Are you struggling to handle job, family, household, friends and much more - all at the same time? And does your day just not have enough hours to think about you, your dreams and your future?
We totally understand that in all these daily challenges - which seem never to end - you simply don't have the time to think about your future. Not to mention, to think about how you could make more out of your 'hard earned money' to secure your future and achieve your goals.
But life is unpredictable and it has many surprises, good and bad once, waiting for us. So thinking about your future, what you would like to achieve and where you see yourself in a few years is essential to control your life. Don't let someone else or your busy daily living taking over your personal life-steering wheel.
Here are 4 simple steps to get started...
Learn more about your personal money relationship
This is a bit of a self-reflection process but a very important beginning.
It's likely that your personal beliefs about money were formed during childhood, since we tend to inherit assumptions and prejudices from our parents and our environment.
Try to figure out your unconscious relationship and attitude towards money. This is the first step to taking control of these beliefs and, where needed, changing them to make your money work for what you truly want.
To get started, ask yourself:
- What was I taught about money growing up?
- What money messages do I carry with me?
- What was the last major financial decision that I made and how did I approach it?
Use our guide to lead you through the self-reflection process.
- See where you stand with our financial health check. This is a unique questionnaire that will show you your starting point and where you need to focus
> take the financial health check
- Our guide with content, tools and quizzes helps you with your self-reflection process step-by-step. These are the topics you'll cover: Happiness and money, what does money mean to you, what are your money worries, how to establish healthy money habits
> get started
Gain clarity about your life goals, dreams and your motivation to achieve them
You might not see how thinking about your hopes and dreams could be connected to your financial fitness, but if you can turn your dreams into plans, you’re much more likely to make them happen. And once you start turning your plans into specific, well defined goals it’s much easier to connect them to your financial plans.
How you get started:
- Write down your goals/dreams
- Categorise your goals by timings - short-, medium- and long-term
- Break down your goals into smaller more tangible steps
- Put a price tag behind each goal/step
Most importantly... learn from others: we all know people who seem to have their lives sorted – so why not learn from them? Hesitant to talk to them? You shouldn't - people who are confident and happy making financial plans are less likely to find it stressful or embarrassing to discuss. So go and ask.
Do you need help in this process?
We help you with content, quizzes and simple checklist to get from defining your goals to building your first financial plan.
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Financial Plan Checklist
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Evaluate where you stand today and how your financial situation looks like
To achieve your life goals you need to know more than just your destination – you also need to know where you’re starting from.
Do you have clarity about:
- Your total worth?
- Do you have transparency about your income and expenses?
- Do you know your financial liabilities?
We know, that this is not a fun process but important!
So let's do it and evaluate your financial situation. Our tools help you to make it as easy as possible.
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Evaluate your personal amount that you can invest
To achieve your life goals it’s important to have tangible targets. After defining your goals and assessing your current financial situation, the next step is to set your budget and determine what you can save to achieve your target.
You need to...
- know how to design and manage a budget. And yes a budget is important!
- define your saving target and build good habits
- make a plan how to reduce debts if you have any
This goes kind of hand in hand with step 3. So don't think too much about it, sit down and dive into it to get it done.
You'll feel better afterwards! Promised!
Set your budget and saving targets.
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Congratulations!
If you worked through these 4 steps, you are a huge step closer to financial independence, health and happiness.
You know now your life goals, how much money you have today, how much money you'll need and what you need to do to achieve them.
As a next step before starting investing, it's important to understand the practical basics. Keep reading here...
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