Sunday, July 28, 2013
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Sunday, July 21, 2013
Challenge to change
Challenge to Change
We have all heard the saying, if you want a different result you need to do something different to get it. That is very true, but it is not comfortable. If you want to lose weight, you have to change your eating and exercise habits. I can give you a few pointers on those things but I will just stick with your personal finance. If you are tired of the same pattern your life is in, try a couple of quick changes and stick to them. If they are not working change them. I will issue you a budget challenge, a debt challenge and a saving challenge. Pick an area that you want to work on and dive in. Here they go-
1. Budget Challenge- If you dont live on a written budget every month this may be for you. First list all of your expenses, debts, bills, hobbies etc. List them in order of importance. (Hint-Food, clothing, shelter, Transportation and utilities most important.) Set the amounts you need to spend and make sure you stick to them. Remember this concept that the government cannot, you cannot spend more money than you make. When you have spent every dollar you made, on paper, you are finished. If you come up short you have to either make more money or cut some categories. Download a budget here if you like.
2. Debt Challenge- Maybe you are on a budget and you have been on cruse control for the summer and have not attacked your debts the way you like. List all of your debts smallest to largest, squeeze all of the money you can out of the budget and attack the smallest debt like ants at a picnic!! To give yourself a little motivation add up all of your non- mortgage monthly debt payments and see how much you could be keeping yourself instead of sending it to others. Once you are good and mad throw everything you can at the smallest debt and start knocking it out. Remember debt robs you of the ability to build wealth. Visa has a plan for your money make your plan better than theirs.
3. Saving- With school coming up in less than a month, and the holidays around the corner, you will need to buy things. The best purchase plan is to pay for it and be done. You cannot wait until you make more money to save because you will always spend it before it gets in the savings account. Put your savings in your budget first and pay yourself first. Determine what you will need to have for what ever you are saving for and sacrifice to get there. The holidays are much more fun when they are paid for!!
Let me know if you have any questions. Also let me know how you do, it helps to here the successes of others who have the same struggles. It is encouraging!!
Tim West
706-840-0992
Quotes to think about:
When everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane. Stephen Wright
We have all heard the saying, if you want a different result you need to do something different to get it. That is very true, but it is not comfortable. If you want to lose weight, you have to change your eating and exercise habits. I can give you a few pointers on those things but I will just stick with your personal finance. If you are tired of the same pattern your life is in, try a couple of quick changes and stick to them. If they are not working change them. I will issue you a budget challenge, a debt challenge and a saving challenge. Pick an area that you want to work on and dive in. Here they go-
1. Budget Challenge- If you dont live on a written budget every month this may be for you. First list all of your expenses, debts, bills, hobbies etc. List them in order of importance. (Hint-Food, clothing, shelter, Transportation and utilities most important.) Set the amounts you need to spend and make sure you stick to them. Remember this concept that the government cannot, you cannot spend more money than you make. When you have spent every dollar you made, on paper, you are finished. If you come up short you have to either make more money or cut some categories. Download a budget here if you like.
2. Debt Challenge- Maybe you are on a budget and you have been on cruse control for the summer and have not attacked your debts the way you like. List all of your debts smallest to largest, squeeze all of the money you can out of the budget and attack the smallest debt like ants at a picnic!! To give yourself a little motivation add up all of your non- mortgage monthly debt payments and see how much you could be keeping yourself instead of sending it to others. Once you are good and mad throw everything you can at the smallest debt and start knocking it out. Remember debt robs you of the ability to build wealth. Visa has a plan for your money make your plan better than theirs.
3. Saving- With school coming up in less than a month, and the holidays around the corner, you will need to buy things. The best purchase plan is to pay for it and be done. You cannot wait until you make more money to save because you will always spend it before it gets in the savings account. Put your savings in your budget first and pay yourself first. Determine what you will need to have for what ever you are saving for and sacrifice to get there. The holidays are much more fun when they are paid for!!
Let me know if you have any questions. Also let me know how you do, it helps to here the successes of others who have the same struggles. It is encouraging!!
Tim West
706-840-0992
Quotes to think about:
"You can't build a reputation on what you're GOING to do." Henry Ford
A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor people perfected without trials.
We cannot start over, but we can begin now, and make a new beginning" Zig Ziglar
Sunday, July 14, 2013
Its Time To Act
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Sunday, June 30, 2013
Why and What
What
and why
In dealing with people and their finances I
not only teach them what to do with their money, but we have to understand why
they got to this place financially. Everyone usually starts out thinking that
they are broke because they don’t make enough or that one certain circumstance
caused them to get behind and stay there.
Some times this is true, but not always.
If a person can add and subtract they have the head knowledge to know
when to stop spending. If financial
problems were just a math issue we would never spend more than we have. Personal finance is more behavior than head
knowledge. There is usually a behavioral
reason as to why we spend more than we make other than just not paying
attention or bad luck. Although paying attention is part of it, we also may be trying
to cover up an inward problem or a possible addiction. We try to treat the problem with spending
money to make us feel good. Financial problems show up, a lot of the
times, just a symptom of the real problem. Our financial problems can point to
the real issue when we unpack everything.
Bankruptcy attorneys tell us that filing bankruptcy will solve our
problems. Bankruptcy just treats the symptoms
and never changes the spending habits we have developed that cause the
problems. Once you determine why you are having
financial problems, and why you want to get out, you can determine what to do
to fix the problem. Money, or the lack
of it, can get your emotions in high gear.
