6 Ways to avoid the fuzzy money traps and create financial security

This is not just about managing money better and creating ways to make more of it, crucially it’s about the size of the GAP between what you are bringing in and what you are keeping. You could be earning a 6 figure or multi 6 figure income and still have poor money management, cash flow problems and more month than money.

Creating a strong and healthy cash flow is about being a financial grown-up. It’s about not being in denial. It’s about facing up to the truth when the flow of cash stutters and stalls and it’s about taking positive action and becoming self-responsible financially and avoiding passing the buck and blaming your situation on circumstances or other people. If you’ve had a record of stop start cash flow, ask yourself, ‘What does it mean about me and my relationship with money that this pattern keeps repeating itself?’

Each of us already has our own money habits and patterns – good ones and bad ones and it just might be that some of those money habits aren’t really serving you well.

Here are 6 simple exercises that you can start to do immediately that will give you an improved and deeper connection with your money and also make you more aware of where it’s going, where it’s coming from and how often.

Track your expenses – You need to be informed about the choices you’re making and what and who you’re prioritizing. When you get informed on how you are spending your money and tracking your income and expenses as a daily habit you will become much more connected to it – which is where you want to be. How else can you plan how much money you need to create if you have no idea of what your outgoings are? The point here is that you are in control. You want to be watching your expenses from a place of curiosity and expansion – not fear, anxiety or denial.

Track your income – You want to be tracking your income to the penny every single day, full-stop. Small change, money owed you by your children, income, birthday money – all of it.

Track your receipts – put them tidily in a folder at the end of every day – don’t leave them collecting in the side pocket of car door, in your hand-bag or at the bottom of your jacket pocket

Open your bank statements or check on line regularly – become responsible and aware

Pay your bills weekly – doing this creates a real feeling of freedom around your money, it ties up those loose ends and creates immense peace of mind.

If you are already stuck in a pattern that is creating drama this has to be broken and you have to identify that and break that first.

Create Cash Cushions – Many people do not save any money and there are two main reasons why. One is that they don’t ever feel that they have any money to save. The other reason is because there’s no excitement or positive emotion in it. It feels like a punishment, ‘scrimping and saving’. Done with the wrong approach it can feel like a chore and a drain.

When you have cash saved, even if you just start with saving one month of your living expenses, it creates a tremendous feeling of safety and peace of mind.

One of the main reasons why people have trouble saving is because their money all goes into one account – it gets fuzzy and muddled. There is so much allocated to go out of that account in expenses that most of the money does not feel like it’s theirs.

Delegate your money to specific categories or cushions . By naming what you want to save for you start to take real ownership of that item – it becomes an entity and has an energy and presence all of its own.

Managing your money well is as much to do with your internal environment, how you think and feel about it, as it is to do with the practical things you are doing to keep it flowing to you. Taking a long hard look at your relationship with money is vital because it’s only then that the practical actions become simple and do-able, and make more sense.

Creating good cash flow and managing money better is all about creating new habits. Habits are very strong. To break a habit you have to get a bigger reward and buzz from the new action that you are taking – otherwise the old habit stays in place. Here’s a tip – your habits represent your past way of thinking and doing and you have the power to change those immediately. It’s your choice whether you do. If you do, you will save more easily, pay bills more easily and have a fundamentally more powerful and relaxed relationship with money as it comes and goes in your life – and that is huge.