For a lot of us, just hearing the phrase "Personal Finance" or "Money Management" is enough to make us run for the hills. Unfortunately, most personal finance blogs and books make PF much more complicated than it should be. Sure, knowing how to manage your money is crucial if you want to live a less stressful life. But financial jargon makes PF so intimidating that most of us give up trying to understand it.
And that explains why so many of us have thousands of dollars in credit card debt, don't even have $500 saved up for the rainy day, fall behind on our mortgage and other loans, living paycheck to paycheck... But managing your money doesn't have to be complicated. What finally broke it down for me and helped me to truly understand (for the first time) what this all means, was a simple math equation.
EARN MORE + SPEND LESS + SAVE MORE = BETTER FINANCIAL LIFE
Make more than you spend. Spend less than you make. Save as much as you can. Of course, that's easier said than done!
To achieve all of that, you need a plan...
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Whether your goal is to become debt free, increase your overall net worth, retire early, pay off credit cards or college loans, or simply to manage your money better, you need a plan of action. Here is one that makes it extremely easy to get started:
1. Take inventory
To manage your money better, the first thing you need to do is take inventory. You have to know what you've got - how much you make, how much you save, how much debt you have, etc. Once you have an overall picture of your financial life (i.e, how much money and where it comes from vs how much money and where it goes to) you can then start making changes. You can document everything on a piece of paper, or use a digital spreadsheet or even your favorite app.
2. Set up goals
Once you knew what you're dealing with, you can set up goals. These goals can be short (pay off a small credit card debt), medium (save $2000 for a car down payment) or long-term (become debt free). For beginners, setting up small, attainable goals is recommend. Why? Because accomplishing short term, small goals, are easier. They can give you a boost of confidence and motivate you to keep going. Use small goals as stepping stones for reaching bigger goals.
3. Create a plan
The "plan" is your blueprint, your "how-to", for reaching your goals. For example, for the "save $2000 for a car down payment" goal, you have to save $200 a month for 10 months. But with your current income & expenses it's not possible. So you figure you have to create an extra source of income - a part-time job, a side gig. That becomes your specific plan for achieving that specific goal. Now go through every goal you set up & create a detailed, step by step plan for each one.
4. Take action
You can plan until the cows come home, but if you don't put them into action, your goals are just that... goals! You took inventory, created goals, and figured out what you need to do to achieve your goals. Now it's time to do the work. Following our example, you'd need to put $200 a month, for 10 months, aside for that car down payment. This has to be done no matter what - whether you have to start a side hustle, cut down on your entertainment expenses or give up daily Starbucks coffee.
5. Monitor & adapt
Life is crazy. Things don't always go as planned. Things can and will go wrong - the air conditioning unit stops working, the car breaks down, you get sick, the roof starts leaking - that's life. Things happen! You can either let it ruin your plan and goals, or you can do the right thing for your financial life. Which is to reassess your situation and make necessary adjustments so you can keep going. Needless to say, if you want to reach your financial goals, you need the second choice.
That's what personal finance at its core is all about. Sure, as with everything else, the devil is in the detail. But don't let the details bog you down. That's why you have goals and plans for each one. Treat every obstacle as an opportunity for reaching another goal. Once you get away from all the big words and industry jargon, personal finance becomes easy to understand. And as you can see, the common theme here is making and saving more money.
Just how do you make and save more money?
That's the part we're going to help you with.
There are literally hundreds of ways to earn and save more money. We'll do our best to find and share all of 'em - from the traditional tried-and-true to the unusual and borderline crazy, and everything in between.
Our goal is to help you make and save more money!
