With full-time jobs, raising kids and the general chaos of living your life, sometimes the Important-But-Not-Urgent things get lost in the shuffle.
That’s why I LOVED it when one of my clients told me about their process…they finally started having regular “money dates” when they scheduled it to happen 30 minutes before Game of Thrones. Habit pairing with something else you do consistently is SO smart. They also made it a “standing meeting” – they would stand with their glasses of wine at the kitchen counter, reviewing their spending Mint, writing notes on their kitchen whiteboard so they would have notes to eyeball and work on throughout the week.
I provide all clients with “action items” for their plans, so they would eyeball that a few times per month and work their way through those implementation items. The first few meetings were hard because they had to become familiar with their spending. I usually say, when you start to track your spending, the first few sessions are pretty much all about answering the question “what the heck is THAT charge?!?” But if you stick with it, you become extremely familiar with your spending habits. These clients told me, once they got over the hump of deciphering their spending habits, it became a much bigger meeting – to talk about vacation plans, home projects, etc.
If you want to take better care of your money, you need to establish a process. I don’t know what the details of your money goals look like, but I DO know that if you establish some space to simply think about it, you’ll make progress. Click To TweetIdentify your goals
When people want to get better at something, they usually define what that looks like. For example, “save more into my 401k” is just about clicking a few things and DONE… whereas “reduce my wasteful spending” is a much bigger, ongoing project.
I compare it to weight loss. Yeah, I want to lose weight, but consistently working the habits for the long term (calorie deficit, healthy eating, meal planning) is much more effective than one dramatic weight loss event. It has to be sustainable.
Create your process
If you want to take better care of your money, you need to establish a process. I don’t know what the details of your money goals look like, but I DO know that if you establish some space to simply think about it, you’ll make progress.
My suggestions:
- Go through your calendar and book out 30 minutes every 7-10 days and label that time FINANCES or whatever.
- Thirty minutes prior to that time, get yourself a special, decadent treat that you can eat/drink while you settle in and work (I get a mocha).
- Use this time to identify some goals and actions. Then, in subsequent weeks, read through the action items and choose ONE thing to work on and do it. 🙂
- Some people like to paste the action items into a Google or Word Doc so they can document notes or follow up.
I swear, if you just make time to address it for a little bit at a time, you will chip away at it!
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