Have you ever felt that you have made various efforts to improve your finances, but various financial problems still occur? You are not alone. Problems that often occur, such as living from payday to the next payday, difficulty getting away from debt bondage, to difficulties communicating with partners and other family members.
These various problems will of course become stressors in one’s personal life and must be address immediately. Based on a survey conducted by the consulting agency PricewaterhouseCoopers in the United States in 2017, the main cause of stress in human life is financial problems.
If financial problems can resolve properly, then the level of individual happiness will also increase. That is why now might be the right moment for you to start changing your mindset and implementing mindful financial planning.
Mindful financial planning is an attempt to use judgment on an individual’s personal experience in making financial decisions. By bringing a conscious and open mind, every individual will want to admit if in the past they have made various mistakes and most importantly learn from these mistakes.
Someone will also be successful in managing their financial life in the future when they are able to forgive themselves for past bad decisions and then let go of fear and start a total turnaround to plan a healthy financial strategy. The following are the steps for doing mindful financial planning.
Take a break before starting to plan
Through meditation one can overcome emotional biases, which have been instilled in our life stories which may include:
(1) exposed to poor financial practices by our parents during our formative years
(2) fear that is instilled by bad environmental factors, such as college graduates who were negatively affected during the fall of the 1998 monetary crisis which continues to affect the ability to create wealth let alone manage wealth.
These factors cause stress and block one’s mind from moving towards the practice of financial empowerment.
Make a money diary or financial journal
Write answers to the following questions in a journal;
(1) My personal finances stress me out because…
(2) Some of the constraints that I currently have in my financial life are…
(3) when I think about money and my personal finances, I feel…
Changing the point of view in preparing the monthly budget
When someone is aware of the amount of income receive each month, their lifestyle must adjust to that amount. The number of needs must be able to manage with priorities in life. Techniques for making a budget should also be adapted to life attitudes and divided into allocations for routine living, future needs, and controlled desires. It’s also a good idea to be flexible when unexpected things happen.
Avoid associating emotions with consumption
Impulsive impulses will encourage someone to spend money without awareness. A study direct by researchers at the Australian Journal of Psychology (2013) found that compulsive buying is drive by the need to let go of negative thoughts. This behavior clearly has a negative impact on financial management practices.
Give thanks
Take time to notice and feel whatever you have right now. Sometimes a person is too focus on looking for what is not there and forgets what has obtained in front of his eyes.
Live a Beautiful Life!