Nine Steps of The Financial Integrity Program
Transcript: Nine Steps of The Financial Integrity Program Holly: I’m Holly Thomas from Microsoft Office. I’m here today talking with Vicki Robin, co-author of the best-seller, Your Money or Your Life: 9 Steps to Transforming your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence. Vicki, thanks for being here. Let’s dive right in. Let’s say I’m in financial trouble and I need to get a grip on my finances really quickly, what are the steps I need to follow? Vicki: We ask people to ask the question of their expenses, “Does this make me happy in proportion to the hours of my life I invested in it?” Not just, “Does it make me happy in general,” because every little shopping moment is a thrill until you get to the car. “Does this bring me lasting satisfaction?” For example, you might say, “Yeah, I want the SUV.” But then if you do the calculation you realize that that car could cost your 3-1/2 years of your life in hours. What are you doing? You’re driving it back and forth to work so that you can pay for the SUV. So you become a aware of that process. In asking that question you might say, “Look, I already have a car. It’s a perfectly fine car, and I don’t want the SUV. It’s not we’re saying SUV’s are wrong, we’re simply saying, “Do the calculation and if that works for you, then go ahead and buy it.” The second question is, “Is this expense of my hours of my life taking me towards my dreams, goals and values?” As I said, this brings in the wholeness of life. It’s like asking, “Is my money buying me a life I love?” If my dream is to travel around the country, then maybe the SUV works because I can pull my trailer. If my dream is to have a wonderful family life and spend time with my children, those 3-1/2 years of your job actually might be time that you’re not spending with your children. So that “values” question really makes a difference. Holly: It sounds as if what you’re really saying is, to think in terms of how you’re spending money as, “How are you spending your time? How are you spending your life?” Because that’s the equation. Is that right? Vicki: Yes! How are you spending your one wild and precious life? When you think about your life, let’s say you have 80 years, that’s it; those are the hours. You’re going to spend 1/3 of them sleeping, probably 1/3 of them working, and so your disposable life, the life you have to express everything … Your love for your family, your friends and your relationships, and time and nature … Everything else that matters to you in life has to fit in those hours. So some of your hours are devoted to money, you want to make sure that the hours devoted to money are contributing to a life you love. It […]
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