Budgeting? Or planning your best life?

I read an interesting article on budgeting today. It began by pointing out how “we all hate budgeting.” That is a feeling I can’t relate to – I LOVE it! But I hate dieting and I know the discipline part is comparable, so I get it.

Once I got beyond that premise, I was pleasantly surprised to read about a suggested way to think about budgeting that I hadn’t considered before – at least not in so many words. But it makes perfect sense!

The gist of it is, we need to forget about the idea of budgeting and focus on planning our best life! Budgeting is just a recognizable word for a system that can help with the planning. I totally agree! That’s the beauty of a budget!

In the beginning, I created my spending plan to figure out how much I could throw at my debt each month and, therefore, how fast I could pay it off. It really was just informational, until I put it into action, which is the actual budget.

I wasn’t looking for a new hobby (although it became one!) I was simply looking for the fastest way out of debt – this was the first step in my best life!

Now that I’m debt free, I’ve revised my spending plan, to meet my next goals – continuing down the path to my best life.

Why do I spend time tracking & monitoring my spending and saying no to certain purchases, in order to stay within my budget? First of all, I don’t want to go back into debt, and I don’t want to pay overdraft or late fees. But more than that, I love the peace of mind that comes with having money set aside for car repairs, annual bills, medical expenses – things that used to stress me out!

The peace of mind is worth way more than the stuff I could buy or places I could go with that money. But the beauty is – and I have to keep reminding myself of this – it’s not forever! I’ve reached most of those goals already. Now I’m working on my job loss fund. I can fully fund it much faster now, because all my other goals are out of the way, so all that money combined can go in one direction!

Once that’s done, I can give myself a bit more slack in my allowance, while taking the next step toward my best life, which is saving for my next car. What would it feel like to pay cash for a car? I’ve never done it, but I want that experience – and I want it bad enough that I’m ok with only increasing my allowance a little bit, instead of a lot, so I can save for that next car! That’s not forever either! In time, I’ll save all the money I need – and I’ll save a fortune on interest! I can’t wait to see what kind of raise I can give myself for allowance then!

These are exciting times for me – and budgeting is the reason! I hope everyone has a chance to experience the joy, excitement and feelings of accomplishment that come with budgeting!

Here’s to living your best life!