Why budgets are money habits, not the numbers
What you need to know:
- To achieve your vision, you have to translate it into specific, immediate, short- and long-term goals and start working on the immediate goals
- Do you belong to the category of people who spend their salary, or indeed any windfall, as if doomsday is quickly approaching?
Millions of people dream about the good life they deserve and desire everyday. The difference comes in when the brave ones swing into action to challenge their present and start creating their future with or without a plan and money.
For most people, this is the equivalent of strategic planning, and for some, a corporate restructuring to build a new, more competitive business model.
Brian Tracy, a self-made millionaire, advises that the “biggest goal on earth can be achieved if taken one step at a time,” and that “the only time you have is now.” A vision is what lies in the far distance that we hope one day we will become. It is like a two-year-old boy dreaming of becoming a pilot when he grows up, but has no idea what a pilot does. Our responsibility is to do what clearly lies within the distance by identifying the tasks and habits necessary for achieving them.
To achieve your vision, you have to translate it into specific, immediate, short- and long-term goals and start working on the immediate goals. Immediate goals are those which you can clearly see and translate into daily, weekly, and monthly tasks. For example, a broke person can clearly tell the amount of money they ought to have saved to cater for a pressing emergency. They can also visualise the necessary behaviour change and amount of money this can release daily, weekly, or monthly.
Achieving immediate goals will help realise the medium-term goals which, in turn, enable the realisation of the long-term goals.
Do you belong to the category of people who spend their salary, or indeed any windfall, as if doomsday is quickly approaching? If you do, allow me to suggest that budgeting is not the mathematical distribution of money against a long list of unavoidable expenses. It is the habits that you keep when allocating the money to these items everyday. A budget helps you to control the use of your money. It is the decision you take when money is in your hands that either supports or derails your goals.
You can never overcome your inner self. You are either your thoughts and choices or your thoughts and emotions, whichever pair your parents left dominant in you.
— Patrick Wameyo is a financial literacy educator and coach. [email protected]