We are created to use our mind as well as our emotions to get our
finances under control. It takes head
knowledge and emotional passion to change your life to go in the direction you
want it to go. Can you imagine your life
being debt free and having 3-6 months of living expenses in an emergency
savings account? If this sounds good to
you, start to change your life by finding out- why you are where you are at
financially,- and why you need to change.
These answers will tell you what you need to do. Let
me know if I can help you with your plan!
Tim West
Go West Coaching 6-30-13
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Building a life or building a prison.
Building
a life or building a prison
I
have always heard if you want total security, food, clothing, and shelter that
prison is the best place to find these things. You will never have to worry
missing out on these things in prison. You
will get them daily. Our default mode in life is usually “play it
safe” for ourselves and our families. In football they call it the prevent
defense. It usually keeps teams from winning. We
always have that dream of what we want and we compare it with the reality of
where we are at in our lives. When
reality does not measure up with our dreams we get discouraged at where we are
at in life. We may be comfortable but it
is not quiet our dream so we get settled where we are at and determine to keep
that status. The longer we stay the same in life and put off our dreams and
desires, the more valuable settling where we are at gets. We
listen to ourselves and others and in the name of responsible and reasonable
and we determine that chasing a dream is foolish. Once
this thought settles in, we protect what we do have and say this is great and
we build the walls around that to keep us in and set up a prison we were not
intended for. We will choose to do
things that keep the status quo whether we realize it or not. We do this all to
keep everything the same and strengthen the walls of our custom built
prison. If this is not your dream then
begin to act on where God is moving you. He is usually moving you to help
people in His name and He gives us dreams and desires for direction. Remember we are here to glorify God by
enjoying Him forever. It hard to have
true joy in prison, I would think. Watch
out who you associate with also because a lot of people don’t want you to
succeed and be happy. If you hang out with people who limp you will
eventually develop a limp yourself. You
may ask “what if I fail?” You will, but don’t make failure permanent. Failure is life’s way of adjusting your path
and getting you back on track. And
remember it will not happen as quickly as you like. It’s all part of the adventure. So begin to act and open the cell door also
feel free to mess up, because you will. If you don’t mess up you are not doing
something right! So dream, enjoy, and
remember to build a life not a prison.
Tim West
Go West Coaching 6-20-13
Sunday, June 9, 2013
Saving just start somewhere
Saving
– just start somewhere
We don’t save like we
use to for many different reasons. Here are a few statistics to help show where
we are as a nation: 38% of American adults have an emergency fund. 41% save
something regularly, $ 35,000 is the average amount saved for retirement in
America. Out of people who do save for retirement only 18% feel they have
enough saved when they do retire. Now I
can try to make you feel bad and list all of the other countries that do better
at savings than us, or tell you how the generations past always saved better
than we save. Or I can fill you with
fear, doom and gloom to scare you into saving more, but you can watch the news
or go online and get that. I don’t want
to beat people up, it never works, I just want you to start somewhere so you don’t
have to depend on someone else when you need money. We will all have financial
emergencies in our life; saving helps us have a plan for them. I have had one for the last three months and figured
out I need to save more! (I am not perfect; I hope I don’t try to sound like I
am.) Let’s identify what keeps us in America
from saving more besides being taxed more.
The more we make the more we spend. The first thing we think when we
make more money in America is what can I buy next? We are endlessly advertised to by T.V.,
radio, internet, magazines, billboards, mail, cars wrapped with ads, clothes, and
everything else. All of the
advertisements tend to make us feel like we are lacking something and their
product will fill that void and we spend our hard earned money on the
product. Once we have it we will find
out that that thing is not the thing to fix our lives and make us happy forever
and we look for something else to buy to fill that void. We can stay in this
cycle for decades and spend what we could have saved and retire or enjoy life
more. Basically we turn these things into idols, and an idol is something we
look to, to bring us joy and satisfaction. We make it an ultimate thing. Be
careful that we do not make an idol with money also. Money is a tool, not a god. Enjoy your stuff don’t look for it you make
you eternally happy. Another problem is
that we are in a microwave society, we want it and we want it now. We are used to getting what we want instantly
from, cooking to information. If there
is something we don’t know we Google it
with our phones. How many of you
remember waiting for an hour or two while one of your brothers or sisters was
on the phone!? I was the younger one and
had the joy of bothering my sister while she was on the phone. A whole generation will miss out because
everyone has a phone now! So, don’t panic they make more than one of the things
you want and you will have time to buy it!
The next reason we spend and don’t save is because we want to keep up
with everyone else buying stuff. We are
always trying to impress people we may never see again, or don’t even
like. Also, it is easier to spend more when we do
not use cash. I myself can keep hitting
the “add” to cart button while online shopping and not realize how full the
cart is when checking out on Amazon! Use
cash when possible and set an amount in your budget when you are shopping. Lastly don’t get to the point where you think
you are too far gone that you say, what is the use of keeping up with what you
spend, there is no hope, just enjoy life. Usually there is a lot more life left
when we think this way and guess what, it requires money! Don’t give up hope. There is always hope because you can start
doing things differently with a plan for
your money. Not everyone can save
10-20% with their each pay check. Don’t panic,
start somewhere whether it is $5 a week or a $100 a week. Get in the habit of paying yourself first before paying others and budget
some blow money so you can buy some stuff for fun!
Tim West
Go West Coaching 6-9-13
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