The best habits for getting your finances in order

Shannon McLay, CEO of Financial Gym, joins TheStreet to share some of her best advice for getting your finances in order.

Transcript

00:00What is your, like, big or major habit that you would tell someone in terms of getting their financial well-being together?

00:13The number one thing is mindfulness and the mindset. It's all about a healthy money mindset.

00:19And most of us don't have a healthy money mindset.

00:21We think about money and it's not something that brings us joy.

00:25Again, it's bringing us fear and shame.

00:27I think it's, you know, there's varying figures about it, but certainly over 70% of people experience financial anxiety.

00:34And it doesn't matter if you're financially healthy or not.

00:37We see people who look to us very financially healthy and are feeling anxiety.

00:42And when we feel anxiety about an area, we avoid it.

00:44We don't want to dig into the thing that's creating anxiety.

00:48So what are some of the most detrimental habits you see often in terms of people dealing with their finances?

00:57I think the number one thing is the mindfulness on where your money's going.

01:02I always say we work really hard for every dollar that we make.

01:06So we need to make it hard to spend those dollars because it's hard to get it in the bank.

01:11But it's so easy for us to spend money.

01:14We spend it on our phones.

01:15We spend it with credit cards on apps.

01:17And we don't realize where it's going.

01:19I think another big thing that we hear, a phrase we hear all the time at the gym is, I don't know where my money's going.

01:24I make it, and then it's gone.

01:26And I don't know where it is.

01:27And the funny thing is there's so many apps that will tell you where your money's going.

01:30But, again, because we feel anxiety and we don't want to look, we're not going to look at it.

01:34And so that's one of the first steps, we'll say, is being mindful of where your money is going.

01:40Whether it's tracking your expenses via an app or even just manually tracking it in the Notes app on your phone,

01:46that process of paying attention where your money is going is really a good first step.