Align Goals With Your Values

• Create a full inventory of expenses in front of you: Categorize them into fixed and variable; urgent and non-urgent; necessities and luxury; avoidable and unavoidable.
• You can create a hierarchy of needs and decide which one’s to address first. It’s all about prioritizing. 
• Accept that you have limited resources and unlimited wants. But you have to manage your resources. The sooner you accept this fact, the better you can control your impulses towards avoidable expenditures.

It’s a statement wherein you can jot down your assets and liabilities.

• Pull together your bank statements and other proofs of the liabilities
• List down your assets like the bank balance, all investments, home value, and value of other assets.
• Take a sum of all the assets to arrive at the total value of your assets.
• List down your liabilities the (car loan, home loan, credit card balances etc.)
• The sum of all the liabilities will show the value of the money you owe.
• When you subtract the value of liabilities from assets, you get your Net Worth.
  

From the day you start saving, put a reminder on your calendar once a week to work for one hour on your finances in some way. It could include reading, balancing the accounts, optimizing cash flow, researching funds, etc.

There is no right number of times to check on your account. If you feel the urge to make decisions based on the news or market changes, limit how many times you look at your accounts. With experience, you will gain more control.

Once you understand where your money is going and what is left for savings, you may feel demoralised. Even though the amount is small in the first few months, you may be surprised by how much your balance grows in six months or a year.

The power of compound interest is what helps accounts grow exponentially and reach your savings goals quicker.

It is better to focus on the process rather than the outcome. When you focus on the outcome, you slow your growth.

Commit to consistent practice. Focus on the process of getting better every single day. 

Most people lack success because they cannot follow a routine to achieve an important goal.

Instead of fighting a losing battle, learn to move around these tasks to start making progress when you can. 

Learn how to spend on the things that matter to you. 

Consider your values and priorities when you draw up your spending plan. If going on vacation or giving to a charity is important to you, include those items in your spending plan.

Pay down your high-interest debt as quickly as possible. 

While some types of low-interest or tax-deductible debt can help you along the way, high-interest debt rarely has a good purpose.

Over the long term, it's not as much about the dollar amount you save, but the percentage of your income that you dedicate to saving and investing. By focusing on percentages, you can ensure you're always saving more as you earn more. 

Most people react to their finances. The problem with that is that you rely on chance to have enough money in the bank when you actually need it. Be intentional about your money and spend time reviewing and evaluating it. If you don't, you'll never know if you're moving in the right direction or not.

Turn your lights off when leaving the room. If you live with forgetful people, place little stickers by the switch to give people helpful reminders.

You can also replace bulbs with energy-saving ones.

Simplify your beauty regime and ditch expensive creams. All your skin needs is a good diet, plenty of water and hydration.

Also, brush your teeth twice a day and don’t forget to floss. Having teeth issues leads to expensive dental bills.

... for choosing personal goals. Ask yourself these questions:

1. Ask yourself which aspect of your life you would like to change most.
2. Think about why you want to change this.
3. How will that change make you feel? Determine what exactly will make you feel this way.
4. Ask yourself how you can make this happen and then make it your personal goal.

• Draw a chart. Write down each of the various areas of your life (family, health, self-development, career, relationships) in a new column or line.
• Assess your current happiness level in each of these categories by giving it a score from 1 to 10.
• Think what will make you be fully satisfied with these areas. Write down your ideas – you will be able to transform them into personal plans.

Knowing your personal values changes your behavior.

For instance: When you value health, you don’t have to wrestle with managing impulse control as much. If you know a particular food or activity isn’t good for your body, you don’t want it.

1. Start with a beginner’s mind, someone with no preconceived notions of what is.
2. Create your list of personal values. 
3. Chunk your personal values into related groups. 
4. Highlight the central theme of each value group. 
5. Determine your top Personal Core Values. Whittle your list down to 5 - 10 core values and rank them in order of importance.
6. Give your personal values richer context. Highlight values into memorable phrases or sentences.
   
7. Test the ecology of each value. Review your list a day later: Are they personal to you? Do you see any values that feel inconsistent?