You can control your money!
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EmailUsing 3 R’s will help you experience money management success.
When dealing with money, it can sometimes feel like money is controlling us. Using the 3 R’s from the National Endowment for Financial Education High School Financial Planning Program to control cash flow, you can be the one in charge of your finances!
- Reality- Face the reality of your current and actual situation.
- Jobs can change. Prices for services always increase. You might get sick or injured and can’t work temporarily. An emergency situation such as a broken laptop, fractured bone, fender bender or lost cell phone can easily happen. As an adult, the emergencies could relate to leaky plumbing or replacing a broken furnace or old fridge.
- To face your current reality, create an emergency fund that can help you be better prepared when an unexpected event takes place. Have a spending plan or budget using your actual income. Plan on the reality that phone or internet costs (for instance) will go up, so it does not feel like a financial stress when it happens.
- Michigan State University Extension offers 4-H Youth Money Management and Adult Financial Education tools to help you create an emergency fund and a spending plan.
- Responsibility- Accept responsibility for your own spending and saving actions.
- As you look at your cash flow, are you changing your behaviors to adjust how you use your money?
- Many times there are cash flow “leaks” in our plan. Finding those leaks and then addressing them by changing your behavior is the way to take responsibility for your money.
- Restraint- Show restraint when there is temptation to stray from either your financial values or your spending plan.
- You have a plan so stick to it. If your plan is to only eat out once a week, use self-control to follow that plan.
- Using the 3 R’s, you can build your sense of control over your finances instead of feeling like it controls you.
