Day 5: Managed Money
I love managed money as much as I love easy money. So this is another one of my favorites.
- Definition: Managed money is the money that you are a good steward of, and you are responsible for. You know what it’s up to, and where it’s going, you tell it what to do, and you adjust as needed. It is money that you rule, not money that rules you.
- Method: Everybody has their own way of managing their money and my favorites are Excel, YNAB, and the newest one is auto pay. When I started out, I used pencil and paper, and it was just as satisfying.
- Average Earnings: The reason I’m sharing this as an income option is because the type of budgeting that I use pays me mentally and literally in value. I do something called “budget high, profit low”. This means that when I plan for the cost of something, I plan for it to always cost more than I think it will, and when I plan for the profit of something, I plan for it to profit me less than I think it will.
I’ve done this for eight years now and what happens is that when I plan for something costing $20 and it actually only costs $17, I automatically walk away with a $3 profit or the $3 becomes available to me again. Or if I am expecting a payment of some type, I plan to only get paid on the lower end.
For example:
$400 Expected Payment
$450 Actual
= $50 Profit
What this method does is give me a win one way or the other, and I can bet there’s a dopamine rush in my brain to see that something cost less than I thought SO now I have more money available than I thought OR I made more than I thought and now I have more money available to put to work. I haven’t met anyone who does it like this but I love it so much and I didn’t learn it from anywhere. It’s something that I do because I like it.
When I use Excel, YNAB I apply this “budget high, profit low” method.”
Auto-pay, (something I used to fear when I started out budgeting), I plan for coming out around 5 days in advance and I keep the money available in my checking account to cover the credit card expenses (I put most of my bills on credit cards now and pay them off in the same month + earning spending benefits (more on this later!).”
- Value: Peace of mind and responsibility; good stewardship pleases God, 100%. With that being said; money can be the root of some of our biggest stress, or one of our most valuable freedoms.
- Who is this good for?
This is good for anyone who needs to know they’re winning with money consistently. I am someone who needs that feeling and treasures that feeling. On that same note, as my family has gone from low income to high income to middle income to any income, God has made it plain that how we handle the money we have is so much more important than having all the money in the world.
- Please hear me: Things that kept us in a high place were how we handled the high money, and when we were in the middle and going up and down, it was our stewardship that made all the difference. There is nothing that feels quite like struggling with money because you know you wasted it or mismanaged it. I felt that way in 2016 when we were facing homelessness for the first time.
This is good for everybody!
- What do I do if I don’t like this? Learn to like it and I am someone who would love to teach you how but if not me, learn it anyway and start now!
I’ve enjoyed this week with you all, and I look forward to our next engagement whether in my new blog, the group linked in this thread or anywhere we connect.
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