Good morning & happy Monday! I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
You can get everything money will buy without a lick of character, but you can’t get any of the things money won’t buy: happiness, joy, peace of mind, winning, relationships, etc., without character.
Zig Ziglar, author & motivational speaker, 1926-2012
With the Christmas shopping season in full swing (Happy Cyber Monday 😉), I thought this might be a good opportunity to share a very simple concept, but one that hopefully provides some valuable perspective.
Money. There are really only 3 things you can do with it:
- Spend it
- Save it
- Give it
When I think about it, everything we do with money falls into one of those 3 buckets.
Money that we don’t spend or give by turns into savings … if I didn’t spend it or give it then I saved it. Once it is saved then I can then spend it or give it at a future point.
Here’s the interesting thing … without a plan and without intentionality money not spent by default turns into savings and eventually if those savings are not spent they are gifted in the form of an inheritance.
In my career I have obviously observed lots of spending, savings and giving, but there have been plenty of times that those actions are not necessarily intentional.
A few examples:
No one I have ever met said “I would like to be broke,” and yet there are lots of broke people who had plenty of opportunities to save but chose to spend instead. The consequences of prioritizing spending over savings and giving oftentimes means that there are people who will not be able to live their best life in retirement because of lack of intentionality around their spending behavior.
On the other end of the spectrum, I have met a good number of people who actually struggle with spending. In my early years as a banker, there was a client in her 90s who was quite wealthy and did not have children … she saved a good portion of her income and every 6 months or so come in to purchase another $10,000 CD. As a young, naive 22-year-old I remember asking her as politely as I could “what are you saving for?”
There are extremely generous people who give so much to others that they hurt their own financial well-being.
I’m sure there are tons of examples of people you have observed where the spending, saving, giving dynamics were not balanced well.
All 3 of these components: spend, save, give, are extremely important … and I believe they all require INTENTIONALITY.
How much should I save? What and how should I give? What are my spending patterns / habits?
With intentionality the answer to all these questions can lead to an amazing place. Without intentionality they often lead to answers by default.
Matthew 6:21 says “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” I founded Intentional Wealth with the mission of helping people INTENTIONALLY align their heart with their finances.
It is a joy beyond belief for me to serve you in helping you accomplish that mission.
As we are preparing for the year ahead, I look forward to further discussions around how we can most effectively help you further align heart & finances in your spending, savings and giving.
As always, please never hesitate to reach out if there is any way we can support you along your journey.
Make it a great week ahead. 😊