Life Before Budget ….
As a few people have told me, the name of this website can be a little bit confusing and it can be interpreted in many different ways.
Does Life Before Budget mean that we shouldn’t worry about money? We shouldn’t worry about money because we are so focused on living our life that money just doesn’t matter.
YOLO!!!
You only live once, so you should:
- go on an African safari
- buy a new SUV
- finance a new fishing boat
After all, you only live once and you should worry about what you do with your life instead of how you spend your money.
Maybe, Life Before Budget refers to the irresponsible things that we did with our life before we decided to become responsible adults and do a budget. We used to go out for drinks with our friends, but now that we have a budget we just can’t do that anymore. We used to have a nice boat, but we had to sell it because it doesn’t fit into the budget anymore.
We used to have fun in our lives, but we can’t anymore because we must stick to our budget!
Yikes … that is kind of a scary way to think of Life Before Budget!
For me, when I originally thought of the name for the website, I wasn’t thinking of the YOLO philosophy where you live your life no matter the cost. I also wasn’t thinking of the irresponsible things that we used to do with our life before we had a budget.
Instead, I was thinking that it would be really great if our priorities lined up with how we spent our money. Maybe we should think about and even write down our values, goals, and priorities in life. Once we know what is important in our lives, then we can think about how we can use our budget. This will ensure that our budget lines up with our priorities. If our priority is spending time with friends, then setting a budget for fantasy football or a night out with friends might be a good way to spend our money. If our goal is to stop working when we are 50, then we should be saving some money to help us retire early. If our main value is helping others who live in developing countries, then we need to start using our money and time to fundraise and buy supplies for people who live there.
We must think of what’s most important to us in our lives first!
After we know what our values, goals, and priorities are, then … and only then … can we start thinking about how to use money to help us satisfy these things.
We must think of what is most important to us in our Life and then think about how we can use our Budget to meet these priorities.
My challenge is to think about how we spend our time and our money. Are we truly spending our time and money on things and experiences that are important to us – or – do we need to think of our values in life before thinking about our budget? Let us know what you value by checking out the comments.
And thanks for reading!
~Nathan
Let’s keep living a great life … with the help of money. So what’s next?
- You can travel for free by using rewards credit cards.
- You can get motivated and get out of debt.
- You can check out the next post or the previous post and continue to learn.
But no matter what you decide to do, let’s leave the ordinary behind and take action today!
2 Comments
Laura
I like the idea of aligning your values to where you are spending your money. One idea might be to make a list of things you value, and then also take a look at what purchases you make over the course of the week to see if they are connected. This might also be good for the money date.
Life Before Budget
That is a great idea! This would allow us to easily see if our values align with our spending.