Our Financial Makeover Series
talks about personal finance basics and lets you figure out what applies best
to your own unique situation.
In Part 1, we suggested to open
a no-fee online checking account. The point is to avoid fees as much as
possible, especially the devastating recurring version.
In Part 2, we talked about the
pleasures of budgeting and how it can allow you to spend more on things you
truly love. We proposed a no-fee savings account as one tool to organize in
that fashion.
Today, we’ll talk about
how budget choices can make you feel great. We hope you’ll see it can be an
amazing way to exercise your freedom!
The Wonderful Power of Budget Choices
For most people,
budgets are boring and restrictive. For us, our budget is fun because it helps
us make wise and sometimes tough financial decisions so we can realize more of
our dreams.
Try to view your budget
as an essential versatile tool at the heart of each of your personal finance
decisions. It’s the ultimate key to make everything work together. It’s not
only about dollars and cents but rather more about dollars and sense.
As clearly as possible,
your budget should be a concise representation of your financial reality and
should help you manage your financial operations. Many may be afraid to face
that reality and suffer from guilt. They prefer to live in denial and stick
their head in the sand than to truly find out the extent of the damages.
But a budget can be the
most efficient tool to know where you stand and the best way to start doing
something to make things better. Your budget can give you the means to improve
and help you take back power over your finances.
After retroactively
accessing your present situation, an efficient budget will highlight your
options to choose and can be the first step towards your financial well-being.
The objective is not to
become perfect but rather to have the means to take decisions that can make things
better. At worst, you’ll know more about the impacts of your financial choices.
Like we elude to in our
last post of this series (Part 2),
ultimately, budgeting should and can
allow you to spend more money on things we truly love.
The Questionable Anti-Budget Cult
For many people,
keeping a budget seems appalling. Some are even utterly against any form of budgeting.
They think a budget will only limit their freedom. They prefer to let money
flow.
