David Bach said it best "you don't need more money, you need new habits." As a Financial Coach, my job is to teach my clients how to manage the money they are making. A lot of people think that a promotion will eliminate their money problems; however, that is typically not true. In fact, the average person falls into a category called "make more, spend more." The make more, spend more club is alive and well in America today. If a person has a spending problem they will always come up short at the end of month. One of my money rules is that "you can't out earn bad spending habits."
FINANCIAL WEEDS
Someone told me one day "I make six figures but it does not feel like it." Here is the truth about six figures it will never feel like you are making six figures if you are not managing your money. "Whatever you mismanage, you will lose"-Myles Monroe
Your money is not exempt from that statement. One day I took a look at my small garden and I noticed that I had a fair amount of weeds in there. I was busy working and I never took the time to audit the condition of my garden until it was too late. I had some flowers but I had plenty of weeds (which are obviously not good for my garden). Often times we have financial weeds in our financial garden and we do not notice them until it's too late. Weeds steal the nutrients, sunlight, and water from our plants. Therefore, they have to go. What financial weeds are in your garden? Let me tell you a secret, if you pull up those financial weeds by the root, your financial garden will flourish.
Examples of Financial Weeds
Not budgeting your money
Student Loans
Car payments
Credit Card Debt
Over draft protection (it's not protection for you, it's really additional profits for the bank)
Poverty Mindset (Ex: you want to look rich instead of actually being rich)
Spending too much money on restaurants ( the average American family spends $3,000 a year on restaurants)
Not having the ability to tell people "no" (emotions and money don't mix)
I have personally experienced the highs and lows of managing my money and mismanaging my money. The beauty of diligent money management is that your money will go much further than you could ever imagine simply because you are telling your money where to go.
Here are some actionable steps for you:
Identify your financial why (for example, you want to provide for your family)
Budget your money monthly (do a zero-based budget)
Live below your means
Get out of debt (you will break the cycle of living check to check)
Take care. God bless."Change your mindset, grow your money."