It’s Go Time

Congratulations! You made it. Everything you’ve read so far has been to get us to this point. My hope is you’ve learned a lot about yourself and how your past, present, and future impact how you handle your money today. We’ve talked about your childhood money classroom, your unique money tendencies, your money fears, and how you respond to money mistakes. We’ve also explored what impacts your spending, saving, and giving, how to make lasting changes to your money—and how all of those things affect your relationships. Now, here’s where it all gets real and helps you win with money faster!

Take a few moments and go back through your answers to the “Now It’s Your Turn” questions at the end of each section. Review what you’ve learned about yourself. Then create a snapshot of why you handle money the way you do by answering the questions on the following pages.

1. I grew up in the ___ ______ ______ _________ Classroom.

The challenges I face today from this money classroom are:

The areas where I need to improve are:

2. My money tendencies are (draw a dot on each line to mark where you fall):

Saver	Spender
Saver	Spender
Nerd	Free Spirit
Experiences	Things
Quality	Quantity
Safety	Status
Abundance	Scarcity
Planned Giving	Spontaneous Giving

These are the tendencies where I’m moderate and strong:

These are the tendencies where I’m currently more extreme and need to make some adjustments:

3. The major money fears I’m facing right now are:

These fears impact my money choices by:

The corresponding truths to these fears are:

4. When money mistakes happen, I respond with too much grace or not enough grace (circle one).

In order to respond with a better balance of grace and truth, I need to do this differently:

5. When it comes to spending, I typically buy things for myself / for other people (circle one).

My favorite question(s) that helps me recognize when I’m buying for others is:

These are the budget categories where I need to pay close attention to buy only what’s in the best interest of me and my family:

6. I understand how saving and dreaming are connected, and know I’m naturally wired as a dreamer / realist (circle one).

The dreams I most want to accomplish in life are:

I am actively working on the following steps toward my dreams:

7. Which of the two statements below most closely reflects your view of money:

•I hold my money with a closed fist, believing it’s mine to do with what I please and that my survival and success is totally dependent on me.

•I hold my money with an open hand, believing I’m to manage it well and that God will provide for me.

My favorite ways to give generously of my time, talent, and treasure right now are:

8. If I’m honest with myself, I’m involved with / committed to winning with money (circle one).

I know this because:

In order to increase my commitment, I will do the following every week/month:

Take all this in for a minute. This is your money snapshot as of today. Notice where you’re moderate and where you’re extreme. Notice where you have good habits and where you don’t. Notice where you’re strong and where you need help. These markers show you where you are so you can build on your strengths and make intentional changes in order to live in the Secure Classroom and truly achieve financial peace. They’re also going to help you be able to talk about money with the people closest to you.

In the spending and saving chapters, we talked about the importance of your deeper why: your unique values and purpose that, when you let them, can drive your decisions and keep you and your money on track for the long haul. In addition to understanding your money snapshot, if you haven’t already, I also want you to create your own why statement to help you get crystal clear about what’s most important to you so you can stay focused on where you want to go and communicate that with those closest to you.

Here’s an example of a why statement:

Money is a tool to help me do what’s most important to me. What’s most important to me right now is being able to change careers and pursue my passion for nursing.

The fastest way to achieve my goal is to do one thing at a time with my money. So right now, I’m focusing on paying cash for nursing school so I can graduate debt-free.

When I achieve this goal, I will take a weekend trip somewhere fun to celebrate!

My accountability partner is my spouse and I will check in with him/her about my finances at our budget meetings at the beginning of each month as well as checking EveryDollar daily to stay within budget in each category.

Now it’s your turn! Fill in the blanks to create your own why statement.

My Why Statement

Money is a tool to help me do what’s most important to me. What’s most important to me right now is

The fastest way to achieve my goal is to do one thing at a time with my money. So right now, I’m focusing on

When I achieve this goal, I will

My accountability partner is ________ and I will check in with _________ about my finances

Monthly Rhythm

Now that you have your money snapshot and why statement, I want you to incorporate them into your monthly budgeting. You knew I wasn’t going to let you off the hook without talking about budgeting! (I stayed away from getting too tactical too often in previous chapters, but now I can’t help myself!) If budgeting sounds like a foreign concept to you, let me tell you, it is the key to taking control of your money.

