We all have a money mission. Wait a minute–a money mission? What’s that supposed to mean? Are we all supposed to be in in it for the money and live our lives trying to get rich so we can buy a McMansion and drive luxury cars? Nothing wrong with that if that’s what you want to do, but far from the point of this post.
What is a Money Mission?
A money mission is your personal finance journey. It’s your purpose behind acquiring and using money to best suits the needs of you and your family. Everyone’s mission is going to look different–and your mission will likely evolve over time.
Why do You Need a Money Mission?
Your money mission is a reflection of your values. Values such as family, friends, relationships, time, travel, etc. Money is currency used to trade for goods and services, and the usual way for money to be acquired is via work. At least until investments really start to compound. Even then, some work and time is required to manage those investments.
Related: How Value-Based Spending Can Change Your Life
Since work and time is required to acquire and maintain money, there is a natural relationship between values and money. That relationship is your money mission. Money isn’t just for accumulating–everyone has a purpose behind money and it’s up to you to figure out yours.
How to Figure Out Your Money Mission
Figuring out your money mission is no easy task. All of us have a history with money, whether it’s good, bad, or neutral. Everyone was raised with certain belief systems about money and many of us carry that into adulthood. No matter how you were raised, or what your current beliefs are, it’s important to identify your personal money mission. The remainder of this post will be dedicated to exactly that.
Number 1: Life Goals
What are your life goals? Are most of your life goals related to family and relationships, or do they pertain more to career and financial success? Or is it a combination of both?
In order for a goal to be met, time has to be spent towards that specific goal. If your goal is to have great relationships with family, time and effort has to be put towards that area. Staying in the office until 9:00 every night likely isn’t the necessary time and effort required to maintain great family relationships. Yes, the occasional late night working is probably required in most careers, but if it’s an everyday thing, it’s going to be a hindrance towards your goal.
Number 2: What Do You Want?
When trying to figure out your money mission, it’s important to ask what you want. A very simple question on the surface, but with many layers of complexity. “What do you want” is a life question. It’s asking what you want your life to look like. Which is a question that has a major relationship with money.
Do you want more time freedom? Geographical freedom? Ability to not have to live paycheck to paycheck? Possibility of early retirement? There are so many questions to ask that go into the seemingly simple question of what you want.
A good way to start with these questions is with your values. Write down your values and priorities in your life and then work backwards to answering the question. For example, if you value being home before 5:00 each day to take your kids to soccer practice, that will likely determine the kind of work you do. Being at a job that requires you to be in meetings until 6:30 is not conducive to that particular value.
However, being an entrepreneur where you control your own schedule and can get home when you want is congruent to that value. Same for a W2 job that starts early and ends by 4:00 every day.
Number 3: What Will You Do With Your Money?
Money is not meant to endlessly hoard and keep for a rainy day. Yes, saving and investing are essential, but nobody is expecting anyone to save and invest 100 percent of their money. So what will you do with your money?
- Take better vacations?
- Live abroad for an extended period?
- Donate to a worthy cause(s)
- Pay for your children’s college?
- Get out of the paycheck to paycheck cycle?
There are so many important things you can do with your money, but it’s up to you to figure out what those things are. My suggestion is to set aside about a half hour and write down everything that comes to your mind. Don’t worry about if it sounds crazy or doesn’t make sense. Just keep writing and edit later.
Related: 34 Money Mindset Journal Prompts to Get You in Control of Your Personal Finances
Number 4: Relationship With Stress
Money can be stressful–and not just in not having enough money. For example, making money can be stressful due to time and work demands. Challenging clients, a demanding boss, and long work hours are just a few examples.
Even somewhat passive income streams like real estate can be stressful. A tenant who overflows the toilet and damages the new flooring, weather damage to the property, unexpected maintenance, etc. are all potentially stressful situations.
Furthermore, investments that are completely hands off like index funds can also be stressful. Watching your portfolio drop by 30 percent in the span of six months is enough to stress most people out, especially those close to retirement. Same for individual stocks and alternative investments like crypto.
