Personal Finance

“Personal finance is more personal than finance.”

-Tim Maurer

The world of finance loves rules of thumb, laws, and spreadsheets.

Most of these rules, laws, and spreadsheet concepts are great starting points for you to begin determining your values around money, but they are not necessarily the right answers for your pursuit of your authentic life because these are based on assumptions that may not align with the life you are creating.

My friend Tim Maurer coined the most important quote in all of finance, “Personal finance is more personal than finance”, which encourages you to realize the decisions you make with money and the values you hold around your finances are unique to YOU–there is no universal “right” answer.

There are spreadsheet options for every financial decision you make–they are great starting points in evaluating the mix of finance and personal you’ll need for the decision in front of you . 

We can discuss a goal you have, let’s say it’s saving money to help your kids start their own businesses one day. We can put variables in like how much you need at the future date, how much we think you’ll earn on your savings, and we’ll get back the amount you need to save each month. The answer the calculator spits out will be a right answer—but it may not be THE right answer. The monthly savings may be an amount that prevents you from experiencing life the way you want as you prepare for the future businesses. Your right answer might be a combination of saving and being more intentional about putting your kids in situations to learn about starting a business, encouraging starting businesses through their life to save themselves, or other creative ways to help them in their future entrepreneurial ventures and make up for the gap in savings you chose to forego.

Your money values, your authentic life, and your priorities determine what the right answer is, which is usually some combination of the rules of thumb, laws, spreadsheet concepts and how you feel about the decision—with the balance being tilted in the favor of the emotional side of the equation. 

When you understand your values around money and how they impact your authentic life, it becomes easier to adopt Tim’s description of personal finance. This is why the connection of spirit, mind, and body is so important in the pursuit of your authentic life–this alignment allows you to have a clear picture of the life you are creating, which allows you to develop your values around money and begin to build your personal finances and plan around them. 

Financial advisors, family members, peers, and society in general will tell you what you should do with your money. They may not be wrong in the guidance they provide in a general sense, but they may not be right when it comes to your authentic life. 

See you tomorrow and keep pursuing,

JC