The Great Bonus Execution
By Melissa Tosetti
“You'll be so proud of us. I got a nice bonus and paid off credit cards (and I got a mini fridge lol).
”This was the message I received via Facebook from Jaimee, a recent client.
For some, paying off credit card debt may seem like an obvious thing to do with a bonus, but for most people, human nature and the desire to spend windfalls on more pleasurable things VERY often get in the way.
For Jaimee’s Spending Plan, as with all the plans we do, every dollar was given a purpose. However, in her case, there wasn’t a lot of dollars left over for the fun stuff. So, when her employer handed her an unexpected, sizable bonus, it would have been understandable for her to immediately think of dozens of pleasurable things to spend that money on. Instead, she buckled down and focused it on her debt.
I messaged Jaimee back, “It's one thing to know you should use the money to pay off the credit cards and another thing to actually do it! Congratulations!”
Her very honest response, “It was hard! Haha!”
It was hard - but she did it!
One of the things I hear myself telling clients and financial advisors on almost a daily basis is that it’s easy to put numbers on a piece of paper and call it a Spending Plan. However, the witchcraft and the magic is learning how to LIVE within the plan. Truth is, the witchcraft and magic are simply – money skills.
The one thing I’ve learned over the last eight years of working one-on-one with clients to create Spending Plans is that it doesn’t matter how smart you are or how many degrees hang in frames on your wall. Day-to-day money management is a learned (and in the rare case inherent) skill and without that skill in place, the amount of money you make won’t matter. Finances will always be a struggle.
During our work together, Jaimee absorbed that witchcraft and magic and put it into play. So, with this article, I celebrate her decision to use that unexpected bonus to pay off those credit cards and - buy her mini fridge. Now she has the breathing room to start saving for bigger financial goals that are far more fun that paying off debt!
Congratulations Jaimee!
Melissa Tosetti is a cash flow planning expert, founder of The Savvy Life and author of the international bestseller Living The Savvy Life.
For the past eight years, she’s worked with over 625 individuals and families to create Spending Plans.
To learn about the Spending Plan process, visit The Savvy Life’s Home Page. If you’d like to learn about how The Savvy Life works with financial advisors and their clients visit: The Savvy Life Advisor’s Page.