The Foundations of the Financially Savvy

The purpose in writing these articles is to help those that otherwise feel helpless when it comes to money management.  I've been interested in money management since I was a kid. Growing up my grandfather would give me a piggy bank each Christmas filled with coins.  I loved to open that piggy bank and count the coins.  I learned my first hard spending lesson in 7th grade. I had saved up money to buy the coolest pair of Black Nike Hightop Shoes ever created. I felt like I needed these Nike shoes to fit in with the rest of the Middle School Volleyball Team. What was a year's worth of birthday and allowance money, lasted for just 4 months before becoming just another pair of shoes in my closet.  I learned it took awhile to save up money, and I had to spend it wisely to make it last.

For the last couple of years I've been following some of the top Money Management personalities; learning from their advice and strategy. I even got certified to be a budget coach wanting to help others manage their money. As a budget coach, I've been surfing the internet looking for other financial guru's but tended to only find the Coupon Clipping Mom who focused on 5.00 Dinner Recipes and Do it Yourself decorating.

 The goal of my site is to help you develop better money management habits that become integrated in your everyday life.

There are three key foundations you will need to master in order to really become financially savy

1. Understand Your Brain and Money
2. Organization & Budgeting
3. Everyday Saving Tactics

Your Brain and Money

There are tons of budgeting step by step plans out there, but the majority of people who fail to keep up with a budget fail because of lack of motivation.  I can say I will run a marathon. I can even download a proven step by step running schedule, but if I don't actually find my motivation to put my feet to pavement, I will ultimately fail at my goal.  If you continuously fail at managing  money I'ts because you haven't fully addressed what I call "Spending Triggers". These triggers cause to you make poor financial decisions over and over again. You must recognize these triggers, identify how to counteract them, and then find motivation for better spending decisions.

Organization & Budgeting

Organization needs to be simple, and budgeting needs to be consistent. Complexity breeds frustration, which results in giving up. Not having finances organized in a easy to understand way results in wasted hours trying to track down information. It's easier to get burned out when it takes 3 hrs at month end to do a budget, than 30 min if you had simply planned better.  MINT.com is hands down the BEST FREE budgeting software offered. I can't speak highly enough about Intuit's great product.

Everyday Saving Tactics

Chances are, if you are not paying attention to your monthly income verse expenses, you are not paying attention to the price you're paying for everyday items….and you are paying more than you should.  If you could tweak current spending habits, and learn simple new ones; that savings can add up greatly over time. You may scoff at the idea of saving 5% on a 7.00 sandwich because it translates to .35 cents, but if you could focus on saving 5% on everything you buy, we're talking 100's of bucks a month. 

 As I've researched the concept of how to save on pretty much everything I've realized key buying concepts:

1. There is a good time to buy and a bad time to buy.
1. Buying when everyone else is buying can produce the best deals. School supplies will be cheaper during back to school, than other times in the year. However, for other items, it suits you best to buy when no one else is buying. You will get better deals on services  (home remodeling) when companies are slow and looking for business.
2. Every item, even groceries, have a cyclical rise and fall in prices. Know when to buy and consistently save money. 

2. Items are more negotiable than you think
1. You don’t have to settle for the price quoted by your cable company or gym. When there is competition for you business, you have more leverage in negotiating a better deal