In Apprise’s first Tuesday Tips video, I address the question, “Do I Have Enough Money.” But is that the right question to ask? Rather than trying to build the biggest pile of money, should the focus be on spending your money with purpose and having a different relationship with your finances? Please watch the video below for some thoughts as well as an overview of how life planning can help align your spending with what matters most to you.
An edited transcript follows:
Hi. Phil Weiss of Apprise Wealth Management here. I’m mixing things up with the content that I provide. Now, instead of alternating between a long-form blog and my five favorite reads of the week, one out of every three weeks I’m going to share a video blog – and this is the first one. I’m calling this Tuesday Tips.
Today we’re going to take a look at the question: “Do I have enough money?” It’s a question we often ask, or that I’m often asked, but it doesn’t have an easy answer. The question is: What is that money for? How do we know how much is enough?
What are we referring to when asking, “Do I have enough money?”
When we think about “Do I have enough money?” we think about things like:
- Do I have enough money to retire?
- Do I have enough to go on vacation this year?
- Do I have enough money to pay for my children’s college?
- Do I have enough to buy a house?
- Do I have enough money to do anything else that matters to me?
At Apprise we use a life-planning process. Life planning is about how to better align our spending with what matters most. Doing that can help you figure out what that money’s for and, hopefully, how much you need, or at least give you a better idea of how much you need.
Some Better Questions to Ask
Perhaps, the question isn’t: “Do I have enough money?” The question that could be better to ask is one of the following:
- “What kind of life do I want to live?”
- “Do I really want to stockpile the biggest pile of money?”
- “When do I know how much is enough?”
- “What about quality of life?”
- “Why are we trying to build that big pile of money?”
- “What’s it going to do for us?”
Benefits of Life Planning
Life planning helps us figure the answer to those questions out.
You could have a different relationship with your finances by going through life planning. It helps you figure out what’s important to you. What do you really want to do?
I know that when I went through my own life plan, one of the things that I decided to do was to help recognize my mother through a scholarship.
My mother went through very difficult times. She went back to college in her 40s and became an occupational therapist. But that wasn’t enough. Unfortunately, she passed away at an early age. And so, part of my mission at Apprise is to help women in transition avoid the kind of things that my mother went through and have a better relationship with money.
In your life plan some things that you might want to focus on include: more time with your kids, your family, or your spouse, vacations, maybe you want to write a book about your life experiences, maybe you want to support a cause that’s important to you, perhaps you want to build your business.
What matters can vary from person to person. What’s most important is that you focus on what matters, versus building that big pile of money.
Closing Thoughts
If you think about having a different relationship with money or your finances instead of just building that big pile of money, it could bring you happiness. Or, the other thing you can think about is that you’ll use that money for things that matter. Will that bring you more happiness than just building that big pile of money?
I hope you find this helpful. I’ll be back again next week with Apprise’s five favorite reads of the week. Thanks for listening and have a great day.
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For firm disclosures, see here: https://apprisewealth.com/disclosures/
Phil Weiss founded Apprise Wealth Management. He started his financial services career in 1987 working as a tax professional for Deloitte & Touche. For the past 25+ years, he has worked extensively in the areas of financial planning and investment management. Phil is both a CFA charterholder and a CPA.
Located just north of Baltimore, Apprise works with clients face-to-face locally and can also work virtually regardless of location.
