[Music] all right you guys we are officially more than 2/3 through the year can you believe that so this got me thinking about how powerful it can be to set money goals according to time so today I want to go over some tips for finishing out the year financially strong so it's the beginning of September which means we've got a little less than four months left in 2024 so it's not too late to set a goal and accomplish it and sometimes having a specific Finish Line is all you need to stay motivated and to make major progress so let's talk about some simple changes that you can make to see big impact in no time so my first tip or challenge to you is to finish the year financially strong is to revisit your current goals so we all were like yeah New Year's resolutions like way back when right and then it gets to February we're off track I mean you know it's just crazy but that doesn't mean that you're doomed for the rest of time so looking ahead at 12 months can be really daunting but looking ahead just four months feels a little bit better you know a little bit more doable so let's say you set a goal back in January go back to your January goals and maybe it was a goal to set an extra $100 a month toward your mortgage well if you haven't stuck to that goal the way you wanted to what if you set a new and improved goal of saying Hey what if I put $500 towards my mortgage by the end of this year or have you ever set a goal and it was just really low then revisit some of the areas that maybe you've been crushing it and see okay if we can up the ante just for a few months so adjusting your goals is a great way to have success when it comes to your money and even here at ramsy different business units will get up and speak to the entire company every single week to report their recent goals so it's not unusual for them to say yeah we initially hit the number that we wanted but we saw progress and we went ahead and increased our original goal now regardless of whether you go back and you're like oh yeah I made great progress when it comes to my goals make sure that you are using data to inform your financial goals for next year so speaking of that my second tip is to finish the Year Strong by going back through your budget and do a deep clean so the trick I'm about to explain to you is one of the many reasons why I love the every dooll budgeting app if you open your every dooll app you can click insights and you can look at trends of your own personal spending habits pay attention when you might have overspent in an area or maybe even certain months you'll see oh gosh we were you know over budget here or maybe we're under budget maybe we AE out a lot during the summer maybe there was a birthday party that we forgot to budget for like whatever the patterns that you were seeing in your budget think of those for next year and if you've never tried out the every dooll budget it is a GameChanger you guys go to everydollar.com Rachel to get started right away all right my third tip to finish the year financially strong is to focus on debt if you have any so if you are using credit cards for instance maybe you make a commitment to say no more credit card spending till the end of the year maybe you just ditch them all together but sometimes takes people some baby steps or maybe you're paying off debt but you're kind of in a slump and you're like oh my gosh I don't know if I can do this remember time is on your side get motivated again and have those bite-sized goals for the end of the year to keep you going ask yourself what's one goal that could be a quick Win For You by the end of 2024 and sometimes it's worth it to focus on just one thing to get that momentum going okay so you guys can do this ditch that debt by the end of the year make progress towards it all right before I share my last two tips for finishing the year financially strong I would love to tell you about one of our sponsors Christian Healthcare Ministries so when you go against what Society thinks is quote unquote normal like avoiding debt for example it might sound and seem really weird at first but that's totally okay we want you to be weird that means you're actually doing things intentionally including how you spend your Healthcare dollars and one way to be intentional is with Christian Healthcare Ministries chm isn't health insurance they're a health cost sharing ministry that's helped hundreds of thousands of families like yours take care of health care costs without sacrificing their freedom so find out more at chministries.org budget that's chministries.org budget all right my fourth tip for finishing the year strong is to budget for Christmas I know I mean think about all the holidays coming up you got Halloween you got Thanksgiving you got Christmas and listen Christmas is usually the one that you're going to spend more money on so make sure that you're planning ahead for it so budget for you know even the kids Halloween costumes yes budget if you're going somewhere for Thanksgiving be thinking about that and think through hey are there limits that we want to put on Christmas this year are there limits for each spouse and what we're going to spend on each other you know think through all of these things cuz the truth is it is coming y'all the holidays are coming and the earlier you can budget the better off you're going to be because you're not going to make impulse decisions and rack up debt and come January February March you're kicking yourselves thinking golly why didn't I start saving earlier well here I am telling you start saving all right my fifth and final tip for finishing the year financially strong is to make a goal to save or invest a certain amount of money by the end of the year so whether this is contributing you know an extra 50 bucks a month to retirement or maybe you want to save $1,000 before December whatever it is have a goal out there as humans I think we're tempted to think oh yeah I'll be disciplined later I just need to get through the holidays I'm not going to worry about it this is the time now to implement some really great habits you guys and to be thinking through hey we can put some money aside and save because again this whole idea of finishing strong is I want you to have some goals in place that you actually accomplish and you actually say oh my gosh at the end of the year look what we did you know in the last quarter of the year and that's going to really you know take you into January with a lot of momentum all right here's a little bonus tip for you if you've ever grabbed one of our favorite ramsy goal planners you need to grab yours today the newest one is out so shop the link in the descriptions you can order yours for the New Year and be sure you're planning all things life and money and if you haven't checked out my episode on feeling financially behind with my friend Dawn AKA minimal mom make sure to check that out all right you guys as always make sure to take control of your money and create a life you love
