I’m super excited to be guest posting on Money Saving Mom! In case you didn’t know, I’m a huge Crystal Paine fan – seriously. She’s such an inspiration to me and I’m so honored to be able to not only share today’s post with my readers but also her amazing readers as well! Continue to read below for a snippet of the post or head here to go ahead and read the whole thing on Crystal’s site. 

Managing money isn’t easy. If it was, then there wouldn’t be thousands upon thousands of books, podcasts, classes, workshops, and more on the subject. Even though I was raised in a home where managing money was made a priority and my mom taught us how to budget I ended up failing with money in my early adult life.

And if you think it’s stops there, you’d be wrong. We’ve fallen down with money many more times than I can count and my guess is that you’ve hit a few stumbling blocks too.

No one is perfect – especially when it comes to managing money.

Even though we’ve failed with money more times than I can count we’ve succeed even more times than we’ve failed. We’ve managed to pay off over $100,000 of debt in four years as a one-income family of five and save up a hefty emergency fund that allowed my husband to quit a job he no longer loved to start his own business free from worry over how his family would survive.

Finding peace with money isn’t easy but it’s a fight that’s worthwhile. And if you’re ready to find peace with money, here’s how to find it even when times get rocky.

1. Make a Plan

Ever notice how when you have a plan in place, all of sudden you’re not so anxious anymore? It’s like you find a slice of peace when you’ve created a plan. Even the most disorganized among us benefits from having a plan in place.

And guess what?

Managing money is no different. When you have a plan in place for your money, all of sudden there’s this peace that washes over you. It takes you from feeling out of control to feeling empowered.

So if you don’t already have a budget in place, now is the time to create one. Seriously, don’t wait until tomorrow – do it now. There are several different ways to create a budget so don’t think there’s a “right or wrong” way to do it because there’s not – there’s only the way that works best for you and for your family.

But if you’ve never budgeted before or are currently living the dreaded “paycheck-to-paycheck” cycle, I encourage you to try what I call the Quick Start Budget as it will help you get into the habit of budget and will help you break the cycle of paycheck-to-paycheck by first helping you learn how to budget the money you actually do have sitting in your bank account. Click here to read more about this super simple starting point with budgeting. 

If you aren’t living paycheck-to-paycheck but still have no idea where to begin with budgeting, I encourage you to read over the Beginner’s Guide Budgeting and fill out the accompanying printable worksheets to help you get started in learning how to budget your money.

Once you have your budget in place you’ll start to feel that sense of peace and empowerment but that’s not the only thing you’ll have to do in order to truly find peace with your money.

Click here to read the full story on MSM. 

The post 5 steps to financial peace appeared first on Jessi Fearon.