Get Good with Money

Tiffany Aliche is an award winning financial educator. Her company, The Budgetnista, has created a financial movement that has empowered and educated more than one million women worldwide to pay off debt and save money. Her career started as a preschool teacher for ten years, before she cofounded an online school to teach personal financial literacy. Her blog (thebudgetnista.com) and her podcast ( brownambitionpodcast.com) have won multiple awards, and have been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Fast Company, Forbes, U.S. News & World Report, and elsewhere. She is a graduate of Seton Hall University and Montclair State University.

Financial literacy is not something that is taught in schools, but which should be. The point is when you get good with money and become "financially whole", you have a lot more options then when your personal finances are in a mess.

The great thing is getting good with money is it's not about get-rich quick schemes, or overly complicated money management systems. Instead, there are just ten fundamentals you need to master to get good with money.

1. Step #1 — BUILD A BUDGET — and automate it. Actively take control of your budget. Think of this as a "Say yes" step towards your dreams. A good budget will lay out the path towards your prosperous future.

2. Step #2 — GET GOOD AT SAVING — for protection. Savings are rocket fuel for your future. They are also a cushion for unpredictabilities. Save not to spend money in the future, but to make more money as well.

3. Step #3 — DIG OUT OF DEBT — with an effective plan. Debt is not good, but being debt-free is not your goal. You want to reduce and eliminate your debt, so you can have more money to go towards growing your wealth.

4. Step #4 — BUILD YOUR CREDIT SCORE — the smart way. Having good credit is a must. It opens doors of opportunity such as home ownership, or even getting a good job. You want to grow your credit score.

5. Step #5 — LEARN TO EARN — increase your income. One of the best ways to get good with money is to increase your take-home pay. Start earning more intentionally, and lots of good things will follow.

6. Step #6 — INVEST LIKE AN INSIDER — for retirement. The goal of investing for retirement is to have enough money to maintain your current lifestyle after you stop working. To achieve that, invest consistently.

7. Step #7 — USE INSURANCE — to manage risks. Insurance is tricky. It will feel like a waste of money until you need it, but the reality is life is unpredictable. You absolutely do need insurance to manage the risks.

8. Step #8 — ESTABLISH NET WORTH GOALS — and grow. Net worth (your assets less your liabilities) can and should be tracked all the time. Make decisions which will nudge it in the right direction every day.

9. Step #9 — PICK YOUR MONEY TEAM — financial pros. To really achieve your financial goals, you're going to need a team of advisors to help you get there. Take the time to assemble a team of A-players and professionals.

10. Step #10 — LEAVE A LEGACY — smart estate planning. The final step in becoming financially whole is to figure out what kind of legacy you want to leave. What do you want to happen to the wealth you're trying to create?

1. Getting good with money isn't magic, nor does it require that you have a million-dollar income. You just have to master the fundamentals.

Good solid book this week with great ideas and workable strategies on how to manage your personal finances. Before reading this book, I'd never really heard of the author, Tiffany Aliche aka "The Budgetnista". When I dug a bit deeper, however, she has quite an engaging story. She talks quite openly about her personal finances being a mess, and how she sorted them out, and then thought, "I wonder if other people struggle with this same issue?" Tiffany started volunteering at her local United Way to help and teach others, and then started an online Live Richer Challenge to help others learn how to manage their finances. She got 10,000 women to sign up for the challenge in the first year using social media, and has repeated that challenge each year. Now, more than a million people have gone through the Live Richer Challenge, and have become what she terms "Dream Catchers".

"Since I started my Live Richer Challenges (you can still sign up at www.livericherchallenge.com) more than a million Dream Catchers have gone on to save and pay off hundreds of millions of dollars in debt, bought thousands of homes, invested, gone on vacations, paid for college, started businesses, and raised their credit scores. Since becoming Dream Catchers and having gotten good with their money, they are living all-around richer lives!" — Tiffany Aliche

Impressive achievement, and like she says this is not rocket science or magic. To get good with money, you simply have to master the fundamentals. This book does a great job of teaching that.