Yes, even in this day and age of super scope financial accounting for our numbers there is a definite need for developing and maintaining a budget. In fact, due to recent economic factors, I would say that there is even MORE of a need to know and stay on top of our numbers.

Here we go – down the scary path of finding out what we have, how to keep it and most importantly, how to grow it.  When you are ready for budgeting, chances are you may have experienced a ‘bottom’ of sorts. Completely ran out of money and the only way to go was up. Declared bankruptcy and finally declared ‘no more’.  You experienced so much frustration, fear or anxiety around your money that something had to be done.  It never hurts to get help, but a lot of us can’t do it unless we have run out of options and tried every resolution on our own -however long that takes.

So masked in the autonomy of the internet – do I dare go there and bare my soul with my indebtedness story?  What are the repercussions? Will there even be repercussions? Let’s go.

Following a divorce and with the decision to spend money on a therapist I recall succinctly letting her know early on that “if I was ‘going down the tube’, I was going to do it my way!” We both burst out laughing mainly because I didn’t know any other way of living my life and wasn’t interested in hearing what others had to say about what I should or shouldn’t do, directly or indirectly. I was not depressed at all, just filled with anxiety (my favorite not-okay feeling) around money matters.  I had $ 3.84 to my name at the time and had hit an obvious bottom.

In the weeks and months ahead I got it together enough to ask for help and put all my focus on my spending habits. It is so important to get to the emotional energy behind the numbers and that is exactly what I did.  It is equally important to put pencil to paper in order to connect in a real world sense as well as to actually ‘touch’ the money compared to using plastic. This has a really significant impact.

You know the saying “wherever you put your focus is what is going to change and evolve?” or something like that. Such a true and life changing process.  Early memories are that I loved bags and couldn’t stop shopping for them. I turned that into a game of ‘let me have the money in hand BEFORE I bought something’ or otherwise known as the ‘cart before the horse’ scenario. It actually worked!  I would often repeat to myself that “if I was meant to have it, it would still be there when I could purchase it.”  There are lots of little tricks and tips to getting what I wanted and they all came true – just not all at the same time. Accomplishing this in conjunction with building a savings account with various reserve categories and finally having a sense of financial freedom and security has been one of the best investments that I have made in my life.  What a great lesson to learn and path to be on!

After much meditation, chakra clearing and the power of an abundant mindset, it all comes down to ‘just expect’. Forget the manipulating, fretting and worry. They are wasted emotions.