THE ULTIMATE CHECKLIST FOR

MASTERING YOUR MONEY

#1
RUN YOUR CASH FLOW
The first step towards mastering your money is to know exactly how much is
coming in and how much is going out each month.
(Income) - (Bills, debts, savings) = remainder to spend in the month.

#2
PICK A BUDGETING STYLE
There are so many budgets from which you can choose:
• Tracking Every Penny
• Cash Diet And those are just a few! If you try one out
• Zero-Sum and it doesn’t work for you, then pivot and
• 50/20/30 try something new.
• Envelope method
#3
HAVE AN EMERGENCY
SAVINGS FUND
You want to have 3-6 months worth of living
expenses saved up in a special savings account ear-
marked just for emergencies. But that can feel really
overwhelming when you’re paying off debt. Instead,
start with saving up $1,000 if it’s just you or $1,500 if you
have a child or pet.

#4
SET ACTIONABLE FINANCIAL GOALS
Big financial goals are great, but they can also be intimidating. Instead, make
sure they’re actionable. For example, you want to save $10,000 in 4 years. That
means saving $2,500 a year, which is $208.33 a month. Focusing on $208.33 a
month is much easier than continuing to focus on the big $10,000 goal.

Write down a big financial goal you want to achieve:

What’s one step can Be sure to re-evaluate your

goals at least once a year
you take each month as your life changes and
to get there? progresses.
 #5
HAVE A DEBT PAYOFF PLAN
This goes hand-in-hand with goal setting, but it’s important you put a plan
in place for paying off your debt. Consider using the debt avalanche or debt
snowball method.
Debt Avalanche: the mathematically correct way to pay off debt

Write down your debts ranked from the largest interest rate to smallest. Focus
on putting all your extra money towards the debt with the largest interest rate
first, while always paying the minimum due on the remaining debts. Once the
largest interest rate debt is paid off, then you take the money you were putting
towards it and add to to the minimum due you’re paying on the second largest
interest rate.
Debt Snowball: the “makes my brain happy” way to pay off debt
Write down your debts ranked from smallest balance to largest. Focus any
extra money towards paying off the smallest balance first. Remember, always
be paying the minimums due on any other debts. Because it’s the smallest
debt balance, you should be able to pay it off fairly quickly, which will give you
the psychological boost to continue crushing your debt payoff plan. Take the
money you were putting towards the smallest balance and add it towards the
money being put towards the second smallest. The amount you can pay will
“snowball” as your crush your debts.

#6
START SAVING FOR RETIREMENT
Put at least 3% of your annual salary away for retirement with the goal of
working your way up to saving 10%. You can use an IRA or an employer
sponsored 401(k) or 403(b) to start saving for retirement. Don’t let any
confusion around picking investments stand in your way. You can start
by using what’s known as a target date or all-in-one fund. You can always
change your investments in the future, but at least this gets you started.
#7
GET CONFIDENT WITH NEGOTIATING
Negotiating is a critical skill in your professional life as well as for your person-
al finances. You should not only master the art when it comes to increasing
your salary, but also to help lower your bills. A great way to get some practice
in is to try negotiating either with your internet,cable or cell service provider,
especially if your price recently went up. After all, the worst someone can tell
you is no!

#8
PULL YOUR CREDIT SCORE AT LEAST ONCE A YEAR
You are entitled to a free copy of your credit report once per year from
each of the credit bureaus (Experian, TransUnion and Equifax). Check
your credit reports once per year to ensure there are no mistakes or
fraud. You can go to the government site annualcreditreport.com
to download your reports. It does not harm your credit score
for you to check your own credit reports and it’s 100%
free. No need to add any credit card information.
#9
YOU HAVE A 700+ CREDIT SCORE
A credit score of 700+ makes the rest of your financial life easier and cheaper.
It’s how you can start to get access to lower interest rate loans and better
credit cards. Work on getting there by always making your payments on time
and using no more than 30% of the limit on your credit card. That means if
you have a credit limit of $1000, then you use no more than $300. Always pay
off your credit card bill on time and in full. There is never a need to carry a
balance month-to-month.

#10
YOU SPEND ON WHAT YOU VALUE
It’s important to actually align your spending patterns with what you truly
value, because achieving this gives you significantly more control over your
money. An easy way to see if you are actually spending on what you value
is to spend two weeks writing down every purchase you make. At the end of
those two weeks, you can look back at all your purchases and see if there are
any mindless spending patterns you want to nix.

FOR MORE LEARNING ON THIS TOPIC, BE SURE TO WATCH THESE

EPISODES OF THE 3-MINUTE GUIDE!

Episode 2: How To Ask For More Money

Episode 6: The Two Easiest Ways To Pay Down Your Debt
Episode 10: 3 Budgeting Strategies For Different Personality Types
Episode 12: Everything You Need To Know About Emergency Funds
Episode 14: How To Pay Off Your Student Loans Faster
Episode 18: How To Make An Extra $100 Every Month
Episode 22: 3 Financial Goals To Start Working Towards Today