First off, thanks for taking part in this free e-course! I’m excited to be able to share some information with you about what is possibly the most boring topic imaginable: budgeting.
On a personal note though, this is right up my alley. When I started attending college there was one major that kept calling my name–accounting. They accepted me before I had my charisma bypass surgery. I was a natural from the start!
With that said, I warn you that this course is written by an accountant. What’s more is that it’s written about budgeting. Even more astonishing, I actually take the idea of budgeting extremely seriously. When you have no personality, these types of things become very important to you.
This course is broken up into 10 days. Over the course of ten days we’ll discuss everything from spontaneity to boxing, and marriage to dollar unemployment. I hope to keep this quite personal, and have written it in such a manner. You’ll hear my experiences and those of others with whom I’ve worked. My hope is to have you so consumed with resolve to get your financial house in order that you’ll be absolutely, positively dying to get on a budget. You do need a budget, after all.
If you have read any personal finance books you may not have realized this, but the vast majority of them are doing you a huge disservice.
Read carefully and you’ll notice that every “guru” mentions the need for a budget. Every one of them stresses its importance for…oh, about three sentences. Then they move on to catchier, more popular, more saleable things.
That’s the biggest problem people have with budgeting–it doesn’t sell. It’s not sexy. It’s not complicated. As a matter of fact, a lot of times an author sells a book on the illogical premise of over-complicating something that was simple to begin with. Not so with a budget – it’s just too straight-forward.
Sorry Mr. Guru, you don’t have a chance with this one. You’d best write about intelligent portfolio allocation or super-mega-rapid-debt-repayment-strategy optimizers.
I am, of course, being sarcastic. But the fact still remains that the budget is not given the attention it deserves. Again, it’s boring.
BUT, it is the ROCK upon which your entire financial life is built. It is your foundation. All other financial decisions are appendages to the budget. The budget is the tree. Your retirement plan is the fruit. The budget is the massive trunk, rooted deep into the ground, immovable by any force. The new car you want is the fruit. The house you want–the fruit. The college savings you’re dying to put away for your kids is, you guessed it…the fruit.
If the tree isn’t there, neither is the fruit.
Advice from a Guru: “Make sure you’re putting away at least 15 percent of your retirement into no-load mutual funds with solid track records.”
But you still need to find the 15 percent.
Advice from a Guru: “You can utilize many options to save for your kids’ college: 529 plans, ESAs, etc. It’s an absolute must that you begin putting money away today.”
But you still need to find the money.
Most financial books focus on the fruit. During this course, we’re going to focus on the tree. The fruit needs to come from somewhere, and that’s ALL we’re going to talk about (well, almost).
Tomorrow we’ll discuss the bad rap the budget has received and expose those dirty lies for what they are. In two days we’ll hit the First Rule of Cash Flow in depth.
Grab a pencil and paper and write down the “fruit” you would like to grow from your financial tree. What will you do?
Write down your financial goals. As we move through this course you’ll have your eyes opened to the reality of those goals–they are a reality. You just need to plant your tree, help it take root, and watch it grow.
