This blog post is meant for you to STOP what you are doing and simply think about YOUR relationship with MONEY! (hope I didn’t scare you 🙂 ) Now, usually when people hear the word “relationship,” they automatically think about a significant other, family, or friends. Those are all significant relationships in a person’s life, but money is an important personal relationship as well. Asking yourself these five questions about money can help you understand your current financial situation and help you start to figure out what you want it to look like moving forward.
What is my history with money?
Taking a walk down “memory lane,” can really help you understand how money has affected your life. For young adults, the majority of their history with money usually stems from their parents or guardians. The amount of wealth your parents or guardians had, affected the lifestyle and resources you had.
What is my current financial responsibility?
A child does not have any financial responsibility, but we know as an individual grows in age, their financial responsibility will grow as well. You may be at a point in your life where you are partially or fully responsible for your financial well-being. Understanding what you are responsible for financially, helps prepare yourself mentally for the actions needed to sustain yourself.
What are my strengths dealing with money? Weaknesses?
Any question that deals with a person’s “strengths” and “weaknesses,” requires a large amount of self honesty. Some people’s strengths may be their income creation (after-tax), their ability to save/invest, or their ability to control their discretionary spending. Those same strengths can be weaknesses for other people. Realizing your strengths and weaknesses allows a person to see where they can improve when dealing with money.
What are my goals? How does money impact them?
Setting goals is easy, it’s the actions needed to achieve the goal that’s the hard part. Everybody wants to achieve something in life and oftentimes that involves money. Your goals and aspirations in life will dictate how much money and resources you need to reach them. If you do not have any financial goals set, check out The Importance of Financial Goals for a step-by-step process to set and complete your goals.
What resources am I using to stay informed about money?
In order to be good at anything you have to learn about it first. Money often requires an individual to continuously learn because our relationship with money changes over time. Obviously, if you are reading this blog you have one resource regarding financial literacy. Having multiple sources though is always a good idea to maximize the amount you are able to learn.
Overall, it’s important to recognize that money isn’t everything (it doesn’t solve all your problems). Money does provide value though and taking time to reflect on this relationship will only bode well for you in life!
Disclaimer: Thegrownwave.com is a personal finance blog, not a professional investment advisor. The content produced from the blog is provided for free and only for informational purposes. Thegrownwave.com does not and cannot promise the accuracy and reliability of any content in comparison to your individual circumstances.
The Grown Wave 