In part 1 I shared how we as adults for the most part do not like adulting, especially when it comes to our money. I was someone who wanted to put life off because I thought I always had time to get this money thing right. Life has a funny way of showing you that you are an idiot and when I was laid off from my job I realized that adulting was my only option if I was going to have a thriving financial future. Being laid off will make you grow up quick and it will make it very clear that life is to long to have insufficient funds. I had to make a couple key decisions. A decision to be a grown up with my money and exactly how being a grown up with my money looked like.
Adulting looked like getting my spending under control. As children our parents would give us an allowance, birthday, or Christmas money and they would hope that we would spend it wisely or save it. Neither of those hopes happened and they didn’t happened because as a child we knew an ADULT would be behind us to save us if we spent all our money. They would still clothe us, feed us, put a roof over our head no matter how foolish we were with money. No one is going to save us now. We are adults and we will be adults until the day we die. So how do we get our spending under control and move to a more thriving financial life.
It is all about the spending plan and it is exactly what it sounds like. A plan for your spending. Doesn’t that sound better than the word “budget?” I bet you if I would have said the word budget you would have stopped reading immediately. No one likes that word because it feels restricting. Spending plan sounds much better.
Your spending plan is like a game. The first part of the game is that you are going to find out how much money your household brings in each month and that is going to be your income. The next part of the game is that you are going to determine how much your household spends on life. Living expenses, food expenses, clothing expenses, travel expenses, etc. All these costs are expenses and they go below your total income on your spending plan. This game, the spending plan if played for the win each month will bring more money into your household each week. Play the game right and the spending plan will give you a raise. You don’t even have to stay at the office past 5pm anymore or beg for a promotion. Give yourself a promotion!
