Episode 820 Limit Your Spending Or Align it
[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining me on episode 820 of the inspired stewardship podcast.
[00:00:08] Robert Farrington: [00:00:08] I'm Robert Farrington from the college investor.com. I encourage you to be inspired, to become a better steward through financial wisdom. By listening to this show, the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend Scott Maderer.
[00:00:23]Scott Maderer: [00:00:23] it changes them a bit, but not as much as it does to go from 30 to 75 or even from 50 to 80, those sorts of changes in that threshold level really make a big difference in the choices you make. But once you get above that, the choices change from one of degree to just. Tweaks additions. Welcome.
[00:00:47] And thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcasts. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for [00:01:00] your true calling in the inspired stewardship podcast. We'll learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence.
[00:01:09] So that you can impact the work
[00:01:12]in today's episode about investing in yourself through stewarding your treasures. I talk with you about how a budget is not about putting limits on your money. I also share how you have enough money to do almost anything, but you never have enough to do everything. And I also share how this lets you find security in things other than money.
[00:01:36] As we talk about stewarding your treasures, wouldn't it be great. If you could support this podcast and do it without costing yourself an extra dime. It turns out you can. All you have to do is use inspired stewardship.com/amazon. When you're ready to make a purchase via Amazon and a small commission, we'll come back to support the show.
[00:01:58] If you enjoy the [00:02:00] show, when you're ready to buy from Amazon, just use inspired stewardship.com/amazon. So one of the concerns that comes up or frustrations that comes up with people when they're talking about budgeting, is that, I don't want to do a budget because somehow or another, it puts limits on my money.
[00:02:18] And the truth is you always have limits on your money. Money is a finite resource. You only have so much money. At any one time. And it's really about making decisions about how do you use that money and put it in alignment with what you do or what you want to do or what your values are or what your priorities are.
[00:02:40] There's always an opportunity cost. If you use money for one thing, you can't use it for something else. There's always a choice to be made. The difference between doing a budget and not doing a budget is really, are you making those decisions intentionally and proactively? Are you making them reactively [00:03:00] after the fact you're doing things.
[00:03:02] And then you're trying to figure out what happened as opposed to you're planning, what will happen. And then you're executing. On that plan because you see the truth is most of us have enough money to do almost anything that we want, but we never have enough money to do every thing that we want. Here's the truth.
[00:03:24] I've worked with clients that make 30 or $40,000 a year. They obviously have a lot of constraints on their choices. There's only so much they can do with that much money there's constraints about where they can live there's constraints about what they can do for transportation there's constraints about what they can do when it comes to eating or entertainment or raising children or anything else.
[00:03:49] And then I've worked with clients that make 70, 80, 90, a hundred thousand dollars a year. And there's constraints there too. They have a different set of choices, but there are still [00:04:00] constraints. They're still limited on where they can live. They're still limited on how much they can eat out. They're still limited on what they can do around raising children.
[00:04:07] They're still limited on what they can do around all sorts of things. I've even worked with a client who made $250,000 a month because he owned multiple businesses. And that income coming in from all of those different businesses, drove his revenue very high, and he was actually able to take home over a hundred thousand dollars a month every single month without fail.
[00:04:34] And you know what? He still had constraints, no limits on where he could live. There were still limits on what choices he made around his family. There were still limits on choices of what he could do when it came to eating, to transportation, to all of these things, eggs in each of those cases, the choices were the same.
[00:04:54] What changed is what was available to them without. Going into debt or [00:05:00] without having problems or without having a crash or something go wrong. It was up around having extra provided more flexibility, but it still had constraints. And the recognition of this allows you to begin to move your mindset from one of money is the source.
[00:05:20]I need more money because at some point more money provides more security. And that's true to a certain level. If you're making $30,000 a year and you can double that and make $60,000 a year, it makes a huge difference in the choices that you have available. And if you can continue to raise that up to around $75,000 a year, most studies show that at that number.
[00:05:45] Now all of a sudden increasing your income doesn't necessarily really increase your stability or really increase your security. It doesn't add as much to your happiness or your joy. Instead. Now it's about [00:06:00] increasing freedom and flexibility, but not directly adding to your real happiness. And part of that is because up to 75,000, everything is driven by the amount of money you make.
[00:06:12] And then after that, yes, you open up new choices, but they're really more of a difference of degree rather than of kind in other words, buying a house becomes more possible than renting or buying a house becomes more possible at a nicer neighborhood at that threshold of somewhere around 75, 80, even a hundred thousand dollars.
[00:06:35] But. Willy and truly at a hundred to 150, it doesn't dramatically change the choices you have around where you live. It changes them a bit, but not as much as it does to go from 30 to 75 or even from 50. To 80, those sorts of changes in that threshold level really make a big difference in the choices you make.
[00:06:58] But once you get [00:07:00] above that, the choices change from one of degree to just tweaks additions. Now don't get me wrong. I've made over a hundred thousand dollars a year and I've made much less than that. And the choices that I had available to me were dramatically different. And it does happen that as you can increase your income at a certain level, It does help give you more flexibility, more freedom, the ability to own more of your own time, but there's a limit.
[00:07:28] And that lets you know that the truth is your security. Doesn't come from more money. Your search security doesn't come from any amount of money in the bank. It's not that you shouldn't have. An emergency fund or money in the bank. And it's not that you shouldn't work to make more, but it's, that's not where your real security comes from.
[00:07:47] Instead. Your real security comes from the assurance that you serve a higher power. It comes from the relationships you build with others. It comes from your faith, not your [00:08:00] finances at the end of the day. Thanks for listening.
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