Look for ways to reduce costs

- Once you've established your budget worksheet, you have a powerful personal tool to identify where your money is going. This isn't some generic data of, well, if you just start making your coffee at home, life will be so perfect kind of budget. This is a true indication of where your money is going and opportunities for you to trim, reduce, or get rid of all together. Your budget has just revealed leaky faucets, where money is dripping down the drain. Everything from unnecessary bank fees, insurance premiums, and those subscription services with monthly charges that sneak in $10 here and $20 there. Follow these simple steps to reduce costs and build better financial health. Number one, I recommend you go through your budget with everyone in your household. Sometimes your partner will say, just tell me where I can't spend and I won't. Or a client may say, I can't help myself. I just spend money sometimes and I feel like I can't even budget. This is a tool to help you with those challenges. You're looking for all those little monthly charges to see where your money is being spent. It's a great teaching opportunity for your kids too. It's a great way to naturally develop financial literacy at home. You can check out my other LinkedIn Learning course, Teaching Your Kids About Finance. Find places to reduce costs. Ask yourself, where do you think the opportunities lie in your budget. With the pandemic, here are places I tell all my clients to start with. Shop your car insurance now. Many of us are staying at home and not driving nearly as much as we were before. I'm definitely down almost 95% since I've been working from home. So take this time to shop your auto insurance. You can always adjust the mileage back up when you begin to driving again. You should also stop your homeowners insurance, your internet, your cell phone bill and more. Take a look at any monthly recurring fees and make sure that they are all still necessary in your life. This includes your banking fees, or maybe even that travel credit card that you're not using as much now. We're getting your financial house in order. So tighten up all of those leaky faucets.