en English
en Englishes Spanish
TBSS logo

How to be Financially Stable

Positive Mature woman looking at camera with arms crossed

why you should be mindful of your money and income

Published: September 28, 2021

Category: Educational, Retirement Planning

We’ve all heard the saying that money doesn’t grow on trees, right? It could never be more true than when you’re financially independent. As you get older and approach retirement age, you realize just how much it remains true throughout your adult life. Financial stability is one of the most important things that you keep in your life because you’re at an immediate disadvantage without it.

It’s hard to pinpoint an exact meaning of what financial security is because everyone’s situation – and their idea of it – is different. However, in a nutshell, to be financially stable is to have enough money to cover the bills, with extra to go into savings or specialized funds.

At The Best Senior Services, we want to help you achieve financial stability because your success doesn’t just help you — it helps your family, too. This article will continue to help you understand why your financial stability is important, what it doesn’t represent, and how you can achieve it, so that you can help yourself and those you love.

Let’s begin with why you should be mindful of your money and income.

Reasons to be financially secure

It’s easy to tell someone to do something, but he or she won’t do it without a reasonable explanation. You need to prioritize your financial stability for multiple reasons. The first reason is because it holds you accountable. Accountability is what pays the bills and creates a happy home life.

A separate — but equally as important — reason for why you need to be mindful about your finances is that it also reduces your stress. Many seniors are dealing with separate health issues, and the added stress of having your finances at risk could be crippling. Be mindful of what you’re spending your money on, and where.

Another reason to consider is how being financially stable is the way in which you can pay off any outstanding debts you may have. The sooner you are debt-free, the more in control you are of your expenses.

Let’s get into what financial stability doesn’t look like.

What it isn’t

Being financially stable doesn’t mean you have a lot of money in the bank. Think of the common case of the musician or actor, who typically makes a couple of million dollars a year, filing for bankruptcy. These are examples of people who aren’t mindful of what they’re spending and, as a result, are digging themselves into a hole they can’t get out of.

Anyone who spends more money than he or she makes is, unfortunately, not financially stable.

Now that you have a better understanding of what financial stabilities is not, it’s time to learn just how you can achieve it.

Achieving financial stability

First and foremost, don’t share your information with anyone. You work hard for what you’ve earned, so you don’t want to lose it all in an instant by giving someone access to it. Most of the time, strangers will cold-call you or approach you online seeking “help.” This is an attempt to steal your financial information for their gain, so it’s important not to fall for it.

Other ways to secure your finances include:

  • Budget. No one is too old, young, rich, or poor to budget. In fact, a little budgeting can go a long way. The overall reason for having a budget is so that you have a better understanding of where your money is going. Determine what you’re spending the bulk of your income on, and figure how much of your check you want to spend on it. Budgeting will help you slow down the amount you’re spending so that you’re not pulling strings to get yourself through a sudden emergency.
  • Save for emergencies. Speaking of emergencies, well… they happen, regardless of how much we hope for otherwise. Emergencies can come in multiple forms: medical, family, natural disasters, workplace and more, so it’s important you’re ready when the next emergency hits. Prepare for this by having a fund that you can tap into the next time disaster strikes and you need to stay at a hotel, or you have to make a sudden flight across country to be with your family. This fund will stop putting stress on your other accounts and helps ease any scrambling on your part to reallocate your funds.
  • Live below your means. This is something many of us might have heard all throughout our lives, but it’s true, and it feeds into helping with your emergency fund. If you’re unfamiliar with the phrase “to live below your means,” it’s essentially another way to say spend your money only on necessities. When you live “below your means,” you’re prepared for when something unexpectedly happens and you need to tend to it immediately. It may not necessarily mean it’s an emergency, but if your air conditioning goes out during the summer, and you happen to live in Arizona, you’re going to want to get that fixed. If you live above your means, then you are constantly going to be catching up to pay for everything. If you live at your means, then you won’t have the money to pay for an emergency.
  • Don’t save your payment information online. Sometimes, when you buy something online, the website will offer to keep your card on file so that you won’t have to re-fill the information whenever you make your next purchase. Try to avoid doing this, as this will make it easier for hackers to steal your information. It also stops you from mindlessly purchasing something that you may not need, which will save you money in the long run.
  • Make a habit out of using cash. Cash is a fast way to realize how much you’re spending. When you pay with a credit card or a debit card, you don’t realize how quickly your money goes because you don’t really have to look at the balance you have remaining. When you use cash, you’re doing a better job of limiting how much you’re spending because you have to try to make it through with what you have.
  • Talk with your loved ones. Speaking to the loved ones you trust about your current financial status will allow them to give you advice and support about how you can further your financial stability. Getting encouragement from those you love is something The Best Senior Services will always recommend, because we want you to do what is best for you.

Achieving financial stability is definitely easier said than done. However, it’s much simpler than you might think. Once you nail down how to budget and why you need to stop spending so much money on fluff things, becoming more stable with your finances can become like second nature. That doesn’t mean you only need to put in a minimal amount of effort, though. It takes years of hard work and accountability on your end. But as you’re working toward it, it’s rewarding to see your mounting success and how your efforts are paying off.

If you need any assistance with getting your financial stability back on track, we want to help. You can visit our website or call us today to get started.