PLAY MONEY Remember when I said your wants are just as important as your needs? Well, here’s where your wants come in. You budget your money and pay off your car and the car payment that you used to pay becomes ‘play money.’ When you maintain your credit rating and things like your car insurance gets reduced. Again: ‘play money.’ Your budget is on point, the cost of living goes up 5% and you get an increase in pay of 7%. That 2% difference between the cost of living and your pay is also ‘play money.’ Those realized and recovered funds are what I call Play Money. By now you should see that ‘play money’ is for those things you want such as a vacation, hobbies or recreation activities like concerts and plays. When completing a budget, always include Play Money. If you don’t, you will end up using bill money or debt money to satisfy your need for your wants. Your need for your wants will never go away. We must reward ourselves for working every day, bringing home that paycheck and paying bills and debts like we should. At the same time, we budget for play money so that we don’t feel like we’re working just to pay electric, Verizon, Spectrum and the rest of those necessities of living. There is little satisfaction in paying bills alone, you need to pay yourself first. This is another benefit to creating and sticking to a budget. It creates a cycle of positive outcomes. Create a budget ➡️ Pay bills and debts on time ➡️ Credit score creeps up ➡️ Your car insurance goes down ➡️ You find a reasonably-priced apartment ➡️ Your credit score goes up so the apartment reduces your security deposit ➡️ Your Play Money fund increases ➡️ You can now refinance your car payment for a lower interest rate ➡️ Your credit score shoots up ➡️ You could afford things you previously had to struggle to purchase ➡️ You can set and achieve financial goals ✳️ You can now provide for your yourself and your family in ways you never thought possible! It’s important that you understand that the budget we make for you is fluid which means it will always change with your financial needs. Once you become more stable, so too will your budget. It’s not designed to restrict you or put a wedge between you and your money. Your money and a budget are tools that work together to create future financial freedom. Just like a hammer needs a nail to achieve its purpose; your money needs a budget to achieve its purpose. Make your money work for you. Create a budget and work with it to achieve your goals.