I act sort of as a financial coach for people that I know. My goal is to help them change their attitude and behavior in the way they handle money and debt. People think that finances is all about numbers but that couldn't be farther from the truth.
Finances is more about realizing your goals, getting your emotions in check, building self-discipline to stick with a budget, and creating extra sources of income to help you reach those goals.
A financial coach focuses on teaching you money management skills, helping you with accountability, and helps to strengthen emotional stability toward reaching your goals.
You will never get to the point of investing money if you are not able to manage money.
Part of managing money is learning self-discipline when it comes to your spending habits. It will be extremely hard to build a good financial profile if you are unable to save money.
The main reason we need to save money is to have something to fall back on if hard times or emergencies come our way. There are several other reasons such as saving for retirement, starting our own business, or for future investing.
There are 7 basic principles of prosperity we need to keep in mind. All of the principles are important, but saving money is one of the most important things you can do with your finances.
The Bible says in Proverbs 7:12, "...money is a defense (shelter)..."
In other words, saved money creates a shelter for your finances. This is where the importance of your emergency fund comes in. I cannot express enough that you NEED an emergency fund!
Stop viewing money as something you spend. Savings is much more important.
Money is a tool that you can use to create financial freedom, but not if you spend it. We need to learn to stop viewing credit as something you use to obtain things you want. That's what cash is for.
Credit is for the purpose of creating a good, credit-worthy name. Americans do not use credit properly. They use it to fulfill the lust of their eyes and this creates debt. God's will is that you have peace, not debt.
I despise debt because not only does it tear families apart, it removes the peace from a person's life.
Prosperity begins in the heart and transformation must first take place in the mind. You can’t change your money habits until you change your thought patterns.
Your thought patterns concerning money strongly affect the way you use it. I would like to teach you how to see things from a different perspective so that you can learn to manage what you have, grow what you have, and save your increase.
Stop window shopping, stop looking at all the things you want online, and start putting that 'spending money' away in a savings account.
My main goal is to help you change your attitude and behavior. Changing these two things will greatly help not only your income but also your use of debt.
At fifteen, I started a service-based business. I eventually protected myself with an LLC and hired two pay-rolled employees. I built my way up to making about $100,000 a year, which was great for a service-based business in the early 2000's.
Where I went wrong was procrastinating in learning about finances.
Now, thirty-two years later I can see where I was missing a key element in running my own business. The main thing I didn't understand back then was that you need to have a good understanding of your finances and you need savings to fall back on.
The hardest part of being self-employed is that there is no one there to catch you if you fall. Hard times are harder when you don't have a regular paycheck coming in. Having money in the bank is a crucial part of creating financial freedom.
You can start right now. Open a savings account, put the first $100 in it and don't touch it.
Create a budget and figure out what percentage of your income you can afford to put in your savings each week. Treat your savings like a bill and add it to your weekly budget.
Invest in your future.
Don't look at savings as money you're losing out on. Look at it as an emergency fund. Once you have at least $1000 in the savings account, go start another savings account and leave that $1000 in there for emergencies only. Use the other savings account to fund getting out of debt.
This is a great place to start living a life of freedom! You will never regret having an emergency fund or saving the future.
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