Change Jar Savings

As I sat thinking about what to write about for this weeks post, I had several ideas. I want to continue to lay the ground work of what this blog is about, I also want to keep fresh ideas coming in. So, instead of working on this post I was looking at other personal finance blogs.

Let me tell you there is a lot of advice out there. —Save your money. Establish an emergency fund. Pay off debt. Snowball debt. Highest interest first. Live frugally. — But very little is written as a how to. And what should be done first?

So it comes to “What’s the Plan?” Do I keep searching for answers or do I start doing? You can look and look and look and be no further along than you started. The question that came to my mind is “What’s the Plan?”

Wanting to achieve anything starts with a dream. However this is where most people stop. A few will look around and say they just don’t know how to do it. Or it is just too big to accomplish. But a life of just dreams is not much of a life. And a life without dreams is giving up.

Here are my personal finance dreams:
• Get out of debt
• Get more income
• Save for an emergency
• Stop overspending
• Stop overdraft fees

So how do you take a dream and make it a reality? How do you start to dream even? With an overwhelming feelings and debt hanging over you, all you see is gray clouds. The first thing we need to do is to start to plan.

“PLAN? Plan what? If I do not have a dream what do I plan?”

Yes that is the point. Even if you don’t have a dream, you need to plan. I did not have a plan on what to write. While my head had ideas, the plan was not there. So I was stuck. Well you already have an idea. You would not be reading this if you were not looking for an answer. The dream or idea can be found by asking what is the problem you are looking to solve? Do you want to stop living payday to payday? Do you want to get out of debt? Answer this and now you know you have a dream.

“But I have many dreams. I want to do what you said but I need a new car. I want a better place to live that costs more. I want my kids to have a great Christmas.”

Just like I was sitting trying to figure out what to write, I was stuck because there were too many conflicts. My head was awash with ideas but not a clue about how to accomplish them. The next step is to start to record them. Write them down. Type them up.

But now you have conflicts. Which dream do you work on?

“Wait I can’t have it all? I want to accomplish all of them!”

Yes you can have it all but you have to decide which gets priority. Which idea or dream is more important to you? Which can have the fastest impact to change your life? Start prioritizing your ideas or dreams.

Here are my priorities.
1. Stop overspending
2. Stop overdraft fees
3. Save for an emergency
4. Get out of debt
5. Get more income

I will explain more about my priorities in a future post. My reasons may be different than yours and I want you to decide based on your reasons not mine. By the way – priorities can and do change. So do not be disappointed when you need to buy car tires rather than save for an emergency.

So “What’s the Plan?” Start working on it. If you want share your plan here in the comments.

Just my 2 cents. Jim @ ChangeJarSavings.com

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