Do you realize that only 28% of all people balance their checking account each month? Did you know that only 1 person in 994 have a specific retirement plan and know how much they will have available at retirement? Did you know that only 1 in a 1,000,000 know the month and year they will pay off their debts?
My point is this: If you are going to ever be out of debt, and ever retire with adequate income to live on, you must know how much you have left every time you spend your money. I’m urging you now to establish a spending plan, get on board with a personal financial coach for a reasonable fee at www.moneymastery.com, and begin to have a surplus so you can calculate when you will be out of debt.
The first place to start is by creating a Spending Plan, as noted above. Budgets are different from a spending plan. Budgets fail most often because we cannot discipline ourselves to stay on them. But a spending plan prioritizes where money goes so you always get the most important items paid for first and still have money you want for other things. It teaches you what you value, and therefore helps you get away from a strictly mathematical approach to spending, such as what a budget does, and instead helps you see where you spend emotionally and what really matters to you so you can get in immediate control. A spending plan also shows you “what’s left” in each spending category after each transaction, so you are better able to make responsible choices going forward about how and where you will spend the money you have left.
A What’s Left Spending System, as we call it at Money Mastery, will always have the accurate amount of money showing in each category. I suggest you use January 1 as a target date for starting a new bunch of spending habits using the tips and tricks at moneymastery.com.
