Here a few thinkers, and the oldie but a goodie on budgets! Enjoy!

Risk and the appearance of risk aren’t the same thing. In fact, for most of us, they rarely overlap.Realizing that there’s a difference is the first step in making better decisions.

What you measure usually gets paid attention to, and what you pay attention to, usually gets better. Numbers supercharge measurement, because numbers are easy to compare. Numbers make it difficult to hide. And hence the problem. Income is easy to measure, and so we fall into the trap that people who make more money are better, or happier, or somehow more worthy of respect and dignity. Likes are easy to measure, so social media becomes a race to the bottom, where the panderer and the exhibitionist win. Five star reviews are easy to measure, so creators feel the pressure to get more of them.

But wait!

What does it mean to ‘win’? Is maximizing the convenient number actually going to produce the impact and the outcome you wanted? Is the most important work always the most popular? Does widespread acceptance translate into significant impact? Or even significant sales? Is the bestseller list also the best book list? Who are these reviews from? Are they based on expectations (a marketing function) or are they based on the change you were trying to make? It turns out that great books and great movies get more than their fair share of lousy reviews–because popular items attract more users, and those users might not be people you were seeking to please.

Or consider graduation rates. The easiest way to make them go up is to lower standards. Or to get troublesome students to transfer to other institutions or even to get them arrested. When we lose track of what’s important in our rush to keep track of what’s measurable, we fail. The right numbers matter. A hundred years ago, Henry Ford figured out how to build a car far cheaper than his competitors. He was selling the Model T for a fraction of what it cost other companies to even make one of their cars. And so measuring the cost of manufacture became urgent and essential. And farmers discovered the yield was the secret to their success, so tons per acre became the most important thing to measure. Until people started keeping track of flavor, nutrition and side effects.

And then generals starting measuring body count…

When you measure the wrong thing, you get the wrong thing. Perhaps you can be precise in your measurement, but precision is not significance. On the other hand, when you are able to expose your work and your process to the right thing, to the metric that actually matters, good things happen. We need to spend more time figuring out what to keep track of, and less time actually obsessing over the numbers that we are already measuring.

“I bought the diet book, but ate my usual foods.”

“I filled the prescription, but didn’t take the meds.”

“I took the course… well, I watched the videos… but I didn’t do the exercises in writing.”

Merely looking at something almost never causes change. Tourism is fun, but rarely transformative. If it was easy, you would have already achieved the change you seek. Change comes from new habits, from acting as if, from experiencing the inevitable discomfort of becoming.

5 Budgeting Myths You May Be Falling For

1. I don’t have the time to budget. Really – what’s more important than being accountable for the thing that affords the life you want? And if not you, WHO should be in charge and accountable of it then?

2. Budgeting is boring. You would be amazed at how many grown adults don’t make a budget every month because it’s “boring.” You know what else is boring? Credit cards statements. And bankruptcy court. And collector calls. . . . Actually, those aren’t very boring. If you’re a Free Spirit and can’t stand the thought of putting a budget together, take a breath. You can do this. Once you get the hang of it, making a budget isn’t all that bad! Get your Nerd spouse or a friend to help you out.

3. Making a budget is difficult math, and I hate math. This isn’t rocket science. If you can do basic third-grade math, you can make a budget. You have your income and your outgo, and they need to equal zero. Hey, it’s a poem!

4. I do a budget in my head. If you can seriously do a zero-based budget in your head every single month, we’ll assume you are the most brilliant person on the planet. Could you please help our government make a budget? A budget in your head isn’t a budget. It’s just a kinda-sorta-I’ve-got-a-vague-idea-of-what-I-spend deal-ish thing. To work, a budget needs to be on paper or a spreadsheet or something you can maintain monthly and track. Besides that, if you’re married and doing a budget in your head, then only one of you is involved in the decision making, and that’s a definite no-no!

5. I budget by keeping track of every thing I spend. That’s a start, but it’s not a budget. Because when you only track spending, then you’re always looking at the past and never looking forward. Your budget is your plan for the upcoming month. You’re planning the money you haven’t spent yet. When you keep receipts or use your online banking to see what you spent last month, you’re doing just that—looking at last month. Look forward and back—not just one or the other. If you’re already tracking your spending, the budget is just a natural next step. It should be easy for you.

It’s disheartening that so many people have fallen for these budgeting myths and excuses. The good news is that you don’t have to be one of them.