Intro into Personal finances!

Discussing finances can seem overwhelming, hard to understand, and intimidating. Rest assured, I will always give you the quick and simple version to keep your head in the game and keep you focused on your financial fitness. You can subscribe to my newsletter for financial workouts

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Meet The Coach

Hi! My name is Abreia, but many know me as Coach Bre. I am fun and trendy but also a serious and resolute financial coach. In my corporate standing, I am currently a business transformation compliance officer under a large corporation.  I am also not the new kid on the block in these financial career streets, I have over five years of experience in finances and accounting from personal banking to bookkeeping and federal taxes to the fun stuff like macroeconomics. I have four years of education with accreditation toward a dual bachelor’s in accounting and finance.

Here is my 101 on personal finances. Let us dive in!

Agenda

 The agenda is to help you evaluate your finances by determining where you are while keeping you focused on where you want to be. Concentrating on your business or personal finances will help you build wealth faster and create and maintain financial freedom. No matter where you start, remember small efforts add to big results.  There’s a moto around the Moneytelligence with Bre brand” Progress over perfection”

At some point during this read, I encourage you to take the time to schedule an appointment with yourself. For example, send a scheduled note to your iPhone or use your Android to create a calendar invite. Allotting time to focus is the best way to stay on top of your finances.  

Remember you can always add yourself to my calendar for a group or 1 on 1 chat, when available.

Where You Stand.

The first step in evaluating your finances is determining where you are by calculating your net worth. Don’t let that scare you. Net worth can be calculated using the balance sheet approach, which lists all your assets and liabilities.

This step can be the most intimidating. I’m here to tell you it shouldn’t be. Writing down all your assets and liabilities to calculate your net worth is just that. A map with this step as the starting destination. You want to know where you are so you can create goals around where you want to be, because at the end of the day:

” Progress over perfection”

Assets- Liabilities = Net worth

Assets

Assets are what you own. They contribute to the income portion of your Net worth. Certain investments, savings accounts, and retirement funds are great examples of assets within personal finances.

Assets should be a hot topic when building your net worth. Assets take charge of potentially generating income. A good example of a net worth building asset is real estate. Real estate has the potential to generate income constantly including appreciation.

While working with a familiar client, she casually mentioned that she only stayed at her townhome every other month. I pushed her towards renting out her home when she was away.  She was skeptical, but she decided to do a trial run after I presented her with all the financials. In her favor, she booked as a host for a few months in advance. She was stunned about the income and has now decided to invest and purchase a tiny home to rent out for long-term income. During this purchase, her net worth will rise by nearly 50 thousand and eventually more as revenue and income from her investment is returned.

” Progress over perfection”

Liabilities

Liabilities are what you owe as an obligation. Liabilities are the debts that you take on to acquire assets or cover expenses. When trying to build up your net worth liabilities should be avoided or lessened.

Here are some common liabilities in personal finances. Mortgages, car loans, credit card debt, and any outstanding personal loans.

Another way to boost your net worth is by reducing liabilities. If you're focusing on your finances opening your 10th credit card, a liability, may not be the best financial decision.  

Take your time and be kind to your finances.

Now that you have your starting point. Let’s reflect!

Reflection

1.      Was your net worth more or less than you expected?

a.      More                    b. Less

2.      Coach Bre’s moto: Progress over __________________!

a.      Everything

b.     Perfection

c.      Trips

I am so proud of you for being courageous and honest with yourself. Your net worth is looking good.

Where do you want to be

Now that you have a starting number on your current net worth, it's time to focus on where you want to be. How will you expect your net worth to be in the next coming year? 5 years?

Goals

The reality is without goals and action, your success suffers.

Creating checkpoints to measure your progress is very important for financial success. I challenge you to remember the SMART saying while creating goals.

Your goals should be

• Specific- Your goals should be as specific as possible. “My goal is to save” is too vague.

• Measurable- Your goals must have data to measure your progress.

• Achievable- Are the goals you setting for yourself actually achievable?

• Realistic- Your goals should align with realistic situations. Becoming the first person on Pluto may just be out of reach

• Time-bound- Goals should include a timeline.

If I was setting a goal to save, I might write it down as this.

A+ goal: I aim to save 100.00 in an envelope every month for the next 12 months to total 1200. I am paid biweekly so I will save approx. 50 dollars per paycheck. Sweet, simple but hits all the points of our SMART chart.

Needs work goal: My goal is to save money sometime soon.

Long Term Goals

Long-term goals are financial goals that usually can be achieved within less than a year. These goals are longer because they likely take longer and more work to achieve.  Some examples would be paying off your car loan in 3 years or finishing mortgage payments in 10 years. Having a profitable business in 2 years. These are all long-term goals that should be decided using the SMART method.

Short term goals

Short-term goals are financial goals that can be achieved within less than a year. They should be decided using the SMART method.

With short-term goals, there are 2 types of accomplishments: quick, smaller accomplishments that can be achieved within the next 7 days and bigger, and slightly longer accomplishments that can be achieved in under a year.

Just thinking about the goals, what is a quick accomplishment you can make?

I challenge you!

I challenge you to take on a short-term goal. I challenge you to write down a seven-day expense for a specific type of expense. Maybe you will choose to write down your morning latte cost. Or your food expenses. This will be an easy win. I promise. This goal will lead to something big. 

” Progress over perfection”

Once your goal is complete keep an eye on your inbox for the next checkpoint in my weekly newsletter. If you need to subscribe do so now!!

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Takeaway

It was great getting started with you on your finances. This is part 1 of a 3-part series about personal finances. Stay in touch to talk about credit, debt and passive income topics.

Coming soon! Pod Chat with Coach Bre!