It’s ok to love money. There are a lot of people who think money is intrinsically bad or who were raised with that belief. Money amplifies the type of person that someone already was. Money matters for different reasons to different people. The top three reasons to love money are for freedom, to positively impact your community, and to secure yours and your family’s future.
Goal Setting
The defeat of student loans
When I got into the college of my dreams and got scholarships to cover part of the cost, I thought I’d be stupid not to go. When I came out of college with over $100,000 in student loan debt I thought just how stupid I’d been to go. Over the last 7 years, as I’ve worked to pay off my student loans my emotions have ranged, but for the most part I’ve been mad at the loans. Really, really angry. All I could think of some days was the defeat of the student loans. I’ve been doing everything I can to knock out these loans as quickly as possible while trying to focus on the Big Picture behind my budget and what I plan to achieve now that my loans are dead. This week I made my final payment EVER on my student loans.
How to painlessly save for your goals
Do you have a goal with your money, but you aren’t sure how to get there? Want to learn how to painlessly save for your goals? Let’s say, for example, that you want to save 10% of your paycheck. You might have noticed that even if you plan to save 10%, somehow when you look at your bank account the 10% always seems to be missing. Let me tell you a mind trick for your money: sometimes you have to fool yourself to achieve your goals. So how can you painlessly save for your goals?
Why Financial Coaching?
Do you know your financial situation isn’t what you want, but you’re not sure where to start to get on track? Do you have financial stress that keeps you up at night? Do you feel like your money is out of control and wish there was something you could do, but you feel so overwhelmed? Do you hear yourself having the same fights over and over again with your partner about money? Do you feel like something has to change and you could really use some guidance, but you aren’t sure where to turn? Do you find yourself overspending without thinking about it and then not having money to spend on things that truly matter to you? Do you ever get paid and just wonder what exactly happens to your money since no matter how much you make, you never seem to have enough? Do you wonder why financial coaching could help you?
Financial coaching is the perfect solution for anyone who wants help creating a budget, making a plan to get out of debt, creating financial goals, and saving more money. Jacki takes a complicated topic and breaks it down in easy to understand steps so you leave with a clear action plan on what to do next to get one step closer to the financial life of your dreams. As someone who at one time had more student loan debt than was on her mortgage, Jacki fully understands the stress of debt and how much it can impact every area of your life. She also knows that by making very strategic budgeting choices, you can more quickly get out of debt and change your financial situation. There is no situation too dire and no one too far gone to help as long as you are willing to make the effort to change and create a better life for yourself with non-judgmental help and encouragement from your financial coach.
Jacki is a college graduate who has been budgeting for over 10 years. She tutored high school math for several years and had success greatly improving grades for students who believed they were not good at math. In 2018 alone, she and her husband stuck to a strict budget and were able to pay off over $50,000 of student loan debt. She believes the topic of money should not be off limits or taboo. She thinks that anyone who is willing to work for their long term, big picture budget goals can achieve them, especially when given the right resources and support.
Think of how much better your life could be if you didn’t have debt payments eating into your income. Think of how much you’d be able to save and how free you’d feel without the burden of debt. Imagine what you could do with your life when you don’t have that stress weighing on you. Learn how to take control of your money and take back control of your life. When you have a clear plan, money is a lot less stressful and that’s just one reason why financial coaching is an important investment in yourself.
When you book your Spark session you’ll get:
- Free, no obligation 15 minute call with Jacki to discuss your personal situation, see if you’re a good coaching match, and determine if you’re ready for the Financial Makeover session.
- If you move forward to the Spark virtual coaching session, you’ll get clear direction on how to gather some initial information before the meeting so you can get right down to business and you can get the most for your money during the coaching session time.
- The Spark virtual coaching session is a 2 hour session. You’ll leave with a clear understanding of your budget, a debt freedom plan, and the confidence that you can manage your money- and do it well!
