Last updated on December 13th, 2023 at 05:52 pm
In the realm of personal finance mastery, the lens through which we view money often shapes our actions and influences the outcome. As numerous motivational experts suggest, our perspective on a matter significantly guides our behavior towards it. In the world of monetary aspirations, this rings especially true.
Join me on my journey, where I use the traditional notion of ‘saving’ to transform into a proactive and gratifying approach: ‘spending on the future.’ In this exploration, I’ll challenge ingrained beliefs about scarcity, redefine the concept of savings, and discover a fresh perspective that turns financial goals into a source of abundance and joy…
A while ago, I decided on a dream goal for the year: to actually save money. That’s right, to have money left at the end of my year instead of the year left at the end of my money.
But already, I have been balky about this dream goal. It seems like the harder I try to save; the more little things crop up to make me spend every dime I’ve got.
For example, my husband, “Virgo Man,” got a bonus that we were totally not expecting. It’s gone already, and I’m right back to squeezing pennies and dimes to pay the bills.
If we had put that bonus aside, that would have been a giant chunk of my savings goal for the whole year. And it should have been a slam dunk since it wasn’t money we expected. But somehow, it wasn’t so easy. Apparently, it was impossible, even.
I’m not trying to blame external factors or anything, I’m just realizing that there’s some belief I have about saving that is getting in my way.
I’m going to try a little reverse psychology on myself. Instead of focusing on saving, which is the equivalent of not spending, I will focus on spending. I will spend every penny that comes across my attention span, with no exceptions.
For me, the concept of saving comes from a place of scarcity. There’s an underlying fear that I won’t have it later if I don’t save now. So when I fail to save, I feel hopeless. I don’t have it now, I won’t have it later, so what’s the point? Just be here now and let the future take care of itself.
Really, I don’t believe in scarcity. I believe in abundance. I believe in giving 100% and sometimes 110%. If you’re going to do a thing, do it right. So when I tell myself that I must save because a day will come when abundance will let me down, I don’t believe it. I don’t know about you, but I call that for what it is: lack of commitment.
A lack of commitment is a pretty serious impediment to achieving a goal.
I have decided to try a different approach and focus on spending instead of saving. In my inner world, spending is gratifying. It feels good. It’s fun! That’s my nature, so I’m going with it. I’m going to spend some of my pennies on things in the past. Those would be things like the utility bill for the energy we’ve already used, the raggedy tee shirts that need replacing, or the loose filling in that back molar.
I will spend some of my pennies on things in the present, like gas to keep the car running, food to keep my family running, and the mortgage payment to keep a roof over our heads.
And I’m going to spend some of my pennies on things in the future. This is what I’ve decided to start calling savings: spending on things in the future.
Spending on things in the future is fun. Take, for example, next summer’s camping trip. We have all agreed we would like to camp in a rented RV instead of in the tent that flooded during last year’s camping trip when it rained (poured, actually) for 18 straight hours. It would have been much more enjoyable had I been able to warm up the spaghetti under the cover of an RV instead of standing out in the drenching rain with shoes floating past and my glasses completely fogged over.
So now, when I set pennies aside, I can say I’m spending them on my summer vacation.
Spending on things in the future is emotionally rewarding. I’d like to be able to help my kids get a college education. Setting pennies aside for that, I can say I’m spending them on my children’s future well-being.
Spending on things in the future is gratifying. It’s not about scarcity but about abundance and anticipating all the future abundance I’ll experience because I have the pennies available.
What’s the difference, you ask, between saving for those things and spending for them? Well, that’s easy. When it comes to money, it’s all in how you look at it.
Jayne Speich
Jayne Speich is co-founder of Business Growth Advocate, which is dedicated to the survival and growth of small businesses in the new era.
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