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Have you ever thought about starting over again? Or hitting the reset button on your finances, like on your computer? Sometimes it feels like it’s urgent. And guess what? You can do it. Yes, you can start over financially. I often wished I could hit the reset button on my finances when I felt overwhelmed and like not getting the things right.
Okay, it’s not as easy as resetting your computer. But sometimes it can help to take a step back and start over financially. It’s a way to regain clarity about what’s going on in your financial life, where you want to go and what you need to do.
Before I get into the details, I have to mention that starting over financially doesn’t mean that it will be easy or that all of your financial problems will be blown away. No, that is not the goal. Rather, it is a tool to start with a fresh look at your finances, with the perspective of a beginner who is completely new to everything. This can unlock new creative thoughts within you that will help you achieve your goals and manage your money better.
- This is what you should do before you can start over financially.
- This is how you can start over financially.
- Clarify your money mindset.
- Get organized so you can start over financially.
- Set your financial goals.
- Implement new habits into your everyday life.
- Start with a budget to get your money under control.
- Save your first β¬1,000 for an emergency fund.
- Get rid of debt.
- Start investing to build real wealth for your future.
- Start making more money.
- You can start over financially today.
This is what you should do before you can start over financially.
Before you can start over financially, I want you to do something important. It’s about making peace with yourself. Make peace with yourself, no matter where you are, no matter what your situation is.
Take an imaginary sponge and wipe away everything that came before. Tell yourself that this is the past and you will start over financially, no matter what you did in the past.
The reason for this is that we do not want to repair the past, which, by the way, is not possible. No, our goal is to shape the life we live and our future.
So let go of the past. Use your energy to focus on the present to create a great future, your best life.
If you’re ready, let’s get started.
This is how you can start over financially.
A quick side note before we dive deeper: You can always tell yourself that it will be your best year ever. There is no downside to this. If you think like this, you will stay positively motivated. That doesn’t mean it will be easy. No, I just want to encourage you to be aware of how you want to perform this year.
Clarify your money mindset.
![Start Over Financially - Here's How To 3 Clarify your money mindset to start over financially. A board labeled New Mindset, New Results.](https://www.katjagroesser.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Clarify-your-money-mindset.jpg)
Like I said, in order to start over financially, we also need to reset our mindset to a beginner’s mindset. Because sometimes we are so focused on a specific problem that we no longer notice or see other things around us. But with a new beginner’s mindset, we get a broader perspective that helps us find new ideas to transform our financial lives.
Another important aspect is to neutralize your old thoughts about money.
If you’ve been following me for any length of time, you already know this wonderful formula that our thoughts create our feelings, which influence our actions, which lead to the results in our lives.
Reset your mindset to square one and start getting rid of all the old thoughts about money and your finances in your head. Because the goal is to create new supportive thoughts that make you feel good about your finances, no matter what stage you are in. And with these positive feelings, you will take better actions that lead to the results you want.
Get clarity about what you are thinking and decide which thoughts are helpful and which are not. And with this clarity, you can begin to create new supportive thoughts to start over financially.
π Read more: Stop Financial Insecurity: Build A Healthy Money Relationship
Get organized so you can start over financially.
![Start Over Financially - Here's How To 4 Get organized so you can start over financially. A folder with all financial documents neatly sorted.](https://www.katjagroesser.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Get-organized-so-you-can-start-over-financially.jpg)
Order is half of life. This sentence is as old as it is true. And of course it also applies to your finances.
If you have your financial documents well under control, you can never lose track and forget important bills. If you want to start over financially, start by organizing your finances.
It’s not just about sorting your documents. Rather, you can use this work to simplify your finances at the same time.
I’m a big fan of simply organizing my life and my finances. If I keep my finances simple, I can take care of them with little effort. And even every day.
If you’ve been shying away from this work, now is the time to get your finances in order and simplify them once and for all.
These can be:
- Check your bank accounts and sort them out if necessary
- Check insurance and cancel unnecessary ones
- to put all contracts to the test
- Sort out and destroy old documents
Set your financial goals.
![Start Over Financially - Here's How To 5 Set your financial goals. A woman thinking about her financial goals.](https://www.katjagroesser.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Set-your-financial-goals.jpg)
To start over financially, you need to know where you want to go. And this, in turn, is necessary to know exactly what you need to do, what actions you want to take.
Not having a goal for your life or finances is like going on a journey without knowing your destination. You can easily get stuck in tasks that don’t produce results.
You are busy doing things that don’t lead to the desired result. And so you can easily get burned out and overwhelmed.
When you set a goal, a goal that means everything to you because you have a strong reason, you are more willing to stay focused and work towards it.
You get a clear idea of what you want your future to look like. And what’s more, with your goal in mind, you know the path and all the actions you need to take.
You stop being busy and instead take the right actions to get the right results.
π Looking for a straightforward way to establish financial goals and create a plan? Dive into my guide and snag a complimentary template too!
Implement new habits into your everyday life.
![Start Over Financially - Here's How To 6 Implement new habits into your everyday life. A bulletin board with examples of new habits.](https://www.katjagroesser.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Implement-new-habits-into-your-everyday-life.jpg)
Habits are a great way to do things without having to make decisions over and over again. Constantly making decisions can tire us out. This is why habits are so great.
You decide once what you can do regularly without having to make a new decision every time.
But we also tend to have habits that don’t support us. The goal here is to create new supportive habits that will help you start over financially.
Therefore, think about which habits support you financially and which do not.
