Much like I attempt to live the rest of my life I use to have a “carpe diem” attitude about money. The word budget sounded horrible to me. Deprivation seemed like a perfect synonym. That was before I learned how to be intentional with money and enjoy life at the same time.
Two different approaches to money
For the most part, I’ve always been responsible with money. Upon getting my first job after college I paid off any debts and with encouragement and help from my father started a Roth IRA. Beyond that, I had zero financial goals. The idea of going out to eat for a third time that week or dropping a hundred dollars at TJ Maxx seemed like no big deal. I was paying with cash and I was enjoying my life. But was I really? I could afford it. But could I really?
Jamie on the other hand has always been a saver. He didn’t spend money….on anything. To put it blankly he was cheap. Beyond frugal, just plan cheap. Sure he was able to save lots of money this way, but was he enjoying his life either?
We met in the middle
The way Jamie and I both looked at money in the past was flawed. Fast forward to the present day and change has taken place in both of us. We have come to meet in the middle. You can hear more about our money story and evolution in this podcast we recently recorded. It’s available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Learned how to be intentional with money
We did this because we learned how to be intentional with money and still enjoy our lives. Being intentional with money means knowing how much money you have and choosing how to deliberately use that money to live the best life possible for you and your family. Having goals and values guide you in that choice. This will look drastically different for everyone.
What it doesn’t mean is mindlessly spending on things that don’t align with what you actually want in your life.
It also doesn’t mean not spending any money ever. Saving every dollar. Depriving yourself of everything. That’s not being intentional with your money either.
The only real asset you have is your time
If you need help finding financial motivation read Your Money or Your Life. This book completely shifted the way I look at money and my carpe diem attitude I thought I had towards it. Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez beautifully sum it up. “Money is something you trade your life energy for. You sell your time for money…the only real asset you have is your time. The hours of your life.”
Or Henry David Thoreau…
All of these powerful quotes helped me realize the actual cost of the money I was spending and the true cost of that 100 dollars I dropped at Target, on things I cannot even remember a week later. Was that how I really wanted to spend my limited amount of time on this earth? Or were there other things that are perhaps more important to me.
The answer was yes.
Jamie and I now have joint money goals and a shared spending plan which is basically a more attractive word for a budget. It reminds me of what we are doing. Planning the best way to use our money so we can actually “carpe diem”. We have goals that meet our daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly wishes. We are enjoying our life along the way, as well as setting ourselves up to enjoy our life in the future.
We’ve learned how to be intentional with money so we can use it as the tool that it is, to help us get the most out of this one beautiful life we have been given.
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