We’re back to today with our sixth and final domain of Anti-Fragility Fitness, Finance Management. This domain can be divided into two essential areas: investing and spending. Investing includes saving, and spending includes asset protection.
With that in mind, let’s dive right into the practical elements of Finance Management that lay the groundwork for future stability and success.
Investing
First and foremost, you need to be setting money aside for investing/savings. Depending on your current circumstances, set aside 10 to 20% of your income each time you get a check or take profit distributions. Set this up to happen automatically through your bank or financial manager.
This percentage should go into a separate account without you ever needing to touch it, think about it, or even have the chance to avoid setting it aside. When you build a system of automatic saving, you remove emotion from the process. You won’t be tempted to skip a check from time to time, and in fact, you’ll eventually train yourself to not think about that portion of your income at all.
In setting aside this portion of your income, you build up a reserve of funds that exist as working capital – which can then be invested or, should something happen, cover you in the event of an emergency. This is an organic, stable way of building your company and maintaining liquidity by paying profit as the first item of expense.
This approach to savings should be seen as MANDATORY. It might be the single most important aspect of Finance Management.
Remember that today’s cashflow habits affect tomorrow’s success. Automatic savings creates stability for the future.
Once you’ve built up substantial savings (and I recommend only checking on the totals periodically), you can use that capital to invest in things like stocks, real estate, jewelry, whatever you fancy that will appreciate in value and create more earning potential.
When you get to this point, take the time to learn about investing by consulting with a financial planner/manager, reading books (there are many), enrolling in courses, and so on. Many of these educational materials will emphasize living within your means, and teach valuable lessons about strategic investing.
Of course, your risk tolerance will ultimately be up to you, but whether you’re investing in volatile tech stocks or stable property, the principles apply across the board. We won’t break down all of the lessons here, but know that a big part of smart financial investment is investing your time and energy in education.
Get started on this education while your savings builds (automatically, of course), and when you reach a milestone, you’ll be able to make informed decisions about the next steps to take.
Lastly, commit to this plan and stick with it. Don’t get jumpy and cash out (on either your savings or investments). Tough times don’t last, but tough people do.
Spending
Instead of a traditional budget, I like to take a more practical approach that breaks down expenses into needs, wants, nice-to-haves, and other categories that allow you to evaluate where your money should really be going.
First, write down five things you can’t live without (as well as their costs). These are the things essential to your lifestyle and basic survival. Next, make a “B-list” of things you like but could live without, then another “C-list” of even lower priority items.
Look at what you REALLY need – your living expenses, your lifestyle, your transportation (I call these “break even” needs) – and all of their associated costs. Calculate the monthly total and keep this figure readily available in your mind. This is the core of your expenses, and everything else comes after.
Make sure to include the costs of “protections” like insurance (homeowner’s, vehicle, liability, etc.), healthcare, licensing, and so on. These are necessary costs that ensure the stability of both your business and your personal life.
After you evaluate your core expenses, think about what you want for discretionary spending, and consider the difficult question of WHY you chose this amount. Do the same for your savings… What are you saving for?
Getting all of this information together will provide a sense of direction, and that leads to fortitude against emotional decision making – which is at the heart of robust financial management.
In the audio presentation below, I cover each of these elements in further detail.
While these may all be things you already know, my goal is to kick your butt into thinking about them today, tomorrow, and for the foreseeable future. This prompt to shore up your finances is yet another aspect of building Anti-Fragility Fitness.
The 6 domains we’ve covered in this series are about building fortresses in your life. They combine to become an impenetrable “master fortress” of anti-fragility. Change management, stress management, earnings management, relationship management, business management, financial management… As you shore up each of these domains and think about them creatively, you’ll realize that you can use them to review your days and weeks to make sure you’re on the right track.
Eventually you’ll outgrow these challenges and become immune to the factors that introduce instability into your life and work. That’s the whole point of anti-fragility. It’s about turning on your commitment to excellence, and achieving mastery in the areas that will keep you resilient no matter what challenges you face. You have to work on them, but the benefits of Anti-Fragility Fitness will serve you for years to come.
This is all about taking responsibility for 100% of your own security.
When you make the choice to be the fundamental creative force in your own life, all of the other choices and goals have a direction. How do they align with the continuous growth of your life-building process?
