The Fourth Step Towards Financial Fitness

It’s been a few weeks, but I am still helping my friend get on the path to financial fitness. You can read the previous steps here, but in short, so far she has figured out how much debt she has, categorized her expenses to figure out where her money goes, and checked her bills for additional services.

Since I last talked to her about the subject, she had gathered all of her bills and cut back on some of her services. She realized that like me, she rarely uses text messages on her phone, but was paying $10 a month for an unlimited service. She switched over to paying per message – even at 15 cents a message, she would have to send and receive over 65 messages a month to make that worthwhile. Looking at her bill, she typically had less than 20. So she’s managed to shave what she thinks will be anywhere from $6-$8 off of her cell phone bill every month.

She also realized she was paying for a gym membership and not using it much at all. She looked into canceling her membership, but still has a few months left on her contract that she has to pay for. So while she can’t save any money, she’s decided she’s going to get the most of her money and go to the gym more often. Definitely not a bad decision.

I told her that in my opinion, the next step would be to create some sort of a budget for herself, be it either a categorized budget like YNAB, where she would set a specific amount to spend for each category, or a very general budget where she would allocate $X to savings, $Y to her debt, and $Z to her spending for the month.

I also explained debt snowflaking and the idea of throwing every extra cent she had at that debt to try to get it paid off faster. $3 check from Pinecone research? Put it towards the debt. $6 left in the grocery budget for the month? Put it towards the debt.

One thing that I’ve noticed is that her attitude has changed. When we started, she seemed a bit terrified by her debt, as if it just overwhelmed her and she had no idea what to do. Now she seemed to be almost angry at her debt, and determined to “beat it” as soon as she can.

I reminded her that it is important for her to be putting money into savings to build up her emergency fund, just in case something happens and she needs extra money one month. No need to put more money onto that credit card, after all.

Stay tuned for the next installment!

The Third Step to Financial Fitness

My friend finally came back to me for the next step on her plan to financial fitness. You can find step one here and step two here.

By this point in time, she had figured out her debts and recorded her expenses for a month. As I recommended, she created categories for herself and categorized every expenditure. Luckily for her, she's a lot like me and does most of her spending with credit and debit cards, so she she had an easier time figuring out what she spent and where she spent it.

I had a feeling that she had already done the third step when I talked to her. I told her that in my mind, the third step was looking at those already categorized expenses and figuring out where she was overspending and where she could cut back.

I was right. This was something that she had immediately considered after seeing all of her expenditures categorized in that manner. She quickly realized that she was spending entirely too much money at bars and restaurants, and she felt that she was spending too much at the grocery store as well. I laughed and told her that those were the same things that I had noticed when I started categorizing my expenditures.

My suggestion, therefore, was for her to attempt to cut back in those areas. She could start her saving plan by making small changes, rather than trying to cut back all of her spending. I suggested that she do simple things, like bring her lunch to work, but I also suggested that she make a point of not opening a tab at the bar. It's all too easy to find that you've spent $50 on expensive drinks when you just have the bartender charging things to your tab.

Additionally, I told her that one thing I did to reduce my grocery budget was to create a list and stick to it as closely as possible, allowing myself one "extra" item a trip. I also suggested adding up her groceries in her head as she placed them in her cart. It makes it easier to stick to a budget. I even suggested she bring a small calculator to the grocery store if that made things easier. No one would look at her funny - I've noticed people with price books and calculators at the grocery store on more than one occasion.

She agreed that these were things she could try, but she was eager for other information. So I suggested she gather her bills - her cable bill, her cell phone bill, etc., and see if there were any fees or services that could be eliminated. Even if you drop a $5 service from your cell plan each month, that's a savings of $60 a year for a very easy step!

The Second Step to Financial Fitness

As I mentioned in an earlier post, a friend recently asked me for advice on getting herself on the right financial path. Obviously, I'm no expert, but I gave her a few simple steps to get her on the right track. I told her the first step was to figure out what she owed.

She came back to me, having written down the details of her debts, and she was understandably overwhelmed. She assured me she was making minimum payments, but now that she knew how much money she owed, she felt the throw all the money she could at her debts. I told her that was a good desire, but there were a few other things she should do first.

I asked her if she was tracking her expenses. She admitted that she really wasn't. She knew that she was saving enough money that she could afford to make her minimum payments, but that was about it. I told her the next step, in my opinion, was to figure out what she was spending every month and where she could cut back. While that $10 lunch didn't seem too expensive, grabbing lunch just once a week meant spending $40! Even cutting back to going out to lunch just every other week would save her $20.

I promised her I wasn't going to insist she cancel her cell phone or never ever go out to eat. In fact, I wasn't planning to tell her anything. I had a feeling that once she totaled up how much money she spent in various categories, she would want to make some changes on her own.

The First Step to Financial Fitness

A friend recently asked me what she could do to take control of her finances. She didn't bring up numbers, and I wasn't comfortable asking, but I know that she has a good amount of student loan debt as well as credit card debt. It was clear she wasn't entirely sure how much debt she had, nor had she thought about a long term repayment plan.

After thinking a moment, I responded that the first step for her should be to sit down and get the facts. In my opinion, to get a handle on her finances, she needs to figure out what she owes, who she owes it to, and what and when she has to pay.

Simple enough, right? Surprisingly, a number of people in debt have no idea how much debt they truly have. That seems to be especially true with credit card debt. Too many consumers believe that if they pay the minimum amount due on their credit card, that they will be making a dent in the debt. Unfortunately, due to high interest rates, these consumers often aren't even paying the interest they were charged that month. That means their debt is increasing, rather than decreasing.

I realize that for many people reading, this might seem like common sense, but for some of you, this might be surprising news. Either way, if you were like my friend and asked me what you should do to get a handle on your debt, I would tell you the same thing - take a realistic look at what you owe.

More steps in the upcoming days. Stay tuned!