Sadly enough, most schools for children don’t teach basic money-handling skills outside of arithmetic equations at best. So until state requirements start getting wise and actually force educators to teach youth how to at least manage basic checking and savings accounts, credit cards, installment loans, mortgage loans and basic investments like an IRA and Money Market account, someone else will need to help them learn. And that’s where this report comes in, for educational purposes only, to help teach fundamental money handling improvements to help with overall self-improvement.
A number of self improvement plans offer 12 steps for bettering yourself. So we’ll focus our money-handling plan around some of the more important 12 popular steps that are used with weight control, substance abuse and many other self improvement plan models as they relate to money-handling.
Step 1: First accept where you are in relation to your knowledge and circumstances surrounding your money. In other words, if you have a lot of debt and pay your bills with certified checks bought from the gas station because you’ve been unable to handle a checking account successfully and had it closed out due to too many bounced checks, then that’s where you are now. Period. No matter where you are, accept it, either good or bad – because it’s neither. It just is – in relation to time.
Too many people beat themselves up over mistakes from the past. And while you do need to take responsibility for them, you can overcome life’s money-handling challenges by slowly and steadily learning from your mistakes and learning better management skills.
Note that with money, you do not need to have any certain amount to be better at managing the funds. In other words, a person with millions of dollars may not be any better off with handling money that a person with thousands of dollars.
This means you do not need any special degree or level of education, any certain amount of money…nada. Zip. Everyone is teachable with any amount of money.
Step 2: Next you need to trust that you will find better ways to handle your money. You can call this a belief in One, as in Biblical, or something greater than yourself, or even a combination like one method discussed in a new motion picture and hard cover book, “Secret” by Rhonda Byrne about the law of attraction.
Basically this step means you known help is available and that you will be open and available to search for it. This also means that once you run across information in this area of focus, you will also study it and learn from it, and put the information to use. Step 2 is one giant step towards a positive money-handling future.
Step 3: Then you take an action step where you commit to change and do it: dig in to websites, financial magazines, banking brochures, etc. Put step 2 into action here and follow through.
Too many people ‘say’ they want to change, yet when it comes down to it, they are lazy and end of doing the ‘same old, same old’ to stay in their comfort zone. Well, forget about this zone and push past your fears and laziness. Grab a 3-ring binder just for this money-handling self improvement project and take notes: list places to research and discuss the info you find. Use colored markers, pencil and erasers, graph paper, stickers and more. And don’t worry how it looks to someone else. This is your self improvement project. Enjoy it and grow from it.
Step 4. There’s a famous saying, “History repeats itself.” So next, after going through Step 3 and learning about better money handling techniques and strategies, like only having one credit card, take a fearless and moral inventory inside-look at your past money-handling to see how you did. Then in your 3-ring binder, list your strengths and weaknesses. Repeating strengths can be fine, but to avoid repeating mistakes, dig in to your helpful money handling resources and learn how to put your money to use better.
Start by listing strengths like:
- I shop sales and by in bulk when I can
- I always pay my bills first when I get paid
- I only have one credit card
Then list weaknesses / past errors:
- I let my check book balance slide a few months and overdrew my account, not knowing how much money was in there.
- Likewise a similar thing happened to my credit cards: the balances got too high, over the limits, and now there are extra fees for that.
- I impulse buy and feel I deserve what I want – when I want it, at least most of the time.
Again, remember that this project notebook is for your eyes only. So be truthful to yourself and write out anything that has tripped you up in the past – and present – with money. There’s no shame in admitting errors.
5. The next step is simple. You just admit where you messed up in the past, accepting your responsibility in the part and make a commitment to be more responsible from here on out. Again note there’s no shame here. You are trying to improve yourself and did the best you could earlier. So you’re just moving on to better yourself.
Some people find it helpful during this step to confide their mistakes in a friend or other person, maybe a mentor or financial advisor. That way the other person can help keep you accountable in a way. So do whatever works best for you here.
7. Next briefly take a look at your money-handling shortcomings or weaknesses that lead to your mistakes, not on the mistakes themselves, but more on the feelings or incidents surrounding them. Write them out along with new ways to handle them today, armed with your new financial resources and knowledge.
For example, write out any money-spending triggers, and ways to avoid them or deal with them better in the future. Let’s say you stop at the same donut shop on your way to work but need to scale back on spending, for instance. So your new changed ‘habit’ will be to buy one package of low-cast donuts (or something healthier!!) at the grocery store and take one to work regularly in a plastic bag to save money.
8. While you’re making good on new money-handling habits, make sure to make amends with any debts and persons owed in your past that you can without harming yourself. In other words, if you were into gambling big time in Vegas, don’t race back there to pay for a candy bar that you neglected to pay for three years ago. That could trigger gambling again. However, do pay the babysitter you stiffed because you gambled all her money away while you were out.
9. Continue with your money-handling improvement. Even as you learn new money management, like setting up a savings account, you may make errors, like making too many withdrawals, adding large fees to your account. Make amends: talk to your banker to let him or her know you are learning and see if the fees can be waived, learn with the rules are and try again to succeed.
10. Use these steps in other areas of your life to help with other problems, too. And try to help others who may also need help like this as they reach out to you.
Money-Handling Tips
To help kick off your self improvement plan to handle your money better, here are some tips.
a) Make and take lists to stores when you go shopping. And focus only on items that are on your list.
b) When you ‘want’ something, write it down on a list. Wait for 12 months. And if you still ‘want’ the item, plan on how to get it at the best cost; i.e. shop online at eBay for cheaper deals, shop at wholesale stores in your area, etc. Then plan, save and buy. No impulse buying now!
c) Don’t shop for groceries when you’re hungry.
d) Always check for coupons: with grocery shopping, eating at local restaurants, for clothing discounts, etc. Call stores in advance to see where they place coupons.
e) Stop eating out so much. Cook and eat at home, invite friends over and take turn making meals.
f) Team up to shop with a buddy and share bulk package costs and items.
g) Your mood can affect your shopping, so if you are depressed or in a bad mood, reschedule your outing and go when you’re feeling better.
h) If stocks sound like scary investments and they make you worry too much every day, don’t invest in them. Choose something you’re happy with, even if it’s not quoted as having a higher ROI (return on your investment). Being happy and proud of $5,000 in a Money Market account that100% guarantees to not ever let your funds decrease, only increase, is better than being miserable, depressed and anxious over $10,000 in stocks that could fall at any moment, causing you to spend thousands elsewhere in the meantime to soothe your nerves.
i) Get help from your banker or a good library book or other resource and make a family and business budget. And once you make them, stick to them!
j) If you have difficulty communicating with your banker, ask for someone else there to talk to you. Everyone is different. And some people ‘walk the talk’ better.
Resources to Help with Money-Handling:
- The Motley Fool http://www.fool.com
- BankRate.com http://bankrate.com
- About.com Banking and Loans http://banking.about.com
- Wikipedia, the Free (Online) Encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banking
- Online searches for keyword phrases like: savings accounts, cheap credit card rates, mortgage loan calculator, etc.
- Your local bookstores and public libraries: newspapers, magazines, books…ask the librarian!