Think of your morning routine as a way to pay yourself first.
Think of your morning routine as a way to pay yourself first. It’s not about being productive or stuck in achieving mode; it’s about taking care of yourself from deeper and deeper places. Before you go about your day and responsibilities (which are important), you have established a time to focus on yourself. By consistently and repeatedly honoring this time and following through with the routine, you’ve already added value to yourself and your time. From this place, you are more able to meet life’s complex and demanding responsibilities.
In contrast, putting off your self-care until the evening means that you are prioritizing your responsibilities of your everyday life and putting yourself last. This may make sense for the go-getter or high achiever, and in fact on the surface is a responsible thing to do. However, the time and energy at the end of the day cannot replace the time and energy that you have available upon waking up, even if you aren’t a morning person.
Now that that makes sense for a morning routine and how to pay yourself first on an energetic level, lets talk finances...
Here is an equation that I'd like to propose to you that is inline with paying yourself first:
Income-Savings = Expenses
Take a moment and let that land....
Every time you get paid, a portion of that goes directly into savings. Not into a checking account to be spent, not into an "I deserve this" splurge. Into your savings.
Savings first, then budget the remaining funds.
This is a subtle, yet critical shift. By doing this repeatedly and consistently overtime, you will be able to build up your savings faster and more powerfully than using the "old way."
The "old way" is all about pinching dollars to save pennies, cutting back, reducing spending, budgeting back "I can't afford that..." It's rooted in scarcity and, ironically, keeps you stuck in scarcity. A viscious cycle. The model states that after everything has been spent, then you will have money for saving, which you generally don't have as much as you'd like. It looks like this:
Income - Expenses = Savings
I'm not sure how often you get raises and are able to increase your income (6 months review? Annual review?), but for most the quickest way to save is to address expenses head on, generally by cutting back. The mindset this equation creates is "the more I cut back and cut my expenses, the more I am able to save." With this mindset, your expenses become your greatest barrier to your savings.
The good news is that you can unlearn what you have learned.
Try today to put your savings first.
To put your morning routine first.
To take ownership of your health and wealth.
By paying yourself first, not only will you have a morning routine that unlocks your energy and increases your productivity, which makes you more valuable as a working professional/entrepreneur and thus increase your ability to earn income, you will increase your savings and net worth.
In closing, the next time you get paid, take 10% of that income and stick it into your savings account. If that is too much than try 5% of your income. From there, adjust your expenses accordingly to reflect the money remaining until your next income.
Savings first, then budgeting the remaining funds.
See if you can work your way up to 20%, where each time you get paid you are putting away 20% into your savings. Imagine the possibilities in your life of having cash on hand to invest where you see fit.
That's all for now. I hope you enjoyed and find value in this article.
Stay tuned for more articles and remember to pay yourself first!
Cheers,
Brian Spear
brianjspear.com