“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” -Benjamin Franklin
When I conduct a new police officer applicant background interview, I sit the applicant down and greet them. I tell them about what the interview will be all about. I explain how we want to get to know them, learn about their past, collect documents, make photocopies of the documents, fill out the pre-investigative questionnaire, take their photo, and lastly fingerprint them.
Before they start to fill out the pre-investigative questionnaire, I discuss the housekeeping with them. My spiel about housekeeping goes something like this…
The restrooms and drinking fountain are located across the lobby out this door. Over here is the emergency exit in case there is a fire and you need to leave the building. This door (me pointing towards a door with a small window and a key card access) goes back into the police station. All of the doors have police key card access only, so if someone comes in the building that usually means they work in here.
If you need to use phone to text or make a call or answer an incoming phone call then it’s no problem there is nothing you can cheat on this is simply about you and your past. The pre-investigative questionnaire is all about you and NOBODY KNOWS YOU BETTER THAN YOU. And then I leave the room and let them complete the questionnaire.
Nobody knows you better than you…that is so simple and so true. Hold on, I have to repeat that again nobody knows you better than you. The most challenging threat we face is between our ears. It is our inner voice telling us buy this, but that, you get paid next week. It’s okay-just put it on credit. You’ll pay it off sometime. So how do we quiet the inner voice in our head. We develop awareness by tracking our income and expenses. We create balance by saving the Benjamins and we instill control by creating a planter the future.
AWARENESS-Track your income and expenses
Really, Danny Budget?? Why?
In order to be efficient with money and be a great steward of our finances we must track. There are so many easy ways to track our money it’s kind of a joke not to-Mint, Every Dollar, Excel spreadsheets, Google sheet, a pen a paper. Just track, I know from experience tracking isn’t fun, it isn’t cool, it isn’t lights and sirens, but it WILL improve how you handle money exponentially. It increases awareness tenfold.
Awareness, actually better yet self-awareness is the critical component to better money management. When we are aware of every penny coming in and every penny going out we make more informed decisions. When we make more informed decisions we reduce our debt and build our wealth.
BALANCE-Save the Benjamins
Balance is essential. Remember to share, save, and lastly spend. Saving doesn’t just happen. We must be intentional about where our money is going. The easiest way is to start by tracking or budgeting AKA: Awareness. The next way is to balance in your budget. I like sending 10% as a minimum to sharing. I share money with our church, our children’s school and police athletic league foundation that serves children.
Next we send at least 10% to saving. We save in my wife’s company 401k, my department 457b, and our taxable brokerage account. Lastly we live on the last 80%. At the end of the month if there is more money leftover we move it to our savings account.
CONTROL-Create a Plan for the Future
The future, a plan, why? Begin with your why…write down why you want to change the way you manage your money. My why is because God calls me to be a good steward of my finances amongst other things. A plan simply gives us an idea of where we are and where we want to go. We have to write some information down for this type of plan-it could be future purchases, retirement income, hopes and dreams, amazing vacations for the future, so you get the idea. By writing it down we physically and mentally engage with our plan. This engagement causes us to make wise decisions to accomplish the plan.
I want to go on vacations with my wife when we are empty nesters. Vacations where we travel the world and see random places. And when we return we are not worried about how much money spent on the vacation because we were good money managers. I want to go out to dinner and leave the server a $1,000 tip just because they provided great service.
I am willing to live like no one else, so later I can live and give like no one else. Thank you Dave Ramsey! I have to give credit where credit is due. I love that saying! Don’t you? Just start!
“My mind is my biggest asset.” -Tiger Woods