I always ask my clients how much money they want to make and they often they tell me enough to pay my bills and have some money for fun things. Other times they will say I wish I made more money, my company doesn’t pay me enough. If I ask them how much that would be they rarely have a definitive answer.
Everyone has a different definition of enough.
What I feel is “enough”, will very likely be totally different than you.
So how do you know when you have enough? How do you determine how much your ideal life costs?
There are three areas that contribute to coming up with the answer:
- How much you truly need to pay your monthly bills and expenses
- How much money you need for expenses that come up every year but happen irregularly. This includes things like birthday gifts, auto repairs, doctor’s appointments, vacations and bills that come in quarterly or every six months. It also includes special purchases. This might be new furniture or a new car.
- How much you need to fulfill your dreams? This is things like the house of your dreams, money to start a new business, world travel.
1. How much you need to pay your monthly bills and expenses?
Figuring out how much you need to pay the bills is pretty simple. Create a basic budget, track your spending, including how much you need to pay off each month on any debt you have.
That will tell you exactly what you need to pay the bills today. There are a number of apps you can use to help you with this like Everydollar.com, YNAB.com and Moneygrit.com ®. I teach a few classes on creating spending plans and tracking a few times a year. In 2022 I’ll be offering one in April and one in June. I’ll let you know when they are coming up.
2. How much money you need to pay for expenses that come up only occasionally?
To determine how much you need for these expenses take a sheet of paper and then write down all the months of the year. Then month by month ask yourself; is there any one I need to buy a gift for, do I have any doctor appointments, does my car need any service, am I taking any trips this month. If there are expenses coming up that month write down the type of expense and how much you are planning on spending for each item.
When you have completed your list for all 12 months, add up all of the expenses for the year. That will tell you approximately how much you need for these types of things in a year. I would then add an extra 10 to 20 percent because there are always unexpected expenses that we just don’t think of.
When you combine step one and two you will know how much money you need to support your current lifestyle.
3. How much money do you need to fulfill your dreams?
This is my favorite part. What are your biggest dreams? To come up with this amount you need to give yourself some time to dream about what your ideal would be. Where would you love to live? What do you want to do and what do you want to contribute to the world? What causes do you want to support?
The process requires giving yourself permission to imagine all the details of what you would really want if you had the money. The hardest part of this is quieting your inner critic who will probably be suggesting that what you really want just isn’t possible so why even think about it or telling you that you don’t deserve to have your ideal. It will probably also be saying you really don’t need this all. Children are starving in other countries what makes you think it’s OK for you to have a lavish life?
You’ll need to remind yourself that there is enough for everyone and of course you deserve to have everything you desire. You may need some help unearthing what you want. I am offering a two-day online workshop called “Treasure Maps: A Tool for Creating Your Future” in January. The details are below.
The “Why” to clarify what you want lies in neuroscience which tells us that what you can envision you can make real if you commit to it and believe it’s possible.
- Make a list of all of the things you would need to buy to have your perfect life.
- Do some research to determine how much those things cost.
- Clarify how much you want to contribute to others if you do.
- Then tally up everything and see how much it would cost.
When you add up these amounts you will know how much you need in order to have enough. Once you know how much you need to create your dream life you can let your imagination take over and dream up ways of coming up with that money.
When I did these exercises, I was surprised to see that my dream life, my pie in the sky vision was actually very attainable. I was then able to start putting plans in place to increase my income and put money away to support my dreams.
With Love,
What do you want to create in 2022?
Join me for for
” Treasure-maps “
A Tool for Creating Your Future
A two day online workshop to help you clarify and envision your best year yet.
This is a hands on creative opportunity for you to create a visual representation of what you want. This will help you to see yourself living the life you seek and it will help bring your dreams into reality.
I use word press.