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This bootcamp is designed to help you gain insight into who you are, and help you determine the best approach to improve your life.
In our last videos, we learned about the importance of Physical and Emotional Health. Today, we are going to cover a very important area – money. This lesson will include brief discussions on the importance of saving, investing, and dealing with debt. This section is not designed to be comprehensive. It is really designed to give you a good starting point.
So why do we have a section on money? Have you ever heard the phrase “Money makes the world go ‘round?” I know that money isn’t everything. There are certainly things that *I* think are more important than money. But that doesn’t change the fact that money is an important part of what makes our world function.
I mentioned a fairly simple strategy during the last boot camp lesson on health. I said that one of the easiest ways to improve your physical health is by eating less and exercising more. Pretty easy, right? Now, I’m going to apply that very same simple concept to money. If you like money and want to have more of it, spend less and earn more. Sounds simple?
But don’t get me wrong – saving money is tough. With all of the interesting things for sale nowadays, impulse buying has become a major problem for most Americans. That’s why I want to stress the power of saving money – not only will it mean that you’ll have more cash to spend, but it *ALSO* means that you’re well on your way to financial independence.
Before I go into any details on the subject of money and finance, I want to start out by letting you know that I am not a certified financial advisor, but I do have suggestions from other experts that have worked for countless people. Your needs for financial advice will vary substantially depending on where you are in your life financially. With that in mind, I am going to share some simple tips that have worked in different areas.
One simple starting point is to do a financial checkup. There are two primary places to do this. The first is to create a budget. You can do this by First, Identifying all of your expenses. This can be done by going through your credit card statements, checkbook and your cash receipts. Add it up for a month and those are your expenses. Now, make sure your income is great than your expenses. If it’s not, it’s time to start cutting back on non-essentials.
The second part of your financial checkup is to analyze your assets and your liabilities. You can use this information to determine your Net Worth. Your net worth is determined by first adding up your total assets including your home, car, investments and anything else you have of value. Then, determine your total liabilities. This includes money that you owe. Maybe, a mortgage, a car loan, or debt on your credit cards. Your net worth is equal to your total assets minus your total liabilities. Your goal of course is to increase your net worth.
There are 3 general areas that I would like to cover about money. They include: Getting out of Debt, Saving and Investing. For todays bootcamp, we are going to focus on dealing with debt. To begin with, here’s a good guideline that could help you avoid debt: don’t spend more than you earn. It’s a simple rule.
But debt can come from a variety of other situations. Some people have spending addictions. Occasionally, debt arises from a personal hardship, like a bad divorce or some unexpected health trouble. Some people, however, just aren’t all that experienced with budgeting their money, which often leads to debt. I’d like to share a couple of tips for dealing with debt.
Step # 1 is to Develop a personal financial plan, and make sure you know where each dollar is spent. That’ll go a long way toward avoiding debt before it even begins.
Step # 2 is to Stop spending money, unless you absolutely have to! Cut out all the extraneous purchases – new clothing, new CDs, new movies, and everything else.
Step # 3 is to Seek the help of a qualified financial advisor. This is a good tip, whether you’re in debt or not.
Step # 4. If you’re in debt, don’t panic! Try to lay out a payment schedule for yourself, and make a payment whenever you can. Just don’t spend anything else WHILE you’re in debt.
In our next session, we are going to focus on saving and investing.
And now for our question of the day, Why do you think there are so many people in debt? Is it lack of self control, poor planning or just challenging times. Please answer below.
Thanks for watching.
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