TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR Finances A Step-by-Step Checklist Step 1 Create a Weekly Money Ritual Dedicate 1 hour per week to focus on your finances. For tips on how to spend that time, check out this helpful resource. Step 2 Heal Your Relationship With Money Uncover your patterns, history, and story when it comes to money. Write a letter to money addressing anything you need to say from the past. Write your new money persona - who you WANT to be when it comes to money. Step 3 Track your Finances & Your Net Worth Take note every dollar that comes in and goes out of your life. Distinguish between needs & wants. Target spending no more than 50% of your income on needs, no more than 30% on wants, and ideally saving 20% each month. How much money do you have in each of your accounts, how much debt do you owe & at what interest rate. Subtract your debts from your assets to get your Net Worth number. Step 4 Financial Goals Set financial goals and make them specific. Set a short-term goal based on our Wealth Building Roadmap (see the icon to the left). Set a long-term goal based on your values and what you care about. Make an action plan and a monthly savings target to achieve your goals. Subtract your debts from your assets to get your Net Worth number. Step 5 Savings Set up auto-savings for the monthly savings target you chose in Step 4 Open a high interest online savings account and transfer money automatically each month from your paycheck. Step 6 Start Budgeting Join the Million Dollar Year for our step-by-step introduction to budgeting, including the templates, spreadsheets, and training to make it easy to set-up and stick to. Step 7 Identify your Values Find ways to spend money in alignment with what you care about and stop spending money on things that aren’t in alignment. Step 8 Build an Emergency Fund Use our Emergency Fund Calculator to determine how much you need to save for YOUR Emergency Fund. Start contributing to your Fund each month until it’s fully funded. Step 9 Increase your Credit Score Use the steps in this video to learn what to do to raise your credit score today. Step Save for Retirement 10 Learn how much you’ll need to save each month using this calculator. Learn what type of retirement account to open using this quiz. Step 11 Invest and Earn Passive Income Watch our Free Guide to Investing. Invest your retirement money in Target Date Funds for a simple, hands-off approach. Step Determine your Philanthropic Plan 12 Decide how you want to use your money to support what you care about in the world. Set up annual contributions to give to causes you care about. This checklist comes directly from our Million Dollar Year curriculum. To learn more, click here.
