How do you manage your income? That's a thoughtful question coming from this community. The truth is that I am still a learner when it comes to income management. I make mistakes; at times I feel the pressure, and there are lined-up responsibilities making me feel that I am not responsible with income management.
Just yesterday, I had a long disagreement with my husband over this subject matter. He feels I am not doing a good job with income management running our home, but then, when I check where the money is going into, they are all important needs that need to be taken care of. Permit me to say that managing income isn't that rosy; in fact, anything to do with money management comes with its complexity and headaches, lolz.
When it comes to managing income, I see it as not only earning money but also understanding reality. In my home, income flows in with lots of expectations. There are unending family needs, there are unforeseen emergencies, school fees for my kids, food, electricity bills, and many impromptu expenses I never see coming.
I told myself yesterday after going through my account book and seeing that indeed, income is coming in, but it looks like it is not because money finishes so quickly. I check my expense book and see that I am dealing with emotional spending. I feel it's a need to be attended to, but what I calculated made me realize that I need to sit up. Some decisions I made ended up draining me emotionally and financially.
I also saw that from the expenses, lots of money went into loans out of emotions, and those people never cared to pay back. Thank God I am good at recording every inflow and outflow transaction, because I have seen where to really adjust my spending, and now I see why my husband was mad at me, lol. Yea...no more emotional spending; money that left the account, already left and wouldn't return no matter how much I regret such emotional expenses.
Now, just before I start spending, I put a lot of questions on my table. This morning I avoided one expense after asking myself, is this one really necessary? Could it affect my responsibilities in any way? At times, I choose to wait before taking my final decision to avoid irrelevant spending. Again, there are some expenses that can wait; my hubby taught me that. He said I don't just start spending because I see money, but rather, I should be calculative and know when a particular expense can wait or not why I attend to the most important ones.
Overall, the way I manage my income these days is to simply divide it according to important expenses and savings no matter how little I can save. Yeah...it's better that I save a little than save nothing.
At the end of the day, income management is not about how much I earn alone but about how much I apply wisdom, discipline, and other great necessary attributes. If I don't control my income, the money will go; it's about being deliberate about my income. I still have a lot to learn and adjust, but I am making a little progress so far.
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