Are you not making financial progress?
If you’re like most people, you’ve got numerous things that you want to achieve with your finances. Maybe it’s buying a house, starting a business, saving up for a honeymoon or wedding, or something else. With all that you’re trying to achieve, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. So how do you do it all?
With Two Simple Steps:
- Prioritizing Your Goals
- Focus On One Thing At A Time
I know some people might be averse to that kind of thinking. They’re proud multi-taskers, and relish being able to accomplish multiple things at the same time. They might be thinking “Not only can I juggle multiple balls at the same time, I enjoy it!”
There’s a problem with that, though, when it comes to your finances (and in other parts of your life, but we’ll stick with finances for now). The problem? By multitasking and trying to achieve, let’s say, 7 different goals at once, you only make a small amount of progress in each area.
Dave Ramsey, a personal finance guru and author of The Total Money Makeover, puts it this way: “When you put 3% in your 401k, $50 extra on the house payment, and $5 extra on the credit card, you dilute your efforts. Because you attack several areas at once, you don’t finish anything you start for a long time.”
And what happens when it takes forever to finish something? You get discouraged. Feel like you’ll never get there. And that makes you more likely to give up and not achieve any of the goals you’ve set for yourself.
But what if you sat down and listed out all the financial goals you wanted to achieve and then prioritized them from most to least important? And most importantly, what if you focused only on one goal at a time?
If you use that strategy, you’d be able to put all of your money and attention into one single goal. You’d see progress much quicker and you’d achieve that goal much quicker. Doing that is so important because our brains love those small wins.
By giving our brains those small wins, it will reinforce that we’re on the right track and make us want to accomplish the next goal so that we can keep getting that amazing feeling of making progress. And not only will you see progress, you’ll also feel more confident that you can do this.
So if you feel like you’re not making financial progress, check yourself to see if you’re trying to do too much all at once. If you are, take a step back and make a list of your financial priorities. Then tackle them, one at a time. Celebrate the progress and the small wins. And remember the words of Dave Ramsey: “You can get anywhere if you simply go one step at a time.”
If you feel like you can do this on your own, awesome! But if you need help prioritizing and implementing your goals, I’d be happy to see if we’re a good fit to work together. You can email me at scott@dev-forthrightfinances.pantheonsite.io, call me at 424-258-4460, or contact me here.