Hey! We’ve all been there! It’s Sunday evening, the kids are in bed, tomorrow is a brand new week and we promised ourselves that THIS IS THE WEEK WE ARE GOING TO – whatever it is you are trying to implement in your life, for you (since you are here!) it might be budgeting, for me is sticking to an exercise plan! Please don’t judge me, I’m not judging you ;)! That’s why i put together these 5 things we shouldn’t ignore when starting a budget, or in my case, an exercising plan! Ready? Let’s do this!
1 Ignoring the small stuff
Yes! You read that right! You might think that those $10 you spend on that coffee every other day is not the reason you are not winning in this personal finance game but, just so you know, $10x(3 days a week)=$120/month = $1440/year, NOT counting the 5th week on the months it happens! Have I got your attention now? I’m just wondering, what would you do if you got handed $1440 in cash right now?
2 Focus only on Big and Long term Goals
You should definitely have big, scary goals (after all, someone said if your goals don’t scare you, it’s because they aren’t big enough… that might have been about dreams, but you get the gist of it, right?! But one of the things you shouldn’t ignore when you start budgeting is to have small, quick achievable goals. Yes, some might call it almost instant gratification but if all you have is delayed gratification, it’s more probable that you won’t stick to those long term and big goals. You see, we need to know “we gettin’ some” and fast! It’s not all your fault, I mean we have amazon for goodness sake! Because waiting ’til the morning to go to the store is just too long for us to wait! So, by creating smaller goals we can see the progress faster and we get to reward ourselves for staying on track!
3 Accountability
Whatever you do, don’t skip this step! It’s important that we keep ourselves accountable. And accountability can come from a lot of different places and/or people. If you are married or live in a committed relationship, it might come from your partner, wife or husband. You can get a Money Coach to help you navigate the first few months, these are the hardest!!! You can keep a Money Journal like this one) and track your progress. Be sure to set aside time each week, about 30 minutes, and go over your financial plans! This is a good way to stay accountable!
4 Not acknowledging your Progress
It doesn’t matter if you moved 50 steps in your progress scale or 5! You moved and that’s always a good thing. It’s not always the way we want but the most important thing is to keep going! So even when you make the slightest progress, give yourself a pat in the back! You’ve deserved it! (this is also why accountability is so important, to keep track of the progress, no matter how small, and to have someone tell you that you are doing great! (We are vain creatures and we like to be told we are doing great!)
5 Getting back up and moving
Yes, you had good intentions but life happened and you didn’t meet your goals… Oh well!, it’s time to get up and keep moving! And the last of the things you shouldn’t ignore when you start budgeting is to get going when you mess up! Just remember, last year, taking care of your personal finances wasn’t even in your radar and look at you go now! Be proud of that, be grateful and give yourself some grace if you get off track! BUT keep going! Don’t give up because that’s the worst thing you can do… You haven’t come this far to just come this far! You know too much to give up now!
To wrap this up, it’s not going to be easy, but it’s going to be worth it! At least that’s what I'(m telling myself about the exercising because I know that’s true to Budgeting! I got into budgeting because I had too! There was nowhere else I could turn to… but boy am I glad I did it!
Let me know how it works for you!
