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7 Steps to Financial Wellness

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Here’s the big secret to taking control of your finances. Ready? Drumroll please...get organized. Yep, that’s it. If you’re wondering if this applies to you, the answer is yes! Getting organized is the first step for everyone in any situation. You can’t manage what isn’t measured. 

Why is getting organized so important?

  • To take action and make progress, you need a full, accurate, comprehensive, thorough, holistic (I could keep going here, but you see the trend) understanding of your current financial being

  • Everyone wants to know how much they should be saving or how much they should be investing. Well the answer is, it depends on your personal situation. It depends on how much you’re making and how much your expenses are. You may find the 50/30/20 rule to be helpful, but limiting needs to 50% of your income simply isn’t practical if you live in New York City and spend thousands a month on rent alone.

  • Getting financially organized can alleviate a lot of the stress and uncertainty that you may feel around your life

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If you’ve been looking for 7 easy steps you can take to achieve financial wellness, here they are! 

  1. Track your income and expenses

  2. Save up for an emergency fund

  3. Save for retirement

  4. Pay off debt

  5. Invest responsibly

  6. Plan for your life goals (buying a house, starting a company, starting a family, saving for a big trip)

  7. Make sure you’re covered insurance-wise

We know it’s a lot, so we recommend breaking it down into bite-sized pieces and taking it a little bit at a time. Some of these things may take longer and be less fun than other items, but each is an important step on the way to achieving financial wellness where you’ll feel really good about yourself and where you are at. Set aside some time each week to start diving in and getting organized. Better yet, schedule a 15 minute money party with yourself or with friends and make it fun and positive. If you do it with a group of your friends you can hold each other accountable. Also, by working on our money issues together we can fight the taboo of talking about money. Yaaaas transparency!