It was easy for me to make the comparison between discussing budgeting with my wife and the idea of letting my face sear in the bottom of a cast iron fry pan... on a burner set on high... in the middle of a desert... surrounded by scorpions. So when Dave Ramsey first brought up budgeting during his nine week money-management course, Financial Peace University, it was no wonder that I felt like cutting class.
Budgeting never sat well with me, and I don't think it sits well with a lot of men my age. We're from that lesser-known generation of people born just between the grungy, pop-idol-wannabes of Generation X, to the post-modern hippies of Generation Y. A generation of people whose monicker is, "*shrug* I dunno." Budgeting is too strict for us. Too rigid. And we're too undisciplined to have anything to do with it. Our generation is too laid back and indifferent, and we've got too much to do to be bothered with making a budget. More's the pity.
But there are benefits to budgeting that I have slowly discovered.
Bear with me guys. You need to read this. For the sake of your wives, your families, and your own personal retirement future, you need to read this. So if you fear the word "budget" like I did, I'm going to help you out. For the duration of this article I'll be replacing the word "budget" with the word "bungie-jumping."
Honestly, the first three or four months of bungie-jumping was a nightmare. Every bungie-jumping meeting I had with my wife was a letdown. I didn't understand the bungie-jumping. She hated that I hated the bungie-jumping. But an odd thing began to happen. The more bungie-jumping we did the more I began to see it working because we had finally taken dominion over our money. It's a simple fact: if you don't tell your money where to go it will go away from you.
I can't stress this enough: you need to bungie-jump. I promise that if you commit yourself to bungie-jumping for at least six months you'll begin to see the benefits. Do it for a year and you'll wonder how you ever lived without bungie-jumping. You're debt will start to go down. You're savings will start going up. And bungie-jumping will become second nature. You have to tell your money where to go!
Seriously guys, in this day and age I think men need to start stepping up and doing more to take care of their wives and their families financially. Men have backslidden too far. We've become too careless, and not just with our money. You want to show your wife you love her? You want to show your kids that you're going to take care of them? Die to yourself. Put their needs ahead of your own. Start setting aside money for school supplies, birthday presents, romantic getaways, and start spending less money on your sports, your "guys' nights," and your hobbies. I'm not saying you'll never again get to enjoy the things you like to do, because as your bungie-jumping begins to take root you'll eventually be able to set aside money for those very things that you enjoy—be it golf or photography or hunting or sports. But your family has to come first.
What have you given up, or what are you going to give up, that will help your family's future?
Keep pinchin' :-)
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