Personal Finance Series: No 5 - Why Watchers Aren"t Wealthy

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For most people, the thought of sitting down to a personal finance budget, a home budget worksheet, a set of bills, financial statements, and banking documents is about as much fun as sticking hot needles into their eyes! Personal finance in excel is a daunting prospect, and even using financial planning software can be confusing.
So it is avoided as one of the things people 'get around to'.
It's just not motivating.
However, motivation for creating a personal finance budget online is higher because of the ease of use, and ease of application, the ability to access it on any computer anywhere, rather than leaving personal information on a losable laptop.
For many, overcoming their fear is a "no-Brainer.
" And motivation is not only a learnable skill - it is one of The 6 Essential Skills Of Wealth Creation.
Motivation: The difference between Action Takers and Spectators It is often said that the world is split into two camps, action takers and spectators, and the critical difference between these two is motivation - the drive for results is bigger than the laziness of procrastination.
People motivated by organising their finances are generally happier, have a goal, a purpose, and a bigger vision which makes the activity of following the goals worthwhile.
Motivation brings a hunger to learn, to evaluate and to invest, take the right risks, plan and forecast because it is future-focused.
Spectators on the other hand are not wealthy.
They do not seize opportunity, they ignore their money, are comfortable living in a monthly paycheck cycle and often watch the wealthy motivated with greed and envy.
Spectators do not plan for the rainy day while those who take action do.
Spectators never win because they don't take part in the game.
Motivation: How to Create a Rainy Day Fund The first step is to understand where the money comes from and where it is going to - and then deciding what to do with the balance - rather than spend it.
The best way to create a rainy day fund is to open another bank account and set up a regular amount to go into it so you never even notice its gone.
Another less conventional way is to save spare change in a jam jar or biscuit tin until it is needed.
The un-wealthy use credit cards - bad idea.
Motivation: 3 ways that people use Smoothing Income Smoothing is also a great way to maintain focus and motivation in managing personal finance budgets, especially with a variable income or irregular income.
By adding up annual expenses and annual income, it is possible to create a monthly equivalent income.
  1. Send all income to a smoothing account from which you divert to your payments account for regular expenses and your spending account for living expenses.
    This will build a buffer in the good months to be used in the lean months.
  2. By balancing income and outgoings in an online budget software, it is possible to set budgets which make it possible to live within your monthly means.
  3. Another way to smooth is to look at a cashflow forecast, available in a personal finance budget online, and play with the scenario's until the annual amounts are balanced out.
Motivation is much easier to maintain when results can be tracked and seen.
The only way to avoid manual entries into a home budget worksheet, a financial planning spreadsheet or a personal finance worksheet is to do it all online and allow the online budget software to do the calculations, while you make all the important decisions.
However, the most important aspect in maintaining motivation is getting started because it is much easier to keep something moving that is already moving, than it is to push against something static.
Get moving now!
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