I’m not terribly fond of the word ‘budget’, let alone the action of ‘budgeting’.
In the past the words budget/budgeting meant doing without, being miserable, always hearing the word ‘no’ and not doing what I wanted. So to put the word ‘budget’ and ‘agility’ into the same sentence was a miserable thing!
Unfortunately, when the economy took a turn for the worse a few years ago, many of us (myself included) were forced to re-evaluate our finances, spending habits and (gasp!) our agility participation.
I thought I’d share my experiences and a few steps that took the pain out of the process and still allowed me to have all that I wanted in agility.
Get a Grip…on any Fear and/or Emotions
- Trust me when I say you CAN do this agility money/budgeting thing.
- Made some financial mistakes in the past? You’re not alone. Lots of people have, but most won’t talk about it. So I’m going to tell you right here and right now. I’ve made my fair share of financial mistakes…some more than once (hey, I typed that and lightening didn’t strike me down!).
- NOW is a perfect time to regroup and come up with a new and/or revised financial agility plan.
Get a Grip…on the Facts
Most competitors don’t earn a living from agility, instead they have outside jobs that fund their agility participation. If you fall into this majority category, the first thing to realize is that your agility financials are 100% contingent upon your daily financials.
In other words, your daily financial life needs to be in order BEFORE distributing funds to the agility world.
Budgeting Basics for Daily Life
There are lots of free budgeting resources to help you understand and plan your daily financial life (do a web search using the term ‘budget’ to get started). I found this article from About.com that not only includes a step by step guide for daily finances, but will work great as we transition to agility finances. Take a moment to work through this guide and once you’re done, continue on to Budgeting for Agility, Part 2.
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