You must never forget that every dollar you spent has the potential for jeopardizing rather than enhancing your future.

Recently I conducted my financial session “Taking Control of Your Money” for employees of a local financial institution and continue to realize that most persons are still having serious problem with their finances. No matter your salaries, “your expenses continue to rise to the level of our income.”

What is of even more concern is that most persons do not know or understand how they’re spending their money. The real problem is that they are content to run their finances from their purse or wallet. This is what usually happens:

“ You get paid. You see what bills are due and pay the oldest ones. You may then give your spouse or children some money, and hope you have enough money to buy groceries and put gas in the car until next pay day. All your money is gone so you wait for your next payday to get some more money and repeat the same thing.”

You may not realize it but if this is how you are handling your finances you are guaranteed to have problems; because you will never get a true picture of where you are financially.

Deep down inside you know you need to manage your money better so why are you so complacent about doing what’s necessary. Why don’t you have a plan for spending your hard earned money?

Maybe you just don’t realize that this is your most expensive mistake! Until you do, then living from pay cheque to pay cheque will continue to be with you.

Like the participants in my session, you may justify your position by using excuses.

“ I don't make enough money. I owe too much to set up a budget. I'm not good with numbers. I just don't have the time to keep up with a budget. I can't get my spouse to work with me.”

The solution is simple

Well, that's the problem but what about a solution. It may surprise you but the solution is simple no matter your current financial situation.

First, you must find out where you stand now. To do this, simply write down your income and expenses (making sure you include all your expenses even groceries and gas) in a notebook paper. I know you maybe saying “Where am I going to find the time to write everything down that I spend money on?” But you must or you will continue to spend a lot more money than you need to.

Then subtract your expenses from your income. Do you have any money left? If you do congratulation, what are you going to do with it? If you don't then don’t feel bad you’re not alone. You now need to consider ways to reduce your expenses.

Decide what you really want

This begins by deciding what you really want your money to do for you.

You’ve got to set your goals! This could be saving for your retirement, buying a home, college for yourself or children, getting a new car or anything you want. That's why you have to decide for yourself.

The spending Plan

Now it's time to set up your spending plan. Here, you’re going to look over your expenses and decide whether you are getting the maximum use from every dollar. Bearing in mind that every dollar you spend has the potential to either enhance or jeopardize your financial future.

With this in mind, you will realize that your spending plan dispels one of the biggest myths about budgeting and that is, you won’t be able to get what you really want. As you will now have the tool that will ensure that you get what you want.

A second myth about budgeting and one of the reasons most persons refuse to try or fail is that, you need to keep up with it everyday. It does take a little time to get your spending plan setup. There are a lot of things that need to be considered. But once your finances are down on paper, there is no reason to work on it except on payday. To help you get started, I recommend the “Taking Control of Your Money-Ebook” which m akes the process really simple.

So if you still believe that managing your money is too difficult or just too much trouble, consider that not managing your money is your most expensive mistake; costing you a fortune by robbing you of your hard earned money and leading you to financial disaster.

I think those are compelling reasons to change, what do you think?

“ A man who makes a mistake and doesn't correct it is making another mistake.”

Got a question about your financial or retirement planning any question at all go ahead and just ASK GLENN

Glenn Ferguson is a Speaker, Coach and Syndicated Writer, helping you to painlessly take control of your money to create wealth for you and your family. Email to: glenn@financialcoachingwithglenn.com Tel: 242-327-2453 Fax: 242-327-2456. Website: www.financialcoachingwithglenn.com