Why An Allowance May Solve Your Financial Woes?

Do you have any money for yourself after you pay your bills; you know, do you have personal money? Do you ever feel bad that you work, get paid, and have no money left for yourself? Does personal money mean you’re using unpaid bill money? Is there no money left for me? In this episode of Today-is-Friday, we discuss a strategy for you to have some personal money. Yes, a way to have your own money without the pain of jeopardizing your budget. You need money you can spend on yourself anyway you choose. Running your life is your business; let’s do life the way your desire.

Before we get started, let me place this out of your mind. This is not a post that says to “heck, h e c k” with the bills or you no longer have to have discipline in your spending. If you want any of the Kerry A. Clark & Co team principles to work in your life, you must have a plan. The plan is for you to execute-have discipline and achieve your goals.

The Problem Has Been Found
The reason any person needs a plan is to solve some problem, a problem they’re having with their life, their business. You identify something that could be better and now you desire to have better. You make a plan and that plan leads you to the desired place. The problem we found was that we didn’t have any money leftover to spend on ourselves. We didn’t make any available. Pamela would spend and each month during our monthly budget review, she hated the questions about why she spent what she spent on whatever. Needless to say, she did not look forward to budget night which I loved and she hated. So since we had a problem, we didn’t just live with it, we put a plan together to overcome this issue.

You see the facts are: 1) you’re spending on yourself anyway, but it’s unplanned and 2) we allowed this to be a problem. You always spend money on yourself, but it only hurts when you don’t plan for it. Let’s say you needed more perfume, it’s not budgeted so where does the money come from? Without a plan it upsets what you do have budgeted. Stop letting the budget get thrown off and expect the unexpected.  You know personal items are going to be purchased so why not plan on it. Study your spending habits so that you can put something in place for this.

Just a few years ago, I decided that I wouldn’t continue to question my wife’s spending habits to the degree that I had been doing. I decided to come up with a way for her to spend and it didn’t impact me or our budget. After studying our finances and much prayer, the answer came from our past; something we never considered for ourselves.

Our Allowance
Most of you might be able to relate to this. Maybe when you were young, your parents gave you an allowance or maybe you give your child an allowance today. At any rate, this is how it works. You give your child (ren) a set amount of money and they can use it any way they desire. When it’s depleted, it’s depleted and they have no more funds to spend on themselves until the next allotment. It teaches them how to handle money, but what did it do for the parent. It taught the parent to not worry about how the money was spent. The parent knew that their budget had an allowance fund for the children.
In the same way as children received an allowance, what if we gave ourselves an allowance. What if you had money you could spend anyway you so desire and once depleted you had to wait until your next allotment?

This is what Pamela and I do. We initially setup Google Wallet cards.  Unfortunately Google no longer offers these debit cards, but suggested the “Simple” card which we and our family love.  Each pay period, Pamela and I receive our allowances. It’s the coolest principle we practice. It doesn’t interfere with our bills and we have no reason to be concerned with what each other spends our allowance on. It has made a world of difference not only in our finances, but in our relationship. In this way you get a 2 for 1. We have our very own personal expense allotment.

Today is Friday!
What if there was a way for you to have an expense card setup? What if you could have just a small amount to spend anyway you desired? Hassle free money! I suggest you give this process at least a try or tailor one for your family.

Question: What would having an allowance make possible for you, your spouse and your family? Leave a comment below or click here to email me (or tweet me).   Also, if you’re interested in implementing and have questions, click here to email me (or tweet me).