How To Find A Financial Self-Care Routine
The tumultuous nature of the last three years have impacted us all, from individuals to small business owners to large corporations.
We’ve all had big-picture questions around what the future holds and what it means for stability in our lives moving forward—like how to make smart financial decisions.
To help answer these questions, we teamed up with Kara Perez to host What The Hell Does Financial Self-Care Look Like Right Now? Perez took over our Instagram stories to break down all things money and how to build a flexible financial plan for yourself.
ABOUT KARA PEREZ
Kara Perez is a financial expert and the founder of Bravely, an Austin-based intersectional feminist financial education company. Kara discovered her love of finances courtesy of her quarter-life crisis. Broke, underemployed and saddled with student loan debt, she realized that her lack of financial education was crippling her adulthood. After becoming debt free in June 2015, Kara created Bravely to help other women take control of their financial lives.
Kara believes in the power of Oprah, loves the color green, and can most often be found with her curls up in a bun, drinking her 80 oz of water every day.
Kara speaks at events across the US, including FinCon and the Lola Retreat. You can find Bravely on Forbes, Glamour Magazine, US News and World Report, Austin CultureMap, Austin Woman Magazine, and Lifehacker.
Here are Kara’s top five tips for starting (and sustaining) a financial self-care routine:
1.) Get real about your budget.
When getting yourself together financially, the first thing Kara recommends is to look at the numbers. The best way to gain knowledge about your own financial life is to review your own spending. Look at your credit cards and bank statements. Don’t throw these out to avoid stress. Figure out what you’re spending, where your money is coming from and where you want it to go.
*You can use this budgeting guide from our 2019 Money Mindsets series to get started, too.
2.) Practice financial flexibility.
Whether you’re an independent creative, working a full-time job or managing a small business, one thing’s for certain—the last few years haven’t quite gone the way any of us anticipated. So, if you’re just now looking at your numbers, try not to assign shame or negative narratives to your spending or your income. It’s likely fluctuated a ton.
Figure out what your budget needs to look like now to make it through. Set some expectations and adapt if those expectations aren’t met or exceeded.
*Kara has more tips and resources around this topic on her website.
3.) MAKE AN “oh, shit” EMERGENCY FUND.
If you want to change your habits and be better prepared for financial crises in the future, Kara recommends making what she calls an “oh shit” budget.
You can figure out what an emergency fund may need to look like for you by identifying and reviewing your normal spending habits, then factoring in a 50% of your income.
Decide what you can sacrifice if you did end up experiencing a 50% loss, and think through other ways you can earn income. Once you know what you’d do in this scenario, you’ve got it—this is your “oh shit” budget plan!
4.) ASSEMBLE YOUR MONEY TOOL-KIT.
Once you know your budget and have established some goals (whether that’s spending less or saving more for an emergency fund), it’s time to sharpen up your financial literacy. If you’re ready to make financial awareness part of your routine, Kara recommends equipping yourself with the tools necessary to change that.
Struggle with spending? Then you need a budget.
Don’t have a clue about what an investment is? Then, get a book on investing.
From there, you can build your confidence and figure out what your next money moves are. Kara suggests the following tools to help increase your financial knowledge and better track of your spending habits:
Mint Budget Tracker and Planner
PocketGuard Money Management Tool
5.) RESIST THE ANXIETY SPIRAL—and repeat.
So many of us have negative relationships with money, but it doesn’t have to be that way.
Take a deep breath, light a candle, and take a peek at your finances without judgment—get yourself to a place where you can look at your numbers and problem-solve. Like anything, your relationship to (and understanding of) money can change with a bit of practice.
Looking for more?
Be sure to follow Bravely to find out about events, tools and community resources at the intersection of finance and feminism, too