How Are You Spending Your Money and Time?
In today’s rapidly changing and fast-moving world, both time and money can feel like they’re in short supply. Our schedules tend to fill up quickly with social events, travel plans, and other obligations, and ever-increasing expenses can be a strain on our budgets. When the financial, emotional, and physical tolls start to add up, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed.
As you get ready for the busy weeks ahead, it’s helpful to take a moment to reflect on how you spent your time and your money over the last year. Author Erik Wecks writes, “How we spend our money reflects our true values at that moment in time.” The same can be said for how we spend our time.
Does your spending history align with your core values?
Here are three things to consider as you look for ways to align both your schedule and your money with the things that are most important to you:
1. Establish Priorities
Right now, your calendar for the next 12 months is probably fairly open. Before life gets in the way, establish some non-negotiables dedicated to your priorities in life. For many, this means setting up your schedule and budget to include things like your weekly exercise routine, vacations that you’d like to take, new skills or hobbies that you want to learn, and financial goals you’d like to accomplish.
Block time for your top goals and make them a priority in your budget. Focusing your time and money on what matters most increases your chances of reaching those goals. This also provides you with the clarity to fit in smaller goals and expenses around the major things you want to accomplish, rather than the other way around.
2. Review Your Habits
No matter how many books we read and expert routines we emulate, there will always be some inefficiencies in how we spend our time and money. Identifying those inefficiencies might help you zero in on some strategies to shore up weakness and build up strengths.
For example, someone with a goal to limit spur-of-the-moment purchases might need to set a stricter budget. On the other hand, some people might look at their leftover cash from the previous year and begin to think about the vacations they can take or the lives they can enrich.
Likewise, folks who have trouble keeping to a set morning routine might reassess their sleep habits. Are you tired in the morning because you’re staying up too late? Or is starting your day with a hard workout just not making you excited to jump out of bed? What if you had a different morning activity to look forward to, like taking a bike ride, reading, or working on the business plan for the company you’d like to build?
3. Automate the Essentials
Taking advantage of automation saves time, allowing you to stay on track and focus on what’s important.
You can set up automatic contributions to your retirement, long-term savings, and emergency savings accounts to occur as soon as you get paid. You can also establish automatic deposits into savings accounts that are dedicated to your big goals for the year, such as vacations or buying a new car.
Automating how you spend your time could take a bit more trial and error. You might experiment with time blocking and set very specific boundaries around when you work on specific tasks throughout the day. If you have trouble etching those blocks in stone, try setting alarms on your phone or smartwatch that will nudge you from one task to the next. At the end of your workday, unplug from what you need to get done tomorrow so that you can be truly present in those moments with family and friends.
At Stewardship Advisors, we strongly believe that money should be used as a tool to create a life that is fulfilling and meaningful. Part of our mission is to strive for more than just a good return on our clients’ investment portfolio. Rather, we work to guide our clients in designing a vision of their ideal future, and then, use that vision as a map for arranging and implementing financial strategies.
Our financial planning process is carefully designed to help you clarify your values, priorities, circumstances, and aspirations so that we can guide you in designing an exciting and inspiring future. Together with you, we use that vision as a map for arranging and implementing financial strategies with intentionality and purpose. We are happy to talk to you about how our financial planning process can help you make more meaningful investments in the next year.
Schedule an introductory phone call with Ben at this link: Ben Writer – Introductory Phone Call
Like this article? Check out Ben Writer’s Article Archives where Ben has compiled helpful articles to help you plan your financial future.
