A really useful exercise
“If you want a recipe for unhappiness, spend your time accumulating a lot of money and let your health and relationships deteriorate.” – James Clear
“More money is better.”
Do you agree with this statement?
I haven’t met anyone who wouldn’t like to have more money. We all seem to have an idea that more money will make our lives better. For some, more money seems to be the antidote to problems. Perhaps more money might mean more generosity or more fun. Perhaps more money will make you feel more confident. It might allow you some freedom you don’t feel like you currently have. Whatever your reason, if you find yourself agreeing with the statement “more money is better”, I want you try out this exercise.
Answer this question: What would you do with more money?
To do this exercise, you need to have a baseline understanding of what you spend on various categories. For example, your categories might look like:
Housing
Utilities
Home Maintenance
Groceries
Dining Out
Insurance
Cars (gas, maintenance)
Personal Health/Well being
Pets
Children
Childcare
Clothing
Subscriptions/Entertainment
Gifting
New Tech
Activities/Entertainment/Hobbies
Travel
Debt payments (if you have it)
Savings
Investing
Once you have an idea of your categories and what you spend in each, imagine your income increased by $1,000 a month. Where would you allocate that money? What about if it increased by $2,000 a month? How about $5,000 per month? $10,000 per month? Where would you allocate money differently? Which aspects of your life would you highlight or change?
A purpose in this exercise is to force us to think about what we value and what we already have. If we have more money, where do we put it to enhance our lives? When we reflect, where are we actually satisfied that we can acknowledge?
I accidentally did this exercise as I was projecting revenue for the year and I had a big aha moment: I’m really happy with what we have in our life. I frequently say “I *wish* we had more money” for various things, but when I did this exercise, most of the more money went to investing in our future. There was little that would enhance our lives now.
More money is often tied up in other narratives. For some, more money really does just meet the basic needs. But once our basic needs are met, what does more money do for us?
We will have more money in our lives. This is another way to prepare for when that happens so you can go into it with great intention.
Let me know what happens when you do this exercise. I’d love to hear how more money impacts you.