In my early twenties, I started budgeting—or so I thought. My budget listed my income and expenses, and I even used an Excel spreadsheet.
By my late twenties, I had gotten a job in a commercial real estate company, where I learned how asset managers approach budgets for multi-million dollar properties. I learned how high-net-worth individuals think about money and how strategic they are when making, growing, and preserving it.
My eyes were opened.
I realized then that what I had been doing before was far from strategic. It was more like cash flow management—every month, I tracked my income, paid my bills, made debt payments, saved some, spent the rest, and ensured my bank account didn’t fall below zero before my next paycheck hit. But I didn’t have a plan for paying off my debts, and out-of-left-field expenses would always seem to knock my savings back down to zero.
Simply put, I was living paycheck to paycheck.
I had no goals for my money, no strategy for growing it, and no time horizons for the nonexistent goals.
If your family is making a good income yet can’t seem to get ahead financially, and surprise expenses continue to derail or slow your progress, maybe you’ve been managing cash flow rather than creating a strategic plan for your money and a budget to execute it.
If you’re eager to break through the cycle and want to partner and revisit your budget with a strategic lens, visit MakingMoneyIsSimple.com to book a free consultation.