I had a similar experience trying to coach my friend who reached out to me for help, because we were mutually aware of one another’s financial habits from being roommates several years ago. Her consumer debt was huge and her habits quite bad, which was exacerbated by that fact that she was paid well for a job that always had opportunities to pick up extra paid shifts and had very low expenses due essentially to generous parents and a boyfriend with equally generous parents. She had goals though and wanted to change, and I wanted to help her.

I spent hours preparing an actual PowerPoint presentation of personal finance boot camp, including details of my personal journey and some psychological tips for maintaining frugal choices long term.

This was in November. She was going to give my recommendations a try until the end of December and commit to it fully as a new year’s resolution.

In January, she told me she was working lots of extra shifts and had hit the ground running.

In February, she told me she was taking some time off work due to being burned out from January.

In March, well, the pandemic hit. I haven’t heard an update but since she worked for an airline I’m guessing it’s not good news.

Moral of the story is that you can show someone the door but you can’t make them walk through it.