A Top-Down View of What You Value

My Little Family

I’ve written before about how a budget can be a a top-down view of your 95%. With it, you can see what you can afford, what you can’t, and what you can shuffle around if you need to. It’s a lot better than guessing in the middle of a “should I buy it?” moment.

But budgeting also gives you a great map of what you value. After a few months of fine-tuning your budget, you’ll start to see a pretty accurate picture of what you really want. It’s a neat little side-effect of budgeting.

Knowing what you value ,and budgeting for it, can be a huge source of contentment in life. Knowing that you’re putting your hard earned dollars towards what matters most is a comforting feeling.

The opposite – not knowing what you really value – can lead to a lot of leaks in your paychecks and a lot of perpetual and unhappy spending.

Some things we value greatly.

You’ll find yourself budgeting these things first,  making sure they’re covered before anything else.

They’ll align with what’s most important to you in your life. When I had my son, a lot of things I used to value suddenly meant much less (or nothing at all) to me.

We need these things the most, they bring us the most peace, the most fun, or the most satisfaction. They help us reach our goals in life.

Some things we value less.

You’ll find yourself budgeting these things with “what’s left.”  Our paychecks can tend to leak into this less-satisfying realm quite a bit if we’re not watching our budgets. Stay diligent and you’ll see these leaks getting plugged up over time.

Others we do not value at all.

You’ll start to find that you haven’t even included these things in your budgets for a while – a pretty good indicator you don’t really want your money going towards them.

Take some time to review your budget (or start one) and see if you can’t find what you really want your money going towards. Do some adjusting if you need to – it will be worth it.

Similar Posts:

• Simple ways to save money by using a budget
• Adjusting your budget to match your spending