10 ways to feel more financially confident today · jump into the training guide with my top and...

My Debt Epiphany 2019 – All Rights Reserved

There are a lot of us who don’t feel as financially confident as we should. When it comes to women, 30% said they were spending more each month than they wanted to and almost half said they weren’t confident in their finances according to a study from Financial Finesse. The word confidence itself means: the feeling or belief that one can rely on someone or something - firm trust. Financial confidence has a very similar meaning. It means that you feel assured that your finances are going to support you and your family moving forward. Having financial confidence means that:

• You have enough to get by or know how to obtain enough money to meet all your basic needs

• You feel prepared for the unexpected • You have a clear plan for your money • You feel great about managing finances yourself instead of having someone else do it

for you • If another recession occurred, you’d still survive from a financial standpoint • New financial goals whether it’s investing in retirement or paying off all your debt don’t

intimidate or discourage you

On a scale of 1 to 10, where do you fall when it comes to your level of confidence in your finances and current situation? Odds are, it’s not really high if you’re reading this training guide. Do you know what is contributing to this lack of confidence with money? Is it because you have debt? Do you feel your income could be higher? Are your expenses out of control? Do you think that gaining financial confidence will take months or years? Or, do you believe that you need to take big steps to make massive changes? I’m going to tell you a secret. The most successful people start their journey by making small moves. Baby steps are just as effective as making huge life-changing decisions. Plus, they are less overwhelming and easier to make. ß This means you’ll be more successful in the long run. In this training, I want to share with you 10 crucial things you can do to boost your financial confidence today…as in RIGHT now. By the end of this training, you’ll be able to rank your level of financial confidence higher on the scale and soon enough, you’ll reach a 10.


Who Am I? I’m Chonce, a Certified Financial Education Instructor and someone who had absolutely no financial confidence just a few years ago. In 2013, I was a single mom struggling to make ends meet. The only thing that gave me a bit of hope and confidence with my finances was the possibility of being able to get accepted into a low-income apartment in my area. I figured with this arrangement, at least I wouldn’t have to be stressed out about affording housing. On the contrary, low-income housing wasn’t for me because it incentivized me to keep my income low. I didn’t want to live a life where I was afraid to make more money. So I actually moved out in just a few months. In 2015, I settled for a job that paid me $28,000 per year to start. I was finally above the poverty line, but barely and I had debt so it made me feel uneasy. However, that was the year I got serious about improving my life instead of just becoming another statistic. I lowered my expenses, increased my income and paid off $30,000 of debt. I got married in 2016 and paid for the wedding in cash. That same year, I quit my job to dedicate my time to a business I was passionate about – My Debt Epiphany. Today, I help people who are once where I was and feeling pretty hopefully or confused about money. Maybe you have money but don’t know what to do with it. Maybe you have a spending problem or an income problem. My passion is to use my content, advice, and products to help others get unstuck and regain control so they can live a life for more possibilities and fewer limitations. Changing Your Story Now that you see how I changed my story, how will you change yours? What will your life look like in 6 months or a year from now? Which story will you be telling your spouse, kids or grandkids? The good news is, your financial journey story can be whatever you want. It starts today be regaining financial confidence. Some of you will read this guide and do nothing and see no results. Therefore, your story won’t change year after year. My wish is that you don’t do this. Give it your undivided attention and complete all the action steps so you can see results. This will literally take you an hour of your time on average. Let’s


jump into the training guide with my top and easiest 10 ways to start feeling more confident about your finances ASAP! 1. Open Your Mobile Banking Dashboard, Review Your Spending Over the Past

