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Episode 267 - How to Stop Being Afraid to Face Your Finances?

Navigating personal finances can feel overwhelming, especially when faced with debt or complex financial goals. However, taking small steps can build amazing momentum and lead to lasting financial changes. This post will cover how to kickstart your financial journey, tackle fears related to finances, and provide actionable steps to help you gain control. 

 
  1. Building Positive Momentum 

The hardest part of improving financial health is often just getting started. Feeling overwhelmed by debt, constant stress, and a lack of savings are common hurdles. By taking the first step, such as creating a budget or setting up an automatic savings plan, you can start building positive momentum. For instance, if you're overwhelmed by credit card debt, simply listing all your debts and coming up with a plan like the debt snowball system can be empowering. 

Example Action - Create a Budget: Listing out all your income and expenses can give you a clear picture of your financial situation. 

  1. Learning Through Action 

Real financial literacy comes from engaging directly with your finances. While reading books and listening to podcasts are helpful, the most effective learning happens when you apply these concepts. By tracking your expenses and starting to take physical actions like creating a savings goal, you learn what works best for you. 

Example Action - Track Your Expenses: Analyze the last three to six months of your spending to understand where your money is going. 

  1. Overcoming Fear and Procrastination 

Fear of financial reality can cause procrastination, but taking action breaks this cycle. A crucial step is to confront your financial situation, which can reduce procrastination and build financial security. Writing down all your expenses or creating a simple list can take away much of the fear and stress associated with uncertainties. 

Example Action - Face Your Finances: List out all your debts, including credit cards, student loans, and personal loans. Joining workshops like the Life Without Payments can provide additional resources. 

  1. Receive Immediate Feedback 

Starting a financial task provides immediate feedback, which is crucial for sustaining motivation. Tracking progress on tasks like spending or saving for an emergency fund can create a positive loop of motivation, making you want to continue. 

Example Action - Track Progress: Use a tracking system to monitor your monthly expenses, helping you to quickly identify areas where you might be overspending. 

Quick Action Items to Get Started 

Here are some small steps to help you kickstart your financial journey: 

  1. Organize Your Bills: Write down all your due dates and monthly bills to keep track of your payments. 
  2. Total Up Your Debts: Knowing the total amount of your credit card debt, student loans, and other obligations can provide a clear starting point. 
  3. Create a Savings Goal: Aim to build an emergency fund as a cushion against unexpected expenses. 
  4. Try a No Spend Challenge: Limit unnecessary spending for a month. 
  5. Declutter and Sell Unwanted Items: Use the extra cash to pay down debt or save. 

Conclusion 

Getting started on your financial journey is crucial for building momentum and achieving long-term success. Engaging with your finances directly, overcoming fears, and taking actionable steps can help you gain confidence and control over your money. With immediate feedback from these actions, you can maintain motivation and progress towards a financially secure and stress-free life. 

Resources Mentioned
Get better results with your finances in 30-60 days - GUARANTEED. Watch this video to learn how! - https://www.debtfreedad.com/payoff-debt-in-60-to-90-days 

Free Tools and Downloads at www.debtfreedad.com

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Episode Transcript: 

Brad:  

Hey. So today we are talking about how to kickstart your financial journey, especially if debt or complex financial goals are starting to feel a little overwhelming. We're going to cover how taking small steps, like creating a budget or even making a debt payment, can start to build some amazing momentum in your life and lead to lasting financial changes. Plus, we're going to discuss how overcoming these kinds of fears as it relates to your finances, learning through action, and how immediate feedback can really keep you motivated during the process. So if you're ready to take control of your finances, but you also have a hard time just getting started, this episode is going to be for you. Stay tuned. Hey guys, I'm Brad Nelson, founder of Debt-Free Dad. I paid off about $45,000 of debt, have been debt free now for more than 11 years, outside of my mortgage. I've also been fortunate to help thousands of other people save and pay off tens of millions of dollars with the work that we do here at Debt Free Dad. Now, after listening to this episode, if you want to take your finances to the next level, I'm going to have some great details coming up here later on the show. It's going to show you how you can actually get started with some actual items here. I'll be sharing that resource here later on in today's episode, so listen.

Brad:  

Starting to tackle personal finance challenges can be daunting due to a combination of psychological and practical barriers. The complexity of financial concepts such as budgeting, debt management and saving strategies often create a sense of overwhelm, especially for those who already feel like they lack financial literacy. Additionally, fear of confronting the reality of one's financial situation, such as facing debt or realizing a lack of savings, can lead to procrastination and just avoidance of the subject altogether. Emotional factors like guilt and shame or embarrassment over past financial mistakes can also hinder progress, making it difficult to actually take that first step that's desperately needed Now. Furthermore, the sheer volume of advice and opinions available can be paralyzing to many of us, leading to indecision about where do we even begin when it comes to tackling some of our financial stress and challenges that we're facing, and these challenges combined with the need for consistent discipline and long-term commitment, it makes getting started really difficult.

