I’m going to go ahead and guess that my blog isn’t your first step into personal finance. I’m also going to assume that wherever you are with your money, you’re trying to get to the next level.
In this community, we’re all coming from different places. And depending on where that place may be, we’re all on some sort of journey to make our finances better.
You may be on the Dave Ramsey Baby Steps and working your debt snowball. You may be a Boglehead whose goal is low cost index fund investing. You may be working on buying more real estate so that you can maximize your passive income.
But no matter where you are on your financial journey, there’s a secret journey that we’re also on. That’s our journey of understanding. Your journey of understanding isn’t what you’re doing with your money, it’s your understanding of the process you should be taking with it.
You could be doing an amazing job of handling your finances, but be completely in the dark about what your next money move should be. You could also be covered in debt, but have a solid game plan for getting out, and enjoying life while you work your plan.
Where are you on your journey of understanding?
The Journey
Learning
We all start with learning. This is in the very beginning where something has made you want to start learning about money.
Maybe after college, you’ve realized that it’s time to do something about your student loan debt.
Maybe you’re frustrated because you can’t seem to be able to make your money stretch to your next payday.
Learning is all figuring out the smart way to manage money. It’s understanding how it works and what you need to be doing with it.
Implementing
In implementing, it’s time to put what you’ve learned into practice. It’s time to create the budget and start following it. It’s time to set up those savings and investment accounts. It’s time to sit down and start figuring out how you’re going to work the debt snowball.
In implementing, you know what you should be doing, now it’s time to start actually doing it. Taking the first step can be hard. Switching from what you should do to actually making it happen can be a challenge.
Committing
In committing, it’s all about the real work of sticking with it. Here, you may realize that what seemed like a really easy plan, is not so easy.
This is where you’ll need to build stronger habits in your budgeting and saving. But it’s also about building the important habits outside of money that you need to stick to your budget.
It’s where the phycology of money behavior is more important than what you’ve decided to do with your money.
Living the Good Life and Earning More
You’ve done your homework and you’ve spent time learning how money works. In implementing, you made a plan and put it in motion. In committing, you learned how to actually live with that plan and make real progress on your money goals.
Now, it’s time to focus on the big picture.
Now that you’re making real progress with your money, it’s time to focus your efforts on the things in life that bring real fulfillment. Money can buy things and experiences that make you happy, but it won’t keep you fulfilled if you aren’t focusing on the things that really matter.
If you’re someone who is looking to earn more to increase your lifestyle, it’s in this last step that you’ll do it. Now that you have a plan for your money and are executing, you know that an increase in your income will actually make a difference to your bottom line.
Where do you fall?
Where do you find yourself in these four steps?
Where are you in your journey of money understanding? Where are you coming from and where are you hoping to go? What have you tried before and what’s working really well?
Would you do me a favor? I’ve created a really short survey that would mean a lot to me if you took it. It’s only 3 questions long but will really help me decide what I write and create this year. You can find it here.
Jared
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