Related: Employee benefits ignorance hurts financial wellness

So, where can people start in order to take control of their financial lives? Here are 10 tips to pass along to your employees.

Assess your cash flow

Before you can do anything with your financial structure you have to understand where your money is going and eliminate areas that are bleeding cash. Eating out, buying excess groceries, or impulse buys (yes, that includes the "one-click" buy on Amazon) are the areas where you can have an immediate impact.

Assess how much money you have and where it is going.

Create a realistic budget

Your budget must be realistic. If it isn't something you can stick to, you won't use it. It's important to understand what is a true want or need in your household. I have heard stories of people who decided food was a "want" versus a "need" and only spent their food budget on Ramen noodles and vitamins … don't do that. First, it isn't healthy; second, it isn't realistic.

What is a true need in your family? Budget for that. What is a want? Can you still afford to do it? If not, be prepared to and comfortable with saying no. Our financial situation is built on the quality of the financial behaviors we adopt. Adopt good financial behaviors with your budget.

Pay yourself first

Part of your budget should be paying yourself. Start with an emergency fund. Make sure you are covered when life happens so you don't have to use a credit card or a cash advance store. 

After you have filled your emergency fund with at least $1,000, you need to have short-, mid- and long-term savings goals. Your savings goals don't all have to be boring. Save for something fun; it will help make it easier to stick to the process.

Pay off bad debt

There is a difference between good and bad debt. A mortgage on your primary residence at 3.5 percent is good debt. A credit card from a local retail store with a 24.99 percent interest rate and a $500 balance is an example of bad debt. 

Eliminating the credit card debt is the next step after you have funded your emergency fund. Paying off debts can be part of your savings goals. Getting a $3,000 credit card debt down to zero balance is just as rewarding as saving that same amount of money. Paying off these bills will save you money in interest and boost your credit, too.

Know your score

Most people are scared to death to look at their credit score. Don't be.

You need to look at your score and full report at least once per year. I also highly recommend having some form of identity protection. A good credit score helps to get the best rates available when we need to borrow money.

In Nashville, for example, the average home price at the end of 2015 was $232,000. A mortgage underwritten for someone with the minimum credit (620) versus someone with the top credit (750) would have a payment difference of above $230 per month over a 30 year term.

Over the life of the loan, that customer with the minimum credit score would spend almost $79,000 more in interest than the person with the top credit.

Your score is important. Pay your bills on time, keep your credit card balances below 30 percent of the available credit, keep open your oldest line of credit, and pay off small, annoying balances.

Don't be scared of home equity

The housing collapse has scared people away from using their equity, but the new government regulations used to underwrite equity loans are there to protect customers. The days of extended loan-to-value loans are over, and the credit guidelines are much tighter than they were 10 years ago.

Using your home equity could be a great tool to combine high interest debt, home improvement projects, or to give a cushion to your emergency fund.

Embrace technology

We have more financial tools at our fingertips than ever before. The most helpful are the budgeting tools. First Tennessee's Digital Banking 2.0 allows you to combine accounts from multiple banks into one dashboard, and will even sort your transaction data to help you create and stick to a budget.

Apple Pay and Android Pay are two other great tools available to make spending easier and more secure. 

Think big picture

Don't sweat the small stuff; focus long term. It can be very easy to get lost in the weeds on your day-to-day transactions.

Have a plan that takes into consideration your long-term goals. If you stick to your plan, you will succeed. But with any plan you will get sideways every once and awhile.

When you do, simply regroup and stay on the path. Just because you went over budget one week doesn't mean you have wrecked your plan. Focus on the long term to succeed.

Know your team

Relationship banking is more important than ever. There are so many options, confusing materials and endless information (good and bad) on the internet. You have to have a team that can help you through this process to achieve your goals. You know your doctor's name. You know your insurance agent's name. You know your kid's teachers' names. 

Who is your banker? What is their name? Do you have a relationship with him or her? Utilize that relationship and use it to your advantage. Let that person be your resource.

This is a process, not an event

Changing your financial life doesn't happen overnight. It is just like a road trip. The plan you created is your route and your banker is your GPS.

We have all thought about how nice it would be to teleport to our destination before taking a long road trip, but that's not an option. You have to take the journey. And along the way you will have curveballs. But at the end of the day there is still a destination.  And if your route is well-planned and your GPS is in-check, you will get there.

Your financial life is a journey, not a one-time snap of the fingers to find success.