Achieving financial freedom is can be an extremely lofty goal for some people. If you are facing a mountain of debt, you are going to want to do whatever you can to help motivate you during your debt payoff journey. If you are looking for a creative way to stay inspired, you need to make a Debt Free Vision Board.
What is a Vision Board and How Does it Work?
A vision board is just a fancy name for a place where you put pictures and words that represent what you want most in life. It is a tangible representation of your heart and mind’s greatest desires.
This is not an overly complicated thing. The whole point of the vision board is to keep you focused on exactly what you want to accomplish. If you are focused on debt payoff, you need a Debt Free vision board! When you start to get tired and burnt out, it will re-energize and recharge your focus to help you stay on track.
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How a Debt Free Vision Board Will Help You Achieve Financial Freedom
Step 1. Choose a location
Before you even begin to put together your board, you need to know where you want to put it. The whole point of the vision board is to keep it in a high traffic area or at least an area you will spend some time in every day.
You should be able to see your board daily. The whole point of this is to keep you inspired and motivated and that will be a daily need.
Step 2. Measure
Once you have your ideal location picked out, measure the maximum area your board could take up. This doesn’t mean you are definitely getting a board that big, but at least when you are shopping you will have a rough approximation of the size and shape of board you are looking for.
Step 3. Gather Supplies
It’s time to shop!
Vision board: There are all kinds of boards out there for you to choose from to match your style.
- Basic cork board
- Decorative cork board
- Framed linen board this is the type I ended up choosing.
- Fabric bulletin board with ribbons more like a memory board.
The possibilities are endless!! Just pick a board that will be pleasing for you to look at every day. This may mean a basic cork board or maybe you want a plush one with ribbons. Your board; your choice!
Push pins: These will hold all of your goals onto the board. You may decide to keep these simple and make your paper exciting or vice versa. Have fun with this!
- Basic push pins
- Fashion push pinsthese are the kind I got!
- Simple map pins
Paper: You will be cutting out some different shapes of paper to write your goals on. You can keep it simple with the same color paper throughout or get multiple colors to mix it up! I would recommend getting cardstock as it is a thicker paper that will look more professional and not curve or wrinkle over time.
- Simple white
- Metallics this is the type I chose.
- Bright collection
- Cool colors
You really can choose whatever you want here to have the overall look you are going for!
Step 3. Find templates
Once you have your board, paper and push pins, you can start to see what size on paper you can make your goals. Depending on how many you have (how many checkpoints during your debt payoff journey), you can start to see what size you should cut your paper into to post your goals on the board so everything fits and is large enough to read at a glance.
I am not a scrapbooker so I had no crafting supplies on hand. So instead, I used the bottom of a glass for a circle template and the bottom of a box for a square template to trace and cut out. Worked perfectly!
I recommend keeping it simple with circles and squares for shapes, especially if you don’t have any scrapbooking supplies.
Once you know how many goals you have, cut out the appropriate number of papers and then write them down!
Pro tip: Write down goal dates next to each goal. This will really help you stay on track. If you make it some sort of abstract goal for the future, you will keep putting it off. Give yourself a realistic deadline for accomplishment. You will be much more likely to follow-through if you give yourself a goal date!
Step 4. Magazine inspiration
Now it is time to find visual inspiration for your board! For every goal you have, you need to find a visual representation of that goal in picture form. If you have a color printer, you may be able to just google some photos and print them off right at home.
I did not want to use our ink for this so I just asked people at work to bring me magazines they weren’t using anymore so I could peruse those for inspiration. This worked wonderfully!
Cut out pictures (or print pictures) for each of the goals that will help inspire you.
Step 5. Put it all together
Once you have your goals written down and your coordinating pictures ready to go, it is time to piece it all together! You can put things on your board however you want. You can put it in chronological order or you can just place things in a way that is most visually appealing.
At the end of the day, your board should make you feel good and keep you inspired. My board is in a high traffic area so it was important to me it looked cute and almost blended in with the rest of my home decor. Wherever yours is, make sure it is something you are going to enjoy looking at!
When you create a vision board, you are telling your brain, these things are important. This will influence every decision you make moving forward. Studies have shown, you are more likely to achieve your goals when you write them down.
Becoming debt free is the ultimate financial goal. Write it down, support it with images and knock it out! You can do this, and your vision board will be there reminding you daily why you are making the choices you are making.
Here is my completed board!
