Financial Journey
(featured column)

9 Steps to Achieve Financial Fitness
by Karen Kuebler 

As I have been focusing on lifestyle changes to become more physically fit in recent months, I realized the same tools apply to acquire strong financial health. With many lifestyle changes, the steps to succeed aren’t complex, but the persistence and commitment to follow them are critical.  More...

Let’s take a look at how you can apply the same principles that it takes to lose weight and achieve strong physical health, to create sound financial fitness:

1. Eating less calories than you expend is the cornerstone rule to losing weight.  Your expenses must be lower than the money you bring in to get ahead financially. The extra cash at the end of the month should be applied to paying off debt and increasing your savings accounts.
   
   
2. Many experts claim that exercise is the one thing, if done consistently, that will help you lose weight and maintain weight loss.  There is a reason many people refer to exercise as "working out."  It takes effort, motivation, and sacrifice to exercise regularly.  However, the payoff is huge – not only the feeling of wellbeing that occurs directly following the workout, but the long term benefits of maintaining good physical health.  So it is with your finances.  To get your financial situation strong and healthy, it requires effort, dedication, discipline, and all of the things that it takes to get into a regular exercise routine. Your payoff will reap benefits both in the near term and the long term as you eliminate the burden of debt and create wealth with regular savings.
     
3. A success tactic in losing weight is journaling your food intake daily. Key to financial success is tracking daily expenditures by recording every penny spent. You need to know exactly where your money is going to gain control over your spending.
   
   
4. Planning a daily menu in advance helps you avoid impulse eating and takes the guess work out of choices that could lead to unwise decisions in moments of hunger and fatigue.  Developing a spending plan is the equivalent of menu planning. Sticking to a spending plan will prevent unplanned and impulse expenditures. It provides a roadmap to follow and keeps you on your path to success.
   
   
5. To achieve a healthy lifestyle, you must fuel your body with a wide variety of nutritious foods to maximize nutrients.  As you work toward your financial goals, it is important to diversify and choose healthy investments to maximize returns.  The saying "don’t put all of your eggs in one basket" is a sound rule of thumb.  When one investment is doing poorly, diversification can protect you and help keep your rate of return more stable.
        
6. Educating yourself to achieve a healthy lifestyle is necessary to succeed.  Learning how to read and understand nutrition labels and knowing what your body requires are basics to achieve desired results. Self education is critical to attain financial success.  Absorb all of the knowledge you can.  Read articles about investments, listen to financial news, and search the internet to find sites that provide financial investment information.  Ask questions of experts in the field and take in the information they have to offer. Educating yourself will give you much greater control over your financial destiny, while helping you to choose investments safely and wisely.
   
   
7. Losing weight is less daunting when you set smaller goals along the way.  When you accomplish each goal, the success motivates you to continue. Approach your financial journey the same way. Focus on short term milestones, while planning and looking ahead to long term desired results.  With any lifestyle change, create a reward system. Celebrate achievement of shorter term milestones.  This helps prevent feelings of deprivation, while motivating you to pursue future goals.
   
   
8. Losing weight is much easier if temptations are removed from your surroundings. Rid your pantry and desk drawers of junk food and replace them with nourishing choices.  To gain control over your spending, rid your environment of temptations.  Toss catalogs in the garbage immediately and avoid window or pleasure shopping.  If you shop on the internet, stay away from browsing.  Only shop for items that you have a need to purchase, whether online or in the store.
   
   
9. When developing a healthy lifestyle, quiet time to balance and renew inner self is essential.  So it is with creating financial stability. Allow time to review your spending, your goals, and progress regularly.  Make necessary adjustments to keep balance in your financial life so that you will find your journey to be fulfilling – this is what will help you to stay the course for the long haul.

When making changes in health habits to become physically fit, true victory comes as a result of a permanent lifestyle transformation.  Success isn’t achieved by going on and off diets, but by an ongoing commitment to maintain the changes you’ve achieved.  The same principle applies to your relationship with money and achieving financial success.  You must be resolute in adopting new ways of managing and transforming your financial life to realize the financial future of your dreams!

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Copyright © 2007 by Karen Kuebler. All rights reserved.

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