4 Steps to Build a Resilient Financial Life
4 Steps to Build a Resilient Financial Life
Krystal Barker Buissereth, CFA®, Head of Financial Wellness Sat, April 30, 2022
Life can throw you curveballs, bringing unexpected events and expenses. That’s why building financial resilience in your life can be so powerful — and it starts with learning to have a basic sense of how your finances work and what you can do to make them work better for you.
If you’re feeling a bit uncertain or overwhelmed about how to get your finances in order, the first place to start is to define your goals. What is it that you want to achieve? It may be sticking to a budget, paying down debt, saving for retirement, building an emergency fund or saving for a big expense like a car, a home or a child’s education.
Let’s walk through four basics for building a more resilient financial life.
Step 1: Be SMART with your goals
Whatever your goals, I encourage you to put pen to paper to write them down. I like to use something called the SMART goal-setting method, which stands for:
Specific
Measurable
Action-oriented
Realistic
Time-bound
For example, if you want to pay off debt, start with the actual dollar amount of how much you want to pay down. That makes it Specific and Measurable. Then, get Action-oriented by defining the steps you're going to take. If it’s paying down debt, maybe you can cut back on eating out or put your tax refund toward your credit card bill.
By making your goal Specific, Measurable and Action-oriented, you’ll be able to see if your goal is Realistic — and if not, you can adjust, like by extending the time frame. Speaking of time, the T in SMART stands for Time-bound: Give your goal an expiration date so you have a target in mind. Once you reach that deadline, you're encouraged to make the next goal, and then the next — and that's how we make progress in our financial lives.
Step 2: Be organized
I like to use the analogy of building a house. It’s fun to dream about your floor plan and decorations, but building the house doesn’t truly begin until you break ground and lay the foundation. Creating a more formal budget is the foundation of our financial lives, helping us see exactly where money is flowing so we can better allocate it to our many needs, wants and goals.
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