Personal finance is specific to you. Therefore, each person has their own financial journey. Knowing where you currently are and ultimately what goals you want to accomplish is key to building what I call a financial roadmap.
I have previously rattled off a number of statistics regarding
I have previously rattled off a number of statistics regarding our increasing debt loads, relatively flat incomes, and resulting hopelessness.
To calibrate your life and finances toward your ultimate aspirations, you need to know where you are currently.
The first step in this process follows the auditing aspect of the audit, augment, automate process––pulling together all your income sources, including your vocation, side hustle, rental properties, dividends, and commissions.
Next, determine all of your monthly expenses, which will include your rent, mortgage, car payments, utilities, phone bill, and so on.
Finally, take a look at your savings and investment portfolio. You will need this information to get an accurate assessment of where you are in each of the following blogs in this series.
If you are seemingly sinking financially, we will look at both your inflow (income sources) as well as your outflow (living expenses).
We will be looking through this financial information and then seeing how you rate in regards to the overall health of your finances to be able to briefly review your financial standing––where you are progressing and regressing.
If you need a refresher on the areas we are going to cover, here are the previous blogs:
- Good: Budgeting With The 80/20 Rule
- Better: Budgeting With The 50/30/20 Rule
- Best: Budgeting With a Zero-Based Budget Approach
- Proven Tools to Master the Offense of Wealth Building
- Expense: Plan to Spend
- Proven Tools to Master The Defense of Wealth Preservation
- How Much Should I Save? Part 1
- How Much Should I Save? Part 2
- Give Even When You Don’t Feel Like It
- How Much To Save For Retirement?
If you already went through the process of building a plan to spend, whether through The 80/20 Rule, The 50/30/20 Rule, or The Zero-Based Budget Approach, you probably already have this financial information ready to go. However, if you haven\’t, take a look at the additional blogs listed above before evaluating your specific financial situation.
