Three Tips for Getting Back on Track with Financial Self-Care

My name is Imani and I am an emotional spender.

In fact, after owing taxes this year, I almost bought a Tesla solely for the $7,500.00 tax credit…and I’ve never driven a Tesla before. (True story! Shout out to my boyfriend for talking sense into me because I ended up buying an entirely different car the next day haha.) Of course, I liked some of the tech features as well but I would be lying to you if I didn’t say that the tax credit was one of the biggest motivating factors. To answer your question, yes, that’s just how distraught I was about owing taxes this year.

Needless to say, I’ve set plenty of financial self-care goals in the past but have messed up at times. The only way I’ve made progress on my financial self-care goals is by acknowledging the issue(s) and getting back on track (even then it’s not always completely gone, hence the Tesla story from the beginning of this post).

Here are three ways to ways to getting back on track with financial self-care:

What made you mess up?

Before you go any further, identify the root cause of your setback. What threw you off course? Was it an unexpected expense? Maybe you lost motivation. Or maybe you just simply forgot about your goal. Take some time to reflect on what caused you to get off track. Once you identify the root cause (or let’s be real, the root causes) you can create a plan to stop it from happening again. For example, let’s say you want to save an extra $30 each week. You made the hard decision to stop buying breakfast and coffee before heading to work. Suddenly you find yourself in the Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts app ordering food because you simply forgot and it’s a daily habit for you.

It happens to the best of us.

Grab your planner or notebook and write down a few reasons you think you messed up, then make a plan so you can stop it in the future.

Next, Make a Plan

Once you’ve identified the root cause (or causes haha) of your setback, make a realistic plan to get back on track. Let’s stick with our $30 savings goal from the first section. So after you grabbed your planner/notebook, you realized that the cause of your setback is just your absent-mindedness. Your plan is to try writing down your goal on a sticky note and put it somewhere you’ll see it every day. (This hack is something that has personally helped me! I was buying Starbucks every day as motivation for going into the office because I’m definitely team #workfromhome. Instead of spending all of that money, I remind myself of my goal of avoiding Starbucks with a sticky note in my planner.) For the digital planner lovers, try creating a daily or weekly reminder about your goals.

The $30 savings goal is a simple example. Your plan might have many layers and include other people. Maybe part of your plan is adding an accountability partner, one that will be honest with you and give you some tough love when needed.

Regardless, make sure the plan you create is realistic but addresses what is holding you back from greatness.

Stay the Course & Stay Motivated

Motivation is probably the hardest part.

One way to stay motivated is to celebrate small victories along the way. For example, if you save $30 each week for a full month, maybe you celebrate this victory by treating yourself to your favorite breakfast order from Starbucks/Dunkin Donuts/etc. If you’re using an accountability partner, reach out to them for encouragement, support, and feedback.

We love vision boards in the planner community! Grab your favorite planner/notebook and create a vision board or a list of the things you want to achieve with your financial self-care goals. (You could also use Pinterest for this step! Create a private board and use the board as your motivation.) Seeing and visualizing your goals could help you stay motivated when you miss that favorite breakfast sandwich or latte.

How do you get back on track with financial self-care? Let me know in the comments below!