How to Spend Your Money Most Wisely | A BLOG SERIES ON MONEY Part 4 of 5
We have been trained to buy certain things as rewards for ourselves. But when we are left with closets full of clothes and empty souls, what gives? Let’s talk about how to spend your money in ways that add deeper meaning to your life and your days, not just accumulate stuff.
I shared an exercise in Part 2 of this 5-part series called “Rating You Purchases” that will help you to observe where you are currently spending your money and how much it truly fulfills you.
That exercise doesn’t ask you to change how to spend your money, but to just observe the ways in which you currently spend.
In part 4 of this series on Money, let’s explore how our lives could look differently if we spent our money differently.
I’d like to say from the outset that the way we spend our money is a very personal decision. The amount of money you have access to is something I consider sacred. A gift you’ve been given to steward.
For the time being, put aside any concerns or thoughts about how much other people make, how much you make or any judgments you might have about your current income level. What do we want to do is just accept that the amount of money you have right now is a divine orchestration and you are fully capable using this money to grow yourself and your contribution to this world.
Right now, you don't need more. Right now I don't need more. What I want and need is to learn how to use the money I do have and the most effective wise, and fruitful ways.
How Fruitful is your money?
In the Christian tradition, there is this concept of fruit. The Bible talks about the fruit of the spirit and the fruit of our lives. this idea of the fruits of your life. I really like this analogy of being fruitful. I find in Western culture we don't really talk about what are the fruits of our lives, we talked about what have you done what have you accomplished, but these are different from the fruit. The fruits of the spirit are things like love oh, joy, peace, kindness and self-control. They are the qualities of living that emanate from someone who is full of God, full of life, full of passion.
I love finding nature analogies so I started to think about what are the fruits of my money? Am I using the money that I have been given to bear more fruit? Or am I just using it to accumulate a bunch of possessions that have no long-term value? It's not that possessions are all bad, it's about what part of my soul am I engaging when I acquire this possession. Am I buying them out of a need to wealthy or prove something? Or am I buying it to fulfill my larger life purpose?
These are the questions I began asking myself earlier this year, because I discovered that I had extra money from making a steady income. I could sense that this was a specific assignment or learning opportunity from God. This extra money wasn't just for me too puff up my life. It was for me to learn how to use it to bear fruit. I could sense it deep in my soul that as I want to learn how use my current finances to a bear fruit and more will be given to me. Life and money are not perfectly correlate, as if the more wisdom you have, the more money you make. However, I do believe that over the long term, the more wise we are with our money the more we will are given to steward.
I have never been in a position to actually have access money to actually think about, okay what am I supposed to do with it? This was a whole new realm that I was very excited to learn about and to dive into for myself.
What is your money for?
Ultimately, I believe that money is one of the resources given to us to fulfill our life purpose. I believe that there is a reason you are here on this Earth at this time with the exact set of skills, talents, personality traits and physical characteristics. Everything in your life was designed so that you could give something or contribute who you are to the evolution of humanity at this time. This includes your current income level. This includes all the money lessons you've learned up until this point and your money beliefs. Your current income level, your many lessons and your money beliefs are all capable of being changed and improved upon. But whatever you have right now is the perfect place for you to learn what you need to learn to get to the next level.
In the modern world, we are often taught that how much money you make is a product of how smart you are and how valuable you are as a human being. It's a subconscious message that we receive from the time we are children. Just is the water we swim in. Nonetheless, I choose to view my income level as simply one of the characteristics that exists to help fulfill my life purpose, just like my hair colour and my eye colour and my Canadian accent.
For me, this understanding of my money “status” takes the judgment out of my income level or anyone's income level. It's just like a sweater I choose to wear today and tomorrow I can choose to adopt a completely different fashion style and pick another outfit.
Like time, energy, and personality, money is one of the resources that I have to fulfill my life purpose. So what is my life purpose? What is your life purpose?
This is a big question that I'm constantly answering in my life. I have the answer for my whole life. I have the meta answer for my soul purpose, but I also have the answer for this season of my life. This particular chapter of my life, which I called the season of the city, is about learning how to thrive in this environment.
( If you want to get more clarity on your life purpose, here's a video I made with a three powerful questions that will help you to move forward when you're feeling stuck: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Q8M_lxAXvY)
Using The Money I’m Given To Thrive
I knew that I'm supposed to use this money to learn how to thrive in the city. The way I spend money when I'm travelling is different from the way I spend money when I'm living in the city and there are different demands and things I need to function well. Most importantly though, I knew I wanted to create media about this chapter of my life and I knew that this money was given to me to help me create content.
This was all new to me and I knew that this was what the money was for. It was like the desire to tell the story of me figuring out how to thrive in the city, why was matched by this surplus of money that I was given to fulfill that desire.
