Have you noticed, it’s always somebody else’s fault — in politics, with finances and now, college loans. We now have students boycotting their lenders because the college they went to was de-certified or because they can’t get a job. You can’t blame your school when you can’t get a job, or the company when investments go bad, and so forth. It’s almost like we live in a world that denies individual accountability altogether!
Well, there is some truth to all of the blame game. What amazes me is that the more ignorant we are, the more likely we are to blame someone else. Blaming someone else is almost childish in a way. So, let’s simplify the issue by reducing all of the blamable issues down to money. Let’s assume that of all the areas of our lives, our money is the one area we can sure control and manage.
Money is the grease that makes our lives function.
Yes I know, our health, our relationships and our spirituality are areas that are very important, too. But realize that whereas we have great control over our health, our relationships and our spirituality, it remains very hard to blame someone else for bad health or a weak spirit. However, money is something else; we make it, we spend it, and thus we have control over it. Even with miserable income tax, a miserable employer, and miserable debt, we have control over how we respond financially to these things.
Therefore, let’s take control of our lives by controlling our money. How do we do this? By planning! It’s not about budgeting…it’s about planning. Stop budgeting your money and start planning your spending. The process is simple: 1) begin with your gross average monthly income; 2) subtract your average monthly FICA, Medicare, federal income tax, and state income tax; 3) with what you have left after taxes, make a plan by category for how you want to spend every dollar, every month; 4) finally, track your money according to that spending plan. Use tools like the Money Mastery tracking app, which is available at www.moneymastery.com.
Make each and every spending decision based on “what’s left” in your plan. After tracking for the current month, review and adjust, and then allow the left over balances to carry over into the next month. When you plan in this way you will be blessed with more money each month, you will get out of debt faster and have more for retirement. Best of all you will feel great — you will feel better about yourself and have confidence in your financial future!
And it will be all your fault!!
For more information on how this works call Alan at 801-292-1099.
