You Need a Budget: The Proven System for Breaking the Paycheck to Paycheck Cycle, Getting Out of Debt, and Living the Life You Want

by Jesse Mecham

What do I want my money to do for me? is about nothing less than deciding what kind of life you want to live, and then making a plan so your money can help you get there.

Following the tactic of asking why six or seven times as it relates to any one of your line items will help you peel back the layers of that priority and really see it for what it is.

The question stops being Can I afford this? You can likely afford lots of things if you have the cash on hand, but that’s not the point. You’re now asking yourself, “Does this move me closer to my goal(s)?” You’re considering the future ramifications of your decision in a very concrete way, and spending becomes about real trade-offs: “If I buy these shoes now, it will take me an extra month to hit my vacation goal.” You’ll quickly find that, when looking at your spending through this lens, you make great decisions! We already make trade-offs all the time, although we may not notice it because the trade-off tends to be vague and pretty useless. We think, “If I buy this, I’ll have less money. Am I okay with that?” Well, how can you know if you’re okay with it if you don’t have a real sense of what the difference really means to you? Our motivation never lasts when we decide not to spend because we want more money. We’ll always want more money—it’s an unattainable goal. We end up feeling deprived because we’re reining ourselves in by dangling an unreachable carrot.