I don’t know about you, but I’m always looking for ways to improve my financial situation. It’s not always easy though, since I already have in place a number of the basics. For those of us who think there’s nothing more to be done, we must find ways to tweak our financial situation to ensure continued success.

Here are a few ways I’ve tweaked my life and budget to even further improve my finances. I know these will help you as well!

1. Focus on income or expenses, whichever is needed!

Many times people find themselves hitting a dead end financially because they forget to either focus on both income or expenses. For the longest time, I focused about 90% of my energies on my expenses. Sure, I had a bare bones budget, but where was my income?

As Dave Ramsey says, “Your income is your most powerful wealth-building tool.”

I realized immediately after hearing this that income was what I was lacking. I could cut expenses all day long but it wouldn’t be as powerful as building up my income.

Perhaps you’re in the opposite position: Your income is sky high but you eat out a too much. Then focus on cutting back! You already have your most powerful wealth-building tool, you just need to make sure you can use it appropriately!

2. Make small changes in your shopping, not massive ones!

Improving your financial situation doesn’t always happen overnight. You’re going to need to chip away at some behaviors that are pulling you down. Think about what happens when you go shopping. When was the last time you were at the mall? Did you buy something that you shouldn’t have? How did that happen?

Think through your shopping behaviors and find those areas that could use improvement. Perhaps the solution is to limit the days on which you can shop. Or maybe you need to stay away from certain stores altogether. Whatever the solution, make small changes starting today!

3. Focus on one goal at a time!

The worst thing you could do is find a handful of financial tasks and try to improve them all at once. Select one goal at a time and pursue it until it is finished. It’s all about tweaking your finances and not attempting a gigantic overhaul that’ll sap your energy. Perhaps you could work on saving more money for a specific goal, or changing your investment strategies.

Focus is a powerful tool you can use to accomplish more than you could imagine. Pick a financial area to tweak, complete it, and move on to the next task.

What are some ways you are planning on tweaking your finances? What changes have you made that didn’t cause you to go crazy? Meet us in the comments!

John Frainee is the webmaster and a writer for the ever-growing blog, The Christian Dollar. John enjoys exploring how faith and finance interact, spending time with his wife and family, and meeting readers from all over the web. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Bible and Christian Counseling and loves encouraging others in their financial pursuits. You can also find him on Facebook and Twitter.

Interested in a guest column on the PerkStreet Blog like John has? Email the editor at kyle.psaty[at]perkstreet[dot]com

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Photo: KevinDooley