Already already earning a decent living?
If so, I wholeheartedly believe that living in alignment with your values will make you happier than earning more money.
To do that, it’s incredibly important that your budget, which is your roadmap for how you spend your money, is a recipe for spending on the things that matter to you. This is why I advocate so strongly for a values-based budget, and it’s why I say that your budget categories should represent your values.
When your budget categories are designed to help you spend your money in alignment with your values, you’re more likely to stick with your budget happily.
Watch this video for my full explanation:
Transcript:
Your spending is telling on you!
How you spend money tells the truth about what’s important and matters to you. Hear me out on this. We work hard for our money and spend a lot of our precious, non-renewable time on activities and efforts to bring money in. So then it makes sense that what you spend your hard-earned money on is a dead giveaway for what you value in life. If you spend a significant portion of your income on let’s say, your car and car-related expenses, then it’s fair to conclude that your car is important to you. Maybe that’s because driving a nice car is important for your image, or maybe you are a car aficionado and you spend on a car because you have a passion for engines. Either way, whether you value looking good or your passion, spending so much on your car tells us that you highly value it. Pretty straightforward, right?
Well, here’s where things go sideways. We mostly don’t know where we’re spending all our money, so we can think that we value something, like travel, and constantly be upset because you don’t have enough money to travel. That’s when people usually think, oh, I just need to make more money. No, you just need to find out where your money is already going and adjust your future spending to support what matters to you. What mostly happens is someone tracks their spending for the past few months and realizes, holy moly! No wonder I never have money for travel – all my money is going to dining out, my wardrobe, and my dog. Look, there’s nothing wrong with going out to eat, buying a pair of shoes, or having a pet, not at all. But if you value weekend getaways more than your clothes, spend less on clothes, or eating out, or on your dog, so that you have money for going abroad.
Here’s where I’m going with this: You don’t need more money in order to live your best life, you just need to spend your money in alignment with your values, not ego. So find out where your money has been going and then create a values-based budget to help you spend in proportion to the value that each spending category has for you. This is why I say that the spending categories in your budget represent your values. Now, instead of a budget just listing a bunch of things you spend money on, it helps you track your spending by categories that are meaningful to you and so your budget is a representation of you and the life you want to live. It helps you be more intentional each day. This is how you make a budget, not only work, but stick. You make it something that you want to come back to month after month because it is your spending plan for the life you want to live and each month you’re eager to see if you’re aligned with what truly matters to you.
So many people say that budgeting doesn’t work, but I’m here to tell you that budgeting absolutely works, if you can design it correctly and meaningfully. A values-based budget is for you if you want to put your money where your mouth is and live in alignment with the values that you hold dear. Personal finance is personal and your finances are best when they represent your personal values, priorities, and goals. This is how you make the most out of your money and maximize your happiness. Who knew that a little thing like budget categories could mean so much? But they do and anyone can do this. For the specific budget categories I use, be sure to catch my video on the budget categories you need.
