Page 47 - DIY Investor Magazine | Issue 39

MORE MONEY ISN’T THE ANSWER
The problem is people tend to keep expanding spending to the chequebook – or worse, their credit cards; recognize you need to make do with what there is now – not what you wish there was.
‘ONLY THROUGH INVESTING MAY YOU HOPE TO ACCUMULATE ENOUGH TO SUSTAIN YOUR STANDARD OF INDIVIDUAL LIVING WHEN YOU CAN’T, OR DON’T, WORK ANYMORE’
Here’s a great article by Carolyn T Geer: Spender, Saver, Investor: It’s a Process that walks through the basics. She talks about budgeting – a process that tends to forget the purpose of the exercise.
The top-down budgeting approach is supported by the budgeting philosophy described in the book All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan. It is much easier to manage your money when you have a broader perspective on how to relate to money.
The purpose of what you want to get done in simple terms – move from spending everything to saving a little bit, and then a little bit more – only in this manner may you begin to get your Standard of Individual Living to where you might be able to sustain it with the money you’ve invested.
Once you are used to saving, then the next step is to invest. Only through investing may you hope to accumulate enough
to sustain your Standard of Individual Living when you can’t,
or don’t, work anymore (all known as retirement – hopefully planned, however often unplanned – EBRI consistently sees this
in their retirement surveys).
Moral of the story: Get in the habit of saving. If you’re saving, get
into the habit of investing. Make both automatic.
Make a commitment to yourself. Remind yourself of what, and
more importantly why, you want to do this.
Your goal is to sustain YOUR Standard of Individual Living – not someone else’s.
47
Nov 2023
DIY Investor Magazine ·