30 Days It’s time to peel back the rug. Confidence starts with awareness. To have financial confidence, you need to be completely aware of your spending and what’s going on with your money. I recommend that you check your checking account daily as well as your credit card accounts if you’re using them. It’s so easy to spend money and tell yourself you’ll deal with it later. This fake sense of ‘freedom’ you gives yourself actually positions you to have no control over your money. So, start with awareness. Look over all your transactions to hold yourself accountable for where your money went. Do you notice any trends? What do you tend to do with your money right after you get paid? What do you spend money on when your account is low? What is a necessity and what is more of a want? Finally, ask yourself how do those purchases make you feel. Ideally, you want to feel comfortable, pleased, and in control when you review your transaction history. That is the goal, so it’s important to pinpoint what is making you feel uneasy so we can work on changing it. 2. Identify Impulse Purchases and Determine How You Will Avoid Them After reviewing your account, you should have noticed some trends – like impulse purchases. These are unplanned purchases that are heavily based on your emotions or impulses. As you can imagine, too many impulse purchases can ruin your budget and throw off your entire cash flow. This is why it’s best to avoid/control your impulse buys. After reviewing your account(s), write down your top 5-10 impulse purchases for the month. Make note of any common themes to get a better understanding of why you make these unplanned and usually unnecessary buys. Do you like to run into the gas station and get snacks for the day when you pump your gas? Are you addicted to your morning coffee and donuts? Do you have a weakness for clothes? For me, one of my most dangerous impulses is Target. I love the store and I love all their décor and cute things for the home to be specific. Knowing that Target triggers me to make impulse purchases, I decided to avoid going to the store unless it’s absolutely necessary. When I do go, I bring cash and remove credit cards from my wallet. Even storing them in my car for the time-being helps because most impulse buys are


not going to motivate me to run out to my car to grab my debit or credit card to make a purchase. Once you identify what your impulse buys are, come up with a quick and effective action plan just like I did to help you control and avoid them. Doing this will instantly give you a financial confidence boost. 3. Identify Your Top 3 Most Expensive Spending Categories

Where does most of your money go? Now, a 30-day expense review may not give you the clearest answer to this, but a 12-month review will. You don’t have to spend hours going through your expenses line by line over the past year to determine this. To time’s sake, we can just start with estimates. You may have a good idea of how much money you spend on certain expenses already. The top spending categories for American households include:

• Housing • Transportation • Food • Childcare/Daycare

Start by adding up your annual expenses for those categories only. Here’s what I came up with for my own situation:

• Housing – $13,680 (rent and mortgage) • Transportation – $3,920 (insurance, gas and repairs for two cars) • Food – $4,800 • Childcare - $4,692

As you can see, almost $30,000 of our income is going to just 4 core expenses each year. This is common among most people. While cutting lattes and couponing are nice ways to save a little money, I often prefer to tackle the ‘big dogs’ like these expenses to regain control over my money and restore financial confidence. It’s important to be honest about these expenses and how they will look in the future. Also, consider what you can do to change them if you feel uncomfortable. For example, our housing costs for the year are a result of renting for half the year then paying a mortgage after we bought our house.


Next year, we will spend around $16,800 on housing since we will have a full 12 months of mortgage payments. Plus, taxes or insurance could increase so who knows, we might even spend more. In all honesty, spending this much on housing makes me feel uneasy so I know it’s something we’re going to work on minimizing. For transportation, my husband and I both have paid off cars, but still pay for insurance, gas and repairs since he drives for Uber. I want to consider eventually just sharing a car and cutting this annual spending in half. The childcare section is so high because we pay for private school and there’s not much we can do to change that now although I am considering home schooling my son in the future. I’m able to do this because both my husband and I work from home and create our own schedules. This quick analysis I just did demonstrates what you can do when you assess your top expense categories. Sit down with your partner and discuss these things and how these expenses make you feel. Do you feel fine with them? Are they too high? Would you rather put the money elsewhere? Come up with effective solutions that apply to your unique situation. Here are a few ideas of practical ways to control your top 3-4 annual expenses to help you start your brainstorm. Housing

• Relocate to a cheaper home/area if it’s possible • Get a roommate • House hack (rent out a room or area of your home to lower the costs) • Rent out your garage for storage space • Put at least 20% down when you buy a house to avoid Private Mortgage Insurance • Refinance your mortgage or negotiate rent

o When we lived in an apartment, my husband offered to shovel snow on the property for extra money or a rent reduction

• Downsize. Do you really need that guest bedroom if you don’t host often? Transportation

• Become a one-car household • Pay off your car so you don’t have a loan • Walk or ride your bike during warm weather months • Utilize public transit • Carpool or live in a walkable area


• Shop around for different car insurance rates • If you don’t drive much, consider Metromile where your insurance premium is based on

the miles you drive. Food/Groceries

• Check out this post for all my best tips and hacks to lower your grocery bill Childcare

