How to ease the complexity and stress of managing your finances and my 5 key steps to help achieve this!
Have you ever wondered why so many people struggle with money all their lives? On the surface of things, it may appear simple; provide for yourself and your family today and try to build enough wealth along the way to a point where you are financially secure enough to support yourself and any dependents when you no longer want, or are unable, to work.
The reality however, for most people is very different indeed. Very few ever achieve true financial security and the majority of the population find that “money worries” rob them of their day-to-day peace of mind (unfortunately, most of their lives).
Have you ever thought that it has to be easier than this? Surely, there must be a simple and practical plan which you can follow without having to turn your life upside down, or forever watching where you spend every Euro.
There are any number of valid reasons why people stress about money and their finances, but typically and in the majority of cases it will be because of one of the following:
Fire-Fighting
Where your income doesn’t meet your expenses, and you are constantly in some form of debt using credit cards and the likes to shift debt from one place to the next, akin to continuously shifting your seat on the deck of the sinking Titanic
Threading Water
A lot of people fall into this category where you are actually surviving financially and paying the bills but really only living from week to week. This again causes untold stress because you can never seem to get ahead enough to create any kind of decent enough fund for a rainy day never mind enough accumulated wealth for an independent future.
Debt Burdened
Even though you are managing your income v expenses, and diligently saving for the future, having any amount of excessive debt/mortgage liabilities is also a major cause of stress in that you feel trapped and with a sense of wasting your resources paying high interest to a lender.
Un-organised
This is where your finances have started to become too complicated and are out of your control. You are financially successful but maybe have too many accounts, don’t have any financial plan and are unsure of how everything is going to pan out.
Whether you’re fire-fighting, threading water, debt burdened or unorganised, most people think that simply having more money will reduce their stress and financial worries. But in reality, from my experiences dealing with successful self-employed professionals and proprietary directors, for many of those people, having more money and resources without having a proper financial plan in place can actually cause additional stress, and usually does.
For most people, just being a little smarter and having a plan (any plan is better than none, a good plan is even better still) can start to deliver almost immediate results, reducing the stresses involved around your financial affairs. The very act of starting to implement a plan in itself is hugely beneficial.
Here are my 5 key steps to help you on the road to easing the stress involved in managing your money and your finances
1) Reduce your debt – Debt is probably the biggest cause of financial stress, so you need to get serious about creating a spending plan (including completing an in-depth expense sheet) which frees up more discretionary money to pay off outstanding debt as quickly as possible, and then target to pay off those debts charging the highest interest first.
2) Choose Financial Independence – Commitment to regularly saving a percentage of available money to create a secure financial future will give you a feeling of freedom and control, not easily attained elsewhere.
3) Stay in the Now – Financial stress often comes from projecting a worse-case scenario into the future. You can often exaggerate a situation in your mind to the point that your heart pounds and sleepless nights are a regular occurrence. Remind yourself that you’re not in the future, you’re in the present and have complete control of your actions today.
4) Stay Positive & Healthy – “Your health is your wealth” is a statement of fact which I feel can never be overstated. If you worry to the point of getting sick, who’ll bring home the bacon then? Exercise every day, get fit, play a round of golf, enjoy life, have a hobby. And probably most importantly, be grateful for what you have, don’t bother envying the “Jones”, they have their own worries.
5) Get Financial Help – Speaking and engaging with an experienced Financial Planner can help you see options and solutions to your financial problems which you might well be overlooking. A Certified Financial Planner CFP® will help you to get back on track so you feel more in control and optimistic about your future.
Contact us today to arrange your free Discovery Meeting consultation