Money Management

Making the Budget Commitment

Perhaps the biggest hurdle to living on a budget is making the initial commitment to the budgeting process.  Follow these 3 steps to help you go from dreading a budget to making a full commitment to your budget. 

Manage financial circumstances as they are today.

Dealing with money evokes powerful emotions.  Because of that, it is tempting to attach more significance to a budget than it should have.  Resist the urge to use a written budget as judgement for poor financial choices and as validation for good ones. 
  
Instead, take the opportunity to see a budget as a snapshot – a picture of a specific set of financial circumstances at a particular point in time – TODAY.  Viewing it as a single piece of a total financial plan will focus attention on the aspects of your finances that you DO have control over – income and spending.

Make a distinction between “needs” and “wants”.

An accurate written budget will accurately identify the areas of your life that are most important to you (i.e. where you spend your money).  Use the budgeting process to honestly evaluate the difference between things that you need and things that you want.  More than likely, you can arrange your finances to have both (in the long run).  Knowing the difference between the two will strengthen the resolve to make difficult choices during the times when you can only afford one or the other.

Maintain a positive attitude.

There are so many things that are totally out of your control but a budget is not one of them.  A budget is nothing more than a plan and there is nothing threatening about that!  There are aspects of the budgeting process, however, that are difficult.  Choices have to be made; gratification has to be delayed; and maturity has to be more important than stuff.  Use these challenging times to identify the way(s) that the written budget has improved your finances.  Hopefully, seeing the positive improvement in your balance sheet will translate to positive thoughts in your head.