Amanda's Take Five for Monday

Understanding your relationship with money; Organic growth; Drawing the line between business and personal; The benefits of budgeting; Why not?

Personal Finance

Understanding your relationship with money; Organic growth; Drawing the line between business and personal; The benefits of budgeting; Why not?

25th Jun 12, 11:09am by Amanda Morrall

By Amanda Morrall

1) Your relationship with money

Tracking your spending is a fundamental part of personal finance, but understanding your reasons for spending is no less important. Behavioural finance blogger and money coach Jacquette Timmons sheds some light on the psychological side of personal finance and how to cultivate a better relationship with money by understanding your motives and actions.

Ms. Timmons also uses the blog to sell her own money coaching services but you can still get something out of her column without dropping US$1,400. on her course.

2) Growth is good

The Harvard Business Review, in one of its latest blogs, offers some tips for businesses trying to grow their profits among one of the most challenging economic periods since The Great Depression. Its four point plan is as follows:

Have a method
Make growth 'net free'
Make your company growth friendly
Make growth fun

3) Don't take it personally

In business, you can't take things personally. Easier said than done, I know. This entrepreneur's blog also talks about the need to keep business and personal finance matters separate, and cites the blending of the two as one of the most frequent blunders made by entrepreneurs.

4) Why you need a budget

It's always good to go back to basics when the plan isn't going as planned. Putting together a budget is the most obvious starting point. Here's KNS Financial writing about the benefits of the mighty budget.

5) Why not?

What's holding you back from doing what you really want to do or perhaps spending your time in a way that is both meaningful, purposeful and profitable?

Julie Murphy Casserly suggests one method to overcome fear and mental obstacles is to write the why not list to separate real from imagined hurdles to determine whether your dreams and or fears are realistic.

To read other Take Fives by Amanda Morrall click here. You can also follow Amanda on Twitter @amandamorrall

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6 Comments

by raf | 25th Jun 12, 4:04pm 1340597042

1) $14k...I need to get into this business :-)

4) Without a budget, you are shooting in the dark. The reason that people are reluctant to do a budget is that they don't really want to find out the truth (see item 1), such as spending $3-4k a year on coffees (one of the great marketing wheezes of the last 20 years). For those who are serious about cutting costs, then a simple budget is the way to go. Lots of spreadsheets available at minimum cost (such as Heaps from Kiwibank, which is free).

5) I write lists all the time. At night and in the morning...they are never-ending!!!! They are a good way to keep track of things and not worry too much about them.

by Amanda Morrall | 25th Jun 12, 4:48pm 1340599702

My mistake, actually $1,400! (fixed now) Maybe worth the price of admission if it convinced people to kick the $3K caffeine addiction. You're right about the budgets...I cut my coffee habit in half when I saw the numbers. Should give it up altogther but a relatively cheap vice relative to some.

by Ralph | 25th Jun 12, 8:02pm 1340611367

Two thoughts on growth.

Another word for when things grow out of their proper order is cancer - so growth is not automatically a good thing.

We don't do a very good job of measuring growth, GDP for instance is a terrible measure that is presented to us as "growth".

by Ralph | 25th Jun 12, 8:03pm 1340611436

I hate it when pelple use the phrase "It's just business". What a crock that is. All business is personal at some meaningful level.

by powerdownkiwi | 25th Jun 12, 8:15pm 1340612148

2 - Bullet point 5 should say: Make growth possible, or the above are not.

It isn't, so they aren't.

by karlo | 25th Aug 12, 6:38pm 1345876698

You are right, in fact being into business is no easy task, business is like a game that you are risking anything in your possession..when you failed it is almost hard to stand up. Good name company deserve every positive ideas you have, otherwise you are not good in this field.