- This offer includes 3 free bonus printables:
- Budget Template
- Debt Tracker Template
- Bill Payment Tracking Template
Money Goal Setting
Goal setting is all the buzz, so much so that you might wonder if goal setting is even worth all the hype. Goal setting is really important especially if you take time to consider why your specific goal is important to you and why you want to achieve that goal, and you are prepared to overcome challenges that undoubtedly will come your way as you make progress towards achieving your goal. When you set your goals, it isn’t good enough to just know where you want to end up to achieve the goal. You also have to have some idea about how you will get there because if you don’t, not only will your goal just feel too big, but it will also be easy for you to just not know where to start. Goal setting for your money helps you know what your budget is helping you achieve.
Top 5 books and podcasts of 2019
How can you find the top 5 books and podcasts of 2019? Hint: start with this list.
Every year there are so many great books released that it’s hard to pick which ones to read first. I spend a lot of time in the car listening to podcasts and that’s a great way to hear what books are new. I listen to podcasts on all different topics, but they mostly are personal finance and motivational. It actually wasn’t until putting this list together that I realized some of my favorite podcast hosts have released books this year. The top 5 books and podcasts go together. Whether you prefer to read or listen, or do both, here are my top 5 book and podcast recommendations for 2019.
Goal Setting Worksheet
Think about goals. Do you think of a one and done event or is it an ongoing process? Do you wonder why your goals haven’t worked out before? A goal setting worksheet could be the answer to truly track your goals and watch your progress toward the target. My Dad loves goal setting. As a kid, I always thought goal setting was the biggest joke. Every year I saw my Dad working diligently on his goals and after that day, I never heard anything about it again. So I tried it one year. I worked to create these goals that I wanted to achieve, created some really good ones and then waited for them to magically come true. I didn’t realize that after you set the goals you needed to actually do something to achieve them. I didn’t see that part of the process. I didn’t see the part where you had to continually remind yourself of the goal and evaluate what progress you had made. I didn’t understand that after Dad made his goals, he worked to achieve them. Now that I’m older, I fully understand that goals don’t magically come true (that’s dreams), but there’s some work to set yourself up to succeed and achieve your goals.
Step up your budget
Let’s be honest. Money is hard. Motivational books talk about not coming from a place of scarcity, but coming from an abundant mindset to attract the life you want. Now whether or not you believe in the ‘law of attraction,’ it’s true that money often feels scarce. At one time or another in your life, I bet you’ve felt it too. No matter how much money you have, there never feels like enough. It feels spent before you earn it, like there is always more you want than what you have. And while that might be true (or at least feel true), you need to remember that this phase in your money life is temporary. Just a season. And as tough as it might be right now, you can keep going and change the course of your next money season. You just need a plan. You need to step up your budget to get your money on track and achieve your goals.
Increase your home’s value with the power of DIY
So you purchased a home, congrats! Now if you’re anything like me, you simultaneously want to give the house a touch of your style, increase its value, and not break your budget. With some planning and a careful watch on your spending, you can transform this home into one that could only be yours and one where you truly feel peaceful. There are some home projects that without technical skills you should not try to master (electrical work for one). However, there are others that you can tackle yourself. With a little help from YouTube videos or some help from friends, you can put a little money, a lot of energy, a lot of hard work, and some time into making your home exactly how you want it. You can increase your home’s value with the power of DIY.
Pick the right new home
Planning to buy a home can be both a very exciting and a stressful time. In order to make your initial savings goal for your house’s downpayment, you need to first determine how much you plan to spend on the house. This is absolutely not the maximum amount that the bank says you qualify for in a mortgage. It’s easy to let emotions take over once the excitement of buying a house gets into your mind. You need to make sure that you know your goal and that what is important to you stays at the top of your mind throughout the house buying process. It’s also imperative to know how much house you really need and can really afford to achieve your Big Picture Budget goal and to make sure that you don’t end up over your head financially, unhappy, and house poor.