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Creating a journaling routine provides a wide range of benefits for you, from finding
clarity in your life, to having a safe space for venting. But there are some unique
advantages you get from it, such as being able to have good financial habits. Here are
some ways you can use your journal to create a healthy financial plan.
Write an Overview of Your Finances
Start by journaling an overview of your finances. This can be in an organized format, or
you can just write a stream of consciousness page about it.
Create a 5 or 10-Year Plan
The next way you can journal your financial plan is to write a 5 or 10-year plan. Think
about where you want to be in 5 or 10 years, and be as detailed as possible. If 10 years
is too difficult, since so much can happen in a decade, just start with five years. Think
about where you want to be in 2025. How old will you be? Do you want to live
somewhere new? What do you want your job to be or your finances to look like? Try to
add as many details as you can.
Break Down Your Plan Into 1-Year
When you have that longer life plan or goal, break it into one year. What would you
need to do each year in order to make your life plan a reality? Now take your 5-year
plan, and decide what would need to be done each year in order to make it happen. It is
okay to dream big, but try to also be realistic. If you have a big income goal, break it up
into what can done each year for 5 years in order to make that a reality.
Break it Down Further Into Quarterly, Then Monthly
You can then go even further and use your journal to figure out what goals and tasks
would be done more on a monthly or quarterly basis. Start with what needs to be done
the first year to achieve your financial goals, then break it up first into quarterly, then
monthly. This allows you to set goals for each month, in order to get to the final big
financial goal.
Make a List of Your Financial Goals
By this point, you have a really good idea of what your financial future looks like, so you
can start fleshing it out into different financial goals. What a healthy financial future
looks like to you, might be different from someone else, which is why journaling is such
an effective tool. You can keep it to yourself, stay on the right path, and track your
progress along the way.
