By Liz Anoushka
Financial independence and prosperity are goals everyone should have. They are not impossible to attain and it’s never too late to embark on a journey to your financial success. It’s not an easy fit though and requires great resilience and focus.
3. A road-map
The fastest way to get somewhere is to know where exactly you are right now, where it is you want to go, how to get there, how long the journey might take, when to set off, and what it is you will need and not need on your journey.
Take some time to reflect on your current situation, your savings and spending habits, your sources of income and how steady or unsteady they are or have been, and clearly identify the goals you want to achieve this time round.
It’s best to keep your goals as few as possible (3 perhaps but start with one and stick to it till you achieve it). Your goals or targets should also be straightforward, ambitious but achievable, measurable, and time-bound.
2. Self-discipline
Knowing what it is you want and having an awesome plan is not enough! It’s much easier to ditch the plan, trivialise your goals, procrastinate and retreat into the vicious cycle of endless excuses as to why you couldn’t stick to your plan because of unforeseen emergencies or hard-to-resist tempting expenditures.
Depending on how much achieving financial freedom means to you, an honest self-check will help you identify any bad habits and weaknesses you have that could hinder your success on this savings journey.
Acknowledging your weaknesses is a great start, maybe you can’t resist buying each latest trending gadget or fashion piece, or you can’t help but fill a trolley with all the supermarket stuff you had no plans of buying, perhaps you would rather borrow to satisfy ‘instant gratification’, or like to help your friends out each time even when you don’t have enough money to live-off yourself.
Whatever your weakness, it’s more profitable for you to ‘force’ yourself out of your ‘comfort’ (danger) zone, as unexciting as it may seem at the moment, so you can be financially sound later.
1. Consistency
Now that we’ve embarked on this journey, it’s important to stay on course. Assuming you decide to set aside 10% to 30% each week or month as savings starting this month, it’s crucial that you stick to this plan no matter what.
And afterwards you maintain the momentum. Consistency helps in habit-forming. Your financial dilemmas are most likely due to some unwise financial habits you have ‘consistently’ formed over the years, breaking this cycle will require consistency to cement your newly acquired positive financial habits.
Within three months your new habits will make saving seem almost natural to you as old habits would have gradually phased out and new habits taken their place.
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