Music Harmony
Whether it is a duet or a full choir, harmony can produce tones that fit together to create a soothing sound. I have attended a contest with barber shop quartets and enjoyed the variety of harmonic music!
I bring this up because the family budget will never be successful unless there is cooperation and harmony with its purpose. Solos are useful only when they are included with others who add harmony with a unified purpose.
Since the purpose of this blog is to help you build a better mindset for money, I am hopeful that you can instill in yourself and members of your family the importance of budgeting. And budgeting needs the harmony of cooperation to be successful.
Teams Accomplish More than Individuals
Yes, team implies more than one person. But the successful team learns the importance of cooperation, the shared responsibilities. When the team members do their part, the team can win.
When one team member thinks of themselves as being more important and ignores the help another team member needs, then harmony becomes discord, a harsh reality, where everyone loses purpose.
That is one of the reasons why teams need coaches. They help with training, with learning each role, and the importance of cooperation.
When it comes to personal finances, we all need some good coaching. Our team, our family, will greatly benefit from training and leadership.
Will you be the coach? Will you learn to lead? Will you learn to cooperate?
We Do
Any family that takes its mutual welfare seriously will learn to cooperate. Since money and time affect all aspects of their life, value must be given to planning and preparations, including study, to make smarter money decisions.
Time is as important as money because of the effects of accumulation and compounding. Accumulation is an important concept since we can only do a little at a time to add to our savings or pay off debt.
Compounding is a crucial concept for long-term wealth building. Investors are thrilled with this concept as they watch their portfolio grow as earnings create more earnings, thus they compound for greater returns.
Make saving to invest a priority. Be the family that says, “We do!”
Move Your Money Forward
When you depend on debt to live the way you want, you stall your financial vehicle to the future you want to enjoy.
As a family, individual desires can cause spending when the money is not available. Thus, credit becomes the mud that the rest of the family must walk through to make ends meet. The cure lies in planning. Spend when you have the money on the items you planned to buy.
The same steps to planning will create a surplus to build savings that can lead to investing. And having cash on hand is far superior to having credit on hand. Investments make money. Credit costs money!
Learn Harmony
You may not be a musician, but you can learn about harmony. When playing guitar, you learn chords. Okay, that may be too much music theory for you. (If you do want to learn more about that look up Chord Buddy on the internet!)
If you study harmony, you learn there is a mathematical formula that helps to produce harmonic sounds. Just as there are mathematical formulas for producing harmony in family financial budgets.
For instance, save 20% and learn to live on the remaining 80%. Work to get a return on your savings that will help them compound over time.
When you learn the Rule of 78, you will have an incentive to pay off your debts ahead of schedule.
“Dollar cost averaging” is a term you should learn to become more confident with investing.
And a higher rate of return will enhance the rate of compounding earnings and thus the rate of return on your investments over time.
See what learning a few financial math formulas can afford you over time! That all sounds good to me!
Work on Family Harmony
There is much more to family harmony than cooperation and money.
Everyone in your family has dreams or goals. And everyone must realize that time is needed to accomplish those goals. And, if money is needed, which it surely is, to accomplish those goals, then there needs to be a realistic check on what is available to help and the timeline.
The reality is available funds. Over time, with a focus for improvement, that can change.
The harmony in a family budget comes from facing the reality of available funds and keeping the spending less than what is available to allow for savings to be generated. That is when harmony is really experienced!
We all spend more than we think we do. You can prove that by adding up your purchases and sum by category. Groceries and eating out are sure to raise your eyebrows!
This process is an important step to take, even if you only do it for a month or two. It can help you develop a more realistic budget. And, if you can pay into your savings account what you planned to do, then the spending is less of a concern.
The Fruit You Will Harvest
Farmers know there are no guarantees of success in growing crops or raising cattle. There will be good years and there will be bad years. But they know there are steps to take to increase their chances of success.
They learn how fertilizer helps crops grow and that cultivation will eliminate the competition from weeds for nutrients in the soil.
They learn that cattle grow better with adequate food and water and a veterinarian to check for diseases.
Did you hear me say they just let things happen? No, they must make the effort to do things and learn how to increase their chances for success.
The same goes for family harmony with money. Increase your chances for success, to achieve financial independence and the peace of mind that can come with that.
Cooperation will help you get through the mistakes and impatience that will occur along the way. By facing the facts about generating income and what is available to spend, that can lead to real family harmony over money matters.
Then, if you want to move faster, find a way to generate more income and be fair about who will be called on to do so. Be thoughtful and thankful. Review the facts frequently to make sure everyone is playing their part to bring harmony into this mutual effort.
The cooperation, the accumulation in savings, and compounding of earnings on investments will help you to grow a fruitful financial future!