What’s Your Financial Literacy?

April is Financial Literacy Month! Most people aren’t as excited as I am to talk about money. In fact, discussing finances is something many people avoid. 


Patrice Washington, a well-renowned speaker and author who focuses on helping women recognize their worth and grow their wealth, has partnered with Robinhood to produce a video series on how women earn, spend, save and invest. My favorite question she asks is “What is your relationship with money?” The reply is very telling on whether someone spends or saves their money. 


Ready for some feel-good finance? Check out My Money Moves on YouTube.


One of the easiest ways to teach your kids (or anyone) about basic finances is to use the PIGS method. My kids were weaned on this method and would roll their eyes if they read this post, but it works. It’s an easy formula to follow that will help you budget every dollar. It even works for businesses, too! You can play with the percentages to see what fits your lifestyle or goals.

P – Pay Yourself First

This portion pays your rent and living expenses. It can be anywhere between 40% to 70%. The choice is yours—either don’t buy Starbucks every day, or put that into your ‘pay-yourself-first’ budget. Since you and your family are top priority, this category is first.

I – Invest

Invest every time you get paid. There are many studies that show consistent investing will benefit you by growing your wealth without your sweat equity. Warren Buffett once said it well: “Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.” 


Plant your tree and keep feeding it. This percentage should be 10-20%.

G – Give

This is an area people leave out most often, and it’s the only one in which the percentage is set at 10%. Give 10% to charities, religious organizations, civic organizations, or causes that help others. When you give for the good of others, the payback is immeasurable.

S – Save. SAVE. SAVE. SAVE. 

I can’t stress this enough. Money guru Dave Ramsey is famous for telling people to save 20% of their paychecks. He also suggests allocating three to six months of expenses to a fully funded emergency fund. This can feel like a lofty goal, but you’ll be thankful you saved when something unexpected happens—like when your two-year-old refrigerator dies or your car needs to be repaired immediately. 


Try saving between 10%-20% of all money that comes in.


Ready to talk more about finance? Money is the second most discussed topic between parents and teens (after COVID). Last year, half of all states proposed bills requiring personal finance courses in high school. Early money management skills lead to better credit scores, lower debts and higher savings—and this benefits everyone. Empower yourself and those around you by investing in financial literacy. 


Want to learn more about how we help small businesses simplify, organize and gain insight into their financials? Reach out to me at alisa@firststepsfinancial.com and let’s have a fun conversation about finances!

Our Latest Insight

What a Growth-Focused COO-Accounting Relationship Looks Like

By Alisa McCabe • September 21, 2026
Article 1 ended with a question. When does your COO actually talk to Accounting before a decision gets made? How long did it take you to answer? Immediately? Minutes? Maybe you could not think of a single example. Bills get paid, projects keep moving, and financial reports show up. Nothing feels obviously broken, so you conclude everything is fine. If that question made you uncomfortable, you are not alone. Here is the part that keeps this problem alive. You only know what good looks like based on what you have already lived through. Most owners have never worked inside a business where Operations and Accounting were intentionally built to function together. So they measure their company against their own status quo. This article gives you a different reference point. You will see what the relationship looks like day to day, what rhythm it runs on, and five things you can check this week. None of it requires scrapping what you have built. The people are already in the building. The data already exists. What changes is how the pieces are arranged, and how much leverage you get out of the company you have right now.  ​ Part 2 of a 5-part series on the COO-Accounting relationship

The Missing Relationship That Is Stifling Your Growth

By Alisa McCabe • September 14, 2026
"Accounting is a stick in the mud." "I'm not really sure what a COO does all day." "The CFO just plays around with their little Excel sheets." You have probably heard one of those lines. You may have thought one yourself. They sound like harmless office humor. They actually point to something expensive. In most growing service businesses, nobody has ever defined how operations and accounting work together. The people who produce your financial reports sit outside the very decisions those reports are meant to inform. That gap costs you every single month, quietly, in profit that should have been there.  ​ Part 1 of a 5-part series on the COO and Accounting relationship

Capacity Planning as a Financial Exercise

By Alisa McCabe • September 14, 2026
In modern business management, effective capacity planning requires far more than matching supply with demand—it demands a rigorous financial framework. Every unit of unused capacity represents sunk cost and margin erosion, while every unit of insufficient capacity risks churn and missed revenue. By evaluating capacity planning as a financial exercise, organizations can translate labor hours, utilization rates, and operational throughput into clear financial metrics like cost of goods sold (COGS) and return on invested capital (ROIC). This guide explores how to integrate operational capacity into your financial planning and analysis (FP&A) cycle to drive sustainable, cash-efficient scale.

CONTACT US

Contact Us