This ‘Your Money Plan’ mini course is designed to give you a better indication of the way your income is currently used and what its potential is. As a bonus, it may also help you save money. Money that you can spend doing the things you want to do, rather than draining out to a big corporation (they have enough already).

It also looks at where you are now, and where you want your income to be. What is it you want to be able to do, and finally what are the ultimate dreams that you have on hold?

This mini course has been contributed by a business friend of mine, Amanda Holges. Here is a little background about Amanda:

“I have run my own businesses for over 30 years. Taking one from a small family business to a £multi-million international company. I understand what it is like to run a business, the difficulties you can encounter, and the success you can achieve. I use my experience, through Mentoring and facilitating Mastermind groups, to help small business owners succeed faster.

I have an avid interest in personal and business productivity and financial understanding, and have tried many methods to find ones that work well for me. By having a clear understanding of your actual financial needs and how your business can deliver that, you get more control on the key areas to focus your valuable time and resources on. By simplifying your financial picture, it gives you a clearer way to work forwards towards more of what you want to do.“

You can download this Your Money Plan workbook to help you to complete the exercises.

It is all too easy to just spend your money, with the occasional look at the bank balance to see what is happening. Perhaps you may have a good grasp of your finances and budgets, but do you look at the long term of what you want it to achieve? Have you had a look at your regular outgoings recently to see if your money is working the best for you?

Getting an understanding of these four key figures opens up an opportunity to see if your income has the potential to provide you with the life you want to live, and to see if those far off dreams are nearer than you think. If not, then you will have the critical information to start making the changes needed now to make it a reality.

Each section looks at one of the 4 Key Figures – Need, Comfort, Desire & Ultimate. Each figure is subjective to you and what YOU want to achieve. What may be a basic need for you, may be a desire for others. You may already be at your Desire level, or you might not even be covering your basic Needs. That’s fine, just be truthful and consistent when completing each section.

Before you start you need the information of your current outgoings – that’s your bills, expenses, standing orders, direct debits and where the cash is going.

You may have a financial app that can provide the figures, or you can download the information from your online banking or look at your standing orders and direct debits. If not then grab your paper statements and any bills etc. Remember to also find the receipts for any cash purchases you make – this is often where the hidden outgoings lie – and any credit or store card statements.

Don’t put off doing the exercise though if you can’t get your hands on everything now. Make a start and find where the gaps are and estimate for now. Then fill them in going forward when you find the information later.

Work through each section and complete the exercises as you go. Don’t lose momentum if you get stuck on anything or don’t have the information, just estimate and move on.

The first step is your NEED figure.