Finding Balance

In all the years that I’ve been coaching and advising people about their finances, the collective accomplishment for everyone, whether wealthy, struggling or somewhere in-between, has been balance.

Balance hasn’t always been what people have shown up looking for. The reasons that someone gets ready to do something different with their finances are wide and varied:

• they’re sick and tired of living paycheck to paycheck,
• they want to be able to figure out what the next right money move is,
• they wish they could see where their money went,
• they yearn to make more money, or
• they just want whatever pain their relationship with money is causing in their life to stop.

When each of us begins focusing on our money, looking at where it’s going and thinking about where we want it to go, we can’t help but make little changes. You don’t have to jump in with both feet and go hog wild to make a difference in your financial life. Even taking little simple baby steps will begin to steer you in the right direction. If you make one shift in your money habits every month for a year, by the end of that year all of the changes will have accumulated to significant changes.

Along the way, an interesting phenomenon happens. As you clear away the money sludge that’s existed, you begin to realize what is at the core of what has been bothering you about your money. For many of us, until we get clear, everything bugs us. Extra car repair bills, the annoyance of selecting the right retirement investment plan, credit card bills that feel like quicksand and the list goes on. No matter where you are in your financial life, there is always something more you could do.

As you focus and begin to knock off one little problem, and then the next, its like washing a really dirty window; you begin to see with so much more clarity what it is that’s important to you. And that’s when you find balance. That’s when you embrace that you have enough, you are enough and you’ve done enough for today.

The more you begin to embrace that balance, the easier it becomes to get the next right thing done. My financial coach calls it “what's one sweet thing you can do today?” Doesn’t that sound easy? String together one little next right financial move after another, and before you know it, you’ll have found balance too. 

-Stacey Powell

Finance Gym offers personal finance coaching in professionally facilitated peer-advisory groups. 

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