Your Checklist to Financial Success

I have always liked checklists.

They help me to organize things better and get accomplished more in my life.

When I am eager to make progress in a certain area, but I don’t exactly know what steps to take, I sit down, think it through and make a list of things that will take me to my goal.

Here you will find my personal financial checklist that pretty much covers all of the steps, that I have taken in the past 20 years of my life to become and stay financially successful.

Some of the listed items are quite big and time consuming, but most of them are simple tasks that anyone can accomplish in one day.

Some of them probably will be relevant to your situation, and some of them will not.

I called it my personal financial checklist, because everyone’s situation is very unique.

Remember! It is never too late to start out and try to get yourself into a better position financially.

I would recommend spending the next 2-3 months and checking off as many things on this list as possible.

If you do that, you will be on your way to financial success!

So here we go:

My Personal Checklist

To Financial Success

1. Make a Commitment to Yourself to Spend Less Money Than You Earn

I could definitely end this checklist right here, and it would be sufficient. Just about everything listed below falls into this very important category.

Spending less than you earn is the key to building wealth, and is the most important lesson when it comes to personal finance.

You can do everything else right, but if you spend more money than you earn, you will NEVER be in a good financial position!

This is the simple rule that allows families living on a $ 43,000/year salary to retire with millions of dollars, and also the rule that causes millionaires to go bankrupt. You have to decide that you will not spend more money than you earn. Period!

2. Pay off All Your Consumer Debts

Do not be a slave to your lender. If you get to choose to be a slave or a free man in this area, what would you prefer? I would choose to be free.

A great benefit of paying off your debt is is that you have a lot more financial peace, and can also build wealth faster when you are debt free.

3. Negotiate a Better Rate with Credit Card Companies

While I was working to pay down my debt, I called my credit card companies to negotiate a better interest rate.

It is not always a guarantee, but very often I  would get off the phone with a better interest rate than when I called.

4. Create a Budget and Stick to It

Creating a budget is not as difficult as you think. I love having a budget in place.

It does not really feel like my hands are tied up, but rather that I am more free to spend money in the areas I would like to.

There are lot of ways of budgeting from writing on a simple piece of paper with all your debits on the left and credits on the right to using budgeting software or other tools.

Having a budget can help you in your life and marriage to save thousands of dollars on items that are not priority, and give you more peace of mind with your money.

5. Always Get the Employer Match on Your 401k

If your employer has a matching program in your 401k (and most of them do), you should try to take advantage of that if at all possible.

My current employer has a 75% matching program. So if I put in $ 100, they put in $ 75. That is a 75% return on my investment. This is the easiest way to boost your retirement dollars.

6. Immediately Start an Emergency Fund

This was another thing that gave me a lot more peace with my finances. Unfortunatelly unexpected things can happen, it’s just a matter of time.

You can loose your job or get into an accident or get a lot of medical bills etc. Use your emergency fund as an excuse to save even more money.

7. Get Rid off All of Your Junk

Everyone has something to get rid off and make some money.

There are a lot of sites that you can use to sell your stuff: Craigslist is very popular in the Phoenix area, most of the adds are free. But you could also use EBay, Amazon etc.

A little extra cash for the items you don’t use can help to pay some bills and get rid off your debt much faster.

8. Create a ”Success Sheet”

A “Success Sheet” is a snapshot of your current financial situation. 

Update it every month to see how much debt you managed to pay off and how much money you saved.

It’s very motivating for me when I see progress in my numbers every single month. 

It is quite fun and helpful at the same time to monitor your financial progress.

9. Organize Your Accounts in Financial Institutions

I decided for myself that I need only 2 bank accounts: savings and checking.

Everything I make goes to my savings account, and I transfer a certain amount that I figured on my budget sheet into my checking account to pay all my bills on a monthly basis.

The remaining balance stays on my savings that I promise to myself not to touch under no circumstances. It’s proven to be an efficient way for me to manage my money.

10. Limit Your Monthly Expenses

If you are really trying to save money or get out of debt, you need to thoroughly examine every single one of your regular expenses.

11. Evaluate Your Car Situation

I truly believe that one of the biggest things is that Americans spend way too much of their income on cars.

All my life I have been saving up money for my next car, so I always bought it for cash.

I always tried to drive my old car for as long as I could to save not just on car payment, but also on insurance and registration.

So the only debt I really have is my mortgage. 

12. Pay off Your House Early

As part of getting out of debt, I want to live without a mortgage as well. 

I found out that just adding $100 towards my principal payment every month will shave 10 years off my 30 year mortgage. 

Is not this beautiful?…

Imagine for a moment your power bill being the most expensive bill each month. I can not wait!

Feel free to add some more items to this list to make it personal to achieve your financial success!  

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Information  Source: Christian Personal Finance

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