Cynthia M. Martínez

Creator of My Barely Famous Life and Founder Lead Up Labs

Talking about money always brings with it a sea of emotions. Many times these feelings cause you to misunderstand situations or concepts. Something that happens frequently when talking about personal finances and the advice to pay yourself first. This applies to employees or entrepreneurs. I heard it when I started entrepreneurship. For me it was a luxurious fantasy since when you don't have seed capital it is very difficult for you to see extra money for what I felt was a luxury. The reality is that it is not. If you don't pay yourself you get drained. Whether it's $5 monthly or $1 weekly. Your mind has to feel progress in some way or form to want to continue growing in your personal development.

A question I get asked frequently is: How much should I take out? If we are true to the advice of paying yourself first, it is always recommended that the first hour of your work day be yours and go into a fund for your future. Thus, saving becomes a priority in your lifestyle. You go from seeing savings as an option to a daily approach. Making it your main objective. Now it is your priority because you are more important than your debts since you start your day putting yourself first and it will not give you a headache to keep your finances up to date. Your financial health comes before everything else. Breaking bad habits becomes an expression of self-love and creates new financial management habits. Redefining how you manage your personal finances helps a lot on a psychological level with your relationship with money. You stop seeing it as something unattainable and start seeing it as a work in progress.

Paying yourself first is a reality that must happen daily. Money is a result of intentional action and consistently making wise decisions. We must understand what in our daily life causes us to spend poorly and affecting us so we can invest in our future. Sometimes it is family conditioning due to bad habits of people who raised us and other times we pay the consequences of bad decisions we have made. Whatever the reason, the important thing is to take action to experience the progress we want to see. Since complaints do not help us grow, they only stagnate us, preventing us from seeing the result we deserve. Don't settle for less than what you deserve.

About the Author:

Cynthia M. Martinez is a rebel with a cause, entrepreneur, and life and business strategist with a specialty in leadership and innovation. As part of her extensive trajectory as a strategist, she has been developing leaders in the field of direct sales, market opening, and consulting at the corporate and SME levels for more than a decade. She is the creator of the social media movement in a blog format called "My barely famous life" in which she equips followers with leadership and technology tools through her educational program. She is also the founder of Lead Up Labs, a digital platform that has all the tangible and digital tools for participants to increase their productivity and achieve their goals.