Accountability and Your Finances
Accountability is today’s topic for Financial Literacy Month 2014: Your Finances from A to Z.
For the month of April, we will be bringing you daily posts centered on our personal finances – saving, making and managing our money.
Accountability can be hard, really hard at times, but necessary with our financial goals.
When your financial goals are front and center on a regular basis, there’s a constant reminder of what you are or are not accomplishing. Once you begin holding yourself accountable for your financial goals, you will find yourself making different choices and seeing different results.
Most will agree on the following when it comes to how to be accountable:
- Share your goals with others so they can help keep you on task. Since going public with my goals, I’ve had readers, family and friends send random messages of encouragement and motivation.
- Be specific with what you want to accomplish and your plan of action
- Follow-up with check-ins and evaluations
- Recruit others on your journey
- Stay positive and learn from your missteps
- Find a mentor or coach to encourage you along the way and whip you into shape when you need it
When you are accountable for your financial situations, you take ownership of your choices and actions and how they impact your financial outlook. A key aspect of developing accountability is having clear financial goals and an action plan in place. Take an honest assessment of your strengths and areas for opportunities. Be willing and able to ask for help in the areas you need growth and utilize various resources – online, face-to-face, webinars, books, magazines, etc. – to assist you.
