Remember getting an allowance, birthday money, babysitting money, or your first job? Do you wish – back then – that someone would have told you the importance of spending, saving, and giving?
As a kid, we like to spend the money we get right away. When we are in the store with our mom, we know exactly what we are going to buy “now that we have our own money.”
As an adult, investing seems to be the best place to put our money. Now, we are thinking seriously about retirement. But the market fluctuates; sometimes our investments are high, other times it seems as though we are losing all our money.
Just like the game of Monopoly, we buy Park Place, just so we have something to sell when our bank is low. But when we incorporate spending, saving, and giving into our monthly budget, it frees us to be responsible to pay the bills, prepare for future events, AND give us a little extra to give with our heart.
My story is quite simple, but as I was doing it, I did not know how it would impact my future crisis. As a young kid around 11 or 12, I decided to take all the “change” I had and place it in a jar (most can relate). EVERY weekend, I emptied my pockets from babysitting and put that change away.
When I started my first paying job, I leveled up. I took the “excess” from my paycheck and put that in a savings account. For example, if my paycheck was $431.25, I saved $31.25 from that check. This was in addition to continuing to put my pocket change away. As a mom, I set the example of giving every Sunday at church and to one charitable organization each year. Then my crisis hit. I was in a car accident. The doctors told my family they did not think I was going to make it. After 10 days out of surgery and an induced coma, the doctors told me I may not ever walk again. I had three kids at home, this was not ok.
Six weeks after my accident, I still could not move my legs. My girls visited me and told me they were “paying the bills” with the change in my jars. Three months later when I finally went home in a wheelchair, I was faced with no job and no income. But I had my savings. My family lived two years on the little pocket change I saved and the “excess money” from paychecks I received over the years.
I was never told the value of investing. So where do we start? Right where we are.
Make a plan today to start a budget. Add spending, saving, and giving to the budget. Remember, it is not a place we want to be, but sometimes the storm comes, and we need to be prepared.
As a mom, a survivor, and yes… a financial coach, I am here to help you take those first baby steps. The storms may be raging all around us but let us plant a hedge of protection around our family.
Contact me today and set up a time to go over your plan and how to best execute it. The best plans are the ones we put into motion. My calendar link can be found at https://linktr.ee/Carlisacares.
