Mrs. Micah was nice enough to tag me with a meme recently. "Find one step you can take to make your financial system better or more organized." So I thought about it for a while.

The first step I ever took towards getting my finances under control really had nothing to do with organizing the finances themselves. I started getting interested in information about financial matters themselves.

Knowledge is Power

Before I started a budget, got onto the debt snowball, or did any of the other things I’ve been doing to get my finances on the straight and narrow, I started reading about personal finance.

Lots of financial web sites exist around the Internet, all with differing advice on ‘how to save’, or ‘how to do a debt snowball’ or a whole myriad of other ‘how to’ finances. It seems like everyone has a differing opinion on what it takes to manage money.

Big surprise there.

If managing your money were easy, no one would be in debt except those that intended to be in debt. As it is, it’s a subject that isn’t taught in schools (or not sufficiently taught anyway). I can remember learning more about how a corporation is set up, how stocks and bonds work, and how the stock market operates, than on how to balance a checkbook, or how to shop for a major appliance without getting ripped off. The old school teaching didn’t take into account the emerging culture of ‘Buy it Now‘ mentality that was being promoted through the ’80s and ’90s.

So when I decided to turn things around, I had to re-learn how to handle finances.

Knowing is Half the Battle. (The Other Half is Doing, and the Third Half is Being Persistent)

Reading a number of sites gave me a good view on a common thread, expressed through comments, differing opinions, and straight-out contradictory blog posts.

You need to CONSCIOUSLY control your money!

It came back again and again to that point. Setting up the budget; Control where the money goes. Create a debt snowball; Control where the money goes. Eliminate credit card debt; CONTROL WHERE THE MONEY GOES.

Over and over again, this common denominator resonated out of all the messages I read. So, once I understood the TRUE requirement for managing my finances, I set out to do just that. Control them!

The First Step (of Many)

It’s true, if you don’t know where you’re at, you’ll never know where you’re going. My first step was to assess my finances in a realistic way. Get ALL the bills, assets, loans, bank account statements, and so-on, and figure out exactly what money I had, when it was coming in, and where it was going.

It was quite the sobering experience. I found that as much as I was making (and I thought I was making GOOD money at the time) I was spending 5% more each month than was coming in. Five percent doesn’t sound like much. It’s like a small hole in a big ship. But even a small hole can eventually sink a mighty ocean liner if it isn’t addressed. So, once I realized what shape I was in, I made some minor changes to my spending habits right off to eliminate that 5%, while I got a better handle on the big picture.

Having ’shut off’ the leak, I had more time to really go through the finances and get things fixed.

Take YOUR First Step

Even if you’re nervous about finances, or don’t know a THING about managing money, the problem is going to continue until you grab the bull by the horns and confront the issue. Taking a small first step is better than taking no step at all.

I challenge all you readers to take one step towards getting better control of your finances. Do a self-audit, set up a budget, open a retirement account, do SOMETHING now, rather than waiting for the future to ‘magically’ take care of itself. Odds are, it isn’t.

Time to Tag others!!

I’m going to tag Green Panda Treehouse, Prime Time Money, and My Dollar Plan next, and I encourage all the readers to write in with YOUR steps toward a better financial future.