So first thing, if you’re not already, you’re going to want to start doing a zero-based budget every month—before the month begins. The point of a zero-based budget is to make your income minus all your expenses equal zero.

INCOME - EXPENSES = ZERO

So if you cover all your expenses during the month and have $500 left over, you aren’t done with the budget yet. You must tell that $500 where to go. And listen—the first month you do a budget, you’re going to be off because you’re learning! The second month will get a little better. But by the third month, your budget will start to work.

And because every month is different, you’ll want to do a new budget each month. Part of doing your monthly budget is remembering that you don’t actually spend every dollar! It’s taking your income and being intentional with it so you can do what’s most important to you. If you need more information about budgeting, we’ve got a ton of free teaching on this. I recommend you start here to learn more: everydollar.com/blog/zero-based-budgeting.

For your monthly budget to really be effective, there are a few things you want to do.

1. Set up a monthly time to do the budget and go over it with someone. If you’re married, it’s your spouse. If you’re single, it’s a trusted friend who also believes in the Baby Steps.

2. At your budget meeting, first review your money snapshot and why statement. Keeping these in front of you each month will help you stay focused on your goals and disciplined in your spending. Be sure to update them as you change and grow over time and as your life and goals change.

3. Now look back over your purchases from last month and ask yourself the following questions:

•Was giving a priority for me? Did I experience any of the blessings of giving?

•Did I spend (or not spend) money out of fear last month?

•Did I make any purchases based on what other people would think?

•Did I stay within my budget? If not, where did I overspend and why?

4. Then look at your budget for the upcoming month and ask yourself:

•How am I going to give this month? Remember, you can give away money, time, and talents.

•Are there any places in my budget where I’m making decisions out of fear? What are the opposite truths I need to let sink in? Who can I reach out to for help?

•Are there any upcoming purchases where I’ll be tempted to make spending decisions for others instead of myself? What can I do to guard against that? Do I need to change any of my social media habits to help me with this?

•Is my budget this month helping me reach my dreams and goals, or is it slowing me down? If it’s slowing you down, evaluate your spending. Could you cut down spending in certain categories, like restaurants and entertainment? Spend some time thinking about your needs as opposed to your wants and go from there.

•Is there anything I need to do differently this coming month? This could include budgeting, but could also include adjustments to communication, beliefs, or boundaries.

While it may feel a little strange at first, doing this and asking these questions each month gives you a natural rhythm to check in with yourself (and your spouse, if you’re married) to determine if your money and your life are on track. When you’re asking these questions on a regular basis, it’s so much easier to see if you missed a step or aren’t making progress. And it’s a lot easier to make small adjustments often in order to stay on track. Want to win with money faster? Then each month, look at where you’re succeeding, where you need to make changes, and slowly and steadily keep going in the direction of your dreams and goals.

Health Is Movement

I got the chance to talk with bestselling author Marcus Buckingham a while back, and he said, “We think health is balance, but it’s not. Health is movement.” We’re built for movement, for forward motion, for progress, for growth. If you feel stuck in your money or your life, that feeling isn’t there to make you feel bad about yourself—it’s there as a gracious wake-up call! It’s there to compel you to take action. So let’s do!

I said at the beginning of Know Yourself, Know Your Money that I didn’t write this book just to offer you some interesting moments of self-discovery that will fade with time. All of this self-awareness is to help wake you up—to realize your life and your story are not by accident. You have gifts and strengths that will take you far in life. And if you’ll use what you’ve learned in this book to improve your money habits, you will not only win with money faster, but you will create a life you love.

This book also probably revealed some of your weaknesses—and that’s great news! The blind spots in our lives are what keep us from living fully as God intended. So be aware of those weaknesses and faithfully address them. Doing so will get you unstuck and give you the progress and growth that marks true health.

As we close out, I want you to remember this: Money is only a tool for your life. There’s nothing almighty about the dollar. Money isn’t your master, and being rich has never been the goal. The goal is to use money as a tool to help you and your family live life on your terms in a way that serves the world around you. And learning to do all that begins with knowing yourself and knowing your money.