Personal Success Relies Heavily on Budgeting, Which Most People Hate to Do.

Gary North

There are three major budgets in life, in order of importance: time, money, and calories.

The world puts these in reverse order. There are more diet books and diets than there are money-management books and strategies. There are time-management books and tools, but there is nothing comparable to Quicken or Microsoft Money in terms of general use by the public.

Yet in terms of lifetime success, time-management comes first, money-management comes second, and calorie-management comes third.

Note: If you are obese, you will find it difficult to get an entry-level job that serves as a career path. You must then master the first two budgets, so that you can start your own business.

Most people are unclear about their long-term goals. So, they are not highly motivated to budget. They tend to procrastinate when it comes to goal-setting and budgeting.

Budgeting should begin with goal-setting. Setting goals is like investing. Budgeting is like saving. They are inter-related, but budgeting should begin with this question: What do I want to do with whatever I save?

Before you begin to budget your time, your money, and your calories, get clear, specific answers to these three questions:

What do I want to achieve? How soon do I want to achieve it? What am I willing to pay?

To be a success, you must first answer these three questions clearly and in a detailed fashion. Then you must adopt a parallel three-part strategy of performance:

Do what you said you would do . . . or more. Do it on time . . . or before. Do it at the price agreed on . . . or lower.

There is a very useful page of calculators posted here. They can help you greatly with your budgeting.

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