The Power of Showing Up: Personal Finance Edition

It is often easier not to show up for your priorities, but those who show up for their priorities live better lives.

Few people really show up for all their commitments.  There are plenty of reasons: Life is faster, everyone is stressed and overloaded, there is not enough time in a world that never shuts down for a quiet evening, etc..  But those are all just excuses.  Showing up is a voluntary commitment that is possible regardless of how busy, broken, or stressed you are.

Showing up means being physically and mentally present to anything to which you have committed.  Most of us think of showing up for work, family, volunteer activities, a friend who needs support, or a hobby.  All of those commitments require showing up, but we also have more to show up for in life.  Any priority requires us showing up, and not showing up means it is not a priority.

In a world where it becomes increasingly normal not to show up for the big things, like work or family, it becomes more difficult to teach people how to show up for less tangible priorities.  Most of the people around us are barely showing up for the commitments they need to afford their lives or the people they love most.  But expecting more of yourself is the path to whatever life you dream of having.

If you have any financial goals, you need to show up for those goals.  By giving them attention in your life and committing to revisit those goals, you prioritize them.  You show up.

How to Start Showing Up

Some of us need to learn how to show up before we can honor a priority.  If you are not showing up for whatever you believe are the most important priorities in your life, you will not succeed at showing up to achieve a financial goal.  Prove to yourself that you can show up for something, and then work from there.

I am lucky because I naturally believe showing up is non-negotiable.  I do not make a commitment unless I know I can give it the full attention it deserves.  Arriving late to work is not something I could fathom, even though I never enjoyed being employed.  Work was a commitment I made, and that meant I would show up to it.  The priorities I show up for out of love and choice receive even more attention.  I have played rugby for more than 15 years but have missed fewer than 15 total practices in that time.  Showing up as a coach feels even more non-negotiable: I am showing players the importance of showing up by always being there for them.  Any flaky behavior would be disrespectful to the players I coach, my teammates that showed up, and the other coaches that planned on my presence.

It took me years of frustration before I realized not everyone operated under the same principles.  That realization also opened my eyes to the advice to just show up to be successful.  In some ways, I am sad that it is such good advice.  Showing up should be the minimum, but enough people are not doing it that showing up makes you a superstar.

If you are not showing up for anything yet, it is time to start building that habit.  Pick your main priority at this moment, and block off time in your calendar to dedicate to it.  Those blocks are non-negotiable.  Whether it is getting to your job on time or spending focused time with a loved one, make it happen.

Next, write down specifically what showing up looks like for that main priority.  If your child is your priority, you may not want to just spend a certain number of hours with them.  Showing up may mean spending phone-free focused time with them and participating in at least one activity that promotes fun learning for them, rather than just watching a movie together.  For work, a volunteer activity, or a hobby, this may mean bringing your best energy to that activity.

After you block the time and outline what showing up looks like for your number one priority, show up!  We build our showing up muscles by showing up again and again.  The more consistently you show up for your main priority, the easier it is to show up for more priorities.  

I have always added just one priority at a time to make sure that showing up to another priority was not a problem.  Adding too many commitments at once is a recipe for disaster because you are not used to showing up for any of them yet.  Learn to show up to one thing.  Once that becomes a habit, show up to another.  In a few years, you will find yourself showing up to ten different priorities while others struggle to show up to one.  You get there one at a time, not by instantly becoming a superhero.  The journey where you learn when you can commit to another priority and how to expand what you thought was possible to become a more complete person is what makes you successful because you start living a more curated and authentic life.

Showing Up for a Financial Priority

Most individuals have at least one piece of their finances that they would like to improve or address.  A financial goal should be a priority you show up for just like any other priority.  However, financial goals vary considerably in scope and duration, and that may impact how you show up for your financial goal.

After college, I moved to Las Vegas to teach high school math with Teach For America.  I knew I wanted to eventually move to Washington, DC, go to graduate school, and work in the national security and defense fields.  I now know I did all those things, but at the time they all seemed really difficult when looking at the competition in the job market and the cost of living in Washington, DC.  To start working towards that goal while in my first true career, I started with a financial goal.  I decided to save enough money during my two-year stint in Las Vegas to cover my rent in Washington, DC for the duration of my graduate school career.  That way, I would not need to take out loans to cover rent and could only worry about paying for school and supporting my day-to-day purchases.

DC rent was the expense that felt like my barrier to entry.  I was saving $1,200 a month in a high-yield savings account while teaching in Las Vegas.  That is $14,400 a year, and I made about $36,000 after taxes in my first year and $39,000 in my second year teaching.  That left me about $21,600 to live off of my first year, and I also contributed $5,500 to a Roth IRA to start what I viewed as the minimum of investing in retirement.

Fortunately, this financial goal was both simple and motivating.  I could set up an easy automatic transfer to a high-yield savings account each month to achieve my goal with no ongoing effort.  I was motivated not to stop that transfer because that felt like stopping the possibility of my ideal future.

