Health and wealth are so very similar (which is why I often compare them in my blogs and posts!).
Most people don’t want to talk openly about their health in public, in a group or on social media.
They also don’t want to talk about their wealth in public.
Which means a) SO many things aren’t really out in the open and b) people often don’t seek help, because they don’t want others to know what they’re doing or what’s really going on behind closed doors.
There’s also a pervading ‘quick fix’ culture with both (especially on social media!). Really, the solution is something slow and sustainable – but of course, that’s not usually ‘sexy’ or a ‘hook’ to grab your attention.
We all know that crash diets don’t work. Or maybe they do in the very short term, but you end up piling it all back on (if not more) and feeling worse than before you started. The exact same thing is true when it comes to our finances.
There’s a saying that goes “one salad didn’t make anyone skinny and one donut didn’t make anyone fat”.
And again, it’s the same thing with money. It doesn’t matter, necessarily, if you buy something expensive. It doesn’t even matter if you occasionally go overdrawn.
What matters is what happens from day to day, week to week, month to month and year to year. Because that’s what builds up over time to become something really big (which is true whether it’s with your body or your finances).
You’ve probably heard me say before how much I like the book ‘The Slight Edge’ by Jeff Olson. Because it talks about how every day, you have the opportunity to make a choice that takes you either towards your dream or further away from it.
This is SO crucial when you’re looking at your finances because the little choices you make each day can add up really, really quickly.
Let’s take growing your wealth and building your assets. When we’re looking at compound interest, the longer we leave things to grow, the more they’re going to grow because you get growth on growth. And before you know it, something that starts off small and growing slowly becomes something really quite substantial.
The same goes with paying down debt. If you’d love to be mortgage free (and who wouldn’t!), then making an overpayment each month means that you’ll be paying off your debt that little bit quicker. And each extra payment you make has a compound effect, in that each subsequent payment then pays it down a little bit more.
Let’s say you decide to pay an extra £1,500 a month off your mortgage. It’d make a massive difference and you’d end up becoming mortgage free a LOT faster that you planned. Right?
BUT the problem is that so many people set themselves up to fail, by setting targets that are just too ambitious.
It’s all very well to decide you want to have £500,000 of £1million worth of assets (which when it comes to goal setting, seem to be common numbers that a lot of people pluck from the air).
But if you’re only taking home £15,000 a year, that is just NOT going to happen.
And if you sit there looking at this goal that in truth, is out of reach and completely unmanageable for you, it’s not going to spur you on to take the necessary action. It’s not going to allow you to actually achieve the thing you want (whether that’s becoming debt free or a millionaire or anything else).
It’s a question of breaking it down into manageable steps. And rather like with your health, it’s about deciding which thing you want to tackle first.
If you decide that you want to be more fit and active, you might choose to start by making some little changes to your diet or walking every day (rather than telling yourself you’ll go to the gym at 6am every morning which let’s be honest, for most of us, is setting ourselves up to fail).
I don’t really like water, for example, and I knew I wasn’t drinking enough. So back before Christmas, I decided to commit to drinking one bottle of water a day. I got myself some water drops (those little fruity things you drop into your bottle to make it taste a bit nicer!) to make it easier. But I committed to drinking one 800ml bottle every day and I’ve stuck to it.
I know it’s not two litres as recommended by all the ‘gurus’ but actually for me, it’s a big thing.
It’s a step in the right direction. And if I can manage to do that consistently, day in day out, then I’m at the stage where then I can add in another positive habit.
Weekly workouts are another great example. Monday to Friday, I do a 20 minute workout each day and I have been since June last year. It’s the longest thing I’ve ever stuck to because it’s small and it’s manageable.
If in that moment of determination, I’d decided to go to the gym five times a week and do an hour’s workout and drink two litres of water every single day, would I have stuck to it? Would you? It’s never going to happen!
In reality, I probably would have fallen off the waggon within a few weeks, felt rubbish about it and then sat there with a cake or a tub of Pringles and demolished the lot in one sitting.
THE SAME GOES WITH YOUR FINANCES.
It’s important to simply do one thing at time. So if you’ve got a whole load of debt – and it’s a genuine priority and desire to get it repaid – then you might want to come up with a plan and a strategy to do it.
Starting by making sure you’ve got more money coming in than going out (which we’ve talked about at length before in other blogs) and then using some of the surplus money to pay down your debt each month.
But if you’re concentrating on paying down your debt, you probably don’t want to also be concentrating on saving for a new car or buying some big thing in the future.
It’s about making ONE thing a priority and getting it sorted, before you move on to something else. And it goes without saying that you need to set yourself manageable targets!
Maybe you’re thinking about your retirement (whatever that looks like for you) and you’d love a pot of £500,000 by the time you’re ready to step back from working so much.
So get started now with £50 a month; £100 a month – whatever works for you! It’s just about getting started, however insignificant or small the amount may seem right now, so you can let it grow and then increase the monthly amount as and when you can afford to.
Maybe in the future, you decide you don’t want Sky TV anymore, so you cancel it and put the extra money towards your pension. Maybe you decide to pay yourself a bit more from your business.
Maybe you receive an inheritance you weren’t expecting or sell some of the kid’s old clothes or stuff out of your garage (it all stacks up!).
But my point is to just START wherever you can, with whatever you’ve got right now.
You can always add more later, rather than just sitting and looking at a target that’s completely unachievable and doing nothing.
Which let’s be honest, never feels good and means you’ll be no further towards your goals a year from now, cursing yourself for not just getting started sooner!
If you’d love some support to get started – to get your financial foundations in place and take ACTION when it comes to all your money stuff, to become debt free and start building your wealth and making real progress towards your goals…
Check out my Asset Accelerator™ programme, where you’ll get SO much support and accountability!
It’s open right now for both business owners and career people at any level of income and of any gender identity or background. You don’t need to have worked with me before…
You just need to be someone who’s ready to GET STUFF DONE.
It’s a super affordable rolling monthly programme, with nothing tying you in (although you do get a discount and some brilliant bonuses if you commit to 6 or 12 months inside!).
You’ll get 1:1 time with me, to set your mini-goals for the next 3 months, and powerful monthly Implementation Sessions (where of course, you can keep all your finances completely private).
With all the tools you need to get your financial stuff sorted and real accountability to take ACTION…to move you towards your goals AND actually track your progress, so you can see that you’re getting closer and closer each month!
Here’s the link again, with all the details for you (feel free to contact me here on the website, if you want to talk it through or ask any questions!).
Above all else, as I said before…
It really is just about getting started. Right now. TODAY.
And then taking those steps, one day at a time, to get to where you want to be (faster than you might think, too).
Because a year from now, you’ll be so glad you did…
See you inside the Asset Accelerator™!
Claire