I am on the Board of Directors of a local nonprofit charity. Last Saturday we spent a day in training, and one of the topics we covered was our Mission and Vision. Mission is basically what you do, Vision is where you want to go – it the future that you want to see happen.
Naturally, it got me to thinking about personal finances (doesn’t everything!). Does my Mission (my day to day activities), line up with my Vision (where I want to be financially)? Let’s say that my vision is that I would like to travel to New Zealand for a two week vacation within 5 years. If I am setting up my yearly budget to control my day to day financial spending, but nothing is budgeted for the New Zealand trip, then my Mission and Vision is not aligned. I need to have a strategic plan (fancy word for a guide or direction) that will help me to save / plan and make that trip happen.
This is why it is good to have a list of things you want to do, or a goal of what you want to see happen (i.e., retire early, take a trip, etc.). And it’s good to have that in a place where you can see it often and be reminded – do I really need to go out to eat or should I put that money toward my trip? It helps us make better decisions, and to save our pennies for what we really want in the long run, not just those short term impulse purchases that side track us. We need our Mission, our Vision, our Budgets, and our Spending to align. When they are in harmony, good things happen.
