Well this begins the all important week for me of getting myself back on track. I am sharing this with you since there are so many of us that are facing some of the same things. I don't care what it is something in your life needs some work. So rather than doing what I know some stay at home moms do or work at home moms do in their free time is rather than looking at other folks mess, I am going to look at my own and take my little cleaning supplies and work on some stuff.
The main thing that I want to focus on is money because I believe as long as it is an issue for me and I don't address it it will always be like this black ghost in my closet.
So what I did was this, I pulled out the best money book I ever bought which is "Girl Get Your Money Straight!" by Glinda Bridgforth.
She uses a holistic approach to money and it is simple to understand so you are no longer afraid of money and how it works. Suze Orman she is not, I think she hits points Suze doesn't even though Orman holds her own.
You can check out her site here about other books she has available by clicking on the photo of the book.All this week I am going to be focusing on the first book in the series. Why? Cause I think that this is the best thing for me right now. I need to get back to what worked and make it happen again. Period.
If you don't have a copy run out to your local library or bookstore and get a copy or go online to her site or Amazon.com to buy a slightly used copy.
Now that I have gotten that out of the way lets talk about the points in the book I found very, very helpful.
Part One:
Preparing Your Mind For Financial Success -
In this section of the book Ms. Bridgforth talks about your history of money and where you learned it or if you did. She asks you to write down a family tree of money. After doing this exercise I found out that I had never really been taught how to handle money only to live hand to mouth as my parents and grandparents did. I found that exercise to be very enlightening and therapeutic for me and every once in a while I pull it out and look at it as a reminder of where I need to go for my children and future generations of my immediate family.
Part Two:
Seven Prescriptions for Financial Health and Healing -
This section of the book made me open my eyes to all the things that I did not have set in place for myself and my family and what I needed to do to get them going. She discussed life insurance, savings, simple things like balancing your checkbook each month AND how to do it. What about life insurance for the kids and others things? Well she covers it. Before I completed the book I was already implementing a lot of the things in it for myself and the kids.
Once you have completed this book and even before you will find information on how to:
1. Set Goals That Speak To Your Heart
2. Balance Your Checkbook and Know Your Net Worth (hmmmm how many of us know that?)
3. Develop A Spending Plan (I have added a link for a free online budget that I use. It is mad easy to follow as well. Check out the link here)
Out Of The Dark - It's Easy To Get Smart
http://www.myexp.org/OOTD_gate.php
4. Track and Analyze Your Spending (which you can do with the link above which is lovely)
5. Pay off debt ( Oooh student loans, student loans, did I say my student loans?)
6. Save Consistently Without Being A Miser. (oooooh I think this part is going to be fun! I want to see how and where I can save!)
7. Getting Support and Expert Advice (hey I found a great site for women that provides great money info Girl Just Wanna Have Funds even though this is more for the newly independent I found it good reading and lot of great tips.)
Now that I have pretty much laid out the seven steps here, I am about to go through each one meticulously and see what I need to do to make some changes or improve on what I am doing right now.
Till Next Time
Mamma
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