Resources:
- 5 Powerful Habits to Change Your Finances
- The Ultimate Guide To Perfecting Your Morning Routine Plan
Start with a budget to get your money under control.
![Start Over Financially - Here's How To 7 Start with a budget to get your money under control. A woman budgeting her money.](https://www.katjagroesser.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Start-with-a-budget-to-get-your-money-under-control.jpg)
Another important step in getting a fresh start financially is creating a budget. If you’ve never budgeted your money before, this will be a real game changer for your daily financial life.
I can’t imagine not budgeting our money. And itβs not because we spend too much. No, that’s not the reason. The most important reason for me is to plan our expenses in advance based on our financial capabilities and goals. I know exactly how much money we can spend in each category per month. This means we can relax when it comes to spending and saving.
But a budget is more than just deciding how to spend your money. It’s also a tool to make you aware of where your money is going. With this awareness you are able to control it and manage it better.
π Read more: Money Management 101: Make a Budget That Works for You
Save your first β¬1,000 for an emergency fund.
![Start Over Financially - Here's How To 8 Save your first β¬1,000 for an emergency fund. A graphic showing what an emergency fund is useful for.](https://www.katjagroesser.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Save-your-first-E1000-for-an-emergency-fund.jpg)
If you’ve been living month to month and even have debts, saving is an important step towards getting a fresh start financially.
But of course, it’s really hard to start saving if you haven’t saved a dime. Still, you have to start, no matter how difficult it is. Because that’s the only way you can stop living from month to month and avoid debt in the future.
To help you get started with saving, start with a goal that seems achievable to you. β¬1,000 is an amount that can cover essential emergency expenses. It’s not too much and not too little and absolutely achievable.
Start with the smallest step possible for you. No matter how small the amount of money you can save regularly. The goal is to make saving a habit.
Having at least β¬1,000 saved is a good starting point for a fresh start financially.
Get rid of debt.
![Start Over Financially - Here's How To 9 Get rid of debt. Credit card with change and debts.](https://www.katjagroesser.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Get-rid-of-debt.jpg)
Debt is the number one thing holding you back from your financial freedom.
Having debt means not being able to freely decide what happens to your money. As long as you have debts, you are forced to use your money to pay off your debts. This can lead to you not being able to save money.
In order to start over financially, you first need to know how much debt you have, how much you still have to pay and also the interest you pay on each of your loans or debts.
With a list like this, you can decide how to aggressively tackle your debt and what strategy to use.
Sometimes it can also be helpful to combine your debts into one loan with better terms so you only have to focus on one.
Debt isn’t bad and it doesn’t mean you’re bad with money. No, you made decisions in the past that led to this debt.
If you decide today to be debt-free in your future, you can absolutely achieve it.
π Read more: Breaking Free: Get Out Of Debt In 7 Steps
Start investing to build real wealth for your future.
![Start Over Financially - Here's How To 10 Start investing to build real wealth for your future. A piggy bank with money and a bag of money to invest.](https://www.katjagroesser.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Start-investing-to-build-real-wealth-for-your-future.jpg)
I know that many women still avoid investing because they are afraid of losing all their money. And yes, I can understand this fear.
Here’s what it really is.
Investing can be scary if you don’t have experience. This is completely normal because this is how our primitive human brain works. It is always in mode to protect us from possible dangers. And it can’t distinguish between real dangers, like a bear in front of us or investing money.
And on top of that, we hear a lot of bad news and experiences from people who have not been successful in investing.
But here is the truth. It’s all just thoughts in your head.
Of course, you can lose your money, but only if you don’t take investing seriously without sufficient information and research.
This is the case with almost everything in our lives.
On the other hand, investing your money can be a great way to grow your money.
Why?
Inflation is high and interest rates are low. This treacherous combination causes your money to lose value in the long run instead of gaining. If, on the other hand, you invest your money, you can beat inflation in the long term and actually increase your money.
The stock market always wins. In the long term, mind you. I’m not talking about short-term investments here.
It has now become so easy to invest money, with monthly amounts starting from just β¬10. Of course, you won’t save a fortune with such a small amount.
That’s not the goal. Rather, you can start with a small monthly sum to learn how investing works and feel good about it. If you are ready to invest more, you can always increase your savings amount or invest money once.
The important thing is that you start and take the first step. Because the earlier you start investing your money, the more time your money has to grow.
π If investing makes you nervous, I strongly suggest reading the compelling article “BlackRock Is on Your Side for Secure Retirement” by Denis Gorbunov.
Start making more money.
![Start Over Financially - Here's How To 11 Woman Start making more money.](https://www.katjagroesser.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Start-making-more-money.jpg)
If you’ve gone through all the steps above, you may have realized that you don’t have enough money to reach your financial goal faster.
Then you can think about how you can make more money.
There are multiple possibilities:
- You can ask for a raise at your current job.
- You can look for a better paying job.
- You can look for a part-time job.
- You can start your own side business.
Remember the first step where I talked about resetting your money mindset? This is also helpful for earning more money.
So don’t skip this step. It is the very first step to start over financially. It is necessary before you can take any other steps because your mindset is what creates your results.
π Read more: How to Make Money Blogging in 2024: From $0 to $100K
You can start over financially today.
It’s always a good time to start fresh financially. You can start with a new and open beginner’s mind.
That’s great. No matter what you’ve done in the past, what financial decisions you’ve made, what failures you’ve had, it doesn’t matter.
It is entirely possible for you to use your money to achieve new results and become better.
How come?
Because you have this strong human brain that will find all the solutions to your questions and problems. Believe me. It’s great to start again with a new and clear mind.
Start today.