Achieving your financial goals with peace and clarity – A How to Guide  

Managing personal finances effectively can transform your life, reducing stress and paving the way for financial freedom. We all want to achieve our financial goals with peace clarity, don’t we? But how do we get there without feeling frazzled and worn out…

At Wealthstack, we recognize the power of seeing all your financial goals, products and investments in one place mixed with good budgeting habits will have a calm-inducing, impact-giving effect on your financial wellness.

By incorporating a few key financial principles, getting a comprehensive Wealthstack Dashboard and using our free budgeting tool, you can create a robust financial plan that supports your goals and aligns with your values. In other words, it’s not only believable but achievable too! 

1. Align your Financial Goals

To start your financial journey, it’s crucial to set and regularly review your financial goals. Where you’re headed is always the most important piece of the puzzle. Whether you aim to save for a down payment, build an emergency fund, or plan for retirement, having clear objectives gives direction to your financial planning.

Take time to assess your progress periodically too. Are you on track to achieve your goals? If not, don’t be disheartened. Recommit and adjust your strategies as needed. Utilize the personalized Wealthstack dashboard to track your goals and milestones effectively, keeping you motivated and on course. With your dashboard comes the ever-present help of a Wealthstack Expert ready to spot the pitfalls, guide you back on track and help you find the best way forward. 

2. Understanding and Managing Spending Habits

Effective paths to financial wellness are laid with solid budgeting. And a budget begins with a clear understanding of your spending habits and needs. Analyzing your expenses over the past few months can highlight areas where you might be overspending as well as solidifying your needs that you can’t reduce or remove. We suggest that you categorize your expenditure to see where your money has been going in the past few months and identify opportunities to cut unnecessary costs. Through looking back, you’re building a solid plan for going forward. 

Our free budgeting tool can help visualize your spending patterns, making it easier to see where adjustments are needed. With a clear picture of your financial behavior, you can create a budget and plan that reflects your reality and supports your goals (we’re aiming for financial wellness with peace and clarity, remember?).

3. Creating a Realistic and Sustainable Budget

Once you understand your spending habits, the next step is to create a sustainable budget. Key word here being ‘sustainable.’ A good budget isn’t one that looks shiny and “correct,’ and it isn’t about severe restrictions. A good budget is smart allocation of your resources – where you can use them best. Consider the 70/20/10 ratio: allocate 70% of your income to living expenses, 20% to savings, and 10% to generosity.

Using our budgeting tool, you can customize and maintain a budget that works for you. This tool helps you set realistic limits on your spending, ensuring you live within your means while still enjoying life’s pleasures and saving for the future.

4. Implementing Key Financial Principles

Incorporating essential financial principles into your budgeting process can enhance your financial wellness. Why? Because money is more than just a figure on your bank balance. Here are four principles to guide you in your pursuit of your financial goals. Essentially, these keep the money conversations (in your head or with your family) more grounded, realistic and future-focused.

Try them out: 

1. Stewardship: View your finances as a resource you manage rather than own. Spend less than you earn and focus on growing your resources responsibly. This mindset encourages you to save and invest wisely, setting up future generations for success. Ever heard about Bread Money & Seed Money?
2. Contentment: Avoid the trap of constantly comparing yourself to others. Be satisfied with what you have and focus on your financial goals. Contentment helps resist unnecessary spending and keeps you on track to avoid debt.
3. Worldview: Understand your financial motivations and values. Align your spending and saving habits with your long-term goals. Every dollar should have a purpose, contributing to your overall financial plan and ensuring that your actions reflect your values.
4. Generosity: Practice giving and create financial margin. Allocate a portion of your budget to giving and ensure you have extra funds for unexpected needs. Generosity enriches your life and supports others, fostering a healthy relationship with money.

5. Remember, slow and steady wins the race

Always keep in mind that there is no short cut to wealth or quick fix for debt. It takes patience and determination to stick to your budget, hold tight to your plan and be steadfast in your financial values. Distraction, comparison and fear will rob you of a future filled with financial freedom. It doesn’t matter if you’re saving $100 or investing thousands in ETFs every month, wherever you’re at right now, is what you have to stick to. And with time (and compound interest) you’ll reach your goals (without all the fretting or fear). 

This is exactly where the Wealthstack Dashboard gives you power! You set your goals (with a Wealthstack Expert’s helpful guidance), plan out your budget and get on with your life. While you work, save, give and invest, you’ll see the needle start to move on your Wealthscore (our super-simple metric that helps you track your progress). 

A little patience goes a long way!