January is here again. A brand new year full of potential, expectancy, and yes…expectations that we tend to place on ourselves this time of year.
Financial management is one of the most common areas people identify as needing improvement. This urge to improve is particularly heightened as they step into their financial planner’s office, suddenly aware of all the things they think they should be doing with their money.
(It’s like stepping into the dentist’s office and wishing you had flossed every day since your last check-up.)
Well, take comfort, my friends. I will not be giving you one more thing to feel guilty about not doing. Instead, I’d like to invite you to think about why your “should-dos” aren’t lining up with your “will-dos”.
Is the answer as simple as being honest with yourself about your current priorities? Perhaps you need to give yourself permission to just focus on your top 3 or 4 priorities at this point in time. Rather than feel guilty about your lower priority goals, you could intentionally set those aside for a season…thereby effectively removing them from the annoying “should-do” list onto the “will-do-in-the-future” list.
Now you’ve had some comfort, so here’s the challenge: don’t neglect the top 3 or 4 priorities. One simple thing you could do today is take inventory of your current cash flow situation using the Free Budget (Cash Flow) Template on the Resources page of my website.
Happy New Year!
