I have always been intrigued by millionaires. It seemed to be the goal every person was trying to reach. Most seemed to fall short. I was probably a junior in college when I got really serious about researching what the average millionaire did to get there. I kept seeing the recurring themes of “budgeting” and “living on less than you make” in my Google searches. It was at that point I decided to write my monthly expenses down and get on a budget. By the next week, I had lost my “budget” and spent all my money. Don’t get me wrong, my monthly bills were paid, but anything left was gone with the wind. It was then that I realized why millionaires are so rare in our culture. The discipline it takes to do a budget and live by it is no walk in the park.
Fast forward a few years later and my wife and I have full command of our budget. We are out of debt except for the house, contributing 15% of our income for retirement, and have plans to pay our home off earlier than the 15-year mortgage term. Since we’ve been budgeting for quite a bit of time now we’ve realized how the budget has helped us. Here are three reasons why we love, and hopefully you’ll love, to budget.
1. Efficiency
It doesn’t matter what the process is. It’s always better when it’s efficient. The same applies with personal finance. When you account for every cent there is no unintentional waste.
Normally, when it comes to personal finances, it isn’t the big ticket items that kill you. It’s death by a thousand cuts. When you budget you can PLAN to waste a certain amount of money. I recommend you do so to keep your sanity! Kim and I have built into our budget a blow money category. Kim and I both receive a relatively small amount of money each paycheck to spend on whatever we want. Hell, even our 2-year-old son receives blow money that we use to spend on things he needs.
As adults, you spend so much time in a state of sacrifice for the good of your family that it can drive you crazy. Planning to waste lets the inner kid in you out so you can keep your sanity. However, we don’t want that inner kid to run the show.
Before I started budgeting I had a love/hate relationship with money at the beginning of each year. I loved that I was going to be getting a tax refund, but hated seeing my W2. The regret of seeing how much money I earned that year and how little of it I kept tested my gag reflex. It was upsetting, to say the least. I can say today that I haven’t felt that way in years. That’s because I know where every penny is going. We’re hitting financial goals consistently with the money that’s coming in. If there are any questions about where expenses went in the past I can always go back and look at past budgets.
2. You Will Feel Like You Make More Money
When you become more efficient with your finances you will feel like you make more money even though the amount coming in hasn’t changed. Most people make enough to cover their needs. But when you are able to cover all of your needs and some of your wants there is a sense of freedom and control that comes with that. Suddenly you realize that you can point your discretionary funds to things that YOU want to do instead of feeling like you are working to pay bills.
For me, that sense of freedom and control drove me to find a new job that increased my income. This increase in income allowed Kim to work less hours allowing her to be the main caretaker of our son and avoid daycare completely. In other words, the freedom and control drove us to look for more opportunities to gain more freedom and control by increasing our income. Today, we make less as a couple than when we were both working full time but because we have mastered the budget we can barely tell the difference. We feel like we make just as much now as we did back then and our quality of life is even better!
3. Forces Communication With Spouse
This is by far my favorite perk of doing a budget as a couple. Kim and I dated for 10 years before getting married and they weren’t all pretty. I found that doing a budget forces us to talk about our hopes, dreams, and fears. Naturally, this brought us closer together as a couple. It healed areas where trust had been violated in the past due to decisions not considering the other party. This trust resulted in more intimacy and a more real relationship with each other.
One of my favorite metaphors is that of a pair of ox. I know…it’s a little cheesy but stick with me! The more coordinated the two oxen are the more weight they can pull as a unit. The size and strength of the individual oxen are LESS important than their ability to work together as a team. The same applies with finances in a marriage. It doesn’t matter which spouse is making the most money or which spouse is smarter. Nor does it matter which spouse has the financial know-how. What matters the most is that both parties are in coordination with each other. The more coordinated YOU are as a couple the more you can accomplish with less.
Before Kim and I got married we saw a marriage counselor. The very first item of discussion was finances. The explanation from our counselor was that money issues is the number one cause of divorce in the United States. That honestly blew me away. How could something that feels so materialistic like money be more important than religion, raising kids, sex, in-laws, AND conflict resolution? The thing that’s so unique about money is that it touches these and virtually every other area of your life. Doing a budget together forces you to have to communicate so much that that practice of communicating spills over into all the other areas you share with your spouse.
Kim’s thoughts: Omar stated that out of his 3 reasons for loving to do a budget, his favorite reason is communication with me. I agree that it definitely makes us communicate with each other about our money, but it has also helped with communication in regards to other things. However, my favorite of the 3 reasons is that it makes me feel like we make more money. Doing a budget gives new meaning to the phrase “living paycheck to paycheck.” I wait for payday thinking, “Ooooo. What are we going to be able to accomplish this pay period?!” And this feeling is directly related to doing our budget!
This was so insightful. We do not currently write out a budget and stick with it in my household, but I feel that doing so could help out a lot. Lookinf forward to this budget template to see how you guys get it done!
Thanks Jessica! Let us know if you need any help with the budget template! We’d be happy to help! 🙂
I really enjoyed reading your blog… I am a firm believer in budgeting and not wasting money… I know a few people that I am going to suggest read your blog on a daily basis… okay… I will be sending this out to my children… thanks for sharing!
You’re welcome, and thank you for checking us out!Sometimes kids might not take the info/advice from their parents, but they will from other people. Gotta love when they do that! Lol. I’m sure we were all guilty of it at one time or another. So please do send anyone this way who you think will benefit from the information!
Do you have any tips handling the standard monthly expenses?
Sure. If you subscribed and received our budget templates I would recommend building a template with your standard monthly expenses already in it. If not, find a way to maintain these values in your budget from month to month. That way all you have to do is determine what is NOT standard for that month and fill in your budget. This will make the process of budgeting less time consuming!
Great read, I always get stressed out talking about money or budgeting tho, any tips on how to avoid those feelings ?!
I definitely understand those feelings. I don’t know if they are avoidable honestly though. I think if you really want to change your situation with money you have to face those feelings and push through the uncomfortable parts of it. The other thing to remember is that you aren’t going to fix it all in a day. It’s going to take time.
Hey Luke. I’m sure that you aren’t alone in your feelings. Assuming that you’re talking to your spouse about it, I would suggest that you make sure you’re talking about it at the right time and without any distractions. Maybe even give your spouse a heads up that you want to talk about your finances/budget at some point during the day. That way she can be somewhat prepared as well. Also, until you’re more comfortable discussing it, try limiting the conversation to 10-15 minutes. That way it’ll give you enough time to get your thoughts out there, but it’s not so much time that one of you lose interest or become overwhelmed.
Awesome and intriguing read! I totally agree you when you say budgeting forces communication between you and your spouse. When there are money issues it can spill over into every area of your marriage. Communication is key. Once again awesome job guys!
Thanks Sharmaine! It definitely can spill over into other areas of your marriage, and doing a budget can help avoid that at times.
Great posts! And great teamwork!
Thanks Nathan!
Very well said!! My my my, I can definitely see how it would help across every area of your relationship. I just started budgeting in January 2017 and it is the best thing I have ever done in my life. A big yes to everything above. I could have saved myself so many headaches in our relationship. I manage the finances in the family and for years I struggled with talking about it with my hubby fearing he might think I am checking up on him or he might ask me too many questions, or feeling he is not interested so I will not say anything. But now, in just a few months we are in it together. Thanks for helping in so many many ways.
Amazing! I’m glad it helped! 🙂
I’m glad that using our budget template has helped you in more ways than one. Regardless of when you started, the most important thing is that you did start!