Money Musings 💭 the #1 tool for building wealth 💰
Budgeting gets a bad rap. I don’t know about you, but for me, the word budget brings up feelings of restriction and generally - blah. Like sticking with a budget will mean I’m going to have to give up things that make me happy and will limit my fun. No thanks! 🚫
Side note: My disdain for the word budget is the reason I’ve renamed it a happiness allocation. It’s a much more fitting term - a budget or happiness allocation is just a plan to allocate our money in the ways that are going to make us the happiest in the short and long term.
But I digress… when we put together a realistic budget, we most often experience something very different than we expect. We feel peace of mind. We have clarity. It’s actually incredibly freeing.
Putting together a budget is a radical act of self love because we are making sure to give ourselves what we want most.
We can prioritize our spending on the things that are important to us so we don’t have to skimp out on what makes us happy.
Without a plan, we often feel guilty every time we spend money. It’s ironic and a bummer that we’re not even enjoying our purchases. When we have a budget, we can spend that money guilt-free and with peace of mind knowing that it works with our overall plan. We know we can afford it.
Are you convinced yet?
I have one more for you. Our mission at the Fiscal Femme is to get you wealthy. And putting together a budget is THE number one tool for building wealth. It determines how much of what we earn we keep and where it all is going.
MONEY MOVE OF THE WEEK
Do a mini 1-day Money Cleanse. Many of us have been on some sort of Money Cleanse for the last few months (whether we know it or not). We might not have spent less money but our spending has definitely had to change. There are plenty of things we haven’t even been able to spend money on. As we transition back to some of the things we used to do, in whatever way that works for us, our spending is going to change again. If you feel like your spending is getting a bit out of control, you can always come back to a mini 1-day Money Cleanse. How?
Plan ahead to only spend on the essentials for those 24 hours. If you can spend nothing, even better.
Track whatever purchases you do make in a money journal.
Look at each of those expenses in terms of your opportunity cost (i.e. what else could you do with that money?).
If that feels easy, add on another day.
Sometimes we just need a reset to get us back on track during a time of transition and a mini-Money Cleanse can give us just that.
YOU GOTTA SEE THIS
Negotiating for ongoing flexibility post-COVID. If you’ve enjoyed more work flexibility during COVID, I’m with you. While there are many things I’ve missed terribly during this time, we’ve seen companies adapt to employees working from home, flexible hours and more. If you want to keep some of this flexibility as your office opens up, Lauren Smith Brody, author of The Fifth Trimester has shared an incredible six step plan in her instagram highlights. The best part is, this should not come with a pay cut!