Financial Planning

Financial planning is necessary if you want to work less and play more. If you are like most people, you may be in debt over your head and be stuck in a dead end job with no opportunities for increasing your income.

There are two ways to manage your money - spend less than you make or make more than you spend. Either way you need to know what you are spending or what you need to make.

The first step in financial planning is finding that out so you can see more clearly what you need to change. Tracking your income and expenses in detail over a few month period can help you to start coming out of the 'money fog'.

Make a simple worksheet as it is outlined in Mikelann Valterra's book Why Women Earn Less: How to Make What You're Really Worth. While this book is geared towards women, it really applies to anyone who is not making what they need or want.

Track all of your expenses down to the dollar. The purpose in tracking your expenses is not necessarily to tell you to cut out your daily 'latte' factor like some financial advisers recommend. The process is really about learning to become more aware of money and your relationship with it. Since money is a part of everyone's lives it has a way of bringing up all of your issues and fears. Your early years of life create your money blueprint and the way to uncovering it is to track where your money goes. You can then make getter decisions on where to spend it or it will help you decide that you just need to make more.

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