For many, June marks both an end and a beginning. The end of the school year, yet the beginning of the summer. The last of the cool weather has stopped clinging to the air and warm summer breezes have taken their place.
Here are some simple tips to help us enjoy the summer!
Don’t Waste Time on the Past
Chances are we have made mistakes in the past 12 months. January brings with it resolutions and goals which life distracts us from. When June finds us distracted and busy, don’t dwell on the mistakes. We can evaluate where we are at and move forward from there.
Revisit Your Goals
Are you looking to buy a car? A new home? Pay off all your debt? Now is a great time to create new financial goals or revisit old ones!
Write down the revised goals and evaluate how they will be accomplished. Keep it simple and specific.
Declutter
Once we have determined what we do want in our life, it’s time to do some decluttering! The mistakes of the past few months need to be addressed practically. If the debt load has increased or we are further from our goals we need to know why.
Determining the source and getting rid of any bad habits is just as important as revisiting our goals.
Plan the Spending
What expenses are coming up in the next six months? Are there summer sports, fall activities, memberships, Christmas? Any of these expenses are much less stressful when they have been planned for. Sit down and determine how setting aside small portions each week can alter the back to school stress levels.
Refresh Your Agenda
For many families, school activities and busyness can be replaced with summer activities with no chance of a break. Before registering our children in every summer activity and camp available, determine the impact this will have on the bigger financial picture as well as our schedules. Even taking a moment to ask the question: “Do we really want to do this?” can be invaluable at this point!
Enjoy the summer months! BBQs, camping, walks in the park and the warm weather are all welcome changes from our cold Canadian winter. Just remember, filling the summer with expenses and busyness will make it memorable for all the wrong reasons. It’s time to evaluate where we stand, so we can go where we want to be!