TAXES AND THEIR SILVER LINING
Now that we have our financial papers at hand for our taxes, there is an excellent opportunity to review our spending habits and see how we feel about them. This is the silver lining of preparing our taxes, it is an opportunity to explore whether or not our behavior matches our values and goals.
~Look at your income. Your can organize this by paycheck, by month or by year.
~List all of your fixed expenses, rent, mortgage, electricity, ongoing loan payments such as your car/truck/student loan. Subtract the total from your income.
~Look at how much you spend on the variable expenses: groceries, clothing, entertainment, eating out, gifts, vacations, etc.
~We have now created the first draft of our budgets! Congratulations!
~Think about each category:
Begin a dialogue with ourselves and our partners about whether or not we are comfortable with the amount we spend in each category.
Do we think we should spend more or less in some categories and why.
~Adjust one spending behavior, if we desire and track our feelings as we do so.
Feel better about your self!