Five Immediate Steps to Take
Set up your financial filing system.
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This shouldl take you at most two hours to complete. When you’re done, you’ll know where to locate all of your financial documents, and you will be one step closer to setting realistic financial goals for yourself.
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Start tracking your expenses.
We’ve given you the steps and the cash flow worksheet, so don’t wait another day to start tracking your expenses! You should track expenses for two weeks and once you’re done, you’ll be surprised where your money goes and what you can start doing without in order to start saving for your financial goals. -
Determine your net worth.
We’ve given you a worksheet for this, too! Figure out if you have a positive or negative net worth. Use this as a snapshot of your current financial standing and work on improving it as time passes. -
Open a retirement account.
This is so easy to do and can be done at any major bank, brokerage firm, or credit union. And be sure to ask if you can set up an automatic investment program to have money withdrawn directly from your checking account and put into your new retirement account. -
Do one thing to get you closer to achieving one of your financial goals.
If your goal is to get out of credit card debt, then make a phone call to your bank to inquire about consolidation loans. If you want to buy a home, then make a call to a local real estate agent about the neighborhood you’re interested in and what price range you can afford. These are all small steps, but they are easy to do and instantly make your goal more of a reality.