Getting ahead with your finances is not difficult once you get the initial basics. It can be achieved with at least two of the following:
Spend less
Earn more
Well diversified investing
Spend less or earn more is a personal choice on what works best for you. Ideally, you will target both to create a larger gap between income and expenses.
However, well diversified investing is essential to combat inflation eating your returns over time.
Sure, there are a lot of specifics for each strategy, but the basics remain the same.
Why are so many people struggling with money?
Knowing and doing are two very different things.
Take for example, the food industry. In recent years there have been regulations passed that require manufacturers to put more nutritional information on the product labels.
The theory was that consumers will be more aware of what we are purchasing and make healthier decisions. The reality however, is that we are getting more obese.
We all know what we should be eating, yet we don’t.
We all know we should be saving, but we don’t.
We all know we should be flossing every day, but we don’t.
The hard part is not the knowing. It is the doing.
Learning about the basics of personal finance is easy. The hard part is remaining disciplined for decades. The same goes for our diet.
The easy option is rarely the best for us though. By cooking dinner instead of buying take out you are choosing health and finances over convenience and instant satisfaction. The more you make decisions like this, the more good habits you form. Once the habit is formed, the battle is gone. It isn’t such a fight anymore.
When I first cut my budget it was a bit difficult at first. But now I am just on auto pilot. I don’t even need to budget anymore. I still track my expenses, but I more or less know what I’m spending in any given month without even thinking about it. It’s more or less a waiting game now, before I get to my goals.
The same applies to going to the gym. The first few months are extremely hard to get in to the routine. The first couple of weeks are generally easy when motivation is high. The challenging period, for me anyway, tends to be the 2 week to 2 month period. Once that period has been beaten, it tends to be smooth sailing.
Final Thoughts
It is key to find your why. Your reason for wanting the hard path. Your reason must be strong enough to provide you the motivation to keep going. With a strong enough reason, habits are formed, and the journey becomes almost on auto pilot. Then, the hard path actually becomes pretty easy.
Why do you want financial independence? Why do you want to lose weight? Why do you want to achieve a certain goal? The deeper you dig here, the stronger your why. Keep digging until you find the good stuff. The stuff that will motivate you to reach your goals with minimal drag.
If you have difficulty finding your why, then start thinking about what your ideal day would look like. What’s the best money you’ve ever spent? Who do you want to spend more time with? What are my core values? What are the obstacles or decisions that have prevented me from getting further ahead? By answering more specific questions, finding your why doesn’t seem like such a broad, vague concept.
My ideal day involves a bit of meaningful work such as personal financial advice, spending time with the family doing fun activities, working on the blog, playing some sport or exercising, volunteering, and some reading. Maybe do some work around the house and watch some NBA, rugby, or cricket with my favourite beer if it’s on. It won’t matter if it goes too late, if I don’t have to get up for a commute to work.
Lack of time and money is currently preventing me from doing this day in day out, so I am extremely motivated to build some money in order to free up some time to live my ideal lifestyle. Because the alternative of working 40 - 50 hours a week at a job I am not passionate about is a huge time suck and far from my ideal day.
By building a strong and real image in your mind of where you want to be, you too will find the motivation to achieve your goals.
***** This will be my last post for the year. Some people saying it is a year that has flown by. I feel like it has been an incredibly long year. Either way, we made it. Thanks for reading the blog and your supportive comments and emails. It helps keep me doing what I am doing. I’ll be taking a break for a few weeks to recharge the batteries from an extremely busy year. And I hate being busy, so I am not using that term as a humble brag. Anywhoo, take care this holiday season and see you all back here next year *****
The information contained on this site is the opinion of the individual author(s) based on their personal opinions, observation, research, and years of experience. The information offered by this website is general education only and is not meant to be taken as individualised financial advice, legal advice, tax advice, or any other kind of advice. You can read more of my disclaimer here