Tag: Wellth Check

You know the common saying: If you can’t dream it, you can’t be it. Allow yourself to think about the best case scenario for your finances. Maybe that involves: Paying off your student loans in X amount of time, buying property, affording a vacation, starting investing, paying off credit card debt—or something as simple as saving Y amount of money. 

One way to do this is through financial vision boards. (Check out our guide to financial vision boards here.) These will help you not only ideate and ruminate on what you want, but visualize what your life will look like when you have it. 

Once you have the ideal, you can work your way down to more attainable, actionable goals. For example, you may not be able to pay off student loans, book that 2-week trip, and start investing all at once, but you can certainly begin to tackle one of those! After identifying one priority goal to go after, create a timeline and benchmarks to track along the way. 

If you tell yourself you’re not good with money it can be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Change the narrative. Tell yourself something different.

Affirmations are positive statements repeated frequently to shift thoughts and can counteract negative beliefs like, “I’ll never be able to save enough”. 

Therapist Crystal Jackson says to replace such thinking with words like, “I am financially secure” and “I have more than enough to meet all my needs”. 

“Negative thoughts and beliefs may be holding you back from achieving your financial goals. If you believe that you will never be able to save enough money, repeating ‘I am financially secure’ can help shift that belief and create a more empowering mindset,” says Jackson.

Affirmations can also boost your belief in your abilities. “If you say, ‘I have the power to achieve my financial goals,’ you may begin to feel more capable and confident in your ability to manage money,” she says.

Laura Barrera a certified health coach offers a few affirmations, “I trust in my ability to create wealth and abundance in my life,” “I manifest abundance and prosperity in my life, and I believe it is on its way to me now,” “I choose to focus on abundance and let go of any limiting beliefs around money.” Rinse and repeat.

Create a list of affirmations that align with your financial goals and values. One way to do it, says Barrera, is to create a storybook in your notebook with images and photos that inspire wealth and abundance for you. “Incorporating visual aids can help to make your affirmations more powerful and engaging,” she says.

A vision board is a visual collage of images, quotes, and other objects (digital or physical) that represent the goals you are calling in. Just like your personal growth path, your vision board is ever-evolving. They are often made at the beginning of the year, but there’s no shame in a seasonal refresh to ensure your vision is still aligned. 

Neuroscientist Tara Swart, M.D., previously explained to mindbodygreen, “Looking at images on a vision board primes the brain to grasp opportunities that may have otherwise gone unnoticed. That’s because the brain has a process called ‘value-tagging’ which imprints important things onto your subconscious and filters out unnecessary information.” 

Swart also refers to vision boards as “action boards” — a clever reframe that reinforces that this manifestation method is not to be used exclusively to achieve your goals. Similar to other manifestation modalities, vision boards require aligned action. 

When it comes to financial goals, it’s incredibly helpful to make tangible, visible reminders of what you’re working towards — how you’re getting there and what it can mean for your future. Not only is your final vision board a supportive visual reminder, but the creation process itself is a powerful clarity exercise. The process of sifting through various images and physical objects helps you get acutely clear on your goals — what do they look and feel like? By tuning into that feeling you’ll be able to recognize more quickly when it materializes in your reality. 

Winging it doesn’t work. Create a budget and stick to it. Save every receipt for one month to learn what you spend money on. Use that information to make a budget. 

“Many people simply spend their money until it’s gone, with little knowledge of where it goes. Understanding where your money goes is key to gaining control over it because you can identify areas where you can cut back or redirect to fund other areas of importance,” says financial adviser Lorrie Delk Walker.

Start by creating a daily budget diary and checking in every day to monitor your spending. 

When making purchases every day, ask yourself whether you’re satisfying a need or a want. The answer might make you put your wallet away. And one way to simplify these regular purchases is to automate bill payments: Don’t overthink recurring payments—especially those that have a set amount like cable or rent. When they are no longer an active decision, you’re able to spend that mental energy on other choices. 

Of course, you’ll want to give yourself a cash allowance for things like gas, entertainment, clothing purchases, groceries, hair care, well-being necessities, and so on. 

“These are areas that can be easy to overspend. Sticking to what you have the cash for helps avoid that,” she says. Have a contest with yourself each pay period to see how much of that cash you can hang onto. This builds discipline. Consider throwing unspent cash into a change jar or a separate savings account. 

At the end of the year, use that money to pay debt, contribute to your emergency fund, or spend on something for yourself. “Commit to not making large purchases on the fly. This can save you tons of money because you remove emotion from the purchasing equation,” she says.