Have you had a money date? I have mine on the 1st of every month

Most of us tend to ignore money in general. We think if we look the other way, issues will disappear. For example, we know there is a balance in our credit card and as long we pay the minimum required, nobody will call. Or that debt will be paid off someday. (And with someday you mean in years…). First thing we need to stop doing: ignoring our money.

Have you ever said or heard?

I am not good with numbers

I am not in charge of the money at home.

Money is not my thing.

Money is not really that important for me.

I bet you have. It’s been “installed” in our minds that if we talk about money, or even care about it, we are superficial or greedy. Guys wake up and snap out of it!

If you are into plants or gardening in general (which by the way I am not), what happens when you pay attention to your plants and flowers? They grow, shine, bloom, etc. What happens when you forget about them? Exactly!

With money is the same thing. And it is not going to stay around, if you don’t pay attention.

And I am not talking about having a pile of cash inside a cute box. I am talking about giving purpose to that money, being intentional about how to use it and aligning your spending with what you want to accomplish. It is important to pay attention to where it goes and reevaluate its use.

That’s why it is so important to have money dates. My husband and I have casual money dates every Sunday after a nice breakfast cooked by yours truly and a special money date every month.

This is what we do on our casual money dates. Every Sunday, we verify that all requested transactions have been correctly executed and that we recognize everything that has happened into our accounts. And every other Sunday after the payroll check hits the account, we schedule all payments and savings that are supposed to happen.

For our once-a-month special money date, we check our progress toward our goals! We celebrate we are biting our debt, that we are investing in more assets and watch the compound effect work its magic.

With this simple process we stay motivated and focused on reaching our goals: small, large, short and long term. We see what we were capable to accomplishing that previous month and we keep going to crush the goals the next month.

You should give it try! If this is new for you, try tracking your savings and how much you reduce your debt in 30 days. You will be so proud of yourself. You will feel you are the one at the wheel.