Financial Independence – How to Start a New Financial Chapter
Do you feel like you need a fresh financial start? It is possible to turn the page and start a new chapter in your financial life. I’m going to outline the process to start a new chapter in your financial life and make the decision to work toward Financial Independence. Start a new financial chapter with the steps below.
Check out the video I made on this subject here.
Sometimes you hit a point in your life when you realize you want to start a new chapter. Especially in your quest to achieve financial independence.You might examine your current financial situation and just decide that you can do better. Check out the post I wrote on my Next Gen Personal Finance plan.
The mistakes of your past need not destroy your future. When I was just out of college, I had no idea how to manage money. I wasn’t spending extravagantly, but I was spending just a little bit beyond my means each month. Eventually I found myself in $17,000 of consumer loan debt. I hit a point when I decided that I would change my behavior. I started a new chapter in my quest to financial freedom and financial independence.
Below are 7 steps to start a new chapter in your financial life, especially on the journey to Financial Independence. The process of starting a new chapter requires discipline, perseverance, and organization, but with the right tools and commitment, you can make it work.
7 Steps to Start a New Financial Chapter:
- Realize
Ups and downs are simply a part of life. May not be able to control a situation, but you can control your reaction to the situation. Your current situation is a combination of all the decisions and reactions in the past. If you don’t like your current situation, then you may need to change the situations in which you find yourself. Look at the weather – Sometimes it rains, but the sun will always shine again. And sometimes you realize that you want to move to a sunnier climate.
- Believe
Believe that you have the power to change yourself. You are not a victim of your circumstance. Yes, you may have faced some pretty big obstacles, you can absolutely learn from them and change your future behavior starting now! You might not have the ability to change your circumstances, but you do have the ability to change the way you react to the situations.
- Self-Assessment
Realize the actions and habits that brought you to where you are today. In order to move to a new financial place, you must first realize why you are where you are. You must realize the behaviors that brought you to where you are in order to change them. For example, if you tend to turn to mindless shopping when you feel bored or stressed, these habits must bring some measure of relief from a stressful situation. Once you’ve identified these triggers and behaviors, you can work towards creating new habits to deal with the same stressful triggers.
- Soul Searching
This is the step where you imagine where you want to go. Why do you want to start a new financial chapter? What are the benefits to changing your habits to develop this new behavior? Does the potential gain make you excited enough to get through the temporary pain of change?
Starting a new chapter can be very rewarding but also quite difficult. You need a compelling vision for the future that will help you get through the pain of change.
- Change Your Habits
This is the step that actually involves change! It’s difficult to change the habits of a lifetime. Positive change is tough and challenging, but can be one of the most rewarding upgrades to your life. Picture each new habit leading to the life you desire. Each time you execute a positive habit, you are casting a vote for the person you want to be. By making positive choices, you are taking steps toward the new chapter you want to create.
- Be Patient!
Change takes time! Even if you have a clear goal in mind, it will take awhile to establish these new habits. You didn’t get to your current situation overnight, and any type of change will take time. Reset your expectations about the timeline to result in this new chapter. For example, say you decide that the first step in your new financial chapter is to save up a full $1,000 emergency fund. If you set that timeline as one month, do not be surprised or discouraged if it takes a bit longer than planned. Stay on the right track and keep moving forward. Don’t allow setbacks to knock you off the right path.
- Cut Yourself Some Slack
Change is a process and it takes time. Realize that you are doing the absolute best that you possibly can! If you’re not doing the best you can, then do better! But if you know that you are doing the best that you can, then realize that you are truly doing your best, then let that be enough.
Bottom Line
It is possible to change your financial life. Decide that you are going to change, and then turn the page for yourself. Allow yourself the gift of a new beginning.
Good article Christianna. And I see you did redesign the banner area of the website.
Do you see what all of your steps have in common? You can’t necessarily control or change the external factors, but you CAN change yourself.
Now, can you follow your own advice and not be surprised or discouraged if it takes a little longer than you hoped, and manage to cut yourself some slack? 😉
(Psst… I think you missed the end of a sentence: “For example, if you tend to turn to mindless shopping when you feel bored or stressed, these habits ” – would probably do something if that sentence had an ending!) 🤫