What Are You Budgeting?

Many of us have to live by a budget. Some people go over their budget. If you are budgeting money, going over budget can be embarrassing. You may not have the money to pay for the bills when they come due. You may have to wait to buy something new, or you may have to negotiate for more payments of less money until the debts are paid.

There are other things you can budget. You can plan how many times you go out to eat in a month. You can estimate how often and how much you drive your car. And, you can budget how many times you bring your lunch from home, and how often you get to go out for lunch on work days. The most important thing to budget is time.

Budgeting time correctly is nothing less than an essential defensive operation and needs to be run like one. The things you have vying for your time are remarkably complex. You have television shows which are designed to be addictive so that you will watch the ads.

There are the books you want to read, and the ones you read while waiting for your favorite authors to write another sequel. Social media wants you to share with others on their site so that you can see the ads. Social media ads offer you the world for free if you give them your email address in exchange for a free PDF about whatever they’re trying to really sell you.

You want to go to some people’s parties, and other people want you to come to theirs. You would like to spend more time with your family, or your extended family is pressuring you to spend time with them. And, I won’t even get started about all the games on the internet!

Pretty soon you have 10,000 emails waiting to be read, your sleeping through the things you really want to watch, and your life is nowhere near that grand vision you once had. What are you going to do?

Well to start with, the realization and the questions have to be sated by your answers and plans and yours alone. To do what others tell you usually will not work because those answers are not yours. So somehow, you have to know, or figure out, what you want and what you have to use to get there.

Can you do everything at once? Probably not. Yet, if you figure out what’s important to you, and you map out a plan you can stick to, you might find some real relief and possibly overcome some of the demands others are pushing on you.

Very rarely are the things that are good, also the things that are smooth and easy to do. Those doing something vital for themselves or others often find the road bumpy and filled with potholes. The work comes in filling the potholes and making the way to where you want to be a smoother ride.

Thank you for being with me today. I hope to be with you again tomorrow.

Author: Mike Balof

A retired Air Force Master Sergeant, Mike used to lay in bed at night and worry about what would happen if his plant closed or found himself without a job. One day his plant closed. Rather than panic and hysteria (OK, maybe a little) Mike found himself carried away on the adventure of his life. Mike started with the best job he ever had working at Home Depot. He spent 8 years working with job seekers at a local workforce center, helping them to find employment. He then started his own company developing courses, writing books and urging others to follow their own paths into the future. Mike holds a Master of Arts in Adult Education and Training and a Bachelor of Business Management, earned through the University of Phoenix and an AAS degree in Electronics Systems Technology from the Community College of the Air Force. Mike is a member of the Delta Mu Delta Business Honor Society. View all posts by Mike Balof