The Benefits of a “Financially Dry” January

What do you get when you combine: bloated credit card balances, a wacky budget, a sluggish savings account, and personal debt that’s packing on the pounds (well, dollars if you’re in the USA)?

Give up? Answer: a financial life that is just BEGGING for a detox!

Good thing it’s almost “Dry January”…the time of the year where we officially go cold turkey and kick some of our pesky bad habits right out the door.

And since I know we don’t have to talk about alcohol consumption… Let’s instead focus on how we can use the month of January to recover from those – often unintentional –  “not so great” money situations that naturally creep into our lives throughout the year. Don’t worry….and don’t feel bad or stressed about it.

Believe me when I say that it happens to the best of us. Yup, me included! That’s why I’m coming to you super prepared with exactly what we’ll need to get our financial lives right back on track. This is about to be a piece of cake…

Oops!

That’s probably not the best word to get us in in the detox “mood”, huh? 🙂 OK, well let’s get serious…

Your Financial Physical Exam

First things first: we need a complete picture of just what kind of a financial mess (errr…situation) we’ve gotten ourselves into over the last 365 days. How else will we know exactly what financial detox areas to focus on this month? Sounds like a daunting task, but guess what?

It doesn’t have to be! I have a totally free, hook-up for us! My peeps at Intuit Turbo will analyze four key numbers that are critical to your financial health (verified income, credit score, total debt, and debt-to-income ratio) for FREE.

They literally do all the work for you; you’ll barely have to lift a finger! Woo! This detox thing isn’t seeming so bad after all…

Grab Your Financial Numbers Here and Then Let’s Get Started on Your Financial Detox!

Nine times out of 10, you will find that you had some money hiccups as the year went by in one or more of the financial areas that I mentioned at the beginning. These areas are notorious culprits for financial wellness issues! I want to talk about them and give you some crucial detox recipes for a January cure.

Bloated Credit Cards

If you’ve been swiping your credit card left and right with wild abandon all year, it’s probably time to STOP! Your Turbo financial health numbers likely came back showing high credit card balances and in some cases, late or missing bill payments. This can really drag down your credit score…big time! Yikes!

And it can also set you up for credit denials or the need to accept sky-high interest rates or lousy personal loans in the future when you really need to be on top of your credit game (think about things like qualifying for a mortgage…or when you need a vehicle).

My recommendation for you? Ehhh…it’s going to hurt a little!

Credit card withdrawal is a must for the month of January. Say what?

Yes! Put down the credit cards for the entire month of January and only use money that you actually have versus money that you have available to borrow. By doing this, you will immediately begin to make better decisions on what you really need from day to day and…you will be in a better position to begin getting your credit card balances down…an important goal for all of us.

Wacky Budget

Does your current budget look like it could use a mental health day? $30 lunch one day? Fashion Nova online purchases another day? No pennies to spare a different day? Your money is all over the place. And it’s is a super easy trap to fall into… Why? Because your money has no plan!

Without a solid plan for your income – no matter how much money you make – the likelihood of unnecessary spending is G-R-E-A-T! My January recommendation?

Carefully examine your daily expenses and see where you can make some changes! No idea where or how to start? Get a jumpstart by going HERE to grab your free copy of Day 1 of my bestselling book, The One Week Budget.

It’s been known to be an eye-opener…and an easy way to get your budget all the way together this month! Go for it. It’s not as hard as you think!

Sluggish Savings

Do your money savings attempts go nowhere…fast? Put $50 in savings one day? Take $120 right back out of savings another day? I know, I know… It can be very difficult not to dip into your savings account.

I mean, VERY difficult. But let’s just see if we can go one month without touching our savings.

Here are two tips for how to do that:

• Open an online savings account. One issue may be that your money is way too accessible to you. If you have a savings account at the exact same bank where you have your checking account, it’s too easy to go back and forth between the two. Consider opening an online savings account, which will require a little more effort and time before you can physically get to your money.
• Automate your savings. I had to learn this the hard way. You may need to take the “YOU” out of the equation to see any real savings results. There are programs that will analyze your spending habits for you and use that information to pull out bits of money here and there from your checking account for deposit into an FDIC-insured savings platforms.

Sometimes we gotta do what we gotta do to reach our goals! These tips should definitely help you get the savings account flow moving again this month. At the end of the day, all of these financial areas work hand in hand to create a clean financial bill of health.

After “Financially Dry January” has come and gone, you will still need to keep a close eye on your finances.

Since you’re rolling with Turbo now, they will help you continuously monitor your numbers and provide customized tips on how you can work to improve them going forward!

Our finances will be feeling waaay better in no time.

This blog post does not constitute, and should not be considered a substitute for legal or financial advice. Each financial situation is different, the advice provided is intended to be general. Please contact your financial or legal advisors for information specific to your situation.