• Opt for a babysitter over a nanny • Apply for childcare assistance programs if you think you’ll get it • Work alternating schedules with your partner • Move closer to family or a support system if it’s an option • Swap childcare services with other parents you trust • Work at a daycare part-time or full time to offset costs • Consider public school or homeschooling • If you go with private school, see if you can volunteer a few times a week in exchange

for a lower tuition rate (my husband and I do this) 4. Create a New Budget

If your current budget isn’t working or it’s non-existent, it’s time to create a new one. You may even be budgeting now and not realize it. The biggest misconception about budgets is that they don’t have to be painful and can make you feel super deprived. Most people think that having a budget means you must be “broke” or “struggling”. When you start earning more money, you no longer need a budget right? Wrong! So long as you don’t have an infinite income, you’ll need a budget – even during retirement – so you might as well create one and learn to love your life on a budget. A budget is simply a spending plan for your money. Without it, you’ll probably have no idea what’s going on with your finances. If you’re ready to create or rework your budget, here are some quick resources to help you get it done ASAP.

• The 5-Second Budget: Use this free tool to create your first budget in as little as 5 seconds! This tool created by NerdWallet helps you develop a basic, 50-30-20 budget. It helps you categorize your income into 3 core categories. Now, you may need want to get more specific as time goes on (and I recommend you do) but this tool is still a great start and an easy way to take action today.

• Free Budgeting Guide: I created this free budgeting guide as a resource to explain the ‘what’, ‘how’, and ‘why’ when it comes to creating a budget.

• Love Your Budget Course: If you feel you still need help getting on a budget, this course may be right for you. This course goes into more depth when it comes to understanding


your finances and creating a budget you love. It includes several video lessons, a course workbook, workshops explaining how you can spend less and earn more, plus one-on-one coaching with me and additional bonuses. If you’ve tried budgeting in the past and the DIY approach hasn’t been working for you – ie. You feel like haven’t been able to stick to a budget to save your life – this course is worth considering.

5. Start Saving 1% of Your Income

You can do it! You know you need to save money. Commit to saving 1% of your income today. Saving money is a habit. You don’t have to start by saving hundreds or thousands of dollars. Sure, some experts believe you should save at least 10% to 20% of your income, but if you lack financial confidence, you’ll have a hard time believing that is possible in the first place. Instead, let’s start with 1% of your take-home pay and make it automatic (if you’re already saving, increase your rate by 1% to 5%). You may hardly even notice it. If you bring home $2,500 per month, that’s just $25. Set up a monthly automatic transfer from your checking to savings account right now. Set is up for the day that you get paid so you can pay yourself first. Over time, you can increase this percentage, but for now, you’re ahead of most other people because you’re prioritizing saving. 6. Check Your Credit

When was the last time you checked your credit and monitored your score? CreditSesame allows you to do this for free and it’s the online tool I’ve been using for free. Go to their site and sign up for a free account. Check your score and determine if it’s where you want it to be. If it isn’t, CreditSesame provides recommendations to help you improve it. Plus, they use a grading system to help you better understand your score. When reviewing your score report, look at the grades you don’t like and take their advice on how you can improve them.


Often times, building credit takes time so you’ll need to be patient. However, it can be a huge relief to know where you stand and that you’re doing something to improve your credit profile. 7. Discover Your Money Personality

Everyone has their own unique money personality, but it also impacts how you handle money. Your lack of financial confidence could be due to the fact that you don’t understand your money personality. It’s important to acknowledge that you probably handle money differently from other people in your life like your parents, friends, etc. and that’s okay. You have to understand yourself better so you cultivate a better relationship with your money. Take this free quiz to discover what your money personality is. 8. Obtain the Proper Protection

No one ever likes to think about this, but is your family protected financially should something ever happen to you? How will they pay bills, keep the house, and live comfortably? The answer is life insurance. Obtaining life insurance is easy and so necessary which is why I don’t understand why so many people put it off. If your employer offer life insurance, it’s likely not enough. If you ever leave your job or get laid off, you’ll lose your life insurance coverage and you’ll be older so it will be more expensive to obtain it. Instead, you can obtain your own term life insurance policy. It’s affordable and only takes a few seconds to get a quote.


