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At work I’m involved in a lot of the training we do, preparing the staff for the various things they’ll encounter in a typical day in construction. An expression you’ll hear in that realm is “we want to arm you with the information you’ll need to…

…have the difficult conversation with the trade partner.”

…get to the bottom of that plan/spec discrepancy.”

…balance the budget to show the correct earnings.”

The idea is, once you’re properly armed, you can then go accomplish your goal. It applies in the workplace, and it applies in personal finance. The most powerful tool available to you to arm yourself to master your personal finances is your Why.

Always a Why

Anytime you ever had to do something requiring effort in your life, something kept you going. A 10-page essay? Fear of failing a class. Learning a new language? Passion for the culture. Squatting a new personal record? A sense of accomplishment. You had a Why. In each of these examples, after meeting your goal you were glad you expended the effort, grateful you didn’t give up, and happy you didn’t procrastinate past it becoming too late. Conversely, you can probably think of things you didn’t finish, or didn’t do as well as you would have hoped, and it can likely be traced back to not really having much of a Why.

Our Why

My wife and I’s Why to eradicate our 80k debt was this: to have options. As you can see in the snowball in this post, we had over $1,200 of monthly expenses just in minimum payments on the 80k. Every month we had to earn enough to cover that, plus all of our actual living expenses. We felt like we were working inordinately hard, both full time 40-50 hour corporate jobs, occasionally more, with very little to show for it. And looking to the future didn’t paint any rosier of a picture, as keeping up that pace of $1,200/month would take us around 5.5-6 years to pay it off, not including future interest on that debt.

As a couple, the options we wanted to create, our Why, was rooted in a desire to increase our share in our volunteer Bible teaching work as Jehovah’s Witnesses. We wanted to take advantage of our current good health and low family responsibilities. More time devoted to that work would be inversely proportionate to time spent somewhere else . Looking at how we spent our hours per week, where would the time come from? (Are pie charts becoming my thing??)

Graphically, purple (service) you see is very small. After the largest red (sleep), next up is blue (work). Could we redistribute, buying out more time for the work that moves us, that adds the most value to our lives? We knew that borrowing from the largest slice behind sleep was a possibility. Now follow that thought process, employing some of the power behind the key word of this post title:

• Why do you work almost as much as you sleep?
• because its a requirement of my job.
• Why does your job require it?
• because that’s the going rate of hours in return for the paycheck I get.
• Why do you need that paycheck?
• because I need it to pay for rent, food, transportation, other living expenses, have some fun, and pay off my debt.
• If the debt part was gone, could you potentially work less and still cover those other expenses?
• …..

That last question really makes you think, and opens up an entire world of, you guessed it, options. If you let your mind continue on that thread, you can really dream of a clean slate reallocation of your hours, a brand new pie chart, made possible only after you address these necessary cost of living issues. So ultimately, providing options was our Why, and the reason we extended our efforts to paying off debt. More to come on the actual steps we are taking to shift some of those hours.

Your turn – Why?

Before you get into the tactical “How” to pay off debt or improve your finances, doing research, buying books, and devoting any amount of time and energy to the subject, make sure you have your Why in place. Only after you’re properly armed with your Why are you ready to make the needed changes and sacrifices. Your Why, once strong enough, will keep you motivated for the long haul. For couples, this is really a time to sit down together and put into words what kind of life would make you each incredibly happy. As you each take your turn, you’ll no doubt be rewarded with further insight into what drives your mate. Describe to me your perfect day. Where on earth are you? Are you working? What kind of work are you doing? Are you learning something new? What is it? For singles, have the conversation with yourself out loud. Put your goals into words, hear your voice say them. Keep talking, keep dreaming, keep going until you find your Why!