Point being, money comes with both stress and positives. Determine what stress levels are acceptable to you and make your decisions from there.
Number 5: Time Relationship
Piggybacking off stress, the next category is your relationship with time and money. Money requires time to make and maintain. It might take a lot of time like in a full time job, or it might take a little time such as managing your stock portfolio. Whatever it is, money requires at least some time.
So, what is your relationship with time and money? Do you want a job working 40 hours per week, something part time, to run your own company on your own schedule, or something completely different? There are a lot of ways to manage your relationship between time and money, so be creative and find what works for you.
Number 6: Convenience
Money can buy convenience. Think about going to a sporting event that’s a half hour from your house by car. You don’t want to drive because parking is a hassle. And you don’t want to take public transportation because you have to walk a mile to the train station and it takes an additional hour to get to the event.
You can just take a ridesharing service like Uber or Lyft and get there in a short amount of time without any of the hassle. Yes, it’s going to cost more but you are buying that convenience. You’re making a trade of your money for the time and effort it would have taken with the alternatives.
If this trade is worth it for you, make it. If it’s not, find an alternative. Part of my money mission is to pay for convenience when it’s really worth it. And when it’s not, I don’t pay extra for it. A perfect example of this was a couple weekends ago when I traveled to Denver.
I arrived on a Friday and took a rideshare to my Airbnb. I didn’t know the area so well and it was convenient to be dropped off right in front of my location.
On Sunday when it was time to leave, I knew the city a little better and realized I could take the train from the downtown area back to the airport in a short amount of time. Plus, the train was offering free rides in the month of August so it was just as easy for me to take the train as it was a rideshare service. In that instance, I chose the train option.
Number 7: Financial Independence
Financial independence is when you no longer rely on trading time for dollars. Investments or other sources of income fund your lifestyle. The financially independent person can do whatever they want with their time–they can continue to work, start their own business, volunteer, travel, or anything else that interests them.
There’s also no age limit on financial independence. The 30-year old who sold her startup for eight figures is financially independent (assuming a reasonable lifestyle) as is the 65-year old man who collects dividends from his investments accumulated over a long working career. There’s no one-size-fits all right way to do it, circumstances vary for each person.
Part of your money mission is figuring out when you want to be financially independent, calculating how long it’s going to take, and balancing sacrifices you’ll have to make to reach it earlier.
Related:
- The Ultimate Financial Independence Checklist
- 11 Financial Independence Hacks To Start Today
- The Importance of Financial Freedom
Number 8: Lifestyle and Career
What do you want your lifestyle to look like? What kind of effort do you want to put in as it pertains to making money? These questions directly relate to your money mission because the more efforts you put into making money, the more time you’ll be spending on that specific task. Which often means less time with family and friends, and for leisure and travel.
This is not a hard and fast rule, but it’s generally true. If you’re the exception, great.
So determine what you want your lifestyle to look like and design your career around it. No matter if you decide to be an entrepreneur, teacher, firefighter, real estate investor, etc., design your career around your desired lifestyle.
Number 9: Purpose
What is your overall purpose? Want do you want to accomplish and become? Are you willing to make less money for a couple years and apprentice under a mentor? Is your purpose to start your own company and provide job opportunities to hundreds of employees?
Or is your purpose to make enough money to live every month and spend as much time with your family as possible? Or maybe it’s a combination of factors that evolve over time. Identifying your purpose will help you develop your money mission as the two often go hand in hand.
Conclusion
Your money mission is important. That’s not to say money is the most important thing in the world–because it’s not. The importance of your money mission is how it impacts the rest of your life and the decisions you make.
It’s critical to make sure your money mission aligns with your life and family goals. If your money mission is out of alignment with those goals, your life is likely to be disjointed. But if everything is aligned, you are much more likely to be successful.
What is your money mission and is it aligned with your life goals?
