Today's Post is written by Rachel Leutele.
Her Instagram account shares some great finance information. She can be found on @the_savvy_saver
The Importance of Researching Yourself and Establishing a 'Why'
By Rachel Leutele - @the_savvy_saver
What is your money story?
Anyone can create a budget, but it takes real commitment to stick to one.
Have you ever wondered why you find it so hard to stick to a budget?
Have you ever had a real good look at yourself and tried to understand why you manage money the way you do?
Most of you will say no, why is that important? I’m here to tell you why. Think about your why.
Why do you buy what you buy?
Why do you save what you save?
Why do you believe what you believe?
If you cannot answer these questions, you’ve found your answer to why budgets fail for you.
Let me explain.
When my husband and I got married, we very quickly discovered that the way we viewed money was very different. Neither of us cared too much about being rich, but we often clashed about how we spent money purely because we never understood each other’s money stories.
For me, I was brought up around work and money, I saved hard, I spent little, I had savings goals, and I met them.
For him, his family lived paycheck to paycheck, they had the bare essentials and never had security and savings.
These very different mindsets took a while to blend. It wasn’t until we put our values on the table that we realized, our values were the one thing that aligned which was a great foundation for success.
If your spending aligns with your money values, you are doing something right. And if they don’t, ask yourself why.
If you checked your bank statements and saw what you spent the majority of your money on, would it reflect what you truly valued? Or would you be shocked to see that you couldn't care less about the things consuming all your income?
Let's put it into perspective.
If you took a look at my bank accounts before I started my budget journey, you would see that a lot of my money went towards food. I mean i love food, who doesn't and i guess you could say yeah i do value that so in essence it aligns. However, the times I spent money on food, I was out with people I cared about a lot so essentially I valued time with them, not the food itself. When I figured this out, my habits changed. I still had a lot of time for the people I cared about but instead of spending that time buying food, we found other things to do that didnt cost a thing. Now my values and spending are aligned.
From what I've seen, most people think their budgets fail because they are simply bad at money management. And that may be true for some people however a little self reflection may enable more people to succeed in their money journeys and to create habits around things that they truly love and value. That is something that will stick.
So let’s end on a few questions to ask yourself:
What do you spend money on?
What do you value in life?
Do your spending and values align? and
If not, what are you going to do about it?
Comments