Happiness research indicates that we humans are not very good at predicting what will bring us happiness. Many people follow their “gut instincts” to determine how to spend their time and money. But our gut instincts are more often than not based on emotions, not…
A compromise between the “unfun” aspect of having to plan every spending moment and the “fun” of impulse spending is to allow for some unplanned spending in your monthly spending plan. I’ve always suggested to my students that they add an “allowance” category to their…
Over the years I’ve heard my students and workshop participants complain that spending plans (i.e., budgets) were too restrictive, that they took all the “fun” out of spending, especially spontaneous (aka impulsive or unplanned) spending. While there surely are times when impulsive spending can provide…
Like financial resources, time is limited and it’s use involves trade offs. One reason we find ourselves stressed is that we try using more time than we have. In other words, we have more things to do than there is time to do them. One…
I’ve avoided this topic long enough, but there is no getting around it. What are the first things that come to your mind when you see or hear the word budget? Over the years I have met only a few people who actually have pleasant,…
Occasionally, some of my students would ask: “Why bother setting goals for the future when things never work out as planned?” My response to them was always something like “planning for the future doesn’t guarantee the future, but it increases the probability that the future…
If you completed the Fabulous Fifty exercise, you should have a top-ten list of the things you would like to do in your life. Look at the item that you decided was the most important. What will it take to get it done? In other…
