Once you have determined you’re willing to put in a tremendous amount of effort in order successfully work from home and you’ve streamlined your life and developed organization, you’re not quite ready to jump headfirst into beginning your business. There’s one more thing which you need to have in place in order to have a strong foundation for a successfully working from home.
What is that one thing? It is that you need to be operating on a workable written budget. I’m not speaking of a budget for your business here, I’m talking about you personally living on a budget.
Why is this so important? Well for one, I’ve seen a lot of families who think they have an income problem when really they have a disorganization and self-discipline problem. You see, if you think you can’t make ends meet and you need to dramatically increase your income and yet you don’t even have a plan in place for your money, how do you know you can’t make ends meet? Perhaps the ends would meet just fine if you’d buckle down and start giving every dollar a name.
There will never be enough money for those who lack self-discipline. Increasing your income won’t fix the problem if the problem is that you aren’t willing to work hard and wait until you can afford something.
As I wrote earlier:
Why am I such a big proponent of living on a budget? It is because I know
that were it not for our budget and the grace of God, we would very
likely be up to our eyeballs in debt right now, barely making ends
meet–just like pretty much all the rest of our law school friends are.
We wouldn’t be living comfortably well below our means, we wouldn’t
have an emergency fund of six months’ expenses in the bank, and we certainly wouldn’t be on a savings plan to pay 100% down for a home in 3-5 years.Yes,
we’re frugal (I came into the marriage frugal, my husband has learned
to be out of necessity!), but we would be miles behind where we are now
without a written budget. I know this because we’ve done the math and
we know without a doubt that having a written budget, giving every
dollar a name, and putting it on paper, on purpose (to quote a few Dave Ramsey lines) has saved us literally thousands of dollars over the last five years.
Setting up a cash-flow plan is imperative before you start a business because it enables you to make your money work for you. Instead of you being a slave to a mountain of ever-increasing bills, you are at the helm of the ship with a written plan in place for every dollar you make. Your money will go farther, your stress levels will dramatically decrease, and you’ll be in great shape to become a WAHM!
Note: If budgeting is new to you, start with this post. Then go get yourself a copy of The Total Money Makeover. Dave walks you step-by-step through a plan to revolutionize your life and experience financial peace. In addition to The Total Money Makeover, I highly recommend this DVD on Cash-Flow Planning (this DVD was one of my first exposures to Dave Ramsey and it completely won me over! If you are a visual learner, this will especially be helpful.)
Just for fun: How many of you live on a budget? What has been the single greatest benefit your family has experienced by living on a budget?