Step 10 of 10 Steps to Financial Wellness
The foundation is set for your path toward financial wellness.
The key now is to not get complacent. Take each step intentionally, adjust your plan when needed, and stay true to your vision. Here’s a quick overview of what brought us here:
Step 1: Tracking your spending
Are you regularly tracking your spending? Knowing where your money is going will help you make responsible spending decisions in the future.
Step 2: Creating (and sticking to) a budget
Budgets need to be reviewed and tweaked occasionally to ensure they still work for present life circumstances. If your budget no longer works for you, adjust until it does.
Have you made as much progress in your debt-paying journey as you’d hoped to by this point? Can you beef up any payments to make debt disappear sooner?
Step 4: Talking money with your partner
Have you had the big money talk with your partner? Touching base on money matters on a regular basis? Do you need to revisit any of the topics you’ve discussed?
Review some of your recent purchases. Are you making purchases you later regret instead of relieving stress and emotional overload in a healthy manner? If so, look for better ways to de-stress.
Are you remembering to feed your savings? At this time, you may want to consider increasing the amount you’re regularly putting into savings by trimming some discretionary spending.
Step 7: Knowing when and how to indulge
Are you incorporating some just-for-fun expenses into your budget so you can indulge without guilt? Now is a good time to look back at your spending to determine what’s working for and against your long-term plan.
Step 8: Managing your credit score
If you’ve been following the rules for boosting and maintaining a high credit score, your score should have improved since you started tracking.
Step 9: Investing for retirement
Have you opened and furnished retirement accounts at work and beyond? Review these accounts and assess whether your funds have reached the place you’d hoped they would by now.
Congrats on covering the steps needed to achieve financial wellness. But remember, this journey is ongoing, and sometimes moving ahead requires taking a step back to make a few adjustments. If you ever need a refresher course on any of these steps, just click the individual article links above or visit the “Steps to Financial Wellness” hub.
Onward, and good luck on your wellness journey!
