Messages from Your Money, 1
“The federal budget,” I once heard a speaker say, “is first and foremost a values document. It states what is important to us, what we believe in, and what our goals are.”
I don’t recall the name of the speaker, but the message hit the mark. By its very nature, any budget— yours, mine, your employer’s—reveals priorities. If you don’t have a budget, however, you can glean the same information by looking at how you spend.
In fact, as the economy becomes less stable, jobs less certain, and prices higher, the time may come when, to survive economically, you need to re-evaluate your relationship with your money. Taking a look at the patterns you’ve developed, often without much thought, is the first step towards taking control of your finances going forward. Whatever you’re doing now, It’s Not a Life Sentence.
What does the way you use money say about you? If you’ve been paying your bills by check and keeping reasonable records, the tools for scrutinizing your spending are at your fingertips.
Time consuming though it may be, it’s a fairly simple process. Here are the steps:
- Determine your gross income for the year just past. (You can use a shorter time period, of course, but going back a year will give you a more complete picture.)
- Decide on the categories that will cover the vast majority of your expenses. (This process will not be helpful if you have a huge category called “miscellaneous.”) Some suggestions . . .
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- Taxes
- Include all federal, state and local income taxes
- Housing
- Include not only rent/house payment, but also property taxes, utilities, lawn and housekeeping services, equipment rental and repair
- Food
- Include restaurant meals and snacks
- Also, remember that much of what you spend at a supermarket may not be food (think shampoo, lotions, cleaning items, for instance), but unless you’re an overachiever, you may want to include such household products in this category for the sake of simplicity
- Health Care
- Include insurance premiums, drugs, medical supplies, and services of doctors, labs, hospitals, and therapists
- Transportation
- Include car payments, car insurance, gas, and repairs as well as the cost of any public transportation you utilize
- Retirement Plans and Savings
- Include contributions to both company-sponsored plans and those you are purchasing individually; also include what you deposit in your own savings account
- Entertainment and travel
- Include the cost of entertaining others in your home as well as things like movies and golfing, for instance
- Home furnishings
- Include such items as furniture, appliances, and flooring
- Charitable contributions
- Include donations to religious groups and other tax exempt organizations
- Interest on anything other than your mortgage
- Interest on your mortgage will show up in the housing category, but take a look at the whopping interest you may be paying on charge accounts
- Miscellaneous
- Inevitably, there are some expenses that don’t fall neatly into other categories; list them here
- Taxes
Having catalogued your expenditures, figure out what percentage of your income goes into each of these categories—or to others more appropriate to your lifestyle.
More later on messages from your money.
Mindfulness
I once worked with a colleague who, in leading group discussions, often used the word mindful. “I’m mindful of the time,” she might say, “and we need to move along.”
The word has a respectful ring. “I understand your concerns,” it seems to say, “but I’m constrained by the clock. I’m so sorry, but we have to turn to other matters now.” In this context, mindful means aware, cognizant of the limits of time and talk.
Recently, however, I was introduced to a much broader meaning of the term as I attended a meeting focused on concepts significant to the practice of Buddhism. One of the presenters frequently used the word mindfulness and it soon became apparent that for her the term had deep significance. Finally, one of her listeners asked, “What do you mean by mindfulness? What is it exactly?”
“To me,” the speaker replied, “it means being fully present in ‘the now,’ focused, aware of my body, of where I am, of what I’m doing, of what I’m saying, of what’s being said to me, of the people immediately around me. It means being fully engaged in the moment.”
When you stop to consider, the significance of that concept is awesome. How often are any of us, as we go about our daily lives, “fully engaged in the moment”? Driving a familiar route, we’re abruptly—or so it seems—at our destination with little memory of how we got there. On the way, we’ve rehearsed an upcoming conversation, worked up a mental “to do” list, worried about problems confronting our kids, taken a cell phone call—all this while at the wheel of a potentially lethal machine! (And have you, like me, ever wondered, “Did I stop at all the red lights?”)
The ability to multi-task in our culture is often admired. Yet we wonder why we feel so fragmented, so scattered, so beset by others’ demands. In a recent speech, Jon Kabat-Zinn, internationally known scientist, writer, and teacher of meditation, observed that he now could get more work done in a day than he could in a month 25 years ago. This is possible, he said, because of our 24/7 interconnectedness. However, there’s a downside. Because of our “always-on” world, it’s easy to become so consumed by the demands of others that you lose touch with your own life.
I doubt that total mindfulness is attainable. But consciously moving into what Kabat-Zinn calls the “nowscape” at times of your choosing every day is an achievable goal and an important step in getting in touch with the core of who you are.
I do a circuit training workout first thing in the morning almost every day. After my workout, I stretch. I used to dread the stretching—too slow, too boring, too inactive after a couple of rounds of the circuit. Now, however, I’ve discovered that stretching is, for me, the perfect activity for practicing mindfulness, focusing on my breathing, feeling my muscles tense and relax, noticing how movement in one part of my body affects my whole being.
It’s a start. It’s refreshing and I highly recommend it.
