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Recently, I received a balance transfer offer from Bank of America for one of my cards that has a $0 balance. The offer is for 5.9% fixed for the life of the loan.

At first, the balance transfer small print looked like the usual–3% of the balance transfered with a minimum of $10. But it was called a Cash Advance Fee, not a balance transfer fee. Then I noticed some new fine print. Here’s what it says:

"This fee will post to your account as a cash advance fee and receive the Standard cash advance rate. "

I called BofA and asked what that rate is. The answer: 24%. And, of course, payments are applied to the lowest rate part of the loan first.

Let’s assume you transfer $5,000 with this offer. The fee will be $120 and the interest on that $120 will be $28.80 for a year. If you take a year to pay off the loan, you’ll pay that $28.80 plus the 5.9% interest,  plus the 3%. At the end of a year, you will have paid around 9% interest.

So would this be a good offer. Only if you are paying more than 9% now on the $5,000 you are transferring.

Any time anything unexpected happens financially, it’s a good idea to be hyperaware of your feelings. This can give you great insight into the dynmaics behind your finances.

For those of you in the US, when your tax rebate arrives, take a moment to tune into the kinesthetic experience in your body. A number of possibilities come to mind. You may:

1. Feel eelated. Like a kid who just  got a birthday gift and your immediate reaction will be to want to spend it.
2. Feel initially elated, then sad because it isn’t enough to get all of the things you want or because you know you have to use it to pay for bare necessities.
3. Have a feeling that someone cares about you.
4. Be aware of a sense of resolve that you will use the rebate, or part of it at the very least, to pay off some of your obligations. You decide that this is the moment that you are going to change your habitual financial behaviors.

Whatever you are feeling is most likely to be something you have felt in the past and your habitual behaviors will follow suit. This is the perfect time to be aware of the feelings, sit with them for a while, do some deep breathing, then do something that you wouldn’t normally do. Like doing nothing with the money for a week, then making a decision as to what to do with it.

One of the keys to moving to a new financial position is to change your behaviorss. This is a great time to do this.

If you are outside of the US, imagine that you are getting a check for the equivalent of $600. How would you respond?

If you’ve been working and playing hard, keeping track of your money is probably not something you look forward to doing. But the simple act of writing down what you spend and earn can help you move to a better financial position.

Money, like people, goes to those who love and take care of it. And what money likes best is to be counted. Financial Vagueness Syndrome, which many people suffer from, does not encourage cash flow.

Taking care of your money stimulates feelings of empowerment as well as increased self-esteem and self-trust. Avoiding the task does the opposite and often enhances feelings of shame.

If you’d like to improve your cash flow and can see the benefit of paying attention to your numbers, it can take a while to build up a habit. The decision you have to make is to start and to do something with your money as many days during the week as possible. Five minutes a day is often enough to keep things up to date.

On ProsperityPlace.com, you can download a PDF file with instructions for Basic Money Management.

My book Build Your Money Muscles also has instructions and can help you work through the shame that may be coming up when you think about your financial situation. That shame can be what is holding you back.