Minding Your Money 360 - Quick tips to manage your money for success

Today on the minute – making sense of your money attitudes

Okay so I’m glad you’re listening. A listener says, I took the quiz from yesterday but I don’t know how to create a summary. What does that really mean?

Fair enough. If you took the quiz, congrats on the first step. If you didn’t you might want to go back to Episode 717 and take the quiz. So once you take the quiz, you end up with a number of statements that fit you. The next step is to create a summary of how your answers relate to your big picture. So for example, if you said that you save money each month and that you are paying extra on your credit cards each month, that might be something you feel good about and you can say that. On the other hand, if you said that you don’t know much about money management or that you can’t control your spending, you can express how that makes you feel and more importantly if that is something you truly want to change.

Remember, I said yesterday that you can change you money attitudes, but first you need to know what they are. By going through the list of questions and your answers, you can begin to identify those areas that you feel good about and those areas that you want to improve. Set aside some quiet time for this and really reflect on your answers. And, before you commit to change anything be sure you really mean it so do yourself a favor and write why you want to change it next to the things you want to change because chances are it’s not going to be an easy task to accomplish, but you can do it if it’s that important to you.

And that’s the minute for today. Tomorrow let’s talk about some steps to change your money attitudes. Hey, never miss a Minute, hop on over to iTunes and subscribe and while you’re there, leave us a review it would really help us so we can continue to help you. You can find a link at mindingyourmoney.org.

Thanks for listening and as always remember that minding your money really is the path to a richer life!

Today on the minute – exploring your money attitudes

I got a question about yesterday’s show where a listener said, “I understand that my attitudes are really important, but how do I know what they are?” Great question. So often our attitudes about money are hidden so deep in our subconscious that it’s difficult to know what they are. But one way to begin to get a glimmer of what they are is to answer a series of questions and see which ones fit you and which ones don’t and you can begin to see patterns emerging. Then you can reflect on the questions that fit you and create a summary for yourself.

With all of that in mind, I found a money quiz and I have posted it on my website in Episode 717. It’s about 30 questions that I got from the Personal Finance Workbook for Dummies by Sheryl Garrett. To see it all the questions, simply go to www.mindingyourmoney.org and click on Episode 717 – there is even a link to download a copy.

The idea is to answer if these fit you frequently, sometimes or never. Don’t spend too much time on these – go with your gut.

Here’s a quick sampling of some of the questions:

I hate to open the mail, because all I ever receive is bills.

I’ll never have enough money

When I’m feeling down or bored, I go shopping.

I feel stress when I think about my financial commitments

I feel knowledgeable about my ability to manage money

I hope to retire by age 65 or before

There are no real right or wrong answers here, it is what it is. Can you change your money attitudes? Of course you can, but it helps to know what they are so you know what you need to change.

And that’s the minute for today. Like the Minute? Leave us a review on iTunes. And if you have a question, send it to me at [email protected].

Thanks for listening and as always remember that minding your money really is the path to a richer life!

RESOURCES: Money Attitudes Quiz - Click here to download a copy

It's Monday and I have a question.

And, my question is this… what are your attitudes about money?

It’s true, your attitudes about money influence your actions. Positive thoughts lead to positive money behaviors and negative thoughts lead to bad money behaviors which can lead to financial disaster.

Try to maintain a spirit of open mindedness when you think about your finances because eventually your thoughts will become your reality. If you think you will never succeed financially, chances are you never will. That’s due to something called a self-fulfilling prophecy. On the other hand, if you remain open to making changes in your financial habits, you’re much more likely to succeed – thanks again to the self-fulfilling prophecy. Starting today you have the opportunity to make changes that can affect your financial life forever.

So, here’s your assignment for this week. Every time you catch yourself thinking negatively about your finances and your ability to take control, put a dollar in a jar, a box or someplace so that you can add it all up at the end of the week. The goal is to have as little as possible in the jar. Then at the end of the week add it all up and give it to charity. Why a charity? Well, if you are not going to work for yourself perhaps you can get some good karma to work for you.

And that’s the minute for today. Keep your eye on the Minute because some big changes are coming in September including guests to share their money stories and ideas. If you have suggestions about someone you would like to learn more about, send their names to me at [email protected].

Thanks for listening and as always remember that minding your money really is the path to a richer life!

It’s Friday and time for our word of the week –the word this week is Priorities.

I chose priorities as the word of the week because if you’re like most people, you want it all and you want it now. But for most of us, that’s just not possible because of money and time constraints so you need to set priorities.

A priority is defined as a thing that is regarded as more important than another. Being regarded or treated as more important or the right to take precedence or to proceed before others.

But setting priorities is not necessarily an automatic process. It helps to put your choices on paper so that you can choose or make tradeoffs and still stay within your budget. Otherwise, if you make them in your head, there may appear to be no tradeoffs necessary. And that’s how people get into huge amounts of debt.

For things that you decide aren’t that important, look for ways to make them happen without breaking the budget such as opting for a less expensive options. For example, if you have a wedding coming up and you want to buy a house, list the most important things you want for each, look at your total budget and then prioritize the items to purchase and the items where you can take a less expensive route.

Our word of the week is Priorities. They are not just for how you want to spend your money – they are also for how you want to spend your time.

And that’s the minute for today. Want more Minute? Connect with us on Twitter @yourmoneyminute

Thanks for listening and as always remember that minding your money really is the path to a richer life!

Today on the minute – Is Your Portfolio Really Diversified?

I got a question from a listener about diversification and I think it’s worth reviewing what I’m talking about when I talk about diversification because there’s diversification and then there’s real diversification. But first why care about diversification? Well, one of the best ways to smooth out the ups and downs in the stock market is to diversify your investments – to put your money in a variety of investments to minimize your risk and maximize your returns.

The idea behind diversification is that different types of investments react differently to changes in the market. This allows for the possibility that when some investments are down others will be up, and as a result, the overall return on your portfolio will remain relatively stable.

The one caveat is that building a well diversified portfolio can be costly and take a lot of time to manage. As a result, many people use mutual funds because they provide a form of instant diversification. That’s because each mutual fund contains a variety of investments or companies inside it. But here is where a lot of people go wrong. They think that because they are invested in five or six different mutual funds that they are uber diversified and that’s not always the case, especially when they choose mutual funds that have essentially invested in the same companies. So when one goes down they all go down – there is no counterbalance to keep your portfolio stable.

Remember, mutual funds especially index funds are a great investment option, but you have to do your homework to be sure you are really diversifying your portfolio or just adding more of the same to it.

And that’s the minute for today. You know I love helping people with all aspects of their financial lives. If you have a question, if debt is an issue or if you just want to get your financial house in order contact me at [email protected] or go to my website at psworth.com and sign up for a free discovery session.                                                          

Thanks for listening and as always remember that minding your money really is the path to a richer life!