Spring Has Sprung, Millennials: What's Growing In Your Financial Garden?

It's now two weeks into spring, and if you haven't already, it's time to start cleaning. Once a year, if not more frequently, it's worth your while to stop, take a serious look at what's around you in life, dusting off the cobwebs from areas you may not think about every day, and get back on track with nurturing what you want to grow in your life and weeding out the bad.

Stop And Smell The Roses

If you're not in the habit of looking at your budget throughout the year, it can be difficult to start taking control over your financial portrait. It may even seem tedious or useless; however, just as it can be frustrating to learn how to stop and appreciate the small things, once you get the hang of it, it is immensely rewarding.

Source: Fort Pitt Capital Group

Financial Dusting

Before setting or revising your annual budget, get organized. Look at what aspects of life are financially related. It's often easy to overlook how many mundane areas are fiscally motivated. The basics of budgeting involve systematically organizing what money is coming in, where it goes and to what end.

If you're, for instance, unsure of how much money you spend on gas each month, or not really positive about how much a Coke with lunch adds up three times a week, 52 weeks a year, this is the time to be meticulous. Seriously and sincerely analyze where your money has been going with each paycheck. Make sure that there are no corners where money-bunnies (similar to dust bunnies, but financial leeches you can ignore as long as they stay in the shadows) are multiplying.

Weeding Out Bad Money Habits

The next step to spring cleaning your budget is to weed out the bad. Trim back on spending habits that have led to problems. Prune areas that need to be significantly reduced. Most importantly, completely weed out habits that are losing you money and not working toward a significant goal.

If you have money-bunnies running rampant in your financial garden, you have to take them out. Unearth them. Cut them off from the source. Just like crab grass or dandelions growing out of control, simply snipping off the most visible spots won't fix the problem long term. You have to be aggressive and eliminate them completely.

Cultivate The Good

Once you have eliminated the suffocating weeds from your financial garden, it's time to prepare for this year's harvest. Focus on what your specific financial goals are and prepare accordingly. If you want to aggressively save more for retirement this year, take steps to ensure that happens before the year progresses any farther. If you want to spend less on groceries each week, set a specific budget for that goal.

Work on cultivating those habits that will help you keep your finances on track, starting with a clean slate now. By digging deep, getting a little dirty and planning for what you want your money to do for you in the next year, you can help mold your money into something that will bring a bountiful harvest.

Even if you don't have a particularly green thumb, with the proper care and advising, anyone is capable of making their green grow.

Take advantage of how resilient budgets can be with little maintenance if they are simply given the proper foundation and nourishment up front. Never underestimate the power of starting at ground level and building your future hands on.

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