I am currently still in that process understanding how to use my money to create and publish the kind of content that my soul wants to create. It's an ongoing process. It's compelled me to do things I might never have done, like when I went to Ikea and got a few items for my room to turn it into a creative, inspiring and tidy space. In the past I didn't bother to invest in my room, because I prefer to spend my money on travelling. I've also invested in a drone this year because I knew that this would be camera that would take my contact to the next level. There are certainly other cameras that I could purchase, but my soul was nudging me towards a drone. In the past I might have bought a plane ticket instead of investing money in a drone, because at that point in my life, my primary sole purpose was to travel and create content. Right now my primary sole purpose to learn how to thrive in the city as a creative and to share this journey.
How To Use Your Money Wisely
take time to understand what your soul purpose is.
Here are some questions that will help you to clarify and uncover your soul purpose: why has life brought you to this moment in time? What could you learn or master that would take your life to the next level?
calculate exactly how much Surplus you actually have right now.
I recommend making a spreadsheet and actually looking at all the items that you spend money on. I am not this a statistics or numbers that type of person, but I can still appreciate the value of a spreadsheet and looking at the numbers. The simplest way to do this is to create several categories that you think you spend money in, like house and fitness, entertainment, household expenses, charitable giving and transportation. Look at your past month’s bills and put in every amount that you spent into a particular category. Think about if there's any times you spent cash and include that in your spreadsheet as well. This doesn't have to be perfectly accurate, but you wanted to capture as much of your life and how you spend money. This is just about being honest with yourself and where you're spending your money.
Add an additional category in your spreadsheet for your “soul purpose project.”
I have a category and my spreadsheet called “AWL Media.” This is like my joy category! I love knowing that I have money that I meant to allocate and invest into that category. If you look at your monthly income and you can see that you'll have money left over after all your current expenses (or uses of money), then put this money in to your new Soul Purpose category.
Consider where you could decrease certain spending in order to allocate more money into investing in your soul purpose (especially if it looks like you don’t have surplus right now).
This is where we start being like a kid with Play-Doh. Approach this with a light-hearted and fun attitude. Imagine that there's someone that you love very much and you want to help take care of them and make them happy, so you are seeing where you can reallocate the money to be able to use it on them. It's like when you are in love, you always manage to find the money to go and spend time with this person. Now you are learning how to spend time in and invest and value yourself.
Consider you want to invest in your soul purpose project.
Once you've got a ballpark figure for a monthly amount that you are supposed to invest in your soul purpose project, let it simmer. Make a list of the kinds of things you would purchase in order to bring your soul purpose project to life. Would you buy new equipment? Would you hire a designer? Where do you invest in a web platform? Brainstorm a list of 30-50 different things that you would have loved it to invest in. As you do that you'll not actually start to see which things are giant purchases and which things are maybe only a couple of box and that you can afford right now.
Choose one thing to invest in and go for it!
This is a small but powerful step forward to bringing your soul purpose to life. If you've got any big purchases on your list that are really standing out to you, you can set a date for when you would like to have this purchased by. Maybe this means that you bank your surplus for a few months in order to purchase something big. I still recommend that every month you invest and allocate an a small amount, at least a small amount, into investing in your soul purpose project. This changes the way you spend money and puts you in the mindset and framework spending your money fruitfully.
This practice has changed me so that when I used, allocate, distribute or invest money, I am aware of whether or not it's contributing to my sole purpose. I only use money on purchases but I feel we'll move my life in the direction of living my soul purpose. There are times when I purchase other things like groceries or gifts for people that are not explicitly aligned with my soul purpose but they're aligned with my overall direction in life and the kind of life I want to live, so I allow myself to also use money for these things.
Ultimately, this is about growing and self-awareness, trusting that the amount of money you have right now is perfect for you, as you learn to grow in the season of your life. As you grow in the process, you'll discover that you are richer than you think.
Dive into all 5 parts of the this blog series on Money:
Part 1: What It Means To Be Truly, Authentically Wealthy
http://www.anitawinglee.com/blog/authentically-wealthy-money-part-1-of-5
Part 2: Deconstructing and Appreciating Your Income (No Matter How Much You Make)
http://www.anitawinglee.com/blog/deconstructing-appreciating-your-income-part-2-of-5
Part 3: The True Purpose Of Money
http://www.anitawinglee.com/blog/the-true-purpose-of-money-money-part-3-of-5
Part 4: How To Spend Your Money Most Wisely
http://www.anitawinglee.com/blog/spend-your-money-most-wisely-money-part-4-of-5
Part 5: Totally Surrendering My Finances To God
http://www.anitawinglee.com/blog/totally-surrendering-my-finances-to-god-money-part-5-of-5
Thank you so much for reading! 💛 Your presence here means a lot to me. Thank you for sharing in this journey with me.
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