Strategy

 This blog is changing to more of a life strategic/ financial focus, and I removed all personal references in the blog.  I will not be disclosing my life on it, and any relationship or lifestyle posts will have more of a general perspective.  However, I will be adding more of my life SKILLS and financial training and experience to help others.

For my first post in this perspective, I want to talk about strategy.  It is closely related to my post about accident vs intention.  No one is going to look out for you and your interests, so you need to make a plan for how you will accomplish them, or you never will reach your goals.  

This is more than simply making a budget of upcoming bills and planning your income to be able to exceed them, though that is important, as well.  This means making choices about what you do and when you do things.  For example, if you are living with high expenses that you do not need, you are hurting your ability to reach your goal by keeping them.  Sometimes, that means doing without things, EVEN IF YOU CAN AFFORD THEM, while you save for other goals.  If your expenses always rise to your income level, you will stay in place with your progress towards reaching the levels you need for future things.  It also means that if a choice you would select will come with ADDED costs, you should wait until you have enough for ALL of the related expenses to do it, or you will be living tightly and not able to enjoy them.

An emergency fund is also a necessity.  I have not lived for more than a month in the last year without having to access an emergency fund for at least a few weeks or longer, due to unexpected expenses.  So, I always made it a priority to re-stock that emergency fund.  You should keep at LEAST the amount you have needed on average for expenses and probably double in case more than one thing happens in the same month.

It pays to save, but that is just one part of your strategy that you will develop.  However, THAT is the first step... think about what your goals are, what costs may come, etc and plan the path that creates the least friction and fastest accomplishment of your goals to reach greater happiness.