Financial Management is one of those life skills that we aren't taught well enough in school. Being able to live a comfortable life requires some active participation on our part to make sure we are making the most out of the money we have. In this course we cover topics about understanding your happiness as it relates to financial decisions, and then using that understanding to create a plan that you can follow successfully to grow wealth and long term happiness.
In the first half of this course I interview my husband, Mark, a financial wellness coach and writer, about why happiness matters for financial success. In the second half, Mark walks through evaluating your financial position and making a plan to put your money to work.
This is meant to be a practical course for people of all levels of financial literacy, though some parts may come easier to you than others. You do not need to know financial terms or how to use a spreadsheet, but this course will be equally helpful as a refresher for those who already have more experience managing their finances.
This class is a part of my series called Organizing Your Life, where I cover various topics including tools you can use to manage your to do lists, how to manage your time, and how to more efficiently use everyday tools like Google Chrome. You can check out my other classes by clicking on those links from my profile.
You can also check out Mark's writing on Financial Wellness by subscribing to his free email updates on the topic. He provides his readers with self-lead exercises to help them improve their financial life.
In this course, we discuss how to start a financial plan. This project will help you accelerate your financial wellness by having you evaluate your own decision making and writing down your plan.
As I mentioned in the course, I prefer using a spreadsheet to track my finances, but stick with something you are comfortable with for now. Once you've formed the habit you can experiment with different trackers.
First, start by asking yourself these questions (discussed in part 1) and write down your answers.
What makes you happy in the long term?
- Are you spending your money on things that bring you long term happiness?
- How can you spend less money on things that don't directly contribute to that happiness?
Are you spending your time on things that bring you long term happiness?
- What are some positive ways that you've spent your time to bring you happiness?
- What are some ways have you spent time that did not lead to long term happiness?
- How can you spend time in the future to better align?
Second, make your plan (discussed in part 2).
- Take 1 minute to write down all of the accounts you think you have without getting stuck in the details (ex: "Bank of America checking, AmEx credit card, E-Trade, etc").
- Now use that list as your to-do list, and go find the detailed information for each of these accounts. Include where the account is (ex: "Bank of America"), how much is in it or owed, and if it is debt include the monthly payment and interest rate. If you forgot about other accounts that you missed in step 1, feel free to add them now.
- Evaluate all of your accounts against the steps of financial management (discussed in part 2).
- Do you have an emergency buffer?
- How are you going to pay off high interest debt?
- Do you have an emergency fund?
- Are you maximizing your tax benefit accounts?
Once you've finished your plan, post 1 change you'll make in your life today to start working towards your financial goals.
Also, this exercise is a lot like the exercises I post in my writing that I sends by email to my readers. If you're interested in doing exercises like this regularly to increase you're wealth and financial health, then subscribe to the email at: www.joiningprosperity.com/subscribe
