Tired of Living on the Leftovers?

In the Family Plan, we spend a lot of time and have more content in the financial section than any other.  The reason being, finances touch all parts.  Your financial position plays a huge role in how you handle the other departments you have in the business called “your life”.  In this post, I want to talk about expenses, but from a banking standpoint.

You’ll agree, especially if you study your finances (and you should), that there are several categories where your money falls.  Your income flows outwardly into several categories including, but not limited to, the following:

• Expenses
• Debts
• Retirement
• Personal or miscellaneous.

In a Family Plan, you plan for your money.  You decide what should happen and not let outside circumstance decide for you.  BTW – planning is not for the average person.  Most, 51% or better, live life without a plan and you can see for yourself where that gets them.  As for those reading this, begin working on your plan and let me add value where I can.  I’m going to outline just one solution on managing your “bill” money, your expenses; keep in mind there are more out there.

Segment Your Expenses
Many years ago, Pamela and I decided our bills were out of control.  Many times we had bills crossing with the checks in the mail.  Tweet me by clicking here  if you know what I mean.  More about that later, but for now let me tell you about how we separated our “bill” money from the rest of the money.  We found out there were no limits to the number of bank accounts or banks you could have.  Not only that but, our company’s payroll systems allow for multiple direct deposits.  With that, we were able to set different amounts to be deposited into different accounts.  Amazing, isn’t it?  So we decided to add up our monthly expenses.  Next, divide it by the number of pay-periods and have that deposited into an account we opened.  We called it our “bill” or “expense” account.  This separation was the best idea we ever had.  Not?  We got this from prayer as we prayed over what step we should take to get our money under control.  
Now we have an account that has our expense money separated and the rest was what belonged to us to spend.  #BillsFirst.  Here’s a little something extra, this included our tithe.  We treat tithing like an expense with one exception; it’s always first.

Learn to Live on the Leftovers
I don’t really mean learn to live on the leftover.  I really mean all you have to work with for yourself is the leftovers.  With that in mind you need to learn how to manage the expenses-your bills, so that they’re not increasing, but you’re finding ways to decrease your expenses.  In this way, you put more back into your pocket-the leftovers.
If you get the leftovers, it will give you the drive to find ways to reduce the expenses which at first will be huge.  Because of this segmented account, you’ll soon find ways to rid yourself of the expenses you don’t really need so that you can have the life and money you desire.  Less expenses mean more money for you to do with as you please.
Since you have a separate account for your expenses, you’ll need the same for everything else.  Pamela and I have our “Simple” cards.  This is where our allowance goes.  Yes, we get an allowance.  The catch is…the spending from our allowance isn’t tracked because it’s not bill money and we can do whatever we please once we get our allowance.  Note: allowance distributions don’t occur until all expenses have been settled and budget reviewed.  Tweet me by clicking here if you have a question you’d like to ask.  Learn to live not on the leftover, but for the leftovers.

Today is Friday!
Have you heard the account of how Jesus feed the multitude of more than 4000?  In this story, he started with very little, not even enough to feed 2 men.  However, He took this meal, all He had, and did something with it.  He blessed what He had.  Seemingly, you should bless and be thankful for what you have.
He organized the recipients to which He needed to distribute what He had.  You will need to organize your recipients, the multitude of financial obligations you have, even if it means setting up different bank accounts.  Next, He began to distribute what He had.  You can then distribute what you have to meet your needs.
 Lastly, He collected more leftovers from what started out as not enough.  You too will begin to collect more from paychecks that started out as not enough.  How?  With a plan.

What can you do today to get your plan moving? Leave a comment below or click here to email me (or tweet me).