Hooray! By reading this article, you have just taken the first step to financial success. One thing to keep in mind is that you will now have to be ready to assess your attitudes about money, accept responsibility about your eventual financial success and believe that you will and can change the way you have been making financial decisions. The benefits of this change in attitude and behaviour will benefit you tremendously as you also assess your financial situation.
Today is the first day of the rest of your life. Cliché, I know, but true. Remember when you decided to diet and exercise? I bet it was not easy to stick to this resolution. Well, the same can be said about taking charge of your financial health. But we must remember that our consistency and resoluteness will replace the doom and gloom in our financial outlook with boom and bloom.
The building blocks to financial well-being are made of focus, control and action.
Focus requires you to zero in on what you can control. This is simply how you spend your resources – money and time. Focusing allows you to analyse issues sinking you deeper in the financial sink hole. Eliminating unnecessary purchases, eating home cooked meals rather than ordering in restaurants, spending your time being productive rather than wasteful are just but a few of the expenses you may need to re-evaluate their importance.
Next you need to understand your current financial position. Who do you owe? Who owes you? Make sure you write them down. Some people really struggle with this self-financial assessment. It may cause others anxiety as you discover that you may have been living a financially unsustainable life. As you tally up your debt, you will need to get a hold of the crippling fear of the daunting financial status and turn that fear to focus.
This step is essential for creating a better financial future. For many of us, assessing our current situation is much more than just adding up the numbers. It brings up intense feelings of fear, shame, anxiety, regret, anger and so much more. Sound familiar?
If it does, then you may need to talk with a financial coach or get trained on money. These coaches and advisors will help you to understand what you are going through and what you are up against, and will be able to provide objective advice and help you find solutions.
The financial coach will help you get to the root cause of your money attitudes and behaviours so that you can make good financial decisions. A coach can help you unearth what drives your financial decisions, so you can create a healthier attitude that leads to better money habits. Once you have understood your money habits and attitudes and assessed your financial situation then you are ready to set yourself up for success.
As Benjamin Franklin warned, “He that won’t be counselled, can’t be helped.”
Next time we look into ‘Set yourself up for success’.
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Written by;
Irene Koskei
Financial Consultant and Trainer
