Imbibing The Art Of Financial Mindfulness
One of the things that can help one to achieve a state of financial freedom is by mastering the art of financial mindfulness. What this simply means is for you to learn to be present in your very own decision making as it relates to finances. In the world today, and at this present time, a lot of distractions arise because of the busyness of people, and as a result, a lot of people are less aware of, or lack the consciousness of their financial state. Without a knowledge of one's financial situation, achieving a well-balanced life may just be a mirage. This is why one needs to to gain financial mindfulness.
One may ask what financial mindfulness entails. This covers a whole lot of things including, but not limited to; spending habits, income generation, wise budgeting, investment choices - short-term and long-term, financial consequences, etc. In all these, you will discover that planning is a very crucial aspect of financial mindfulness. I normally tell people that when you do not plan on what to spend money on and what not to spend on, you will open up yourself to impulse buying, which can have negative consequences on one's pocket.
Now let us consider the factors that can assist one to master the art of financial mindfulness. The first point is be fully aware of your financial goals. I once asked someone about her financial goal for the next 5 years and to my greatest surprise, she could not pinpoint any. For someone that has no goal of what to achieve, what will guide their actions? I mean, how will the person even know if progress is being made or not? It is by having a goal that you can have what to pursue after. When it comes to financial goal, it covers some other aspects; like knowing what to put money into (investing, etc), spendings, having a special target or milestone to achieve, having your mind on what matters in relation to money, creating a well-defined financial objective.
If you must arrive at a destination, then you must have an idea of what and where the destination is. Without knowing where to go, you will not know when you arrive there because everywhere will just look like it. Having a goal is like knowing your destination which is the first step to achieving anything worthwhile.
The next point here, in relation to financial mindfulness, is budgeting. You will be surprised how much you can spend on irrelevances and unnecessary things if you do not have a budget. Your budget is like a spending guideline that you need to follow to avoid impromptu and irrelevant spendings. Budgeting needs to be made logically and put into consideration the financial state of the person and the money at hand. You do not make a budget for the money you do not have nor for the one you are hoping to have. When budgeting, you should take a review of your income and pocket size, and then factor them into the budget.
Another aspect of financial mindfulness that we will look at is financial literacy. Acquiring knowledge is a very key aspect of life. The truth is that what you do not know, you have the propensity to abuse it. To be stable financially, you need to have extensive knowledge relating to it. Go for seminars, lectures, get materials on finance and read, rub minds with others, increase your literacy level, and get your mind sharpened with other relevant information. There are some catastrophic actions you can simply avoid if you update on your knowledge. So always try to update and upgrade your knowledge-base as it relates to finances.
The last one to look at is your financial decision making. Before you take any decision or step in relation to finance, you need to be aware of the effects that the decision will have. More so, this should be done after you have made your own research. For example, before investing, you have to conduct your own feasibility studies, research, and make a survey of what to invest in. All these will help you not to make the wrong choice that may hamper your finances. Always remember that any decision you take financially can and will have effect on you.
Thanks for reading
