Do you want more control of your money? If so, you’re not alone. 
In fact, it’s one of the Top 10 New Year’s resolutions made every year. Some examples of these resolutions were to:
- Take Control of Finances
- Pay off Debt
- Save Money
- Stick to a Budget
If you made any of these New Year’s resolution, the good news is you have plenty of time to get it done.
Here are a few steps you can take to make it happen:
Step 1: Make the Decision
The first step is to make the decision. As a financial coach, I find that real change comes from — the inside out. This means you have to want to do it. After all, in order to accomplish anything in life you must have the desire to do so.
Step 2: Set your Goals
Now that you’ve made the decision, the next step is to set your goals. Creating goals requires you to think through the actions needed to reach your objective (e.g. pay off your debt). Success comes when you keep your goals out in front of you and stay focused on achieving them.
A few goal setting tips:
- Write goals down
- Clearly define each goal
- Be realistic
- Set a target date to achieve each goal
- Track your progress and review your goals periodically (update – if needed)
Step 3: Take Action
The last step is to take action. You must be willing to do what it takes to reach your goals. Taking action is crucial to achieve success. Any desire without action is simply a wish.
Building your personal finance knowledge is essential. It is through knowledge that we are able to reshape our thinking and solve the real problem.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
– Albert Einstein
Gaining knowledge and applying it through action is the key to your success. It is kind of like learning to ride a bike. You can sit and watch someone show you how to ride a bike all day long, but observation alone — does not magically turn you into a bike rider. You must get on the bike and put what you learned into action to ride.
Reading personal finance books, magazines, articles and blogs will help you build more knowledge. Personal finance websites, radio and TV shows may also be helpful. It is my hope that this free personal finance blog is useful in building your knowledge and gives you some motivation to take action. 🙂
I wish you all the best in reaching your goals!
What has worked for you? Share your thoughts and experiences using the comments.
Photo: stopnlook
I like the riding the bike analogy…. When I decided to save more I took my statements and categorized how I spent my money. I made a plan to drastically reduce spending in areas which were unnecessary and that were not part of my goals. Now I have more money in savings and I have segregated my savings by goals (near term- i.e. vacation fund, long term – i.e. retirement) and also have the ability to have money for unforeseen major expenditures (car repairs). You definitely have to have a plan and execute the plan on a daily basis.
Monica, thanks for sharing your experience. Glad to hear that you are achieving your goals! Your approach is helpful for those who want to save more money.
Thank you for your advices on how to gain control of my money. I think I can do step 1 and 2. But, I find hard to do step 3: Take Action. In step 3 you mentioned a “need of building personal finance knowledge”. I don’t know who to do that. Can you give me more details about it? Is there any book I can read about building personal finance knowledge?. Thank you in advance for your help and assistance.
Hi Cecilia, I will be happy to provide you more details on how you can build your personal finance knowledge. You can seek out mentors who demonstrate strong money management skills, read personal finance books and blogs to learn more. A few books I would recommend are Rich Dad, Poor Dad, The Courage to Be Rich and The Total Money Makeover. I hope to have my personal finance book out real soon. Best wishes on achieving your goals!
I just had to read this blog entry. One of my goals for this year is to start getting out of debt. I have graduate school loans and a few other bills that, I’m a little embarrassed to say, I totally ignored while I was in graduate school. I’m serious. I wouldn’t even open the bill, just put it in the shredder pile. I would also do the ‘Sheree no en casa’ when creditors called my cell phone! Now that I’ve graduated and started working, I want to start taking care of the debt I have to build my credit score up and start building wealth to do the things I’m interested in like seeing the world! I want to thank you for putting this site together, Kembala. This is my first time on it, and I’ve already learned tons! I’ll be in touch for some coaching too! 😉
Thanks for visiting our site Sheree! I appreciate the positive feedback. I wish you the best in reaching your goals and look forward to hearing from you soon. 🙂