A-ha! It's taken me 3 years to consciously notice this about myself and acknowledge it, but when it comes to saving (or any other task), I like to concentrate on ONE goal at a time and dump all of my focus into that one task. Man, is that relieving to figure out. Here I thought I was just really bad at saving for long-term goals (I am, but now I know WHY).
Successfully managing a budget and getting financial goals completed is mostly mental: understanding how your mind works, how you manage tasks, and basically, how you attack a project. I am going to have to research this behaviour* further to get more done in my work and personal life, as well.
I've been trying to fit the mold of what I see in the PF world: many goals at once, incrementally contributed to over time. This works really really well, esp. for long-term goals like retirement.
This all came about today because I got paid yesterday and wanted to throw some of that money into savings. My new idea is that I'll sweep the money I don't expect to use into savings as soon as it hits my checking account. Not ground-breaking, not at all a new idea, but NEW BEHAVIOUR FOR ME. (Usually I let the money sit until after the month is over, and THEN sweep it. I'm hoping this new way keeps me more on budget through the entire month.) So after transferring the money to savings, I thought: why not update my savings bars on the blog??
You guys, it was painful. I was so confused. It took an act of God to get me to split up the money into separate pots and update each one. I wanted so, so badly to just throw the entire amount at the first goal I saw. Usually when I update my goal progress bars, I feel so good! Look at all that I just did, with a few little strokes of my keyboard! Instead, I felt anxious, annoyed, and defeated: 'I have so much more to go on each goal! I got almost nothing done this month! That $700 went nowhere!'
So it seems that to get me to feel good about saving again, I am going to have to re-think my strategy once more. I don't know what I'm going to do, but this way doesn't work for me. It goes against all my instincts, and it doesn't feel good. Yet, I have to save for long-term goals like retirement, a house downpayment, etc. I need to find a workaround for this new discovered psychological weakness!
(*Yes, it now looks weird to me to spell 'behavior' without the 'u'...sue me. The other day I called a mailbox a 'postbox,' too. AGHH!)
Successfully managing a budget and getting financial goals completed is mostly mental: understanding how your mind works, how you manage tasks, and basically, how you attack a project. I am going to have to research this behaviour* further to get more done in my work and personal life, as well.
I've been trying to fit the mold of what I see in the PF world: many goals at once, incrementally contributed to over time. This works really really well, esp. for long-term goals like retirement.
This all came about today because I got paid yesterday and wanted to throw some of that money into savings. My new idea is that I'll sweep the money I don't expect to use into savings as soon as it hits my checking account. Not ground-breaking, not at all a new idea, but NEW BEHAVIOUR FOR ME. (Usually I let the money sit until after the month is over, and THEN sweep it. I'm hoping this new way keeps me more on budget through the entire month.) So after transferring the money to savings, I thought: why not update my savings bars on the blog??
You guys, it was painful. I was so confused. It took an act of God to get me to split up the money into separate pots and update each one. I wanted so, so badly to just throw the entire amount at the first goal I saw. Usually when I update my goal progress bars, I feel so good! Look at all that I just did, with a few little strokes of my keyboard! Instead, I felt anxious, annoyed, and defeated: 'I have so much more to go on each goal! I got almost nothing done this month! That $700 went nowhere!'
So it seems that to get me to feel good about saving again, I am going to have to re-think my strategy once more. I don't know what I'm going to do, but this way doesn't work for me. It goes against all my instincts, and it doesn't feel good. Yet, I have to save for long-term goals like retirement, a house downpayment, etc. I need to find a workaround for this new discovered psychological weakness!
(*Yes, it now looks weird to me to spell 'behavior' without the 'u'...sue me. The other day I called a mailbox a 'postbox,' too. AGHH!)
3 comments:
I never really noticed that you were using English rather than American spellings, actually. Bahaha! we'll have you well and truly converted by the time you run away back to DC.
ha! Just try.
Actually, I am kind of psyched that the assimilation is surely but gradually occurring. It's nice to know that I'm not completely staunch in my ways. and I HAVE been living here a year now. 'Bout time!! :)
Hah! I did notice your conversion. But it was my job to note that sort of thing.
I think you should take what works and run with it: if making progress on one goal is most appealing, do that. But rotate your goals by month. So this month: savings only. Next month, another pot. But in large amounts each time so you feel good about it.
That's how dealt with it when I couldn't stand the microscopic "progress" as well. Every month brought another crisis so it felt like I had to fund everything a LOT to keep from losing it all the next round. Not exactly possible, so the next best thing was the rotation. Eventually grew to like breaking up the amounts across different pots IF the amount was large enough. If not, then I just targeted my top two priorities. After about three years, I was more at peace with the incremental changes and adding to different pots, so that's what I do now.
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