Getting Your Financial House in Order
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Handling money is the one thing in life that no one can avoid, but that almost everyone worries about. Money is a cause of serious stress for many Americans – it’s estimated that 63% currently live pay check to pay check, and many don’t have a will in place. The good news is, it’s not as difficult to get your affairs in order as you might think. Here are five strategies you can use to get organized and start reducing your money-related stress today:
Implement a working home budget
If you want to gain control of your finances, you have to have a working home budget. This isn’t something you can simply set up and then forget about – you must consistently monitor and then adjust it when life changes happen, such as when your family grows, you move home or your kids go to college. Take the time to identify and then carefully track your core, irregular and discretionary expenses and your budget will be a powerful tool to help you.
Create reserves for both your home and business life
Cash reserves are critical to success in your home and business life. First of all, start a disaster fund so that, if the unexpected happens, you don’t have to worry. Next, calculate what it costs to operate your home life and set up a safety net of one month’s reserves. Do the same for your business and keep building those reserves until you have at least three months’ worth. Lastly, start working on putting cash aside so you can grow and invest it in a fund.
Get insurance
Will Rogers once said, “A man who dies without adequate life insurance should have to come back and see the mess he created.” If you don’t have enough insurance in place, the consequences can be extremely serious for you, your family and your business. Make sure you prioritize the three most important categories: health insurance, life insurance and insurance for loss of income.
Start investing
Once you have your working budget, reserves and insurances in place, it’s time to start investing. Real estate is a great way to make a fortune, but you should also consider stocks and shares and other streams of income such as asset appreciation, dividend income, interest, royalties and referral fees.
Organize legacy documents
According to statistics, the majority of Americans don’t have a will. This can be easily remedied by having an attorney draw up a basic document, or even by tackling it yourself online. It’s also important to consider asset instruction, both physical and digital, and end of life instruction. Setting out what you have, what you want and how you want everything to be handled gives great peace of mind not only to you, but to your loved ones too. People often leave getting their house in order until the last minute. The problem is, no one knows the date, time or hour of their last minute, so you need to start getting control of your finances today. To learn more, listen to the latest episode of “It’s a Good Life”.
