How to get your financial swagger back in five easy steps

Have you lost that pep in your financial step? It’s normal by this point in the pandemic. But you can get it back and start feeling better about your money with these easy steps.

Do something healthy for your finances each day

Simple acts of financial self-care go a long way toward improving your money mindset and confidence. Try one (or more) of the following; move a small but meaningful amount of money into your savings account every day — say $7 a day (helps to build your rainy day or vacation fund), express gratitude for your money when making a purchase (this also acts as a little pause that often stops impulse purchases), invest five minutes in learning more about investing (financial knowledge is powerful), check up on your spending through your favourite budgeting app (tracking your purchases helps you prioritize your spending and keeps you out of debt).

Get on top of your taxes early

According to TurboTax, about 79 per cent of households prefer to get their taxes organized and ready to file early. It helps reduce stress, and gives people a line of sight on whether they can expect a return or will owe money.

If this idea appeals to you try this; gather up your tax forms and create a digital or physical file for them. Start inputting the values into your tax software if you’re DIY’ing it, or uploading the docs to your accountant’s secure tax portal. Note that most tax forms will arrive by mid-March, but some can be later. An easy way to determine if you’re missing something is to look at your forms from last year and, if you haven’t made a lot of changes to your finances, you’ll probably get the same kinds of forms this year. And, if you threw all of it out, hop online into your CRA My Account portal and look up your forms there.

If you expect to owe money, the benefit of organizing yourself early is you can start saving up to pay the bill, or make alternative arrangements to get the money (maybe it’s time to chase down the people who owe you money?).

Find someone to talk to about your money

Money is better when you aren’t doing it all alone. Meridian published a recent survey on how millennials are paving the way for open communication about money relative to previous generations. I love this trend because we know from other research that learning and talking about money within a community of like minded people, and with professional advisors, is directly linked to having more money, reduced financial stress and anxiety.

Now, despite the cutesy Instagram reels on money, I don’t think it’s super smart to take financial advice from people who are unqualified even if they’ve got the best content you’ve seen online. Do yourself a favour and look up the person’s credentials (or ask), and if you’re joining a money program or community, check out who’s running it and what qualifies them to be giving you advice. Your financial future is too important to be guided in the wrong direction.

Always make progress, even if it’s just a little

It’s hard to beat the feeling of financial progress. To measure whether your finances are getting better, worse or staying the same, track the universal measure of net worth. Tally up the value of your assets (no, cars are not on this list because they depreciate) and then tally up your liabilities (yes, car loans are included on this list). Subtract total liabilities from total assets and that’s your net worth. Growing your net worth is how financial security and wealth are created.

There are only two ways to make your net worth grow — increase your assets and reduce your liabilities — that’s it! So, if you focus on that, you’re going to make progress… and all progress is good!

If you start tracking your net worth and notice it’s going down, it means one of two things; either your financial strategy is broken or your financial behaviours are broken. So, investigate and course correct… and maybe hire an advisor or financial coach if you get stuck.

Reward yourself

When you achieve a money milestone like paying off your credit card, buying a home, opening your RRSP account (the deadline for contributions for the 2021 tax year is March 1), or retiring, celebrate. Rewards give you the motivation to keep your financial momentum high. And, let’s face it… right now with the state of the world and how fatigued we all are, rewards go a long way to making us happy and satisfied with our lives. Just keep your rewards on budget.

This article was originally published in The Star. Lesley-Anne Scorgie is a Toronto-based personal finance columnist and a freelance contributing columnist for the Star.