Finance Roll

When you are trying to change your life, tasks can overwhelm you. Change often feels like such a large task. Especially when it comes to money.

Where do you start? The numbers seem to swim. You have no answers. Where will you find them?

Making promises and huge resolutions are easy. You will change your financial situation for you and your family. You can plan and say it all you want. But the getting there is the actual hard part. Take a breath and dive right in. If you do it in little steps, it won't be hard at all.

The idea is that you have to break things down. Take it one step at a time. Create goals, a list, a plan. Changing your finances comes step by step. You can't simply make it all happen overnight. You have to give it time and go step by step. Saving is step by step as well. Dollar by dollar and sometimes penny by penny. It is hard to see that you are making progress. But given lots of little steps and plenty of time, you will see how it all adds up.

The problem is that you have to stay focused and motivated. Simply focus on each smaller step. With each one that is accomplished, you will feel the drive to move onto the next step. Set overall goals that will give you time limits. I suggest that you never sit down and look at your finances for more than one hour at a time. You will just get overwhelmed and stressed. Some people get on a roll. Work until you are able to take a break and give it a day.

Don't work on your finances before you go to bed. You don't want to be thinking and planning into the night. You want to sleep well. Put your ideas and goals and numbers on paper and leave them there. You are working on it when you are supposed to.

Make yourself goals. Keep them simple enough to be daily goals. You could have the following on your list:

• Call credit card #1 for lower interest rate.
• Close unused credit card account #1.
• Check credit report.
• Advertise motorcycle for sale.

You should also make a list of all your debts, the payment amounts, balances and interest rates. List from highest interest to lowest interest rate. Start at the top and start paying them off. Items that you will sell to pay off their note, such as the motorcycle above should simply be paid off when they are sold. Any excess money should go to the debt on the top of the list -- unless it will completely pay off a debt somewhere on the list. In which case, you should just go ahead and get rid of that.

Keeping it step by step and little by little will help you from becoming overwhelmed. Remember, it can't be all completed today, so don't drive yourself crazy trying. All it takes is one hour a night. Financial freedom comes with time and dedication.