A colleague of mine had a client worth $100 million and he shared with me that THEY worry about money constantly. It was hearing that story that made me realize “Oh… so this feeling will never go away”.
Peace, or more specifically “Inner Peace”, is hard to quantify. It’s a feeling. For me, it’s not worrying about something, and ideally, not worrying about much of anything.
Financial Freedom is about having enough money to do what you want. The cruel irony of that is the worry often doesn’t go away. Financial Peace is about no longer worrying about money regardless of how much you have.
A hard-truth I’ve learned is even though I’ve had more success and have made more money than I might have dreamed of when I was a young man, the worry about the “what ifs” never go away. My lifestyle shifted and I moved the goal posts. What was once a financial goal at age 35, would no longer be livable on when I was 45. I’ve since tried to stop doing that so I’m no longer chasing “more” as the answer to “what do I want?”
Even when I sold off my company, I was initially in a panic because it wasn’t *enough* money. As people congratulated me, I was still worried. I felt ashamed that these were my worries when others are struggling.
No amount of money can soothe that worry, because it isn’t rational. I mean, I’m an able bodied person in their prime years, having had an incredible 14-year run with my business and successfully exited. I can do anything and I’m still worried?
I’ve abandoned the idea that there will ever truly be enough money to feel safe. But what would actually make me *feel* safe?
I came up with a list that I call my “Financial Peace Scorecard”. It isn’t about a number, or an amount of money, but a list of 10 things that are important to me.
I score myself against my Financial Peace Scorecard on the 1st of every month, when I pay off my credit cards and reconcile my monthly budget back to zero. I’ve made a decision that as long as these things are true, the worry is not real and I can release it. As you’ll see, even though some of these are milestones, none of these have numbers attached to them:
- I live in a mortgage free home
- I have no consumer debt
- My government registered retirement funds are fully funded
- I have no tax debt
- Monthly expenses are prepaid and tracked in a savings account
- I have an emergency fund of cash
- My corporate bank account (that I draw a monthly salary from) has a positive balance
- My wife’s and my combined income meet our monthly budget
- My kids’ education is funded
- Monthly accounts reconciled and clear as of 1st of this month
When I pay and reconcile my bills each month, I review this scorecard. If these items are true, then I have nothing to worry about. It’s not about a specific number, but of these ten things that are important to me.
I’m also acknowledging that we truly can’t predict the future, and planning for all the “what ifs” is an energy drain. This scorecard on its own insulates me from many of life’s challenges, and that’s good enough for me.
Almost all financial planning is around pure numbers, but this scorecard is a list of conditions. Conditions that can be met at many different financial levels. It doesn’t take all the money in the world.
Since I started scoring myself on this, it revealed the ridiculousness of my initial panic when my company sold and how that wasn’t “enough” money. I sleep better, and even when the world is facing economic uncertainty, meeting these conditions is a lot easier than tracking my net worth or actual money. I can continue to donate my time, talents, and money without worry to causes and people that move me.
Financial Peace for me means whatever comes next isn’t being driven by more money, only creating money as a byproduct of what truly lights me up.
To help further reinforce this peace, I began to celebrate this achievement on the first of the month by celebrating with my wife with a high five, and this month I also shared this with a couple of friends.
As I write this, I’m realizing that worry exists in the “what ifs”, and this scorecard is evidence of what is true right now.
I offer my scorecard as an example of what works for me, because those ten items are important to me, not for you to follow exactly.
If you’re honest with yourself, where are you dealing with irrational financial worries, and how might you be able to address them with your own criteria of what’s important to you?
