With all the talk about “family values” and “Judeo-Christian values” it might be worth while to take a moment to ask: what are my values?
How can we get a picture of our values? Try taking a look at your checkbook and your credit card statement. “Values” are principles for which we are willing to forego something else. Your checkbook will tell you what you value so much that you will exchange money for it. Granted, this will not tell you everything, but it can be surprisingly revealing.
What percentage of your income goes for housing? For cable TV? For clothing? For gambling? For exercise? For medical treatments? For eating out? For parking tickets? For the freedom of a personal car, instead of public transportation? For food? For charitable giving?
And if your records are such that you have no idea about any of the above, ask yourself: what is it that you value more than knowing where your money goes?
If you had to cut your budget, what would you cut first, second, and third?
If you had to cut your budget, which figures would you cut last?
What are your values? What does your budget tell you about you?
2 Comments
July 17, 2008 at 8:02 pm
I wish I could give more money away. It seems ludicrous how much of it goes to taxes to support efforts I would never choose, like various war efforts and their supportive mechanisms.
The mortgage is the biggest money sucker. Next, four grown kids who end up short really often. And it goes on and on.
I am totally interested in how to invest in companies and projects that help people who need help, are planet friendly, and also actually make money grow.
I also wish I could use public trans more, but my time is way valuable. It would add a full hour or more to my commute to ride the bus, ride another bus, take BART, and ride another bus. You can see what I mean. Up there on my wish list is a change of venue for moi meme, taking me away from the commute altogether.
Good luck with your project. I’ll be back this way and hope to gain wisdom and better practices.
July 17, 2008 at 8:30 pm
Moimeme, you just did a great job of expressing the quandry in which all good people find themselves: lots of choices and finite resources to invest in those choices.
We’ll be exploring these topics and other similar ones in the blog — I look forward to your participation! Thanks for writing.