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How to Stress Less About Finances

worried about financial future~ This article may contain affiliate links. I only suggest product or services I believe will benefit my readers. All opinions are 100% mine! ~

Worried about your financial future?

Are you worried about your financial future? How do you face financial fears? Are you worried about your finances? It’s safe to bet that you worry about your personal finances. According to the Northwestern Mutual Progress and Planning 2016 study 85% of Americans feel financial worry!

The whole reason I started working side jobs and extra income was because of financial worry. I definitely want my family to be prepared if there is an emergency or my husband were to lose his job.

According to the study, the 3 major concerns Americans have are all related to unexpected events:

  • Emergency (car, home, loss of job)
  • Medical emergency
  • Running out of money for retirement

These worries are so overwhelming to many Americans that it affects their health and even their social life!

The good news is that there is definitely something you can do now for when those emergencies happen.

Take Action with These Steps

Educate yourself about finances
So many Americans feel stress over their finances but don’t want to engage in conversation about finances. Admit you are lost financially speaking and start reading up on personal finances. I promise you won’t be bored to tears with these amazing blogs! They break financial concepts into easy to understand articles that really help you understand.

Dailyworth
Making Sense of Cents
Broke Millennial
Financially Wise Women

Here are some more posts you might be interested in!

8 Tips for Women Seeking Finance Freedom

Start a budget– get real with your finances! Evaluate where you need to cut back on spending, increase savings, and maybe decide if you need to earn extra income.

Starting a budget can be as easy as sitting down with your paycheck and all your receipts at the end of the month. Find out where all your money is going.

Then take your bills and outline how much you pay on each bill and see what you have left over. Make sure you are saving for an emergency fund, paying off debt, and any other savings you may be planning for (vacations, Christmas, new car, big purchases, etc.) The left over is what you can use to budget groceries, entertainment, clothing expenses, eating out, and gas expenses. The idea is that you are telling your money where to go at the beginning of the month vs. wondering where all your money went at the end of the month.

Here are some great posts on How to Start a Budget.

Free budget templates

Set Financial goals:
Setting goals in any part your life is how you will see change! Start with your end goal in mind. For example, you want to have $1200 in your emergency fund over the next year (final goal). Break that into a smaller goal for each month, save $100 per month. Break it down even further by saving $23.08 per week for 52 weeks. What can you do each week to work towards that goal? Cut out a few Starbucks runs, eat at home a couple nights? Maybe you need to earn extra income to really make a difference in your personal finances.

You will meet your goals by changing your daily habits!

Related articles:

Jobs pay $10 or more
50+ ways to earn extra income

Pay off debt – It’s important to pay off your debt as soon as possible, so that you keep more of your money. The average American has around $15,000 in credit card debt and over $40,000 in student loans. Make a plan to get out of debt. You can follow these guides listed below to help you become debt-free!

SAVE – start saving now no matter where you are working or how old you are. Saving earlier can result in a huge difference in how much money you accrue due to compound interest. (Financial lingo got you down? Check out this reference for financial definitions!)

Follow the 3 E’s of saving :

Save enough: Shoot for 15% of your gross income. If that seems impossible right now, then save a smaller percentage until you can work your way up to 15% or more.

Save tax efficiently:

Utilize your 401k retirement plan at work so that you are keeping all of your money and not being taxed on it.

Keep Expenses low:

Make sure that you are not paying high fees or other charges from your investments. Invest wisely and become informed about where your money is going.

Acorns – Acorns is an app that automatically rounds up your spare change and invests the money for you. This is an easy way to invest without really noticing a difference in your wallet. You will easily be investing hundreds of dollars in as little as 6 months!

Don’t be afraid to ask lots of questions when it comes to your money. You should make time to go over your finances on a regular basis to help you stay on track to meet your goals. The most important step is to get started!

Do you worry about finances? What’s your plan?

Resources You Might Be Interested in: 

  • Digit: Digit is an easy and painless way to save money by taking extra money from your checking account and moving it to your savings account. It’s basically a virtual way to save up your pennies. This is a FREE service and an almost effortless way to save money.
  • Acorns: Invest without stress! Acorns.com will automatically invest your spare change. The app will automatically round up your credit card purchase each time you swipe. Sign up here and earn $5!
  • Mint.com – Mint is a free service where you can track your spending, savings, and create a budget. This is a very useful tool as you work towards financial freedom. You can read this review from Making Sense of Cents: How to Use Mint.com 

3 comments

  • This is a really well-thought out and thorough post! I was nodding my head the entire time! My husband and I have really worked to abide by these principles and we are nearly debt-free and working to make the best investments. Unfortunately, just when we seem to save enough we DO have an emergency. I’m writing this comment to the tune of a well driller drilling a new well in my background (9 thousand dollars). Thankfully, we have the money saved up…but that’s our entire emergency fund right there! Ugh!