Jump Start January: Week 1 Day 1

Hiya. How’s your hangover? Oh yeah, and a very happy New Year to all of you – hope it’s a good one. As usual, I have no resolutions because I find them impossible to stick to, so I’ve come up with a more manageable 30-day challenge.

The underlying themes, as always, are personal finance and general wellbeing. In addition to this, each week’s going to be based around a different subject.

Here’s the running order for January 2015:

• Week 1 – Personal finance (small steps that build to make something bigger), see daily listings below
• Week 2 – Decluttering, spring cleaning and organising (even if you’re feeling overwhelmed)
• Week 3 – Increasing income & improving productivity
• Week 4 – Tenner Week (live on a budget of £10, pull your finances into line before payday)
• Last few days – Fine tuning (the difference between success & failure with budgets/plans)

The personal finance week schedule is as follows:

• Day 1: Think about main priorities and goals (see below)
• Day 2: ‘Small picture’ records – start a spending diary
• Day 3: Small savings – in the coin jar
• Day 4: ‘Big picture’ records – financial filing
• Day 5: The War on Error – check, check, check
• Day 6: Quick wins – cut an overspend or reclaim something
• Day 7: Bigger savings – stop dreaming, start doing

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Today’s simple, manageable activity

Today is ten minutes to hear yourself think day. Get away from the noise and have a think about your current situation and your priorities.

It’s not an exercise in beating yourself up or feeling guilty, it’s about considering your current situation and making some realistic plans.

Consider:

• Your general financial situation, and your main goal for the year.
• Your general personal situation, and your main goal for the year.

Don’t try to set several goals or make huge generalised resolutions. If you like, you can pick one or two secondary goals but it’s probably easiest to simply stick to the two main ones. The less you weigh yourself down with, the easier it is to prioritise.

So, for your financial situation, of course everyone’s going to be different. Here are a few possibilities:

• In debt and debt is getting out of control >> Tackle my debts, gain control, start paying them off (some people will be able to pay them off completely, depending upon size of debt and income)
• In debt, but in control and paying it off >> Continue to control my finances and pay off a specific amount of debt, or clear it completely
• Not in debt, but only just keeping head above water financially >> Keep my finances stable, spend less, earn more, start saving – or any combination of these
• Not in debt >> Pay off extra chunk of my mortgage, earn more (get a pay rise, a better job, start a business etc), save more, invest more, improve potential retirement income etc, etc

That’s not an exhaustive list, but should give you some good places to start.

For example, I’ve had an idea for a little microbusiness that I’ll be starting in the next three months or so, so that’s hopefully going to provide a new source of income. My secondary goal will be to put any post-tax money it raises towards savings and investments.

As for the personal goals, well, how long is a piece of string? You will probably have something unique to you that you’ll want to enjoy, achieve, improve or fix.

My personal goal is to have a proper holiday this year. At least seven days away somewhere beautiful and interesting, probably September or October. That gives me some time to start saving up, so I’ll be setting myself monthly targets for it soon.

Now write your two main goals down on a file card or a postcard, and stick them somewhere that you’re going to see them every day. For me that’s on the office pinboard, but you could use the fridge door, car dashboard, hall mirror, wallet, computer wallpaper or virtual desktop note, whatever you like. Add an image too – it can give you some extra motivation.

That’s it for today! What are your two main goals right now, financial and personal?