budgeting if you end up eating out a lot or something else.

There are ways to make money on the side. Learn some new skills and open a part time work at home business from home. Do affiliate marketing. Find a person or company that provides a service and try to market for them. There are a lot of ways to make money on the side. If you look around you will find them.

Closing

The ideas that I have thought up here can be applied to a lot, almost anything. As I think of new ideas, I might come back to this post, and add new examples as I think of how this can relate to other areas of life.