Giving Yourself Permission to Spend

George Krueger & Mary-Lynn Foster — Tue, 26 May 2009 15:12:05 +0000

Bigg success is life on your own terms. The five elements of bigg success are money, time, growth, work and play. Today we want to focus on money.

Some people struggle to save money in the first place because they love to spend it. Other people have no trouble saving it, but they get uncomfortable spending it.

___

I grew up with one of each. I’ve never seen research on this, but I bet that happens fairly often. Mom was a saver and Dad was a spender. I learned from both of them.

___

So I know the answer to this, George, but share with everyone which one you are.

___

I think I’m both so I face this internal battle – there are times when I swing to the savings side; there are times when I lean toward spending. The challenge for me is not letting it get out of balance when I shift one way or the other.

___

Both of us tend to spend on small ticket items. We’re not bigg ticket buyers so we can completely relate to one of our readers, Paul.

___

Bigg question

Paul sent us an e-mail about his dilemma. He’s a regular saver, but he has trouble spending it – especially on bigg ticket items. For example, he could comfortably take a vacation but he’s not sure if he should pull the money out of savings. He wants our advice.

Bigg solution

Reading between the lines, it sounds like Paul wants to spend the money but he’s afraid he’ll need it for something else. Here’s the bigg solution:

Set up a separate account dedicated to the next bigg purchase you want to make. Set aside a portion of what you save in this account.

Right now, you’re implicitly saving for these things, Paul. By planning for your purchase and explicitly saving for it (i.e. by stashing money for it in a dedicated account), you’ll feel comfortable buying it once you’ve accumulated enough money.

Since you’ve been saving all along, Paul, consider taking a portion of the money you have in your general savings account and seeding this account with that money. You may feel you have enough to take that vacation now. If that’s the case, go for it! Then use this separate account for your next bigg ticket item.

Live (a little) in the moment

It’s important for all of us to save for our future. It’s also important to live a little in the moment and enjoy life along the way. Otherwise, we risk forgetting why we’re doing what we’re doing.

So Paul’s going to save for a vacation. If you can’t afford that right now, plan for a weekend away. If that’s going to stretch your budget too much, plan for a nice dinner out this month. Maybe even that’s too much … plan for a nice meal at home. Make it an event. Every day … every hour … every moment is precious. Don’t fall into the trap of living too much for the future. Strike a healthy balance between now and then. That’s living bigg!

How do you save for bigg ticket items?

Share that with us by commenting below, calling us at 888.455.BIGG (2444) or e-mailing us at bigginfo@biggsuccess.com.

___

Get the tips and tools you need to be a BIGG success. Subscribe to the Bigg Success Weekly – it’s FREE!

___

Please join us next time when we discuss getting your employees to take a step toward personal leadership. Until then, here’s to your bigg success!

Subscribe to The Bigg Success Show in iTunes.

Subscribe to the Bigg Success feed.

Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file:
http://media.libsyn.com/media/biggsuccess/00401-052509.mp3

Related posts

The Deal of Your Lifetime

Savers Spenders and Investors

(Image in today's post from vranarc)

How Honest Should You be with Your Employees?

George Krueger & Mary-Lynn Foster — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 05:30:57 +0000

Clinton Korver wrote a great article for Harvard Business Publishing. He talks about his experience running a start-up and why it’s especially important during tough times to share information with your employees.

He says that he went against the advice of his venture capitalists. They feared losing employees, customers, and other investors if the bad news got out. Clinton found that being completely forthright strengthened his relationships with his employees.

——

One of my radio managers did that when our company wasn’t doing so well. I appreciated the honesty and how it put all of us on the same page.

——

Honesty is high on most of our lists of core values. However, do we really think that we should always be honest?

For example, picture yourself standing with your best friend adoring her newborn baby boy. You think he’s the least attractive baby you’ve ever seen. She’s going on and on about him, when she asks you the dreaded question …

Isn’t he the best looking baby you’ve ever seen?

Would you tell her what you really think? Or would you pick your words carefully to avoid hurting her feelings?

Of course, this is a different situation than the first one presented – being honest with your employees, even when things are not going well.

But it illustrates that there can be a second value at stake – the desire to not cause undue harm.

Is there a reason to tell your friend what you really think? What good will come from it?

——

I’ve come to believe strongly in open-book management. As a general rule, I think the more you share with your employees, the better. Having said that, I have found you also have to know your employees. Open-book requires a higher level of maturity from your employees. If that’s not present, sharing more just creates undue emotional distress.

——

The reason an ethical dilemma is a dilemma is because two or more core values at odds with each other. These situations flow up to the leader. You have to find a good solution.

It’s a personal decision. There likely will be disagreement on the best way to handle it. That’s why it’s so important to have a framework in place for these kinds of decisions.
This framework will help you:

be more efficient in making decisions like this

make decisions that are consistent instead of all over the board

build goodwill with all affected parties

respect the face you see in the mirror at the end of the day

We have a great resource that helps you set up the framework so when an ethical dilemma comes your way you’re prepared. It outlines the three steps to solving an ethical situation:

Know your core values

Select an ethical model that helps you apply those core values

Use a problem-solving process to work through the situation at hand