You can go to Bestow.co right now and get a quick quote for life insurance. Policies start at just $5 per month and don’t require a medical exam for coverage under $1 million. If you already have life insurance, make sure your beneficiaries are up-to-date and make sure you have enough coverage. Generally, you want your coverage to be 10x – 20x your annual income. 9. Think Like the Rich

The biggest difference between the rich and the not rich is the way they think. You’re doing this training right now to gain financial confidence, but confidence itself is a feeling based on a thought. Almost everything we do is based on thoughts and feelings especially when it comes to money. That’s why it’s so crucial that you learn to master your mindset during your financial journey. You can start by changing your thoughts from that of a poor person to someone who’s already rich. Some people are afraid to think rich because they feel they don’t need/deserve more money or that rich people are greedy and self-centered. There’s nothing wrong with having money and wanting more for your life. Often times, we are told to be grateful and just sit there and accept whatever life throws our way and to be content. I’m all for having gratitude, but I’m also for self-development and reaching your full potential as well. Earlier this year, I read a book called Secrets of the Millionaire Mind and it totally changed my life. Here are 10 examples the author uses to show you how to change your thinking from poor to rich. 1 – Rich people believe ” I create my life.” Poor people believe “Life happens to me.” 2 – Rich people play the money game to win. Poor people play the money game to not lose. 3 – Rich people are committed to being rich. Poor people want to be rich. 4 – Rich people think big. Poor people think small. 5 – Rich people focus on opportunities. Poor people focus on obstacles. 6 – Rich people admire other rich and successful people. Poor people resent rich and successful people.


7 – Rich people associate with positive, successful people. Poor people associate with negative or unsuccessful people. 8 – Rich people are willing to promote themselves and their value. Poor people think negatively about selling and promotion. 9 – Rich people are bigger than their problems. Poor people are smaller than their problems. 10 -Rich people are excellent receivers. Poor people are poor receivers. Start with these to improve the way you think and give yourself more financial confidence. Print them out, make affirmations out of them, add them to your phone, memorize them, etc. Just keep feeding yourself these thoughts daily.

10. Set an Income Goal

Do you set goals for your income? If you don’t, you can’t expect your financial situation to improve and you certainly won’t feel better about money. There are so many reasons why you should set income goals. The #1 reason is to make more money of course. Why? So you can do things like:

• Pay off your debt faster • Save more money for unexpected expenses and retirement • Give back and help loved ones in need • Keep up with inflation • Keep up with the cost of living • Earn what you’re worth – if you are gaining new skills and experience each year,

shouldn’t you be compensated for the additional value you’re providing your employer with?

As you can see, setting income goals isn’t all just about wanting more and never being satisfied. It’s actually quite the opposite. After you’ve created your budget, you can determine whether you think your income is sufficient enough to support your goals and dreams for your life. If it’s not, set income goals based on how much you want to earn today and in the future. Take all the factors above into consideration. At the bare minimum, you should be making enough additional income each month to keep up with taxes and inflation. Setting a goal puts it out into the universe that you’re ready for more money and have a plan to use it wisely. Once you have your goal, you can then ask your employer for a raise, reconsider your career path and apply for a new job with a higher salary, or develop a new side income stream.


I have written extensively over the years about how to make extra money through side hustle or side business. You can scan through some of that helpful content here. Today, however, I want you to set your income goal and write down 5 things you can do over the next month to help you reach it.

Bonus - 11. Know Your Why Ok so I had too much fun creating this training guide and I just couldn’t stop so I wanted to share a bonus tip for feeling more financially confident ASAP J Understanding your why is the most important part of your financial journey. At times, things will get tough and you’ll wonder if/how you should continue. You’ll need to restore your motivation and knowing your why can help with this. Ask yourself why you’re on a journey to improve your finances? Who are you doing this for? Why did you decide to go through this training guide? What will your life look like when you reach your goals? My Why: For starters, I hated being broke and never having any money. I realized that my lifestyle and debt payments made it really hard for me to get ahead. I chose to use money as a tool to help me create a better lifestyle for myself and my son. I want to leave a legacy for him and help him avoid the financial hardships I had to endure as a young adult. I want to have more control over choices like where I work, where I live, and how I spend my time. I often visualize a life where I’m not stressed about money or debt all the time and it no longer controls me.

10 ways to feel more financially confident today · jump into the training guide with my top and...

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