6 Simple Money Moves You Can Start Right Now | Financial Independence

So, this is the year you’ve been wanting to finally get control of your money, get out of debt and maybe even start moving on to some semblance of financial independence? 

Well today, I’m going to talk about 6 very simple money moves that can help you get started right now if you haven’t already and get you inching forward in the direction of your financial goals.

And stick around to the end of the video for a very cool bonus.

Here are 6 simple money moves you can do right now in brief and we’ll unpack each one in more detail in a second.  

1. Organize your finances
2. Get on a written budget
3. Start tracking your expenses
4. Communicate with your spouse
5. Take an online money management course
6. Get outside help when you need it 

And by the way, if you’re new to my content, these are 6 things I did consistently to: 1) pay off $174,000 in debt in 2.5 years and 2) go on to achieve financial independence in well under 10 years, so I promise you this stuff works and it’s not all that hard if you can just get started small and stay consistent.

So, let’s jump right into it…

1. Organize your finances 

Now, admittedly this could take a little bit of time depending on how disorganized you are. Here’s where I would start:

Allocate 15 minutes either at the beginning or the end of the day and start making a list of everything you owe (i.e. bills, expense, debts):

Literally, set the timer on your smartphone for just 15 minutes and:

Log into your online accounts (bank, credit card, utilities, etc.)

Gather up paper statements.

And just start making a list of everything you owe.

Then, pro tip here, if you’re feeling squirrelly, you can rewrite your list in order of due date (this will pay huge dividends for what we’re going to talk about in number 2).

Doing this exercise for maybe a week or so straight (give or take) will have you WAY more organized than you probably are right now.

Again, take your time and don’t get overwhelmed. I’m having you do this in small 15 minute bites to help avoid anxiety and overwhelm, which is what usually causes people to walk away from the process.

2. Get on a written budget 

Now that you’ve got that list of everything you owe (and maybe it's even organized by due date), you can plug those numbers into an actual budget. 

I would recommend a quick start type of budget and you can go to our free products and printables library and download our quick start budget. I’ve seen people get up and running with their first budget in as little as 15-20 minutes, especially IF they’ve done that first organization step). 

Ultimately, I recommend moving to the monthly, “Zero-Based” budget, but this quick start budget is excellent, particularly if you kind of hate budgeting or you’ve never been good at it but are ready to just get the process going.

3. Start tracking your expenses 

Now, this is what gives real teeth to your budgeting efforts. 

A lot of people do what I call the “set it and forget it” budget, which is where they make a budget on paper or maybe in a spreadsheet. So, they write the categories down, populate it with numbers and really just hope they can stick to it.

BUT the problem is that a budget needs to be a living, breathing document.

And for it to be that, you want to track what you’re spending. 

So you’ll want to start saving receipts, writing down expenses and reconciling them with the budget is what will make that a living, breathing document and will help you accomplish your goals SO much faster.

So, I’d say just get started by carrying a little note pad around with you and recording everything you spend money on. Believe it or not it actually starts being A LOT of fun and will give you TONS of insight about your current spending habits.

4. Communicate with your spouse 

Man, this is so important and I see so many couples struggle with this. Money can be such a stressful subject and such a divisive topic in the context of our relationships. Learning how to communicate about money will take some time and honestly, may even require some outside intervention in the form of marriage counseling, but hang in there I promise it’s worth it.

If you’re the aspiring “money nerd” in the relationship and you have a reluctant spouse, try to hold a weekly “money talk”, where you at least share the process you’re learning and the progress you’re making. 

Scheduling some kind of low-intensity interaction like that is a great step in the right direction.

5. Take an online money management course 

I personally still do this. I take new online courses all the time. Why? Because I truly truly think that this is a lifelong process.

That said, there are some amazing courses out there and you should definitely take some of them. Most course creators (the good ones) even offer a 60 daySi money back guarantee in their offers, which means that you can try the course (hopefully with intention and diligence) and if it doesn’t work for you, you can just get your money back, no strings attached.

The key to getting some smart money moves is to make this acquisition of skills a lifelong endeavor. And the really cool thing about that is, as you get better and better with money, you actually have more of it. 

Taking online courses is also a great thing to do if you have a reluctant spouse. Going through and online management course and encouraging your spouse to go through

So get out there and find some good courses to try out. Your wallet  will thank you.

6. Get outside help when you need it  

Now, sometimes you just need some outside help. 

So many times, you learn the skill, take the course but still run into that proverbial brick wall. It could be you’re struggling with developing a particular skill, you need to troubleshoot your unique set of circumstances.

First of all I want to say, it’s okay, and it’s actually pretty normal.

If this money stuff were easy, everybody would be doing it and I wouldn’t need to make all of this content. So don’t feel weird or ashamed if you’re having issues.

This is when it’s great to have a mentor, coach, facilitator, pastor, counselor come alongside you and troubleshoot your issues with you and offer some alternative ways to think about things or even some alternative ways to do it.

Most of the time that “outside” set of eyeballs is just what’s needed to produce the breakthrough that takes you to the next level.

Conclusion

If you happen to be multitasking, come back for a second because I have a couple of little bonuses for you.

I cover all of these practices in two free workshops I want to offer you:

1. My 8 Steps To Erase Debt/Foundations of FI workshop.
2. And, particularly if you’ve struggled with budgeting I wanted to offer you my FREE Budget Bootcamp workshop.

So, let me know in the comments, which one of these are you going to try?

Struggling Or Feeling Alone?

Join Our Private FB Group: Zero Debt Tribe

Now, if this decision process is something you struggle with and you constantly feel isolated about, I’ve got some great news for you and it’s free.

Our private Facebook group, ZeroDebtTribe. It’s a group of like minded people that are all somewhere along this P2P/debt-elimination/on their way to FI continuum. So click the image above and apply to join us. :)

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3. If you’re looking for a community of motivated and like-minded people, go ahead and get on the waitlist to join our private financial coaching community. We only open it for new students a couple of times a year, so make sure to get on the waitlist.

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All that said, let's keep on building your financial acumen and make this your best year yet!

Thanks so much for reading and we’ll see you in the next video post!