This post is sponsored by Serve®, however all thoughts and opinions are my own.  

While many people like to give prescriptive one size fits all advice on how we should handle our money, the truth is that there is no magic solution or one rule that works for everyone. Your personal finance journey is personal and what will work for you depends on so many things. We all have different starting points, barriers, and things that are important to us when it comes to managing our money and reaching our financial goals.  

Some solutions and tools make more sense depending on where you are on your money journey. Someone who is in deep consumer debt and someone who is debt free but wants to invest more will need to focus on using different strategies or different tools in order to move forward and reach their desired outcomes. 

I generally like exercising but I’ve come to learn that while I like working out, I don’t enjoy working out at home by myself. I’m more likely to follow through and push myself when I am working out in a group fitness class because of the group accountability. If I try to workout at home and go down for a sit-up- I end up laying down and not getting back up. I’ve tried self-paced online programs or free YouTube videos at home but I never stick to it the way that I stick to showing up to my favorite workout class at the gym every week. For me, paying extra to be in a physical gym vs doing free workouts at home are worth it if it means I have a better chance of success at my fitness & health goals. 

We took our kids bowling and had them use bumper rails to help guide the bowling ball away from the gutter. This guaranteed that the kids’ bowling balls would make it down the lane without running off into the gutter, which increased their chances of hitting down more pins.  

Over time and with more practice, they won’t need the bumper rails and maybe at some point in the future, I won’t need to be in a group fitness class to complete a workout. But for now, we use the tools & resources around us to help us reach our goals or that give us the best chances of success. 

This concept of bumper rails and group accountability also works when it comes to your money. It’s why finding like-minded people that can encourage you on your financial path is so important and why I love sharing about financial tools that can help you stay the course if you find you’re having trouble in a certain area. For example, if you don’t have the discipline to not overspend when shopping for certain things or in certain places and always regret your decisions later, don’t be ashamed about getting help or using tools to help set you up for success in the future. In this case, using a prepaid card like  Serve® Pay As You Go Visa® Prepaid Card may be a good place to start. With the prepaid card, you can manually load money in advance or have money automatically go from your paycheck to your debit card forcing you to spend only what you have available on the card. 

Using additional resources and putting yourself in the best position to succeed doesn’t mean that something is wrong with you. I’m not bad at working out, my kids are not bad at bowling and if you’re having issues with reaching some of your money goals, you are not bad with money. We all just need the right tools and resources that can support us as we strive towards our goals.