How to Align your Financial Goals with Your Personal Values (And Why is it Important!)
Jan 20
Written By Melissa Houston
I talk about Values Based Financial Goals. I feel that this is a really important exercise to undergo when you are re-evaluating your finances and determining how to get back on track.
A big question to ask yourself is “Have you put the pursuit of STUFF ahead of your personal values?” It is very easy to do this, to get caught up in the trap of consumerism, where you needed the latest version of the gadget, or the high end label to impress others, or the luxury car to make you feel good.
But, the PRIMARY significance of money is the degree to what it allows you to enjoy.
Where your CORE PERSONAL VALUES is what is really important to you.
So what are personal values? Personal values are those qualities or principles that are most valuable or desirable to you. They are life’s emotional payoffs, what life is really about. For some of us it may be family, pets, freedom…
Financial values are a belief system about money. Understanding your personal values helps you to align your financial values with who you are. Values based planning helps you to determine how you feel about credit card debt, savings, mortgages, lines of credit, education, and other financial products.
Use your values to set meaningful goals. Values are what is most important to you in life. They help you achieve your life plans and dreams. Think about the people that you interact with every day, you can get a sense of what they value through the way they dress, how they spend their money or how they interact with others. The value is the “intangible”.
Values are very personal, and what one may value, another may not. So there are no right or wrong values, just different. One person may value saving for a family vacation, another’s priority may be sending their kids to college.
How people spend their time and money usually reflects what they think is important.
When money values are not aligned with personal values, this is usually a stressor for many people. For example, someone who values a healthy lifestyle may feel out of whack when they find themselves deep in debt.
I know for me, it was very important to my husband and I to save for our children’s post secondary education. That financial goal aligned with our personal values. Having that important goal made it so much easier to save for. It’s always tempting to spend rather than save, but when your savings are value based, you are putting money towards something that has a PURPOSE.
And the hard work paid off. We are now experiencing DELAYED gratification, where our kids are now ready to go off to university, and we feel GOOD that we have the money saved and in the bank for them to do this. There is no worry of how we will get that money.
There are various other values based financial goals to pursue. Some examples are saving for a down payment on a house, paying off debt, saving for retirement, building an emergency fund, starting a business, for that feeling of financial security!!!
Money values impact the way we live, so having them in line with your priorities and financial goals will ensure you are able to live a life on your terms.
Have you ever experienced that feeling of DELAYED GRATIFICATION? Tell us about how great that felt in the comment section below.
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