Getting to Know Your Money

The beginning of your financial journey

I think that when we're young we all move through our lives quite obviously. We're obvious to the realities of life, love and definitely money.

When I was younger, money was something to be spent. Anytime, anywhere and on anything.

In my first days of work, at 16 years old, I spent all of my pay checks on clothes, shoes, handbags, jewellery and any other thing I fancied. If I wanted to be 'responsible' I spent everything I earned on groceries and asked my mother for more money for work. Which she obliged.

Back at school, food was my biggest expense. I splurged on expansive breakfasts from the school canteen. My morning crates were filled with eggs, bacon, pancakes, and don't forget my morning tea. Throughout the day, I snacked constantly and at lunch, I skipped to the canteen to get my fill again.

The generous $27 a day that my parents gave me, was always gone by the evening, and if I did have change, I saved it to spend extra the next day. I didn't care about saving or anything long term, just what I needed in the moment.

In 2018, the economic recession hit my small island, Barbados like freight train. Thousands of jobs were lost and my parents' business suffered as many customers could no longer afford their products. I often heard them fighting about money, which bills to pay and the bills often came with the words 'due for disconnection' embellished on them.

Asking my parents for money put a small pain in my heart, because I always wondered about how much they were struggling and thought that it was more important to spend the that money on bills.

I could no longer go to my parents last minute for whatever amount of money I needed, my unlimited money reserve had dried up.

It was then that I decided to take my money into my own hands. I began watching videos on Youtube from channels like The Financial Diet and joined a personal finance class at school. I started to track the few funds I had feverishly, even if I bought a mint I immediately typed it into my phone. After a month of tracking, I almost fainted. Over $900 managed to slip through my hands each year and vanish into cloud of food purchases and a whole lot of transportation costs.

But the best thing was that I could see my habits, and where I could make simple changes to get control of my money for the first time. I started saving religiously, and even though I still rely on my parents sometimes, I always make sure to buy more expensive things by myself.

Right now, you may only be just starting your money journey, but to do it effectively, you MUST have an intimate knowledge of your money.

This is how you can start.

Start tracking your money

Whether you do it in a notebook, in an excel spreadsheet or with an app, track every cent that you get from work or family members and every dollar spent for one to two months.

Look at your habits

Look at your spending habits to see where you spend the most and where you spend frivolously. The most important things you need to spend on are the necessities, like bills, transportation costs, rent and any other fixed costs that you may have. Anything else can be reduced or can done away with.

Make a plan/budget

Make a plan of how much spend on each category of your life, bills, food, transportation and any other expenses you have. Stick to it and re-adjust it each month based on changes in your life like income, assets, housing and family size.

This may seem tedious in the beginning but it will get easier. Don't worry, this is only the start of your journey and if you can conquer this part, you can conquer anything.