Getting Reorganized When Your First Financial Blueprint Explodes

Planning is something that we can get pretty excited about. Even if you don’t really look forward to planning out your financial goals, it never hurts to get them down on paper. In fact, if you work hard enough at it, it can even become a badge of accomplishment.

We all have to grow up and move past being taken care of, but the good part is that we get a chance to work on our own dreams. We get to fly when others tell us that we just can’t do that. We get to dream about the things that matter to us, large and small. But life has a way of spinning out of control when we least expect it. Maybe you and your partner have welcomed an unexpected baby into your life, and now you have to think about the security of your newborn child.

Or maybe you’ve gotten ill and you can’t work as much as you used to. Or maybe still you’ve found that you just can’t handle everything that life is throwing at you because you’re stressed out from being at work all the time. It’s completely up to you to make sure that you are getting your own goals met, but how do you get back on track when everything seems stacked against you? Here’s how to make it work.

Go back to your receipts

If there’s one thing that we really don’t do, it’s tracking our expenses. You might think that you know everything that’s coming in and out of your home, but do you really? You might want to handle your finance issues a bit differently in the future. There are plenty of online money management tools for people all across the UK to use — don’t skip these. Even if you have to pay a small fee every quarter, the savings you get from not having to deal with late fees and the like will more than make up for it.

Using the whole family to stay accountable

It can be hard to handle your goals on your own — especially after life has thrown you a few challenges. Why not get the entire family involved? Even if you’re a single person, you can still enlist the help of your friends and close relatives to keep you on track. Maybe your sister is a super saver and she always has everything organized. Picking her brain for tips can make her feel important, special, and included — all at no cost to you. You will also be a lot less likely to spend money you don’t have when you know that other people are cheering you on. Turning around your finances isn’t always easy, but it is truly always worth doing.

Get out of debt…now

If you find that you’re sliding deeper into debt, stop overspending right now. A lot of people set resolution goals of getting out of debt, but they never follow through. This is not something that you want to deal with if you can honestly help it. Make sure that you find a healthy balance between what you need to have, and what you want to have. Don’t try to deprive yourself, because it’s just going to make it more likely that you’ll binge. When you binge on shopping, you only set yourself farther and farther from your goals.

Forgive yourself

So much in life is all wrapped around the blaming and shaming of other people or even ourselves. You don’t have to beat yourself up forever. You got set back in your goals, and now it’s time to get back to them. Think about the last time you tried to lose weight. Sure, you might have had a “cheat meal”, but in the long run, you got back on track, right? The same principle applies here. Don’t ever give up on your goals — they’re just too important!