November 27, 2008
The pie I am referring to is of the chart variety. Specifically, it is the pie chart produced by Quicken or Microsoft Money.
Before the weekend is over, create a pie chart of the categories of your spending over the last year. See where your money went, and in what percentages.
Why don't we do this? Because we suspect the truth. That pie chart will be a pie-in-the-face chart.
Here is a Thanksgiving ritual that we should all go through the day before Thanksgiving. If we are going to be thankful, we should be specific.
How much money came in? Where did it go? For which piece of the pie chart are we most thankful?
I'll bet you didn't participate in this ritual yesterday. Or last Thanksgiving.
Like a candlelight service on Christmas eve, like a sunrise service on Easter morning, we say, "Maybe next year." We pass.
We shouldn't.
That pie chart tells us what our priorities are. It tells us where our money went, and, far more important, where our time went to get that money.
In the good old days, it was our check stubs that told us what are priorities are -- really are, not just what we tell ourselves they are.
Today, we can go high tech. With a $65 piece of software plus downloads from our on-line bank accounts, we can produce a pie chart that screams at us: "This is your life!"
We don't even need to buy Quicken or Microsoft Money. We can get Quicken for free on-line, or its superior rivals, Mint and Wesabe.
We can budget our money, which is a surrogate for that more painful and more crucial budget, our time. We can get more money if we get more time. When you're out of time, you're not going to get more money.
To budget money wisely, you must first budget your time. To budget time wisely, you must first set your priorities. This means setting your goals.
I have posted a free manual on this site that helps people set goals. I'll bet you have not downloaded it, let alone printed it out, let alone started it, let alone implemented it. It's here:
Time gets away from us. Do you remember last Thanksgiving? Remember the big game?
Probably not.
Will you remember this Thanksgiving next Thanksgiving? If you read all four of my posts today, I hope you will be able to answer "yes."
Think of all my subscribers who will read none of them. 80%? Probably.
This gives you a head start.
But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass [mirror]: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was (James 1:22-24).
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