But that simple financial goal had a much larger impact on my life.  I was saving and investing $19,900 on a $36,000–$39,000 salary, leaving myself only $16,100–$19,100 for my day-to-day lifestyle.  By prioritizing my future, I accidentally showed myself that I could live off of half my income with relative ease even though I was not making much money.  I proved to myself I was naturally frugal, remained happy with little money, and was the kind of planner who could achieve goals.

That little financial priority gave me the confidence to set much larger financial priorities.  Washington, DC is more expensive than Las Vegas, but I knew I could save and invest half once my salary rose to $70,000 in Washington, DC because I lived on half when I was making $36,000 in Las Vegas.  The standard of living was higher, but that was not as debilitating as some people around me acted.  Even before boosting my salary to $70,000, I also kept up the saving and investing habits I grew in Las Vegas because they were easy.  I maximized contributions to a Roth IRA, contributed to a high-yield savings account aggressively, and added contributions to get my 401(k) match once eligible.

And once I made the jump to a $70,000 salary, I decided to save and invest more aggressively.  My savings rate was often at or above 60% rather than only at 50%.  That bump, combined with some friendly market growth between 2013 and 2025, shortened my financial independence timeline significantly.

My journey to retiring early started with a single ambitious decision to save my rent for Washington, DC.  Showing up for that goal when it would have been easier to spend the money on fun Las Vegas experiences taught me how easy it was for me to shape my entire future with a small financial goal.  A lot of individuals believe financial goals are difficult, but I was able to achieve everything with consistency.  Showing up for a small financial goal is the catalyst to achieving larger financial goals.

Start Small with Consistency

The first financial goal you show up for should be small and important to you.  Mine was to set myself up to afford the cost of living in an expensive city so I could begin the career I wanted.  It was a small goal that involved contributing steadily to a high-yield savings account over two years.

Any financial priority that involves simply contributing steadily to a high-yield savings account for a short period of time is a terrific place to start your journey of showing up for your personal finances.  You can automate it one time and continue to recognize the importance of your goal.  You do not even have to think about showing up as long as you retain consistency!

Paying off credit card debt is another great initial goal that can be addressed similarly.  Especially if you decide to consolidate your debt to pay it off quickly, you can set up monthly payments to pay down your debt after deciding you want to show up to pay off that debt so you begin growing a positive net worth.  By becoming positive, you prove to yourself that you can build wealth because paying off debt is actually more difficult than building wealth once you are positive, due to compound interest.

Being consistent over a short period of time will make you believe you can be consistent for larger goals that would have felt unrealistic to the past version of you.  Showing up is what helps you achieve that first financial goal and what makes you ready to show up for larger financial goals.

Showing Up for Financial Dreams

After you prove to yourself you can pay off debt, save for a short-term important goal, or some other small financial priority, you know you can achieve more.  Each time you stayed consistent with your small financial goal was a proof point that you have the ability to keep showing up to accomplish any financial priority you set out to achieve.

I decided to save and invest more than half of my income so I could retire early and show up for more of the priorities that I love because I knew showing up for all of them meant not showing up for the big priority most of us have to exist—work.  As I added one priority at a time and kept showing up to everything, I hit a point where I had to remove something to keep showing up to what I love.  Work was the thing I loved least.  Fortunately, showing up for myself financially over the years allowed me to drop it and prioritize what actually matters to me.

Your big financial goals may be different.  You may want to raise funds to open a business with many startup costs.  If your parents struggle with money but still supported you into adulthood, you may seek to pay off their mortgage to make their lives lighter.  You may want to save and invest enough to cover part of your living expenses so you or your partner can be a full-time parent when you have kids.  You may want to live a truly glamorous life where you spend six-figures each year jetsetting and enjoying the best food around the world.  Whatever they are, showing up for the small financial priorities will enable you to show up for the big financial priorities.

Showing up for the big financial priorities requires more time, energy, and/or money than showing up for the small financial priorities.  Saving my DC rent was automated once I picked out the goal.  Retiring early was a journey.  I read dozens of books about Financial Independence Retire Early, built the spreadsheets to plan my own path, created additional streams of income, and maximized my financial contributions.  I was maximizing contributions to a Roth IRA, Roth 401(k), and HSA while also contributing to a high-yield savings account to fund my current priorities and investing even more money in a brokerage account and a real estate investment platform with access to non-traded Real Estate Investment Trusts.  It was normal for me to invest $5,000 or more a month after tax by contributing to six different accounts.  While most were automated, it required much more setup than my initial HYSA contribution and required adjustments with every pay increase.

But even showing up for my FIRE journey increased in complexity over time.  When my salary grew to $70,000 and I started saving and investing half my income, I was not contributing to all those accounts.  That was the point at which I could maximize a Roth IRA and 401(k).  As my salary grew, I contributed to more accounts because I had already maximized regular retirement contributions and was going beyond them.  Even in our large financial goals, we start by showing up at a low level and grow over time.

No matter how outrageous your dream financial future is, you can get there.  It starts by showing up today, showing up a little more tomorrow, and growing into a financial powerhouse you can barely imagine five years from now.  Growth is fast when you show up for yourself.  Show up for your personal finances, and your net worth will grow more than you think.  Even better, you will grow and become the kind of person that shows up in a world where just showing up makes you a success.