Spending Plan - Making it work

Well, how does it feel? Are you making headway? Are you staying on budget (or at least near budget), or has the urgency of everyday life gotten in the way of working towards your future?

It is OK if you didn’t track every expense or if you swayed from your goals as long as you made improvement. Our society has become influenced by the “gotta have it now” instant gratification mentality. Many of us have a tendency to give up if we don’t see immediate results. Guess what… responsible financial management and personal financial freedom is a life-long pursuit, not an overnight fix.

So, if you stayed on track and made progress… good for you! There will still be challenges, but you have proven that you can do it. If it didn’t work out exactly like you wanted, then make sure your goals and expectations are reasonable and make a resolution to get back on track.

The most important goal in personal financial management is that you are moving forward everyday. Some days will be big gains and some days will be little gains. Every positive step forward is valuable because you will most likely have setbacks. Of course the setbacks are usually bigger than the gains. So, if you pile up enough gains the setbacks will not hurt as much.

I have not shared any revolutionary advice with you. It is all common sense and simple if we apply the basic principles of personal financial management. However, we all know life isn’t simple! So, my best advice is to make sure your goals are clear, reasonable, and that you review them regularly. Make sure that you have a plan to reach your goals that fits with your personality and lifestyle. Take the time to regularly evaluate your progress and keep making the tough choices that will help you reach your goals. Simply do this and the rest will take care of itself!

I promised that I would share some resources with you and there are a variety of tools to help you reach your goals. Many of the free personal financial tools were mentioned in the second in this series of blogs called Spending Plan – Planning to Action. There are a variety of other choices for you to consider. These include your local Consumer Credit Counseling Office, many local churches have financial studies developed both locally and nationally, for profit and not-for-profit financial counseling firms, and the number of books on personal financial planning is endless. In fact, I was going to provide you some actual links, but a simple Google search for “personal financial counseling” turned up 14.4 million sites! So, I will leave the research up to you.

Finally, I just want to remind you that your credit union is here to help. While our staff members are not personal financial counselors and they are not able to do your budget for you, their experience can be helpful in setting you on the right path. With our Rogue Solutions and Building Hope Programs we have served as a stop gap of information and advice for members with critical financial issues. So, if you are having difficulty staying on track with your plan sit down with one of our Member Service Representatives they can probably give you the advice and encouragement to take that first step in building your personal financial freedom!