This is the first post on my new blog. I’m just getting this new blog going, so stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.
#1 Financial Self Awareness
In my personal opinion, developing financial self awareness is the single most important step in being able to manage your finances effectively.
Having financial self awareness means:
- Knowing how much you are spending and making every month. Do you think successful business owners can run a business without knowing what their profits and losses are each month?
- Knowing how much debt you have. How do you expect to pay off your debt if you don’t even know how much money you owe? This includes credit card bills, student loans, your line of credit, mortgages, etc.
You can start this process by adding up everything you owe to figure out exactly how much debt you have. Make sure to write it down somewhere! (I personally like to use google sheets to track all my financial stuff). Make sure to be precise – add up everything to the dollar, no ballpark numbers! If you have no debt then good for you. You can write down how much money you have saved up (bank account, RRSPs, investments, etc.)
The next step is to track your income and spending for a month. There are many apps now that can help you track this, but if you aren’t a fan of apps, you can simply write it down on a piece of paper or on google sheets. This exercise serves 2 purposes; first, it gives you an idea of your spending habits (most people are surprised by how much money they are spending each month on useless things). Second, it helps you figure out how much money you actually took home that month after deducting the total amount you spent from your income.
You never want to spend more than you make right? Obviously there are circumstances or months when you do spend more than you make such as when you travel, pay your car insurance in full, etc.
Once you develop financial self awareness, you’re already ahead of a lot of people and you’re ready for the next step – budgeting!
Who Am I?
Hi my name is Eunice Uy, and this is my first time starting a blog! I wanted to start a finance blog to help other people gain financial awareness so that they can take control of their financial situation in life. Now you might think that I am an accountant or a financial advisor of some sort, but this is far from the truth. In fact, I am a 29 year old registered nurse who earns an average wage but is able to live life debt/financially free.
Now you might also wonder what gives me the qualifications to be teaching other people about finances when I don’t have a degree in this field (actually this is the question that I kept asking myself, and the question that has stopped me from starting this blog for a long time). When I expressed my concerns to my brother, he replied by saying: “your qualification is your bank account”. He was not implying that I am filthy rich (I wish!), but what he meant by that statement is that I have more savings than the average person in my age group.
I’ve noticed over the last few years that many people around my age are in debt and have nothing saved up. I want to help these people; regular people like me, who have regular jobs, who have never taken a finance class before. I wanted to share some of the best tips I have learned over the last decade on the little things you can do everyday to improve your current financial situation. I know some people mentally shut down when they hear the word “finances” and think about their massive debts, and that there is no way out of it. I am here to tell you otherwise. In the next few weeks, I will describe the steps you can take to help yourself get out of this hole, and how to start working your way towards financial freedom. Is it a quick fix? Definitely not. If that’s what you’re looking for then you’re in the wrong place.
Finance101 