Forget New Year's Resolutions and Vow to 'Get Real!'

Was ringing in the New Year something special for you this year? Did any resolutions resonate with you? I sat down the Monday before New Year's Day to ponder what I wanted out of 2010. With that in mind, I tried to come up resolutions for this year and realized I couldn't because the whole "resolution idea" just didn't feel "real" to me, and I sense a lot of you probably feel the same way. Personally, in my near 5 decades on the earth, I have never reached a single resolution with the intention set at the beginning of the year. After a lot of soul searching - three nights of it to be exact-my big "ah ha" was that I didn't want to resolve to hit a punch list of goals, I wanted to approach my life differently. 2010 for me is going to be all about getting real. 2010 is going to be a big year for me: I'm launching a new start up, I'm determined to live my dream, and I turn 50! Yes...now you know my age, but that's all part of my plan for 2010. I've always confessed to be a holistic financial planner, but as an entrepreneur, it proved difficult to follow my own advice. Or at least I thought so. Chalk it up to "maturing," but it became clear that with a few tweaks of my current lifestyle, I could live my dream and reach a lot of my personal and financial goals naturally, while becoming a "real" mentor for my clients and followers to emulate. So here's my "Get Real in 2010" plan. Feel free to adopt and modify if it excites you. Step One: Perform a personal audit on spending habits and get them back to lean and mean. Commit to 30 days of intense honesty in the spending department. Step Two: Based on the results of the 30-day spending audit, create a cash flow statement so you can see how much discretionary income you truly have. Step Three: With "real" numbers to work with, create a budget that is both challenging and rewarding for both business and lifestyle. This is a necessary step for monitoring success. Here is where you cancel the non-read subscriptions, the gym membership you never use, etc. and then update your cash flow statement for an accurate view of your revised discretionary income. Step Four: Prepare a Balance sheet so you can see where you're currently at financially. Set goals that address debt elimination, wealth aggregation, and charitable giving for the year. Monitor quarterly. Step Five: Learn and utilize the TVM (time value of money) principles. For example, take the time to run the numbers for retirement planning or think about the opportunity cost of purchasing a "want" or a "wish" a little bit more before spending freely. Remember to keep your goals close by to help keep in line with your "real" financial plans and accelerate your success as opposed to sabotaging it. Step Six: Address the "WAM factor" or "what about me" facet to successfully acquiring financial goals. We all know that financial matters can be so stressful that ignoring them altogether becomes a habit many adopt. By addressing the WAM factor, money matters become more of a game than a nightmare. Keeping your emotional self engaged and excited will be easier if you check-in more often and actively, and I emphasize actively! Drive your petit demons away with some physical activity-walk the dog (or yourself) and enjoy your surroundings. If you don't think there's anything to enjoy, look again. Sometimes it's that little flower that finds its way between the sidewalk's cracks that makes my day. Small rewards that don't involve spending money and invest in your well-being are a great way to play the game successfully and build sustainable momentum. So that's it. I'm getting real in 2010 and going to take my own advice and perform these six steps. Come join me, follow me, share your comments, or whatever you like to enhance your financial health and wealth now! And may a purposeful and fulfilling 2010 bring the health, wealth, and happiness we all seek in abundance! (c) 2010 Renée E. Cabourne, CFPrn