Tips to Go From Zero to Hero With Your Money Today

Everyone has had issues with their financials before. Here are some tips on how to set your life up for long-lasting success with money.

Everyone knows they should be better with their money. If you aren't doing the below (or some version of it), you shouldn’t be worrying about bitcoin or the stock market yet. Here's how you can start from nothing and create a fantastic base incredibly quickly:

Start consuming content

This is the easiest tip and yet it may be the most impactful. In fact, you're already doing it right now! Consuming content, even passively, on how to better your money (via articles, Youtube, social

media, podcasts, audiobooks, and so on) is a fantastic way to not only build your knowledge but to create a deep, burning desire to want to sustainably improve your finances.

Write out income and expenses

This is the part everyone dreads, and yet it’s so necessary. If done well, you'll likely only have to do this once and then iterate/improve it as you go. Write out your monthly income and expenses on a sheet of paper. You can use a laptop if you would like — however, I believe that pen and paper are more effective with sketching out ideas. They really make you feel everything. After you’ve done a rough sketch, review your transactions using your banking app to further inform how accurate your initial assessment was and

make adjustments as necessary.

Set goals and budget for spending (while being realistic!)

Now that you have a clear picture of where you are financially, you can begin to set SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) goals as to how you would like to improve and craft a budget to get you there. Make them reasonable. Everyone wants to be a millionaire right now but we all need to start somewhere.

As for how to set up a budget, think about a reasonable number for food, bills, leisure, and miscellaneous expenses, then add a 10 to 20 percent margin on top to account for potential overspending. I suggest writing this out, similar to the initial audit, and beginning to pay yourself first and incorporating this “expense” into your budget. This means setting up an automated deduction into your investment and savings accounts.

Take one step at a time. You’ve got this!