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This post is part of a series on staying on top of your finances.

Now that you’ve automated your finances, it’s time to dig deep on one of the most important, yet unpredictable, aspects of personal finance.

Your emergency fund.

Because here’s the truth:

Many Americans will do well and have a better shot at staying on top of their finances and having more financial control, if there were no emergencies.

After all, you know your monthly income (after tax) and expenses.

And you can decide how much to put towards savings and retirement.

Except you don’t know how much of your monthly income will go towards emergencies.

Basically, emergencies are events of life that we didn’t expect. 

Examples:

• Job loss
• Health care emergencies
• Car expenses
• When a loved one passes
• Unexpected travel
• Household repairs

In this chapter, I’m going to show you EXACTLY how to prepare.

That way, when any of these financial emergencies hit, you’re better prepared without causing a huge damage to your financial stability.

Build up an Emergency Fund

Hear this:

Building up an emergency fund is not easy.

Why?

You’re trying to prepare for something that may/may not happen.

But, as they say, life is full of surprises.… CONTINUE READING

If you want to stay on top of your finances, you need to master one simple principle:

Be financially disciplined.

When you do, you’ll be able to delay gratification in the short term and maintain control of your financial life. 

The question is:

How do you achieve financial discipline?

Here are seven strategies that work GREAT.

1. Go Extreme

If you want to build financial discipline, going extreme on your finances is one of the first steps to take.

To do this, create a simple spending plan.

First off, write out your most essential expenses and amounts.

Like this:

Rent

Food

Electric

Internet

Car Insurance

Gas

Retirement investment (Roth IRA, 401k)

Then, once your next paycheck arrives, pay only those bills and move the remaining amount to a separate savings account.

For example, let’s say that you’re a single male or female, who’s a year out of college. 

• You’ll need roof over your head (hence, the rent)
• You’ll need to eat at home (hence, the food)
• You’ll need to pay for internet and electric
• You might also need to move by car, depending on where you live and how you get to work
• Lastly, plan to invest in your retirement account at your company

Once you’ve paid for these expenses, move the rest of your paycheck into a new savings account.… CONTINUE READING

Now it’s time to get into the inner details of staying on top of your personal finance.

Specifically, it’s time to automate your finances.

In this chapter I’m going to show you proven strategies that you can use to easily run your personal finance, almost on autopilot.

Let’s jump right in.

Automating your finances

The #1 goal for staying on top of your personal finances is to: give you financial freedom.

… for you to be satisfied that every dollar that comes in goes towards the things in life that would make you free of money worries.

In other words, free you to do more with less.

Enter: automation.

If you constantly have to transfer funds into your savings account EVERY TIME your paycheck comes in, then you might find the “process of saving” difficult or just outright impossible.

Here’s why:

Each time you choose to put money away for savings or investing, you’re using your limited willpower to make yourself do it… even when you don’t feel like it.

Every time that happens, you’re leaving a door open for you to come up with an excuse or reason to hold back from saving or putting the funds away.

This is why you should automate your finances. … CONTINUE READING