What does it mean to be Financially Healthy?
If you think you are Financially Healthy, I have a challenge for you! Take estimates of what you THINK you spend every month and put it into the Grade My Budget application. I think you will quickly realize that you spend WAY more than you think you do (see Where did all our money go blog?), and that it is having a drastic impact on your Financial Fitness. By reading through a few of my other blogs, you already know that most people underestimate their expenses in several areas.
Being Financially Healthy means something different to each individual, couple, or employer. We all have different needs, wants, and dreams. This diversity in desired outcomes stresses the importance of working with a Financial Coach who offers personalized solutions to your money concerns. We all have a certain level of income, and with that income we need to be able to do several things with it and hopefully have some left over!
“In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish man devours all that he has” – Proverbs 21:20. If we spend 100% of our net monthly income (paycheck amounts) then we will have nothing left over for the proverbial rainy day. This is where most people get into issues with credit cards, store specific credit cards (which are absolutely horrible), boat/RV loans, buying too much house, etc. People focus too much on what monthly payments are, instead of focusing on the long term damage they are doing to themselves. Having a Financial Coach can help ensure you can get to a point where you live on less than you make, you are saving money for an emergency, and you can start to invest for your retirement.
Financial Health has a broad spectrum. It is my job to understand what your ideal level of Financial Health would be, and ask if you are willing to put in the effort to achieve that goal. Some people perform best under pressure and are fine having $500 in a checking account; others want to feel overly-secure and have $10,000 in savings in case something unexpected happens. If you find yourself using a credit card in an emergency chances are you may have inadequate financial health. Since using someone else’s money is far easier than using our own funds, we quickly begin a debt spiral that is very hard to get out of and tends to linger for decades if left unaddressed.
As a Financial Coach, I want to understand what you struggle with each month, and we need to come up with a plan that works for you! Being Financially Healthy means you have a healthy relationship with your money, and you understand how your spending impacts your Financial Future. We have to work on financial muscles as much as you would work on your biceps or quads at the gym when working on your physical fitness. We have to be careful not to tear “financial muscles” and ensure we get the correct “financial vitamins and nutrients” as well as “financial rest”.
I work on developing a plan that works for you and gets you to your Financial Fitness goal as quickly and safely as we can. As with the gym analogy, the majority of the actual work will be done by you, and that is why it is critical that you see the path forward and the steps to get there! We all need help sometimes, and as a Financial Coach I am offering my services/experiences to you because I want to see you succeed! As we all know, there is no magic or miracle that will allow us to reach our desired level of Financial Fitness; it will take a lot of hard work and tough conversations to get there. However, when you finally reach that level you will be overcome with a sense of pride and joy, and I cannot wait to see you achieve your desired results!
“If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else.” – Lawrence J. Peter
“The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never score.” – B. Copeland
