You Need Financial Margin

It doesn’t matter how much money you make.  If you spend more than you make or what you make then you’re in trouble.

True comfort and peace comes with margin or breathing room.  You need to increase your margin to find financial freedom.  You do this by spending less than you make and widening the gap between what you make and what you spend.

This may sound like common sense but so many have the American mindset that stuff equals success.  You can’t maintain a bunch of stuff without spending money and likely spending more than you should be spending.

More stuff equals less margin.  Don’t worry about what the Joneses are doing.  They may seem to be doing great but all of their stuff is running and ruining their lives.

When margin increases then you have room to be proactive versus reactive.  Your fear goes away because you know that you have some room for mistakes although the goal is to make as few as possible.

I once, actually only a couple of years ago, dreamed of the day when we’d have the cars, student loans, and credit cards paid off.  Those bills didn’t allow for any margin to save for the future so the future was looking bleak.

Once progress was being made with the first vehicle being paid off then the momentum and confidence started to build.   You have to stop for a moment, assess your situation, and take things one at a time to begin to see some light.

Start with finding out what you spend each month by using a tool such as Mint or an iPhone app that I use called Spending Tracker.  You have to know where are you are get to where you want to go.  You need to learn where you’re making mistakes so that you can correct them.

Your goal is to make progress towards increasing margin in your life, not making as much money as possible.  If you’re not happy without all of the money then you won’t be happy with the money.  Remember that it’s not about how much money but how much margin!

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