113 | How to Spend What You Want and Still Hit Your Goals

What if you could spend what you want and still achieve the financial goals you set for yourself?

You can. You just have to understand the formula for doing so.

Most people approach budgeting and planning their spending in a restrictive manner, which is why many people don’t stick to the budgets they create.

But your budget is simply a plan for how you want to use your money, and you can spend on whatever you want.

In this episode, let’s talk about how to craft your budget so that you can spend on what you want and still hit your goals.

Topics Discussed

• how most people approach budgeting
• how a nutrition hack relates to personal finance
• how to put your budget together to be able to spend on what you want and still achieve your goals
• ways to adjust your budget if you want
• what happens when you understand this process

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Resources mentioned

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Work with me

If you’re ready to learn the mindset and strategies to master your money, let’s schedule a call. 

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Social media: Instagram and LinkedIn

Email: hello@rhothomas.com

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Lightly Edited Transcript

You’re listening to Wealthyesque. We are a community of lawyers who believe that true wealth is having control of our time. I’m Rho Thomas, and as a busy wife, mom and former Biglaw associate, I know all too well the tension between the culture of the legal profession and pretty much everything else you want to do in life. That’s why each week, I’m bringing you the information and tools you need to improve your money mindset and manage your money to create true wealth. Because ultimately, it’s not about the money. It’s about the freedom and flexibility the money affords.

Hey friend. Welcome back to the show. I hope you’re doing well and having an amazing day so far. Today we are talking about how to stick to your budget, or I know some people prefer to call it a spending plan so you can definitely call it that if you’d like. People tend to think of budget as being restrictive. They dictate all the things that you can’t do, right? I can’t spend on this because I’m on a budget or I can’t go out because I’m on a budget. How often do you hear people say things like that? Or maybe you thought things like that? That approach to budgets causes a lot of resistance when you’re thinking about your finances. So what often happens is you’ll make a budget thinking about all these things you can’t do, right all of these restrictions, and then you never look at it again because it’s not fun. It’s this thing that takes away all the things that you enjoy. And so the way you stick to a budget is you make it something that you want to stick to. I heard this really great explanation of how you can eat whatever you want and not gain weight. So the guy was really into fitness, but he was saying that even though he works out all the time, he eats a lot of junk food. So people always wonder how he’s able to stay in shape. And he said is just a math equation. You can figure out how many total calories and how much protein you need to maintain your body weight and your muscle mass. The protein you need will provide some of the total calories that you need. So then you can look at the difference between the total you need to maintain and then the amount of calories you’re getting from the protein. And he said you can get those remaining calories from anywhere, whether it’s a bunch of junk food like ice cream and candy and cookies and all of that or more healthy foods. So for him, he likes junk food, and so he makes up the bulk of his remaining calories with junk food. So as long as he gets the amount of protein he needs and stays within the total calories needed to maintain his body weight. He doesn’t gain weight. And he said he’s been eating like that for years and he’s maintained his weight and is still super fit, because he understands how this system works. I am no expert in fitness or nutrition. So I don’t know if that’s really how it works. But it makes sense. And it’s so similar to how personal finance works. So as you’re putting together your budget, there are some things that you need, right? Like you need a place to live, you need food, you need transportation. So let’s put in how much that stuff costs. And then you’ve got some other bills, you’ve got utilities, you’ve got internet, that kind of stuff. So let’s put that in. And then from there, we can include the goals you have. So I want to save X amount by the end of the year. I want to pay off Y amount of debt this month. Once you define those goals, because that’s where a lot of people go wrong, right? They just say I want to pay off more debt or I want to save more, or I want to start investing, but it’s this undefined goal. You have no idea where to start because you haven’t decided what the amount is, what the actual tangible goal is that you’re working toward. So decide how much you want to save, how much you want to invest how much you want to pay off whatever your goal is, because from there, you can make a plan of how much you’re going to put toward the goal. So now you’ve got your knees, your bills, and they are you’ve got how much you want to put towards your goals. And from there you can spend however, much you want on whatever else you want. The only constraint you have is the amount of money that you bring in in the month. And if you want to spend more than what you typically make, then you can always make more money. So for example, I used to sell stuff online, especially when my kids were little. They would outgrow their clothes so quickly. Sometimes we would get multiples of things for them that we couldn’t use, and I would sell the extra. My husband also got a second job at one point. So we were bringing in more money that way. Like I said the only constraint you have in your spending is how much you bring in. And if you’re not staying within that that’s how you ended up in credit card debt and such. So you have this money leftover that you can spend however you want to and you can play with your numbers to have more money available for whatever you want to use more money for. So some people may decide to get an apartment or a house that’s not as nice as what they could get, or to live with roommates to save on their housing costs. And then they can put that money toward other things toward their goals toward their spending, whatever it is you can absolutely do that. Often achieving your goals is not going to be a linear process. So a lot of times it’s bumpy. There are different things that come up throughout the year, where maybe you want to spend a little more this month so you’re gonna save less or maybe I’m saving a bit more this month because there’s not a whole lot going on, but next month there’s this birthday trip or wedding or I need to replace something. So I’m choosing to spend on that and I’ll be putting a little less toward my goals. But when you understand this equation, when you understand that the only constraint that you have is the amount of money that you bring in and you decide how much you’re going to spend on things like fixed expenses, necessities, bills, and how much you’re going to put towards your goals. Then you just have this big bucket of money to spend however you want to. So this is how people can spend 1000s of dollars each month at bars and clubs and still save the amount they want. This is how people can spend 1000s of dollars going out to eat each month or shopping or whatever their thing is and still be able to pay off their debt or achieve their other goals. When you approach your budget this way, you will inevitably stick to it because it’s no longer this big bad thing restricting what you can and can’t do. Instead it’s like oh hey, look at all this money I get to spend going out or going shopping or going to restaurants. You get to decide how you’re going to use that money. And when you look at your budget as something that gives you the freedom to spend your money the way that you want to spend it rather than this thing that tells you that you can’t do this or you can’t do that. You’re going to be able to stay on track with it and not feel deprived and not feel like you have to rebel against the budget because you’ve just been trying to willpower your way through so if this sounds like how you want to be managing your money, you want to have your necessities and goals covered and have a bucket of money that you can spend however you want to just head to rho thomas.com/call And let’s talk about how we can work together. All right, so that’s it for this week’s episode. Come connect with me over on social media I am most often on LinkedIn, rho Thomas, and on Instagram at I am rho Thomas. Subscribe to the show and leave a review both of which helped more people to find it and think of a friend or two who would benefit from this information and share this episode with them. As we close out friend, I pray that you take the information you learn here, apply it in your life and open up to the realization that wealth is available to you. As you do that consistently week after week, you will continue to take steps to regain control of your time, build wealth and live the life of freedom and choice you deserve. Talk to you later.