Time and money often feel in short supply, especially as we head into the holiday season. Gifts can be a strain on our budgets. Parties, concerts, and travel plans can fill up our calendars quickly. And when the financial, emotional, and physical bills come due in January, we might feel like we’re already starting the New Year in the red.
As you’re preparing your budget and schedule for the busy weeks ahead, you might also reflect on how you spent your time and money throughout the last 12 months and how you can get more Return on Life from both in the year ahead.
1. Establish priorities.
Right now, your calendar for the new year is probably wide open. Before life gets in the way, establish some nonnegotiables: your weekly exercise routine, vacations that you’d like to take, new skills or hobbies that you want to learn, financial goals you’d like to hit, and upcoming $Lifeline transitions such as making a move, sending your child to college, or retirement.
Block off time for these big goals, and make these the top-line items in their budget categories for the year as well. Use that clarity to fit in smaller goals and expenses around the major things you want to accomplish, rather than the other way around.
2. Review your habits.
No matter how many lifehacking blogs we read and expert routines we emulate, there will always be some inefficiencies in how we spend our time and money. Identifying them at the beginning of a new year might help you zero in on some strategies to shore up weakness and build up strengths.
For example, an overspender who makes too many spur-of-the-moment purchases might need to set a stricter budget. An underspender might need to look at all that leftover cash from the previous year’s budget and think about vacations she could have taken, comforts she could have upgraded, people whose lives she could have enriched.
Likewise, folks who have trouble keeping to a set morning routine might need to reassess their sleep habits and how they’re using their time. Are you tired in the morning because you’re staying up too late? Or is starting your day with 30 minutes of yoga just not making you excited to jump out of bed? What if you had a different morning activity to look forward to, like taking a long bike ride, reading, or working on the business plan for the dream company you’d like to build?
3. Automate the essentials.
If you don’t already, make this the year that you start to “pay yourself first,” both with your money and your time.
Make automatic contributions to your retirement, long-term savings, and emergency savings accounts as soon as you get paid. You can also set up automatic deposits into savings accounts that are dedicated to your big goals for the year, such as vacations or buying a new car.
Automating how you spend your time could take a bit more trial and error. You might experiment with time blocking and set very specific boundaries around when you work on specific tasks throughout the day. If you have trouble etching those blocks in stone, try setting alarms on your phone or smartwatch that will nudge you from one task to the next. At the end of your workday, unplug from what you need to get done tomorrow so that you can be truly present in your most important blocks: those dedicated to your friends, family, and personal passions.
When you make plans for working towards the things that are most important to you, you’ll also gain the flexibility to adjust as your priorities change and as life happens. Come talk to us about how our Life-Centered Planning process can help you prepare to make more meaningful investments next year.