A continuation of the first personal finance series, but this time more focused on actions.
Last year, I wrote a starter series on personal finance, which mainly revolved around attitudes and mindsets. The series also laid emphasis on shifting some of the underlying beliefs that influence your behavior and relationship with money.
It was important (in my opinion) to get those touchy-feely stuff sorted out first – otherwise, you will not be able to know how you got to where you currently are, and more importantly, why you’re unable to get out of there.
Broke and sad! I told you!
When you don't take the time to reflect on your own self, you’ll end up forever blaming someone or something else: the economy, the government, your parents, your cat, whatever. We all know how that goes.
The Blame Game
Here's a quick recap. In the previous series, you learned that:
If you haven’t gone through the starter series, please do so first before coming back here.
If you have gone through the series, then hopefully, by now, you’ve started taking some action. It’s all fine and dandy to read blogpost after blogpost, but if you’re serious about fixing your finances, you would have ideally:
figured out the price of your life-energy
started tracking how you spend your money and have the data to show for it
started exploring ways to invest and grow your money.
Again, if you haven’t done the above, I strongly recommend you go back to the starter series and implement the actions there first. Like in any game worth playing, you can’t just jump into Level 10 and expect to win - you have to progress one level at a time.
Speaking of progressing up the levels, 2018 is probably a good time as any for the next series.
This time around, we'll address more real-life topics, the everyday things, like how to spend your paycheque, how to manage your money, how to set up a savings system, how to go about investing, and all that jazz.
This series is going to be very action-oriented. Some of the information will be written in the Malaysian context, as that is where I am based (in spirit, if not always physically). However, for the most part, the information will apply regardless of where you are. The technicalities will vary, but the principles, as always, remain constant.
Follow along in the next few months to learn how to:
Next... we'll talk about the very first thing everyone should do with their money, before anything else.