What comes to mind when you think about budgeting? Do you get excited and fired up? If you’re like me… not really! But setting-up a realistic, flexible and adaptable budget (we’ll call it a spending plan from here forward) is one of the best tools to ensure we’re living intentionally with our money, time and relationships.
Sometimes we think of a budget as something that’s restrictive or will keep me from being able to enjoy my life now. Nothing could be further from the truth though.
How fast did the last five years of your life go? Is it realistic to think that the next five will go any less quickly? Are there things that you’d like to do that you haven’t done yet? What about getting out of debt? Saving for the next car? Sending your kids to college? And… ughh… saving for retirement?
Without a spending plan, it’s not likely any of these things are going to happen. The days, weeks, and even years quickly slip by and we’re no closer to reaching these goals than when we first started.
Without a spending plan, it often leaves us:
- Living from paycheck to paycheck and never making any real progress.
- Feeling inadequately prepared about the future.
- Makes us wonder if things will ever change.
- Feeling FRUSTRATED and unhappy.
- Always seeming to have too much month left at the end of my money.
Does any of this sound like you? It has certainly sounded like me at times. Do you want to stay here though?
You might be now asking… What will a spending plan do for me?? Good question! A spending plan will:
- Require us to actually sit down and figure out our goals. I’d even argue pretty strongly that this might be the greatest benefit. If I don’t know where I want to go, how will I ever get there?
- Ensure all of our bills are covered (i.e. no more scrambling to cover our once a year insurance bill or property taxes).
- Help ensure that we’re saving regularly towards big purchases like our next car purchase, vacation or Christmas presents.
- Give us clarity on what we want to accomplish and the confidence that it can actually be carried out.
Have I convinced you yet? I hope so! This is just laying the foundation. We’ll be breaking down how to set-up a budget over the next few (or more) posts that I think you’ll really find helpful so, if you haven’t yet, be sure to sign-up below to get everything sent right to your inbox (for free of course!).
I’d love to hear from you too! What are some of the challenges that you’ve faced with setting-up or sticking with a spending plan? Leave a comment below or e-mail me directly at brian@briantalbott.com.