'I've helped people get financially unstuck and hit their money goals in months. Here's how.'

You know that frustrating feeling? 

When you’ve been trying but nothing really seems to be working.

You’re reading books and blogs, you’re trying to budget, you’re trying to spend less money and when you do you usually feel guilty about it, but six months later things are more or less the same. 

Your savings barely go up, and if they do, they don't stay there for long. You want to start investing but still have no idea where to start. The dream of buying a property seems like a blurry hallucination.

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In short, you feel stuck. And it sucks. 

The good news is getting ‘unstuck’ doesn’t have to take years or decades. It can happen pretty quickly.

How do I know? Well, I’ve helped lots of people get ‘unstuck’. Within months, they’re able to hit big money goals that they’d been ‘trying’ to hit for years with no success. 

A few years ago, I started a financial education platform to help people take control of their finances. We’ve had hundreds of adults undertake our flagship course, Mastering Money, with amazing results. 

I’ve seen students go from being ‘broke’ to saving tens of thousands; go from terrified of investing to becoming a confident investor; and achieve goals they never thought possible (like buying a property).

So I have some insight into how to help people get ‘unstuck’ with their finances. 

If you’re feeling financially stuck, here are three questions to ask yourself:  

1. You might be trying but are you trying the right things?

The reason so many people stay stuck for so long is the misconception that you just need to ‘try harder’. Chances are you’ve already ‘tried harder’. Usually, the problem is that you need to try something different. 

See, trying hard does not guarantee results. You need to be trying the right things, to get results. 

Think about it - you can get behind a car and push, but even though you’re trying your best, that car isn’t going to move very far.

When it comes to money, people tell me they’re not seeing progress even though they've "tried budgeting so many times”, "barely ever let myself enjoy spending” and “I only ever shop during the sales”. 

This sort of popular advice can leave you feeling exhausted with very little to show for it. 

So you can’t help but want to give up, and maybe that’s not such a bad idea. ‘Giving up’ doing the wrong things, is often what leads people to trying a different approach. 

After all, if you’ve tried forcing yourself to stick to a budget a hundred times already, do you need more evidence that it’s not working? If you've been watching tons of financial TikToks and Reels online but you still don’t have the confidence to start investing, shouldn’t you try something else? 

A big reason so many of our students are able to make massive changes in a matter of months is simply because they stopped doing what wasn’t working, and started doing the things that actually work.

2. Are you doing more worrying and wanting than actual doing?

We’ve all been here. It’s so easy to fixate on the problem, on what’s wrong, on how bad it feels, on how much we wish things were different. 

So, it’s easy to tell ourselves we’ve been ‘trying’ to fix things for a long time. But often, if we’re honest with ourselves, we’ve spent more time worrying and wanting things to change than doing anything about it. 

Wanting, desiring, hoping for things to change is not what creates change. Taking action towards the change is what creates change. 

It can be hard to take action because it can feel uncomfortable. It’s not comfortable to face your bank account, or look at your spending, or try to wrap your head around how your super fund works. 

In a weird way, it can be easier to sit in the pain and struggle. If you’ve been in pain for a long time, then that pain feels familiar. Maybe you’ve gotten used to pushing it under the rug.

One reason our students get great results is because we get them to face the music. We have a huge focus on taking action because that’s the only way you’re going to see progress.

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3. Do you actually believe your goals are possible for you to achieve?

Have you ever had an experience where against all odds, you achieved something no one thought was impossible, just because you were focused, and determined to accomplish it?

Maybe you got into your dream job, or bought your first property, or were the first person in your family to go to university, or you got an assignment done in a single night. 

If you think about it, the only reason you achieved what you did was because you believed you could.

Often, people stay stuck because deep down, they don’t believe it’s possible to achieve their goals.

It’s hard to take committed action towards something if you don’t believe there’s any point because it’s not going to work. And of course, if you don’t take committed action… you won’t get results. 

It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. 

This is why one of the first things we do with our students is have them work on their mindset. There’s no point giving you the recipe for success if you’re not going to take action on it. So the first thing you need to correct is your emotional and psychological relationship with money. 

Dropping your limiting beliefs, cultivating self-trust and self-belief, improving your confidence are all things that can have a huge impact on your ability to take action and therefore see the results you’re after. 

This is great news because it means you don’t need a bigger paycheque, a big inheritance, or a lottery win to make massive progress with your finances. Maybe you just need to get out of your own way. 

Paridhi Jain is the founder of SkilledSmart, an financial education platform helping adults learn to save, manage and invest their money. For more money tips, you can grab a free e-book on “5 Money Mistakes Costing You Thousands” via their website, and learn more about Mastering Money.

Feature Image: Getty