Now is the Time to Start Making Progress on Your Goals

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Last month I wrote about 5 steps to take to help organize your finances and begin the process of getting them turned around. Following the advice in that post is an effective way to get started in building your financial stability. I wrote the post after my friend reached out to me for some help in looking over her expenses and writing out a budget.

I was so proud of her for making that first move, realizing her finances weren’t where she wanted them to be and reaching out for some support. It’s this mindset that I want to address today. Your financial turnaround can’t truly begin until you start to care about your finances. By “care” I mean taking ownership of your situation, including both the good circumstances and difficult circumstances. Everyone has a different background, but we all need to take hold of our finances and desire to improve them. Without this initial mindset shift, you won’t begin to see positive progress made.

Don’t Keep Putting it Off

This post is not meant in an inflammatory way, and certainly isn’t aimed towards those who are truly struggling to make ends meet. The target audience for this post is for those people telling themselves they’ll “figure out their finances eventually” or “invest/pay off debt when I make more money.” I was in this same boat and can relate to this mindset, but starting sooner would have been a massive benefit. I’m hoping this post will be that spark that some people need to get started.

If you’re struggling to make ends meet, drowning it debt, and unable to build up savings, it can be tempting to block out looking at your complete financial picture. In this scenario, your finances probably causes a lot of stress.

Before starting my own money journey, my mindset was that I didn’t make enough money for budgeting to be worth the effort. We determined we’d “spend as little as possible, with a few splurges.” We didn’t start to pay down our debt, or bother to learn about investing strategies because we had no extra cash. My attitude was that I’d learn more about personal finance later, once I started making a consistent income.

The Time is Now

The problem with approaching our finances this way is that eventually we DID start to bring in more money, and we weren’t sure where to begin. I started to devour blogs, podcasts, books, seek out advice from my Dad, and attend Financial Peace at our church. Within a couple months we had established a written budget and gotten our finances on track.

Looking back, I wish I had started this process sooner, so that as soon as our income started to grow we would have begun to make progress immediately. I’ve also found that the more I’ve learned about personal finance, the faster our progress has been. It all started with CARING about our personal finances and improving at managing our money.

Caring about our personal finances helped spark our motivation to improve, which in turn sparked setting financial goals. Setting these goals leads towards making tangible progress in your financial life. Once this has been established you can move to the next important step of knowing how much you’re spending, how much income you’re bringing in, and how much debt you have. Until you make concrete goals, you have no specific target to hit and you’ll be stumbling around merely hoping to make progress.

Progress, Not Perfection

Another one of the excuses that I told myself was that “I need to learn more about personal finance before taking action.” Now learning is a great thing, and I strive to be continuously learning and improving in my life. However, it shouldn’t be an excuse for not taking action. I’ve written before about how perfection isn’t the goal. Your goal should simply be to make progress. By making small, consistent progress over time, you’ll be able to reach your goals much faster than if you wait for the perfect time. You don’t have to be perfect to accomplish big goals. We’ve made mistakes on our journey and encountered obstacles, yet have still been able to make significant progress with our finances. It was all about taking that first step and continuing with our plan even when it became difficult at times.

Getting Over the Mental Hurdle of Getting Started

Now my point isn’t to give the advice of “care more.” That’s not helpful at all. The point I’m making is that your personal finances are much too important to put off until tomorrow and “figure out eventually.” Don’t maintain tunnel vision or bury your head in the sand. As painful as it may be, sit down today and take stock of where you’re currently at.

It doesn’t have to be complicated, but it takes some effort to get organized initially and a few minutes each month for ongoing maintenance. This is time very well spent, leading to more peace in your day-to-day life and more options long-term.

The hardest part is getting over that mental hurdle of getting started. A perfect example of this is my dad helping my college-aged brother set up a Roth IRA. While my brother still may be a few years away from having the money to contribute to this account, when the time does come the biggest hurdle has already been accomplished. Getting enrolled for your 401k plan at work might seem tricky or time consuming initially, but you only have to do it once. After that, the money is contributed each paycheck automatically without you needing to do anything extra.

By taking these initial steps you’re taking ownership of your financial future and setting yourself up for success.

The time is NOW to take hold of your financial future and start making progress on your goals.

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