The Simple Dollar - a new way of looking at budgeting....

[Guest guest]

For anyone in the group who is thinking of putting together a budget

and have tried so many different times of making one but only to see it

not work, I have a possible solution just for your situation. It's

from The Simple Dollar (www.thesimpledollar.com). Would everyone here

in the group agree with me that money is one of the biggest reasons why

so many problems occur in marriages and " committed relationships " ?

I looked at the word, budget, until recently - as this evil six-letter

word that was more like, " Ok, let's plan this stuff, get it done and

over with, so we can move on with our lives. " The Simple Dollar looks

at budgeting from a completely different perspective than I have seen.

It's not just about the numbers; it's also about the underlying values

behind those numbers. This, as I found out from the part on the

website called, " 31 Days to Fix Your Finances " . Figuring the budget

doesn't occur until you know what your values and then goals, which

come from those values, are. Because of my undergraduate degree in

financial planning, I was taught to find out from others what they

wanted to accomplish and then set up a budget for them. How often it

was for me to help other people but then look blindly at my own

situation. However, the good news is tha one can put together a budget

based upon what one values in life and not merely, " I'll put this much

mrtowards this or that " and in reality, not have a clue where all the

money should go.

If you're interested in learning more about this, I will be posting on

here as much as possible about how I am doing on this. For starters,

let's start with my main values. After doing a great amount of

brainstorming and then streamlining things so decrease the amount of

overlapping, I came my following main values:

1. Creativity - through art in all of its forms

2. Balance - through interdependence and in the four dimensions

(spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical)

3. Making a difference - with the environment and in the lives of others

4. Adventure

5. Lifelong education - through discovery in my own life and learning

from/teaching others

6. Financial soundness

That is the first day alone. The author of the series suggest to take

one hour for each day. Some days may take longer than others. Day two

involves taking those values from day one and turning them into goals.

I will work on this more tonight. The author suggests making one year

and 25-year goals. I chose to add five-year goals. Thus, what would I

like to accomplish in the next year, next five years, and next 25

years. The author advises to start out at 25 years first then working

back to one year goals. While it's a good idea, some people may choose

to begin a year from now and work their way out to 25 years.

Let's take my last listed value - financial soundness. I wrote as a 25-

year goal - " All debt paid off (including school loans) and either

retired and volunteering/working part time or close to retirement " . My

one-year goals were " monthly financial checkups prior to the start of

each month, yearly financial checkup, finalizing transfer to

traditional/Roth IRA " . In adding my five-year goal, I wrote, " Only

debts remaining are student loans " . I might add a couple more as

well.

I'll share the rest of my goals in a future post. I think this new way

of looking at budgeting based upon values, instead of a traditional

budget where numbers are thrown out and about to fill categories, is a

great idea. Since all people are different, some people will have

different values than the ones I've listed. That's fine. What this

has done for me is to get my mind focused on getting my " financial

house " in order and to help myself along on my journey with AS and

ADHD.

I offer these words of wisdom to everyone in here, because I want to

give y'all a tool you might consider using to help yourselves as well.

For more information, go to The Simple Dollar (www.thesimpledollar.com)

and check out the section, " 31 Days to Fix Your Finances " . This could

change your views on both money and budgeting from how you and/or your

spouse/ " significant other " , etc. would have though about these sorts of

issues in the past.

Thanks for allowing me to share,

[Guest guest]

Sorry if my mind was racing very fast as I was typing this. Some of

you may not have followed totally what I said in The Simple Dollar

post. If you have any questions, just email me from here and I'll be

glad to answer them for you.

Thanks,