TAKE CHARGE OF YOUR FINANCES

A lot of people battle daily with their finances. There is always a cry of not making enough money or not earning enough money. Truth is that money money will not solve the problem of taking charge of your finances.

 The first step to taking charge of your finances is to ascertain at all times your expense level. like Stephen Covey, the author of The 7 habits of Highly Effective People will say, Begin with the End in mind. As you ready to take charge of your finances? If yes, pick up a pen and paper, begin to write down what you spend your money on. No matter how little it might appear write it down. Am sure you should be through with your expense list were every thing spend money on has been captured. Pick up your calculator and add up the figures. The sum total is what you spend daily, weekly or monthly. This is beginning with the end in mind.

The second step is take note your income. How do you get your income? Daily, weekly or monthly? This is the focus of most individuals without putting into perspective the spending side of it. Every thing in life has two ends which I will simply refer to as give and take. If you lay so much emphasis on what you get and play down on what you spend, there is a problem. You must find a balance between the two for your to be in total control.

The third step is doing a mindset checkup on your spending habit. Are you an impulse spender? Do you budget before spending? Do you spend because your friends are spending? There is an urgent need for you to do this all important  checkup just the same way you will take your health checkup very important. No level of effort put in will create a change until the mind is changed.

The fourth step is the elimination stage. I strongly believe you have checked your mindset and you are ready to take the necessary action to eliminate areas of waste. You can not stop spending but the question is what do you spend your money on? There are necessary, important and urgent areas of need. The necessary are the basic things we need to survive ( these are like fixed cost) while important and urgent are our daily decisions we need to make on a needs basis (you can see them as running cost.) Go back to your expense list you draw at the beginning, how do you see the list now after your mindset checkup? Am very positive you can pick out expenses that are taking you away from your destination. Begin your elimination process and begin to take charge of your financial life.