Getting your pen to paper started is a necessary first step in getting your finances where you want them. Your first challenge will be to start documenting your spending. You can do this in a notebook, on a spreadsheet or even using software such a mint.com . Start looking at where every penny in your life is spent. At this point it is not a time to criticize, only a time to document. You are the only person who can change your future.

After you have begun documenting your spending, you can start identifying categories your spending resides in. With actual numbers of what you live on, you can make a realistic budget that will not be such a brutal adjustment as it might be otherwise. Mary Hunt calls them LEAKS - look in your budget, look at your categories, and see if there are some significant leaks that you don't really want your future disappearing because of.



You also need to determine your net worth. The most important steps in all adventures is to know where you are and where you want to be.

Get a brand new notebook or start a word document and write down the word assets. Below the word assets list every account you have one by one and on the right of the page right the balances. Look up mutual fund balances, retirement funds, and any other monetary valuable account. Also include property and guesstimate values; wedding ring, home value, car...

When you feel done, skip a few lines, grab a calculator and add up those assets - right it down and circle it.
Now right the word debts.
Below the word debt write down all of your debts, giving them a name and value. Include here current balances for credit cards, car loans, mortgages, debts to friends and family and any other debt.
Skip a few lines again, add these up and write the answer - circle that number.
Keep your calculator out and subtract these two circled numbers; your assets minus you debts. This number is your current net worth!
I asked you to skip a few lines in case other assets and debts were remembered later. This is your starting point. Desirable or not this is where you are and where you are starting.
Statistics say the average 30-40 year old has a net worth of ---------.