Kin’s Money

Personal Finance is not like an event at the Olympics. When trying to connect the two, I could only think about the process a city goes through in hosting the Olympics. It is not an event you can train for for 4 years, and is over in 10 seconds, 15 minutes, or even a couple of hours. It is a process that can take many years. And I thought about personal finance in relation to the 2024 Games in Brisbane (yet to be determined )

1. Initial Decision - Brisbane has not yet taken the decision to apply for the 2024 Olympics. Just as many people have not yet made the decision to master their personal finances.
2. Investigation - For Brisbane this means determining what will be required to apply for the games, and what will be needed to host the games. Investigating your personal finances is the first step to mastering them. What is the situation? Is it dire? Good? If you don’t know, you have nothing to work with.
3. Making a plan - When Brisbane has decided what is needed to apply for and host the games, it can begin to make a plan for the bidding, and hosting of the games. When you know the state of your personal finances, you can draw up a plan for how you’re going to master them. This may include a budget, a savings plan, a retirement plan, an investment plan. Remember too that these plans are not set in stone.
4. Set the plan in motion - at this point it’s worth noting that the 2024 games host city will not be decided until 2017. That’s right, 9 years from now. Personal finance is not a sprint! By beginning to act on the plan now, Brisbane will have 9 years to determine if the plan is working, and what needs to change for it to work properly. If your budget is not working, change it! Only by acting on the plan can you see its effectiveness. And don’t get too attached to the plan that you’re not open to change. Brisbane may find in a couple of years that they won’t be ready for the 2024 games, and decide instead to try for the 2028 games.
5. Be open to change - Just as the host of the 2024 games is not yet set, your plans are not set in stone. Priorities change, your situation changes. Interest rates go up, or down, food prices go up, fuel goes up. A budget is not a pice of paper, but a living idea. Some people budget each pay, each month. Don’t be afraid to change your plan.
6. Set targets along the way - Clearly 16 years away is a long time, if Brisbane doesn’t measure how they’re going in that time they won’t know if they’re on target. Similarly, unless you have shorter and medium term goals, you won’t be able to measure your success.
7. Enjoy the journey - That may sound like a bit of a dumb thing to say about personal finance, but like life, financial management is a journey, not a destination. If it was all work and no fun, no one would want to host the Olympics. Think of ways to make it fun - reward yourself, share the load, get the family involved.

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