When you open your bank app or check your bank accounts, how does it make you feel? Do you even check? Do you need to?

This release breakdowns why financial awareness and proactivity are major keys in taking control of your finances. Let’s stack the paper! 💸💸

Starting your financial literacy journey can be jarring because where do you even start?

Every financial guru on social media says budget, save, use tax-advantaged accounts, buy real estate, invest in the stock market — S&P500, Dow Jones, NASDAQ.

Not all financial advice is created equal.

Some applies to you and some you have no business listening to. A very important step that precedes all the mainstream financial advice is understanding where you fall on the financial scale. With this knowledge, you can carefully take applicable steps as it pertains to your situation.

You can’t be investing in the S&P500 without putting food on your table. Someone else will get your returns because hunger might take you first (cue the beneficiary or your next of kin!) 😂.

It is the same way you can’t be creating budgets with non-existing funds. There’s a time and stage for all of these financial milestones and you will get there.

Let’s be guided, focus on where we are financially, and use what we have to get to where we want.

I like to think of the financial stages as compounding phases. You can be in a phase today and be in a different one tomorrow. Time plays a huge role in how you progress through the different phases and the amount of time you spend in a particular phase determines the financial stage you are.

Phase is temporal and transitionary i.e. you go through phases, while stage has definitive characteristics i.e. you can reach or enter a stage (milestone or cumulative progression).

Simply put, to get to a stage, you go through phases.

Here are six (6) financial stages that I’ve observed and been exposed to. This list isn’t exhaustive, but it reflects the stages most people experience across different parts of society.

Financial anxiety and struggle is what defines this stage. You feel it and money is all you think about because you don’t have it. You don’t know when, where, or who money will come from.

A lot of people find themselves in this stage because of factors like a sudden job loss, accumulated debt, high cost of living, medical emergencies, the environment you were born into, or simply transitioning from one life phase to another — like full-time student to working professional (such a brutal phase).

In this stage, there is some foundation to build on, although a rocky one. You depend on others for your financial needs and basic necessities. “Others” can be your parents, the government, your partner, an employer, someone’s goodwill.

An income is non-existent and makes you vulnerable to “others”. It is not a safe or ideal spot to be in financially. Very risky territory.

Money is coming in consistently and you are self-reliant.

You can take care of yourself and your needs without worry. You have established a financial cadence that works and sustains your lifestyle.

Here, you are living at your means, below it, or within it; however, an emergency or unexpected expense can tip the scale and set you back into dependence. You are surviving.

This is stability with additional protection and cushion. An emergency won’t set you back because you are very well prepared for contingencies.

This is the stage where you actively have funds to set aside and grow toward a goal or your peace of mind. You build a solid foundation that is reliable and set yourself on an upward trajectory with intention and financial discipline.

Independence is the opposite of dependence. With a healthy bank balance and influx of funds from different avenues, this phase of life presents you with choices, options, and leverage.

Here your money is no longer tied to a single source, it is diversified into different vehicles that allow it compound and sustain itself. Your money actively works for you.

The ultimate! You are making money faster than it gets spent. You have systems, assets, and vehicles in place to both preserve and rapidly grow your wealth. Here, you live off the by-products of those assets and money is not “made”, it is lived.

Make no mistakes, this stage requires hard work, smart moves, a healthy and sometimes ungodly risk tolerance, and the patience for accumulation.

Your finances are a huge part of your life and in part, your identity. This aspect of our lives affects us emotionally, culturally, socially, and psychologically. With a good foundation, other pillars of our life can stand firmly and with a shaky foundation, there is no room to build.

Do not neglect it. Pay serious attention and take actions to where you want to get to. You may need to learn, unlearn, and relearn as you face this part of your life.

You can’t improve what you don’t measure, track, or see clearly.

Stay Audacious,
Chikodilee 🤎🤎