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Managing your money doesn't have to be stressful or complicated. Breaking it down into manageable steps makes it much easier, and once you get things set up the way you want them – the ongoing maintenance is as simple as tending to your garden. That being said, you can't just “plant it” and forget it. You will need to tend your financial garden and keep an eye on weeds or problems that need to be addressed – it will not take care of itself.
Let's look at an easy guide to financial planning:
1. Garden layout and design. Just as you would assess your land to find a place to plant a garden, you'll need to take a good look at your financial situation before you begin. Create a budget worksheet that shows how much money comes in each month and how much money goes out each month. Make a list of assets you have, like your home or paid off vehicles; and then a list of debts and loans. Do you owe more than you own? Do you make enough money to pay your monthly payments?
2. Decide what to put in your garden. Outside you'd select flowers or vegetables. For your financial garden, you'll want to decide what short term and long term goals you have. For example, short term goals would be to pay off high interest credit cards and loans within a certain period of time. You might try to move some of your high interest credit card debt with a balance transfer to save money on interest while paying it off. You might put aside money for vacations or to make a purchase like new furniture. Long term goals are things you plan for that are in the future – your retirement is the biggest long term savings goal you have; and if you have children you may also save for their college education.
3. Starting planting. No garden will grow if you don't first plant your seeds and plants, right? In your financial garden, once you've determined your goals (the type of plants you want to grow) you can begin to plant. Open the accounts you will use to save money and fund your goals. Create automatic savings processes so you don't have to manually deposit money into accounts; consider setting up automatic bill payments to prevent late payments and avoid having to buy stamps or envelopes.
4. Keep the garden watered and free of weeds. Outdoors, you can't expect your garden to thrive if it's over run with weeds and dried out! Your financial garden will require a little “watering and weeding” in the form of monitoring. If you have lifestyle changes, you may need to make changes to your savings or bill payment schedule. If one of your investment options is consistently losing money, you may need to change to something different to help the money recover and grow. This is all part of the continuing process of making sure that your money helps you reach your original goals.
If your goals change, then you simply go back and rework your methods to accommodate those changes.