5 Super-Easy Ways to Improve Your Financial Situation

The question is not, "How can I afford everything I want?" The real question is, "What do I value and how can I meet the needs and desires of the things that mean most to me?"

Financial stability is all a matter of perspective. While it is true we all need our basic living needs to be met, everything that we strive to attain is not a necessity. Sometimes we want things simply because others have them (or we want to have something that others don't) or because the media tells us that we should have these things in order to have a happy life.

Below are 5 super-easy ways to improve your financial situation. Some tips you may have heard before, and some you may have not. Some tips are conceptual, while others are more practical. Regardless, these are steps that anyone can take to improve their finances. Now that you're reading, the first step is to start-today.

1. Set financial goals. This is a major step in improving your financial situation. It is essential to know what you are striving for in order to be able to begin taking steps to get there. Is your goal to accumulate an emergency savings account of $20,000? Is your goal to pay off all of your consumer debt? Do you want to be able to send your child to a private college, where the room and board is $60,000 over the course of four years? What about accumulating a nest egg of $1 million for retirement? These are all financial goals that we can strive towards.

2. Write down (and stick with) an action plan. Once you write down your goals, the next step to realizing these goals is to draft individual steps to accomplish those things-the activities that need to be done in order to achieve the goal. For example, instead of saying your goal is to "save more money," make the goal more "actionable" by saying, "I am going to save $5,000 in an interest-bearing savings account for an emergency fund by June 30, 2012."

3. Take little steps, not big ones. Just like with any new activity, you can't just jump out and do it without a little practice first. Getting your finances in order will take practice-and there may be times when you have a setback. When those times do occur, the important thing to remember is to not get discouraged. Don't give up. Keep your focus, review your written goals, and get back on track. Imagine if everyone gave up the first time they tried to do something? Who would accomplish anything?

4. Leverage your resources. We can't be experts in everything. You may have a friend that is great at organizing financial information or researching investments or just encouraging you to remain disciplined. We weren't meant to do things on our own all of time, so reach out to others for help.

5. Be productive with your time. As the old saying goes, "Time is money." We all have been given the same amount of hours in a day/week/year. What we choose to do with our time is the key difference between those who are in control of their financial situation and those who are not.