Dear Friends, 

What is bothering  you the most about your finances?  Take 30 seconds and find something. 

Did you do it? If you didn’t, it's alright, but you won’t take a baby step towards an abundant life until you acknowledge what is bothering you! The next paragraph will be more helpful if you decide what is bothering you the most. If you found multiple, pick the easiest one to start creating a solution for that problem.

Now, list all the ways that you could solve this problem. Decide on what step is the best one and do it immediately. If it is a multistep solution assign a date and time for each step you'll need to take. 

As an example, you might constantly spend too much on amazon.com. It bothers you greatly that you end up spending money intended for bills, so that you constantly struggle with cash flow.  A baby step solution could be to buy an Amazon gift card for $50 and only use that gift card balance until next month. This way you can see how much you have available “free to spend” with no guilt.

Another example could be that your spouse just charged the debit card $99.99 for some unknown item, causing a shortage of money for bill payments for the week. You just want to scream! A baby step solution is to go the bank and set up two new free checking accounts with separate debit cards so each of you have your own spending budget to manage. I suggest keeping a budget for bills separate from spending money. This will help you to be more intentional with your spending.  

If you are unable to come up with a solution for something that is bothering you – email me I would be glad to send you some thoughts.

From my experience, the biggest problem when it comes to personal finances is the lack of time actually committed to working on them. Make a daily habit of asking yourself, “What is bothering me the most about my finances?”. This will assist you on your journey to an abundant mentality and abundant life. Keep focused on solutions, rather than the problems.

Deb Bowman 

Deborah R. Bowman, CPA