Loving the Journey: Finding Financial Security One Step at a Time

February has been a month we have dedicated to the idea of love and kindness to others. Typically, we think about dinner dates, spending quality time with loved ones, or buying gifts for our sweethearts. What if we took this kind of dedicated time to fall in love and show kindness to something else? - Our financial journeys. What kind of difference would that make in our lives?

Many of us are getting by day-to-day without taking the time to do a “financial checkup” and see how we are doing. Ask yourself: what plans do I have for the future? Am I on the right track? Do I even know what I want or am I just “going through the motions”? If thinking about money and your finances leaves you feeling stressed out, it doesn't have to be that way!

A PEW Research Center Study shows that only 26% of Americans feel they live comfortably and feel safe, secure, and able to cover their basic needs. This can bring up a lot of different emotions. Understanding how money is tied to your emotions is a very important step in the journey of taking control of your finances and not letting your money control you.

So how do we go about taking that control back? How do we commit to loving our financial journey and giving our financial wellness some attention? We’ve come up with a few suggestions and ideas we think can help you along the way. At Ashland Credit Union, we’d love to see you, talk with you, and encourage you along the way.

Reflect on Your Financial Values:
Let’s begin by taking some time to consider these questions:

• What do you think about money?
• When you think about money, what words come to mind?
• What habits both good and bad have you observed from others?
• Which of those habits do you want to mimic?
• What habits do you want to avoid repeating?
• Who or what has shaped how you feel about money?

Asking these questions will help determine your relationship with money and identify any bad habits you may need to take control of. It also allows you to focus on where you want to be on your financial journey.

Build a Budget:

Write down your income, expenses, debts, and any current savings funds. If this seems scary or too difficult, find someone to help. The 50/30/20 plan is a good start that has you put 50% of your income towards your needs, 30% towards wants, and 20% towards savings/paying off debt. Once you’ve got everything written down, do you see any unnecessary spending or spending that doesn’t help you meet your goals? Do you have an emergency fund to cover unexpected expenses?

Set Goals for Yourself:

What is it you want your money to do for you? How can you use the money you have to be what you want to be? Setting goals for yourself gives you a clearly defined path to follow along your financial journey. Like all “journeys”, a good guide can help you get there. More importantly, a guide helps you not beat yourself up when you veer off course. Finding a good guide can be paramount to making your journey easier.

Address and Tackle Your Debt: Debt often carries a certain amount of shame with it. People are ashamed of the amount of debt they are in regardless of what that debt did for them. Think about it, student loans allow you to get a college education and further yourself, yet many people look upon their student loan debt with shame, stress, or anger even years after they’ve gotten their degree.

Addressing your debt and understanding what it’s allowed you to do so far is a great step to being able to tackle it. There are many steps you can take to gain control of this problem. Budgeting, setting goals, and debt consolidation are just a few ways to tackle addressing your debt.

Like all journeys, this one takes time. It will always be an ongoing process. But you do not have to do it alone. Stop by Ashland Credit Union and let us help you take control of your finances.

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