All About Financial Wellness

As Financial Literacy month wraps up, I hope every college student and/or young adult will make a commitment to learn personal finance and go beyond focusing on making money. 

"Your values drives your goals and your goals drive your finances - don't let your finances drive you!"

Although making money is important, it is only a smaller piece of the larger puzzle in Personal Finance. How you understand finance will make a huge difference in your overall personal financial health. Hence, it's best to understand various aspects of finance, grasp the concept of how to manage, save, spend, and invest your finances as early as possible. Remember, personal finance is more personal than it is just about the finance. What are the financial responsibilities and opportunities out there that you need to be prepared for?

1. Money not invested or used to purchased appreciating asset(s) will be money lost due to inflation.

2. A dollar spent is more than a dollar loss (after accounting in after-tax value). See what are necessary spending and see which can be eliminated from your expense list.

3. Each debt amount is money lost accumulated over time, the sooner debt is paid, the better it is, unless the investment of that debt can yield a higher return the debt's interest.

4. Clear & organized finance helps easier to understand --> better management, better saving, better spending, and better investing.

5. Think in a manner to let money work for you, not you working for it, for the rest of your life. Good savings, conservative spendings, and wise investments will provide a better future for you.

6. Time is money, but each person's time does not equal the value of money in a similar way. Invest in more knowledge and abilities, so that your time can be worth more than the normal average.

7. Education in college can cost many people a lot of debt, think how that debt can be justifiable by focusing on knowledge that will enhance your future. Don't just go to school to be in debt and to graduate without knowing what you want to do with that degree. If anything, consider some vocational courses while you're in college to master a certain skill.

8. If there's any doubt of your abilities in handling finances now, then definitely re-evaluate how you're spending. Save money while you learn about finance and get ready to reset your habits.

Remember, if we don’t manage our money, let alone our personal finance as a whole, it will not manage itself. As a matter of fact, at some point, it will begin to manage you and put you in a position of reactiveness as you deal with a lot of financial decisions in which you have yet prepared yourself to understand.

Take the first step to learn and organize your finance, download the The Financial Empowerment Kit today!