Brad:  

Now, despite the challenges, it's crucial to start addressing personal finance issues, because delaying action can lead to worsening financial problems over time. The longer you wait, the more your debt's going to grow. The more your financial stress is going to grow, the less time you have to save for goals like retirement or larger purchases in your life. Starting early, even with small steps, can make a significant difference in your financial future. Now beginning to budget, reduce debt, build savings, you not only set yourself up for future success to improve your current situation, but you also set the foundation for long-term financial health as well, which is what we're really striving for. So taking action today, getting started today, also helps alleviate the stress and anxiety that often accompanies a lot of financial uncertainty that you're experiencing. This gives you a sense of control and empowerment over your situation, which, immediately, is going to melt a lot of your financial stress.

Brad:  

Now, guys, there is also some danger in not starting, and there is this real law. It's called the law of diminishing intent, and this law says the law of diminishing intent suggests that the longer you delay taking action on an idea or a goal let's say, tackling your financial challenges the less likely you are to actually even pursue it. When you're initially inspired or motivated to do something, whether it's starting a new habit, like I said, working on your finances right, your intent is as strong as it will ever be. However, as time passes without taking action, that initial enthusiasm, that emotion, that motivation, that urgency, that desire all of that stuff slowly starts to melt away. This is why it's crucial for you to capitalize on your motivation as soon as it arises, taking immediate steps, even small ones, to set your plans in motion, and by doing so you can maintain that momentum and increase that motivation, because by taking action, you're going to get results, and by taking results and getting results, your confidence is going to be boosted and you're just going to repeat that process over and over until you reach your goal. So let's talk about some powerful things, about getting started. Number one is it's momentum building. You're going to start building positive momentum.

Brad:  

The hardest part of improving your financial life is often just getting started, especially if you feel overwhelmed by debt. You're stressed out all the time, you're worried all the time. Maybe you have a lack of savings, maybe you feel like finances are just complex because you've really never been taught how to do it. But by taking that first step, such as creating a budget or setting up an automatic savings plan, maybe you know whatever it might be tracking your expenses this momentum can get easier to continue because it's going to create positive momentum and, again motivation and results which are going to only promote you to want to take more and more action and think about it. Imagine you're overwhelmed by credit card debt and unsure where to start by simply adding up your credit card debt or getting it all listed and then coming up with a budget and a plan to start using what we call is the debt snowball system. By the way, if you're looking for a debt snowball worksheet to help you start listing that, head over to debtfreedad.com, click on tools and sign up for the life without payments workshop. We'll give you that worksheet for free. But getting your debt snowball worksheet can be super empowering because you know what all your debt is, it's listed all in one place and you know exactly where you're at. So just that whole momentum boost you get by just doing one small action can be such a game changer in helping you keep going.

Brad:  

Number two is learning through action. Now, financial literacy often comes from engaging with your own finances directly. Obviously, now it's great to be reading books, listening to podcasts like this, maybe learning about strategies of debt management and how to pay it off. Real learning happens, though, when you start to apply these concepts and actually start to take action and by starting to track your expenses and take physical action with your own financial life, you begin to learn what works for you and what doesn't, and then you can make changes and adjust. But results are going to come from taking that action. If you've been struggling to save, maybe reading about different savings strategies is a great goal, but hey, I've got a better one for you. Let's actually create a savings goal of building your first emergency fund. According to some most recent statistics, 63% of Americans can't handle a $500 emergency expense without going into debt. Here and just learning through action and learning to start how to save and creating that habit of saving is just saying hey, I don't want to be a part of that 63%. I actually want to start making better progress and I'm going to build my first emergency fund. Let's shoot for a thousand bucks, all right. And by learning and taking action and saving you will learn more about yourself, learn more about your habits, and you'll also get a heck of a lot better results by taking some of those first action items. Now.

Brad:  

Number three is overcoming fear and procrastination. That's probably the biggest one when it comes to finances, because fear of making mistakes or facing your financial reality can lead to a lot of procrastination. It's emotional, there's a lot of stress, there's a lot of worry. You may not want to see those skeletons that have been in your closet all these years, right? But this is especially true if you're worried about not having enough money for emergencies, managing debt or sticking to a budget, or maybe you're just like I, just don't really want to know what the truth is. But by taking action you break the cycle of procrastination and you start to build financial security. You build that powerful momentum reducing a lot of the stress and anxiety that you have in your life. So if you've been avoiding creating a budget because you're afraid to see where your money is going, taking that first step, like just writing down all of your expenses for the month, can help reduce a lot of that on. You know you're just unsure because things are so unorganized you don't know where you're at. But by writing it down it takes away a lot of that fear and stress because you're going to know exactly where you're at every single month, what's going in and what's going out by just creating a simple list or a budget and you might realize that you actually do have way more control over your finances, you actually do have some wiggle room where you can start to save a little bit or start to make progress in paying down debt.

