Sean Pyles

There's the sort of emotional, mental, psychological part of understanding why you have these narratives.

But then there's also a really tactical aspect of just figuring out where your money is going and allocating it in a really intentional way.

So, Kim, how do you think Michael can create a budget that balances saving and enjoying his life?

Yeah, it sounds like Michael needs to try to lean into the fun part of their budget and maybe do some value based spending to help minimize their shame, like really intentionally go out of their way to say, hey, I'm spending this money on a fun thing for me, whether it's going out to eat or a new video game or a book or whatever is fun to Michael.

We don't know what is fun to them.

But Kim, I'd like to hear some ways to maybe alleviate the guilt of spending and still saving money.

So what are your thoughts around striking that balance?

Are you talking about sinking funds, Elizabeth?

Fine, I'm talking about sinking.

One of my favorite things.

Another thought that comes to mind is that around sinking funds, Michael could have one around their emergency fund if they don't have one set aside.

I think having an emergency fund of three to six months of savings, knowing that you have that money tucked away for whenever something does pop up, can help you then enjoy what you are allocating for your fund money without being so concerned about having all of your bases covered too.

So let's shift to another part of Michael's question around obsessing over savings.

And this is something we hear from listeners pretty regularly.

They're really hyper focused on savings, sometimes in Michael's case as well, at the expense of enjoying their life and enjoying their money.

So when it comes to obsessing over savings, Kim, where do you think this can come from in people?

Just knowing your numbers can be really helpful here.

So understand your budget, maybe with that 50, 30, 20 or 60, 20, 20 framework, whatever you want to play with and just know, hey, I actually do have all of my needs met by the money that I have coming in.

And if you find that that's not the case, then we can talk about that in more detail then.

But if you actually have all your bases covered, that can give you a moment to have a sigh of relief and think, OK, how can I move forward beyond this?