How much do you earn in a month? Does it cater to all your wants, needs, and other expenses? Are you satisfied with it? Do you spend it or you manage it? (There is a difference. Ask around). How much do you save, or can you save?
These are some of the questions people often ask themselves, but don’t always get the right answers to.
The late American author James W. Frick once said, “Don’t tell me where your priorities are. Show me where you spend your money and I’ll tell you what they are.” It’s simply talking about how priorities are in alignment with earnings and spending.
People are generally more concerned with spending their money in line with their priorities as soon as they get their salaries each month. Although, how they spend differs, a lot of them complain that they don’t have or make enough money, so it’s often difficult to take anything out to save.
So, shouldn’t people still find a way to give themselves a treat after a job well done?
That is why the Pay Yourself First principle, a sort of reversed budgeting strategy, deals with prioritizing one’s income towards saving towards a series of necessities before other expenses in a rather blunt way.
Giving a little insight into how this principle works, it requires that you assess your spending to find out if what you spend on most is really important. After that, you’d figure out what expenses to trim so that it can help determine how much you would like to pay yourself.
Also, creating financial objectives is essential to managing your finances well. Once you set your short-term and long-term goals, these monies can be used to invest in well-paying vehicles, for retirement purposes, for larger purchases, or as emergency funds, for education, a vacation, etc. This means that when you need the money, you won’t need to start running around.
And amid all these, one critical thing to note is that only people who are alive and well will have the strength or capacity to work for money, save, or any other thing. So, when planning your expenses, set some amount aside just to give yourself a good treat.
There is nothing wrong with taking time out to just relax and be the king in your own kingdom. After all, everyone deserves to have their moments of pure enjoyment.