Brad:  

Number four getting started gives you immediate feedback. See, starting a financial task gives you this immediate feedback on your own progress, which can be motivating and informative. In fact, this is one of the things that I think most people miss in getting out of debt and really working on their finances is tracking, using a tracking system to give you that feedback that what you are doing is actually working. So, whether it's tackling your spending, maybe it's paying off debt Again, maybe it's starting a savings building, that emergency fund, the feedback that you're going to get by tracking your progress is going to keep you motivated and keep that emotion high. You're going to want to keep doing it. In fact, we've had many people that we've worked with over the years where they actually say getting out of debt has become almost addictive because they're winning. Finally. It feels good, right? So if you start tracking your monthly expenses, you might immediately notice when you're overspending. This immediate feedback allows you to make some quick adjustments like cutting back on, say, dining out a dining hour maybe it's coffee for you, right which can really help you save more money and be intentional and honestly, make you feel more in control, whereas, opposed to, your money and your emotions are controlling you.

Brad:  

So here are just some quick ideas, guys, of some small action items to help you get started. First one let's just organize your bills and due dates and let's maybe put them on a calendar to help you keep better track. Maybe you're someone who struggles with overdraft fees or just things are out of control because you don't know where things are at. So let's just maybe the goal for this month is let's just get everything organized, get all your bills in one place, write down all your due dates, when things come out, what your income is, and let's just put it all on a calendar. That's to do number one. You could start doing that today.

Brad:  

Another idea is, like we've been talking about here throughout this episode, is track your expenses, track your spending. We talk about this often here on the Debt-Free Dad podcast. Go back and look at the last three to six months of your spending. Where is your money going? Figure out what you're going to keep in your budget. Figure out what you're willing to get rid of. Maybe there's some things in there that you're spending money on that really is just wasteful spending. It's not really bringing value. Maybe you can consider getting rid of some things, or maybe what are some things that you could shop around. Maybe it's been a while since you shopped your services. By understanding what your expenses are, it helps you take more action to help you again work closer to reaching some of your financial goals and reducing a lot of your stress.

Brad:  

A third option and we kind of briefly talked about this with the debt snowball is total up your debts. Total up how much credit card debt you have student loans, car loans, car payments, personal loans, payday loans buy now, pay later, whatever it might be. Whatever your debt is, go to our Life Without Payments workshop. Go to debtfreedadcom, click on Tools in the menu and join the Life Without Payments workshop. We're going to give you this worksheet for free in that workshop and you can already go ahead and list all of your debts and get things organized. That is going to help you feel like you're making progress and that you're getting started and you're actually doing something and taking action right.

Brad:  

Another one is create a savings goal. We talked about the emergency fund. One is create a savings goal. We talked about the emergency fund. I think that's a great one to get started with. Maybe you make a commitment today like, hey, over the next few months I'm going to get this thing built. Thousand to $3,000 is the goal. Make it, get it done. Next 30 to 60 days.

Brad:  

Maybe it's a no spend challenge. Maybe that's something you can easily do. A no spend challenge can easily help you save money each month. Maybe you cut out going out to eat altogether We've had people do that, which I get. That's hard or maybe you just limit the amount of times you're going out to eat. Maybe it's coffee, or maybe, instead of a no-spend challenge, maybe it's a declutter challenge. We've had plenty of guests on the Debt-Free Dad podcast. Come on and talk about the power of decluttering, how less stressed you are when you have a much nicer, clean environment that you live in. But taking those items that you live in, but taking those items that you no longer need and selling them, using that money to build your emergency fund, pay down debt, improve your overall personal finances these are some great ways again, simple steps that you can do to get started, get you motivated and get you on the road to a less stress-free financial life.

Brad:  

So, in wrapping this up, guys, getting started is crucial because it builds this valuable momentum allowing you to make a continuous progress. Engaging directly with your finances helps you learn through experience, making you more confident and informed in your decisions and the way you're managing your money. And by overcoming the fear of procrastination and that often accompanying financial challenges that you have and the stress that you have, you can reduce a lot of that stress and that anxiety and actually have less worry and feel confident by being more intentional with the way that you're managing your money. Now, the immediate feedback that you're going to get and you're going to receive by taking these actions is going to be so motivating. It's going to melt away a lot of the stress and the worry that you have, it's going to make you feel good and, most importantly, it's going to make you want to keep on going.

Brad:  

So, as I said, if you're motivated to get started, you want to start making better progress with your finances here in the next 30 to 60 days, and I hope this episode gave you a little boost today. Go ahead over to the debtfreedad.com. Click on the green button at the top of the page. I'm going to show you how our members are getting amazing results in just as little as 30 to 60 days, and you can do this too. Hey, thanks for joining us on today's show, and we will see you guys on the next episode. Take care.

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