VIA: Newsone.com
We’ve been hitting up the Spendaholic’s Guide to Managing your Money here on NewsOne.com. In part I of the series, we started the conversation regarding how to budget your money. I am currently shooting a financial planning series for MSNBC, so this topic is heavy on my mind these days. One thing you have to understand is that you don’t have to be perfect or completely disciplined when it comes to learning how to get ahead financially. The reason I refer to the recovering spendaholic is because I am a recovering spendaholic myself. I’ve always loved spending money and I never stopped, even as I started to put together a little dough. The difference, however, is that I learned the art of moderation, and I also took baby steps to overcome my own weaknesses, which were keeping me from reaching my personal objectives. It’s a day-to-day process, and baby steps are the way to go. So, I am not speaking on this as a finance professor, I am speaking to you as someone who understands what it feels like to have serious financial weaknesses. I do believe, however, that if you want something bad enough, you will be willing to sacrifice in order to get it.
In part II, we’ll dig a little deeper into two specific steps you can take to start reaching your financial goals:
1) Create a list of financial goals for yourself and your family
- Your goals should be specific, not general. For example, a bad goal is “I want to save more money”. A good one is “I want to save $5,000 by the end of the year.” The more precise you are with your goal, the easier it is to see the vision that lies in front of you.
