Financial well-being can’t be measured by merely looking at how much you earn.  

Saving money only works when there is a gap between what you earn and how much you don’t spend. This is the figure that matters most!

Let’s compare an exercising weight loss program to saving money. 

Researchers have found that most people who exercise for weight loss either lose no weight or not nearly as much as they should! The reason for this is simple. Exercising makes you feel like you accomplished something healthy, which can then rationalize a post-workout food binge. For example, “eating a pizza” after a jog can feel like a nice justified treat! You’ve earned it right?  

But in reality exercise only works when the gains are not offset by a lot of eating. Right?

The same goes for Saving Money!

When you get an increase or a bonus, it’s only justified to spoil yourself a bit, or take the family on another beach holiday, start looking at the new model of your current car. You’ve earned it right?

You can’t blame people for this behaviour though. It is very tempting to spend more when your income increases. It is as tempting as eating something big after you exercise. It just feels earned and justified. It also doesn’t help that it seems everyone around you seems to be spending more either.

But all savings and real wealth relies on the ability to receive that extra Rand and say “I could spend this, and spending is great fun, but I am not going to because……”.  It’s the same as turning down a big meal after exercising and rather “banking” your physical efforts to reach your weight loss goal.

We should not lose sight of the fact that earning more will do little for building wealth if every extra Rand is offset by a Rand of new spending. Wealth at every income level has less to do with your gains and more to do with your ability to leave gains alone without cashing them in.

 

Three points to take home

Learning to live contently with less has the same effect as growing your income.

This is an opportunity for your IFA (Independent Financial Advisor) to add value in your financial life via influencing Investor Behaviour

Money is often a negative art.

It has more to do with the actions you don’t do.

Everything has a price, and prices aren’t always clear.

The price or the effort to exercise is not just the workout: it’s avoiding the post-workout pizza that’s a real effort right there. Same in finance.

The price of building wealth isn’t just the trouble of earning more money: it’s avoiding the post-earnings urge to spend what you have accumulated.

After all, who doesn’t want to have more money?

By Brian Price of Biglife Specialists in Retirement Planning

For more info on the size of Retirement Bucket Strategies see the article by Brian Price at https://biglife.co.za/2020/07/22/retirement-bucket-strategies/


main Source:         refer original article by  Morgan Housel      Visit www.youneedabudget.com