Creating a budget is a practical tool to help you make financial decisions when it comes to what to do with your money.
Yet there’s a question that has to be answered before going into the practicality of money.
That question is: “What’s the role of money in my life?”
Based on how you think about money, the way you operate around money changes. The role that money plays in your life will reflect in the way you create your budget and how you invest. There are no right or wrong approaches. It is all about understanding yourself and your preferences.
Understanding the practicality of money, helps us to organize information in a way where we can make sense of it and based on that we can make a decision about what actions to take or not to take.
When people talk about money, what do they generally talk about? They talk about budgets, investments and how to get a higher ROI, a greater return on their investment.
While that is all valuable information, it’s not necessarily the most valuable information when we’re actually talking about creating abundance in one’s life, not because it’s not important, it’s because if you get the psychology and spirituality right, you will be able to manage money much more easily. It’s important to know “Where you’re coming from.”
Are you being run by your ego’s agenda or are you aligned with your creative orientation? Having a great foundation is going to propel you towards the outcomes you want more easily because you’ve built your foundation upon a creative structure rather than one that is based on your beliefs, identity and egoic structure.
The reason why some people struggle with not having enough investments in their life is because either they don’t know how to budget appropriately based on their income level or they don’t know how to actually increase their income.
Most people have never really asked themselves this question, “What is the role of money in my life? What’s the role it plays?
You may think, everything works around money. Why does it need to have a role? It has all of the roles. It has the lead role. After all, money makes the world go around!
Well doesn’t it?
The truth is, depending on what you think the role of money is in your life will determine how you operate around money, the way you prioritize money and the way you budget for money.
When you have greater clarity about what the actual role of money is for you, the way you operate around money changes, the way you prioritize money changes, the way you budget for money changes.
We all have different beliefs and values when it comes to determining the role that money has in our life.
It’s vital to be curious enough to ask yourself, “What does money do for me psychologically and emotionally? What does money do for me practically?”
If you don’t ask this question and are not curious to find out, it will be harder for you to identify a budget that works for you or what style of investing works for you because you’re not aware of what you’re running unconsciously.
For example, one of the roles money plays for people is that it provides security.
For some people that’s the only purpose of money for them. It provides a certain level of safety and security.
If you are being run by that need, you’re actually really limited because of that.
If the role of money is safety and security, then what you’re focused on is creating more safety and security. Because of that, you’ve blocked yourself off from seeing what else it can give you. What other opportunities and possibilities it can bring to your life.
For some people, the role of money may be to provide fun. What you’ll be focused on is creating fun with the money you have.
For some it is about proving that you are good enough so it will be about racking up achievements and gaining prestige such as eminent degrees or studying at prestigious universities.
For other people the role of money is that it’s there to enjoy life. Their focus might be on spending all the money they can on experiences. Let’s enjoy all the money we can on getting things for family and friends. Obviously these examples have a different focus psychologically.
To put this into perspective, if you had an additional $50,000 in your bank account the person who had their focus on safety and security may decide to put the entire $50,000, or maybe 49K out of the 50K into a secure investment fund.
Whereas the person who’s focused on enjoying life will look at it as having an extra $50,000 to play with. They may put only $20K into investments and the other $30K into have an amazing experience.
Because they’re psychologically different, their budgets will be different, their investment style and strategy will be different and their action steps will be different.
Neither of them are right nor wrong. It’s about discovering what’s underlying the role of money in your life. When you get clear about that, you can then make empowered choices when it comes to budgeting and your investment strategy.
The purpose of money is to live your life. It’s not just about making more money.
You want to be able to afford a lifestyle that gives you a sense of joy. One that is in alignment in your heart and soul to be able to actually create more abundance and money for yourself.
Let’s get curious about what does money mean psychologically for you. What does money mean practically for you? What is the role that it plays? What is the role that it plays in your daily life which will help you identify where you’re at.
Always remember, the point of life is not to make more money, the point of life is to “live a great life”. Money is a conduit to it. Money is just a thing that supports you being able to live your life. That doesn’t mean that you have to spend it all. It doesn’t mean you have to save it all and it never gets touched. It means you need to discover for yourself, “What’s the role of money in my life?”
