Pre and Re Views
Tomorrow I will be going in for a review of my contract with a major client (I am an independent software developer/contractor) and I’m hoping that all of my hard work will pay off and they’ll award me a contract that will at least cover inflation. If its more my wife and I have already discussed how we’re going to handle an increase in stable income. Its not that we’re focusing on getting more money, more money won’t make us happier or better people, but instead we’ve already planned where our income will go so that it doesn’t simply become outgo.
Many people get a raise and then immediately find somewhere for that money to go so that they can have more stuff or attempt to keep up with some trend. While this isn’t absolutely wrong on a moral level I would encourage readers and folks to consider the options that they have when it comes to saving or investing your finances. We haven’t got six months of living expenses saved up and we’re interested in getting to the point where that is the case so that we can further tackle strong investing ideas. I have a friend whom I will call Mark who has said for about as long as I’ve know him that whenever their family is the beneficiary of a raise they just tuck the difference from their old salary and the new salary away into the bank. What this means over time is that if they have to take money out of their emergency fund they can because it is well stocked, and otherwise other than inflation and areas where their cost of living might go up they don’t automatically spend the difference. They don’t treat it as windfall money, they don’t treat it as spending money, the treat it as an investment into their future.
If you can preview your budget and plan out ahead you will more than likely find events like raises and bonuses to be quite liberating and not a new distraction. The future you will know how to handle the scenario because you’ve already got a plan for the money and the implementation won’t be something new to handle either. Keep your focus on your plan and you should see growth accumulating again and again.
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