Where do you want your money to go?
Many people chafe at the idea of a budget, and I don’t like that word either. It just has too many negative connotations.
But a budget (or as I prefer to call it, a spending plan) is about putting YOU in charge of your life, not a bunch of creditors or a piece of paper.
You control your money, not vice versa.
Planning out where you want your money to go can be a wonderful thing.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re currently in over your head or whether you’re doing fine and have big dreams. What matters is where you want to be and how you intend to get there. That’s all a spending plan is.
Sometimes that will mean prioritizing and making choices. After all, if you won a free ticket anywhere in the world that was only valid on Tuesday, you’d have to decide where you wanted to go.
If you decided to go to Paris on Tuesday, by default you couldn’t also be in Antarctica on that same Tuesday. Refusing to plan out your spending is like refusing a free ticket to Paris because it might mean you can’t be in Antarctica on the same day.
Me, I’m going to Paris and Antarctica. (Really.) I’m just deciding which I want to do first, and using my spending plan to get me there. (Who needs to hope for a free ticket that might never come, when I know I can get there on my own with a little planning?)
So, if you are new to creating a spending plan, start with thinking about your hopes and dreams. It’s a way to help you get there.
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March 30th, 2009 at 8:46 am
Antarctica, the only place where you can get sunburn and frostbite in the same 5 minutes of exposure.
It actually would be a cool place to go (pun intended). Good luck with the planning!
March 30th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
I agree you have to set aside for rewards or places you want to go. Helps motivate to save more if nothing else. Problem is that’s probably the last thing most people can really put savings towards. My problem is being young and having no financial responsibilities other than to myself means I put my savings towards where I want to go (vacation) and nothing of future importance.
March 30th, 2009 at 7:04 pm
The key point is that you control your money, and not the other way around. Antarctica would be exciting and beautiful. While I was traveling in Argentina I would have loved to have been able to travel further south into Patagonia, while not Antarctica, is still very beautiful in a cold and desolate way! Great post and nice that you include the importance of working towards a goal to keep the motivation! Budgeting can be such drudgery, but saving for your moment at the Eiffel Tower…now that is fun & exciting!
March 30th, 2009 at 9:04 pm
“The key point is that you control your money, and not the other way around.” — yup, that’s it exactly.