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I’m banning the budget! Yes, you heard me right, I am banning the B-word from my vocabulary. Words are powerful. Words are loaded with meaning. And the word “budget” is loaded with negative connotations.
When I ask my clients what comes to mind when I say “budget,” here’s what they say:
“Discipline.”
“Restriction.”
“Deprivation.”
“No fun.”
It’s a wonder that anyone sticks to a budget at all!
I’d like to propose a better alternative to budgeting: The Prosperity Plan.
Here’s why I’m banning the budget in favor of the Prosperity Plan:
A budget focuses solely on controlling spending.
A Prosperity Plan includes the following: your unique goals and dreams for the future, strategies for income growth, debt reduction tools, emotionally charged saving techniques, and, finally, directing spending to what’s most important to you.
Most budgets are based on a formula of the “average American.”
They are cookie cutter plans you must squeeze yourself into for them to work. “Only spend 10% of your take-home pay on food.” “You should spend no more than 15% of your income on a car payment.” A Prosperity Plan is tailored specifically for YOU and your family’s unique situation.
If you are a single 25 year-old man who wants to travel the world while working as a freelance writer, your plan is going to look vastly different from the married 37 year-old woman with three kids in private school. If you’ve tried budgeting in the past and it didn’t work for you, it’s likely because the plan wasn’t a good fit for you, not because you’re a financial failure.
Budgeting is based on restriction, scarcity, and a mindset of “not enough.”
A Prosperity Plan is born of the mindset of growth, expansion, and improvement. A key part of the Prosperity Plan is cultivating a positive and healthy money mindset. As long as we focus on lack and scarcity, we will attract more of that into our lives and our finances.
Many of my clients actually have an abundance of income (most are making six-figures), but they feel like they never have enough money. By shifting their mindset and showing them how to direct their spending to what’s truly important to them, they leave the scarcity mentality behind.
When I talk to prospective clients now and they ask me,
“Will you help me budget my money?” (Nope!)
I say, “No, but here’s I will do for you. I’ll assist you in co-creating a personalized Prosperity Plan for your family to increase savings, reduce debt, and direct spending to what’s most important to you. How does that sound?”
A sigh of relief. “That sounds amazing.”