Your Cash flow is your blood flow
While I may not possess medical qualifications, it's crucial to consider the significance of blood flow within our bodies. Even a minor blockage in one of our arteries can lead to various health issues. Similarly, in our lives, the importance of cash flow cannot be understated. Just as our blood circulation sustains our well-being, a healthy cash flow is vital for our financial health.
My name is Raman Singh and I am a Certified Financial Planner™. A lot of Financial Advisors and Financial Influencers paint this beautiful vision for us on how everyone can become rich by Investing in something. But everyone forgets the basic fundamentals of having a healthy financial well-being, our Cash Flow. Let’s suppose if a person works out 5 days a week, but outside of the gym this person is constantly eating fried food and has high blood pressure. No doubt, this person may be physically fit, but there could still be underlying health issues due to this person’s eating habits and high blood pressure, right? This is exactly how a lot of people’s personal and business finances are. My experience working with Families, Business Owners, Entrepreneurs, and High Income Earning Professionals earning anywhere from $100k per year to $1 Million per year, I have seen many of them have severe unhealthy cash flow problems.
Imagine earning $250,000 per year, unless you are already at that income level, and not having a security blanket of properly covering just 3 months of your monthly expenses. Yes, Retirement Savings is crucial, however while we are saving for our retirement, we cannot neglect our present. Most people end up increasing their lifestyle as their income increases, but they end up neglecting the risks that are growing as their lifestyle grows. The bigger our lifestyle, our stress tends to grow more. According to the American Psychological Association’s Annual Survey results in March 2022 of “Stress in America”, A top source of stress was the rise in prices of everyday items due to inflation. Families may have fears about mortgages, college tuition, retirement, and day-to-day expenses. And children and teens are not immune from these stresses. Worries about money may impact many aspects of peoples’ lives, including housing and health care decisions, family planning, relationship conflicts, and more. This is how badly our finances can affect us.
So the real question that needs to be addressed is, “What can we do about maintaining a healthy cash flow and lifestyle balance?”
Stay within your Financial Boundaries - Just because you WANT something now, can it wait a bit longer so you are more financially secure?
Create Weekly Boundaries On Your Discretionary Spending - Buying coffee, Eating Out/Ordering In/Food Delivery, Going Out
Designate Savings Buckets/Accounts to fund your desired goals - Think of Dave Ramsey’s Envelope System Strategy
Pay Yourself First Before Bills - Once you get paid from your employer, designate a 1% - 10% of your income towards paying yourself (treating yourself for working hard) depending on your financial situation
Automate Your Monthly Recurring Bills and set monthly calendar reminders on when those bills will be deducted out of your accounts
Invest for your future (Short-Term, Mid-Term, Long-Term) even if it’s little amounts
Lastly, work with a Certified Financial Planner™ as your Personalized CFO who can hold you accountable to your goals
By bringing pro-active awareness to our cash flow, we are able to make better financial decisions, better judgment, plan out our lives precisely, but most importantly have a sense of security in ourselves which will allow us to have better relationships with our loved ones, our colleagues, our neighbor, and ourselves.
I am Raman Singh and I am a Certified Financial Planner™ , your Personalized CFO, and my vision is to empower my community by providing guidance, coaching, and courage to help them achieve happier & healthier lives.
