The hardest part of budgeting your money is at the beginning. Budgeting requires you to face the facts and your true numbers and it can be challenging to set spending limits, especially if you are not used to it. However, a monthly zero-based budget is the pillar of financial control. It helps you reach your goals, buy a home, and send your kids to college. Any serious effort to win with money must begin with a monthly zero-based budget. But what happens when budgeting gets hard? Consider the alternatives. If what you are doing now isn’t working for you or if you’ve tried budgeting before and quit when it got hard it is helpful to get back to the basics. We’ve compiled 5 reasons to keep budgeting even when it is hard.
5 Reasons to Budget Even When it’s Hard
1. Budgeting is the fastest way to find the life you want.
All of us hope for a better future but how many actually have a plan to achieve it? Budgeting even when it is hard means that your spending is aligned with your long-term life goals. Many of us dream of that day we’ll get that dream house with the dream kitchen. (Our dream kitchen always has an island!) Well, if you really want your dreams to come true, the fastest way to get there is to use a monthly budget. Tell your money where to go and what job to do instead of wondering where it went. Budgeting maximizes every dollar so you can get the life you want faster.
2. If you quit budgeting when it is hard, you won’t reach your goals.
Are you tired of living paycheck to paycheck and paying bills late? Do you always feel like there is not enough money to cover your expenses? Not sticking to a budget lets dollars slip through the cracks only to be used on purchases that don’t fit your priorities. Any money you earn or receive that is not directed toward your priorities slows your progress.
What are your priorities? My wife and I wanted to be able to take some vacations, improve our home, and retire with dignity. We really wanted to be able to leave some form of a financial legacy for our children. So when we spend outside of our agreed-upon monthly budget we are simply delaying (or even preventing) reaching our goals. It is not when you keep what matters most front and center in your mind and translate that into your monthly budget.
Establish your goals and priorities with your spouse, if married.
Couples should always manage their money together. You can’t reach your goals rowing your boat in opposite directions. Check out this article on how successful married couples handle finances.
Build a monthly zero-based budget aimed at those goals.
Use our free zero-based budget PDF template. Later you can move to a digital app however budgeting on paper first is a helpful way to see all the numbers at one time right in front of you.
Stick to your budget and consider the alternatives when tempted to spend un wisely.
Sticking to your budget even when it gets hard can be a challenge. To keep your focus, consider the alternatives. Ignoring your money will never end well.
3. Budgeting isn’t just a plan for your money, it’s a plan for your life!
Without a vision or goal for your future, it is easy to drift aimlessly through your life. “Aim at nothing and you’ll hit it every time.” (Zig Ziglar) Budgets reveal what your money is really doing. It opens the door for you to redirect your income and expenses toward a more productive future. Without a vision or goal for your future, it is not surprising that your money is walking away to other things and keeping you broke. Budgeting is not just a plan for your money, it is a plan for your life!
Begin Now
Create a monthly zero-based budget. A zero-based budget is important because it helps to make your goals and dreams possible.
Allow yourself to dream
Decide on what you want your future to look like and begin budgeting accordingly. Would you like to have a comfortable retirement? How about the goal of paying for your children’s college education with cash? These things will not happen without intentionality and advanced planning. So allow yourself to dream and believe that those dreams can come true. The budget each month with those goals in mind.
Create goals
When we have goals our decisions, especially with money, tend to form themselves around our goals. In other words, simply having goals and acknowledging them can help improve our management of money. Creating goals, similar to allowing yourself to dream is a great way to move your money from lack of direction to intentionality.
4. Planning your money with your spouse makes your relationship stronger.
Without question of of the biggest benefits of budgeting with your spouse is the improvement in communication. Not budgeting together leads to hiding expenditures and income which is not only counter-productive to healthy finances, it is a dangerous mistake to make for the marriage as well. Communicating with each other and keeping your money in the open encourages both of you to submit your spending to your agreed-upon priorities. As you begin to notch financial wins and your work together starts to paint the financial and life picture you both wanted, you’ll feel a closer bond in your marriage. Budgeting requires consideration of the details and the discipline to stick to it. All that communication and the accompanying wins you both begin to rack up will lead to a closeness that might surprise you. Budgeting together is a strong signal of future success. I promise!
5. Your debt will always stay with you if you don’t “budge it”.
Debt is a financial product that is so widely available to almost everyone in America that it is difficult to find anyone who lives without debt. And yet I’ve never found anyone that wouldn’t love to be debt-free today if they could make that happen. No one wakes up one day and mysteriously finds themselves free from their financial debt. To pay off your debt and find the financial independence you want it takes a plan. And that plan is called a budget! Let’s face it. Your debt will always be with you unless you have a plan. So get busy pushing back on the social norm and begin using a zero-based budget today to kick debt out of your life.
Even When it’s Hard, Budgeting Your Income is the Best Way to Get Financial Stability
The hardest part of learning how to budget your money is at the beginning. However, a monthly zero-based budget is the pillar of financial control. It helps you reach your goals, buy a home, and send your kids to college. The first couple of months are spent learning about your current spending habits and “dialing in” your budget. By the third or fourth month, you will have ironed out most of the rough places. When you hit rough patches or wonder if budgeting is worth it, remember the alternatives. Chances are you are researching budgeting now because what you are currently doing isn’t working for you. Change that and begin your budget today.
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