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My kids have recently got into the TV programme ‘Rich House, Poor House’.
“Exploring Britain’s wealth divide and whether or not money truly can buy happiness, families from opposite ends of the economic spectrum trade lives for seven days. In order to see what life is like on the other side, a family that ranks in the top ten per cent of Britain’s wealthiest households trades homes, lifestyles and budgets with a family from the bottom ten per cent. As the experiment progresses the families follow each other’s typical spending habits and extra-curricular activities to learn if the grass really is greener.”
It’s quite interesting and has defintely helped our kids realise how lucky they are – the take out pizza they often ask for costs more than some families entirely weekly food budget.
Several times the kids have asked us what our” disposable income after all bills have been paid” is.
And, to be honest, I’ve struggled to answer that.
They rarely seems to be anything left at the end of the month.
And we don’t live particularly extravagant lives.
The answer hit me recently when watching an online training with my coach.
It was co-taken by the guy who’d won a ‘member of the year’ prize at last year’s awards do in Sunderland.
At one point, when talking about money, he said “I don’t have any disposable income”.
Because it was all set to go to certain places.
Automatically to pay for different things.
And I realised that’s what much of ours does.
Pays for a lot of stuff for us and the kids.
But isn’t just sat their in the account waiting to be spent.
Now, I know that, technically, anything that’s left after our compulsory expenses (mortgage, bills, etc) is our disposable income.
But it rarely feels like that.
Putting a large amount of what we spend on ‘auto pilot’ means…………
Our money gets spent more on what we really value………..
And less on the less important stuff.
If I just had cash to the value of a 30th of what’s left over appear in my wallet every day………
I’m sure more would get frittered away.
And and we’d not have enough left over for all the things it currently goes on.
That level of automation helps massively.
And it can do with our eating.
Putting a couple of minutes into planning our meals………….
So that when it comes to decision time………..
The ‘better’ choice just kinda happens automatically………..
Makes it more likely those choices will be made.
The online (or click and collect) food shop had meant we’ve got options that fit within our goals to hand.
Less stuff that will detail us.
Or the batch cook of a few meals hear and there means there’s a full, healthy, tasty, nutritious meal there to hand.
Rather than reaching for a quick option becuase we don’t feel we have the time for anything more time consuming at that point.
Our workouts are booked (or, at least, diarised) ahead of time.
So when that ‘disposable time’ arrives, we’ve already committed where it’s being ‘spent’.
Put these things on as close to autopilot as you can.
Don’t just leave it to willpower and hope you’ll make that ‘better’ decision when the time comes.
Much love,
Jon ‘Co-pilot’ Hall
