If you are ready to take control of your personal finances, we can help guide you through the process. Through our simple 5 step process, you will learn how to manage your money more efficiently & intentionally. In doing so, you will be able to prioritize what matters most to you & achieve financial peace of mind.
1) Set a Vision & Goals
Start with the end in mind. Before you begin the journey to master your finances, you need a clear vision of what you want. If you want to get somewhere you’ve never been, you enter the directions in a GPS & it will guide you to your destination. If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll likely end up wandering or get lost along the way. Set goals that align with your vision & allow them to guide your path.
2) Track Expenses
If you can track it, you can manage it. The next step to manage your personal finances is to track your revenues & expenses. Websites such as Mint & Personal Capital make it easy to create a budget, track your net worth, & see your spending habits. Once you start seeing where you’re money is going, you can begin to steer your finances in the right direction.
3) Save
According to a survey, only 57% of respondents had less than $1,000 in a savings account & even less, 39%, had no savings at all. If you are one of these Americans & you are serious about getting out of debt or you are just tired of living paycheck–to–paycheck, it’s time to make a change. Make it a goal to save $1,000 in an emergency fund. Every month set aside at least 10% of your net income into this fund until you reach this goal. If this doesn’t seem possible, revisit your priorities & make a change.
4) Set Habits
The key to success in life is to build habits that stick & avoid those that kill productivity. As creatures of habit, it can be easy to fall into any type of habit. The important thing to remember is to make good habits easy to do by creating fewer steps & to add more steps to bad habits that we would like to avoid. We can control our own environment by optimizing our day to fit our desired outcomes. If you hate flossing, put your dental floss right next to your toothbrush to remind your brain to do it. It’s already there, might as well do it. Out of sight, out of mind. If you want to stop eating junk food but all you do is buy junk food & set it on the table for easy access, you’re likely going to eat that junk food. It’s up to you to design & control your own environment. Habits are more powerful than willpower.
5) Invest
An investment is an instrument that either generates income or appreciates in value over time. An expense, on the other hand, generally does not create any monetary returns & has a short-term purpose. The Time Value of Money is the concept that “money available at the present time is worth more than the identical sum in the future due to its potential earning capacity.” In essence, money has the power to increase in value over time due to compounding interest. Compounding interest means that as your principal investment earns money (interest) over time, it is added back to the principal amount which increases its earning potential over its lifetime. This is essentially how banks, private lenders, & investors make money. Use this concept to your advantage & start making your money work for you.