When it comes to personal finance, it's easy to get caught up in the minutiae of tracking every penny and managing day-to-day expenses. However, without a clear sense of direction, budgeting can feel like a tedious chore rather than a tool for achieving your dreams. That's why it's crucial to begin with the end in mind. This approach not only makes budgeting more meaningful but also ensures that your spending aligns with your values and priorities.
The Power of Dreaming At the heart of beginning with the end in mind is the concept of dreaming. What do you envision for your future? Do you dream of traveling the world, owning a home, starting a business, or simply achieving financial independence? These dreams provide a roadmap for your financial journey. By identifying your long-term goals, you can create a spending plan that supports and propels you toward those aspirations. Aligning Spending with Values Once you've identified your dreams, it's time to dig deeper into your values. What truly matters to you? Is it security, freedom, family, adventure, or personal growth? Understanding your core values helps you prioritize your spending in a way that brings you closer to your goals and increases your overall satisfaction with how you manage your money. But how do you discover what your values truly are? Here are a few steps to get started: 1. Reflect on Past Experiences: Think about times when you felt happiest and most fulfilled. What were you doing? Who were you with? These moments can provide clues about your core values. 2. Identify Non-Negotiables: Consider the aspects of your life that you are unwilling to compromise on. These are often closely tied to your values. 3. Set Priorities: Make a list of what is most important to you in different areas of your life, such as relationships, career, health, and personal growth. This will help you see where your values lie. Tools to Keep You on Track: YNAB One of the best tools to ensure your spending aligns with your values and priorities is You Need a Budget (YNAB). YNAB is more than just a budgeting app; it's a methodology that helps you take control of your money and make intentional spending decisions. YNAB operates on four key principles: 1. Give Every Dollar a Job: This principle encourages you to allocate every dollar you earn to a specific purpose, ensuring your money is working towards your goals. 2. Embrace Your True Expenses: YNAB helps you plan for irregular expenses by breaking them down into manageable monthly amounts. 3. Roll with the Punches: Life is unpredictable, and YNAB teaches you to adjust your budget as needed without feeling like you've failed. 4. Age Your Money: By living on last month's income, you can break the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle and gain more financial stability. Falling in Love with How You Spend Your Money Ultimately, the goal of budgeting is to fall in love with how you spend your money. When your spending aligns with your values and priorities, every dollar spent brings you closer to your dreams and enhances your sense of fulfillment. By beginning with the end in mind, you transform budgeting from a mundane task into a powerful tool for living a life that truly reflects what matters most to you. Conclusion Starting with the end in mind is not just a strategy for budgeting—it's a mindset shift that can transform your entire approach to money management. By dreaming big, identifying your values, and using tools like YNAB to stay on track, you can create a spending plan that not only supports your goals but also brings joy and satisfaction to your financial journey. Remember, the key is to fall in love with how you spend your money and make every dollar count towards a life you love.
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The next step in recession proofing your family is to come up with a plan to protect your family. Benjamin Franklin wisely tells us “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
Any good protection plan starts with figuring out how much money you need each month to cover your Four Walls. Sit down as a couple or family and decide/calculate how much you need each month to cover your food, your housing, transportation costs, and the basic clothing needs of your family. Finding this number gives you a guideline and helps you know if you have enough coming in each month, or if you need to make some changes. Defending your Four Walls should be priority number one. Knowing you have enough to cover these needs each month can bring you and your family peace of mind knowing you have a place to live, food to eat, and a way to get to work each day, and something to wear. Chris Hogan said, “By maintaining the Four Walls, you stabilize your situation so you can begin to find margin in your budget...” That margin can go a long way in a time of need. Other essential parts of your plan include, cutting back, building up your emergency fund, avoiding debt, and being ready for job cuts. We’ll talk in more detail about all of these in the next several posts... Stay tuned! Let’s talk holiday spending...
It happens every year. We start seeing holiday decor and ads popping up all over the place. We begin to hear the familiar bell ringing outside of our local grocery store. We see turkeys and Pine trees running for their lives. S The invitations and cards start filling up our mailboxes. No matter your traditions, you will be faced with a lot of demands for your time and the contents of your wallet this time of year. Here are 5 tips to help you keep the holiday cheer from emptying our your wallet: 1- Set a budget It seems pretty simple, but setting a budget for how much you are able to spend and then sticking to it will really help. Sit down and make a list of all those people you need to buy something for, put an amount next to their name and stick to that amount. Don’t forget to include any charitable giving you like doing at this time of year. Be sure to keep track of things as you go. 2- Shop around Once you have your list set and ready to go, be sure to look for the best price. Some stores will even match ads from their competitors. With today’s technology you won’t have to even leave the comfort of your own home to shop around. Get online and compare prices that way. 3- Shop online Consider shopping online. Staying out of stores will prevent you from seeing all those fun holiday things we tend to throw in our carts. Even just a few things can really add up. You may even want to use the grocery store pick up service to help you keep those extra items out of your basket. 4- Hand-made is heart-felt If you can’t really afford gifts for everyone on your list, making something homemade may be the way to go. Paint some jars for candle holders, make a wreath, a plate of homemade treats are always welcome, or knit a scarf and hat set. Whatever your skills are, put them to use to save some cash. 5- Set a limit for children If you’re a parent, you know those Christmas wish lists can get pretty long. Consider doing the four gift limit idea: Something to wear, something to read, something you want, and something you need. It’ll help them narrow things down. Bonus tip- Party plan on a budget: If you’re one of those people who loves to throw a holiday party (I may or may not be in that camp t), consider asking guests to pitch in and bring their favorite holiday finger food or treat. Not your style? Maybe ask someone to co-host with you and share the cost of your holiday bash. Remember the holidays are a time for us to remember our blessings and spend time with our loved ones. Time can be the real gift people are wanting this year. Happy holidays to you and yours! May it be merry and bright and not make your wallet too light! Early on in our financial journey to paying off debt and building our finical future, we had the fun opportunity to be featured in a series that CNN Money was doing on people working to pay off their debt. It made our debt pay off plans a little more exciting. All these years later, people still come across the article and mention it to us. This is the short story of how it come to be:
After filling out a survey my husband came across one day, we were contacted and interviewed by CNN Money about our goal to pay off our debt. We were featured in a series they did called, Debt Busters. Click here to read the article. Nearly a year later, they reached out again to do a follow up article about where we were in our process and how we felt about our journey to debt freedom. To read that article, click here. Things have changed since then, but we are still doing our best to be debt busters and being in control of our money. |
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July 2024
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