Zoe Financial
Global poverty is one of the world’s biggest and most complex problems. This is because many new problems arise from global poverty, such as various health issues and various forms of crime. Even today, this problem remains unresolved. Moreover, in the current era of globalization, teenagers have access to numerous resources. In the financial context, social media is a major challenge for teenagers. Teenagers tend to follow current trends and are easily influenced. This is one factor contributing to their consumerist tendencies; they feel the need for goods without considering the classification of wants and needs. Yet, every step we take now will impact our future. This is a bad start towards global poverty. We need to realize that we cannot always depend on our parents, so we must practice financial independence.
With high poverty rates, a concerted movement is needed. Therefore, we as teenagers must take steps to reduce the percentage of global poverty. The first step we must take is to improve our financial literacy. We must truly understand how to use money wisely and understand the difference between needs and wants. Several cases of global poverty show that it is often caused by people’s inability, or even unwillingness, to make an effort. Therefore, we need to change our mindset and realize that achieving something requires effort. Next, we need to plan our expenses. This can be done once a week by calculating our allowance and allocating it. The most important aspect of budget planning is savings. In fact, it’s better to set aside a budget for savings before anything else.
To simplify spending planning, we can combine it with journaling, putting our ideas into writing. So, financial journaling is writing down a plan for future budget usage. Financial journaling can be done by planning your budget allocation for the next week. This has several benefits, including: improving writing skills, conveying ideas and plans, improving memory, and serving as a self-reflection tool on your money management skills.
Steps to create a financial journal: To start a financial journal, we can write down the purpose of writing the journal, the goals we hope to achieve, then continue with a budget plan for savings and expenses. Make your budget planning as efficient as possible. Set aside one empty space for anything outside of your plan, but it’s important to emphasize that this section will only be used for urgent matters. If you’re worried about using the empty space as an excuse, especially after you’re certain there won’t be any urgent needs, it’s better to compact your financial journal.
Read it over and over again until you’re convinced that what’s left in the journal are needs, not wants. Create boundaries for anything not in the journal. If you’re the type of person who often finds excuses to justify what you do, create the opposite excuse. For example, “I want my financial journal to work, so I’m limiting my desires.” Finally, reflect. This will form the basis for your financial journal the following week. During reflection, try to be objective and avoid making excuses for the empty space. In financial journaling, we often fail at step three. Undeniably, suddenly limiting something is difficult. Therefore, awareness is needed. By getting into the habit of keeping a financial journal as early as possible, we will become accustomed to and skilled at managing our finances. Besides, because we put a certain amount of budget into savings, we don’t need to worry if there is an urgent need.
By: Nafiz Dzakya Prasetya
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