Did anyone else’s eyes water a little bit when they got their first “big kid” paycheck? Because mine certainly did.
People love to ask kids what they want to be when they grow up. My most common childhood responses to that question were a grocery bagger, a mail carrier, or a landlord. One of my most beloved toys growing up was a McDonald’s play kitchen, equipped with a cash register and burger-making station. When I invited my neighborhood friends over for a bit of theatrical part-time recreation, my role was never fry cook. I acted as store manager, supervising my fellow elementary schoolers with surprising enthusiasm. It is a known rule amongst my friends and family that you do not, under any circumstances, want to play Monopoly with me because I am a relentless negotiator who loves to trash talk.
These stories may not encourage you to attend a social gathering with me any time soon, but they do illustrate a very important part of my personality: I love money. I love talking about money, reading about money, and creating strategies to grow money. Money keys you in on peoples’ relationships, goals, and psychological triggers. Money is a universal language that too many people never learn how to speak.
In my opinion, money’s most important role is serving as a tool to get you where you want to be in life. That could be living on a beach in Tahiti or raising a family in a Victorian-style home on Meridian. Despite the examples that I opened this blog with, I’m not a top hat-wearing tycoon whose greatest wish is to hoard money until I die mysteriously in my manor atop a hill (does anyone else love The Westing Game as much as I do?). In fact, my greatest career aspiration is to retire from full-time work by age 50.
Any financial goal‒whether it’s retiring before your gray hair starts to show or planning for your first baby‒should start with a solid financial plan. The beauty of financial planning is that you can make it exactly what you want it to be. All this goes to say that our relationships with money are incredibly personal. They’re influenced by our upbringings, our personalities, and even our social media feeds. No financial plan will be a one-size-fits-all solution; in fact, I believe this mentality can be just as damaging as having no financial plan in place at all. I’m not a certified financial planner, but I am a girl with over five years of personal financial data (and some beautifully designed interactive charts) saved on her laptop. With that in mind, here are some of my favorite money tips:
- Make a budget and put it somewhere you will actually see it. This is the first step! If you don’t know where to start, remember that it all comes down to your income minus your expenses. Do you know your bi-weekly paycheck amount? Do you have access to your monthly debit and/or credit card statements? Boom – your budget is done! Check out this basic template I created to help you start out.
- Find your non-negotiables and factor them into your monthly spending. I see at least three movies at the theater per month. This is a personal ritual that I started in college to help me decompress and get out of the house. Some would find budgeting $40 a month for movie tickets to be wasteful and unnecessary. To those people I say, exactly, which is why you shouldn’t budget for movie tickets! If you love golfing and know that your $100 per month club membership is the only thing that gets you through Friday afternoon work meetings, budget for it. Whether it be movies, golf, baking, or something else, find what matters the most to you and make sure it’s in your budget.
- Pay yourself like you pay your landlord.This article explains five basic types of retirement accounts. Did you know that you can set many of these plans to autopay? You can pay yourself the same way you pay a credit card or utility bill. If you’re drawing a blank on what retirement accounts you even have…my email address is alyssa.huffman@orrfellowship.com. Let’s grab coffee sometime!
- Challenge yourself to reduce your consumption. If you spend more than an hour with me, you will hear me complain about how much I hate driving at least three times. One of the reasons I have such a love-hate relationship with my car is because it’s a massive money pit. You have to pay to insure it, fill the gas tank, register it with the BMV, and get it worked on every few months. I only need to fill my gas tank an average of once per month, and that’s because I designed my life around being able to walk, bike, or bus whenever I can. Small changes add up, especially when those choices force you to be more active or think about your individual environmental impact. Find ways, whether it be through transportation, shopping, or entertainment purchasing habits, to reduce your consumption.
- Audit your social media. How many posts on your social media feeds are there solely to sell you something? How often do you see people online that you haven’t talked to in years, but you know what type of car they drive or where they last went on vacation? Connecting with people online has plenty of benefits, but there’s no denying it: social media is designed to separate us from our money. Try using time limits on your social media apps or even deleting the ones you rarely use.
- Understand your financial triggers. If I have a bad day, there’s a good chance that one of three things will happen: I’m getting Taco Bell for dinner, I’m going to Half Priced Books and coming home with a stack of paperbacks, or I’m going to practice piano until my fingers start to cramp. Two of these options involve impulse purchases that I almost always regret within 24 hours. What are your financial triggers and how do you deal with them? Acknowledging that we can use money to avoid properly dealing with stress can help prevent headaches in the long run.
- Establish a waiting period for big purchases. Last year, I almost spent $1,000 to see Taylor Swift on one of her Eras Tour stops in Detroit. However, I forced myself to wait two weeks before committing to the purchase because that ticket was going to cost me more than one month’s rent. During that time of monk-like internal reflection, I realized that I had no desire to drive myself to Detroit and attend a massive concert by myself. Yes, I own an original copy of Taylor Swift’s debut album on CD, but $1,000 was simply too much to pay to see her live. I now make myself wait at least a few days before buying anything that’s going to cost me more than $100. I keep a running document of things I’m thinking about buying and revisit it every week or so. Consider starting your own wishlist and see if it helps you prioritize your purchases.
At the end of the day, money is an unavoidable part of all of our lives. Planning for the future is one of the things that gets me up in the morning, but making spreadsheets isn’t everyone’s idea of a fun Friday night. If you have questions, need some friendly non-professional advice, or just want to complain about the housing market, you’ve got my email address. In the meantime, I can’t wait to invite you all to my Big, Bold, Blowout Retirement Party in 2050!
Written by Alyssa Huffman.
