How your Financial Comfort Zone could be saving or stealing from you and why you need to expand it.
Can I make a confession? I blew my pay rise on Doris Day DVDs, cinnamon pancakes and H&M's sales aisle in 2 weeks!…But don't judge me yet. I felt on top of “my world”, my savings were growing steadily, I had more money than sense and I was rich! (Seeing 4 figures on your payslip will make you feel rich especially at 24).
I was slowly approaching that awkward uncomfortable “point” with my money and I didn’t even smell it coming.
It’s like when you are young and in a relationship, everything is going so unbelievably well you can’t quite believe it or handle the goodness. And you just have to sabotage it. The typical “it's not you it's me, I just think we need some space”… and that’s exactly what I did… things were going so well I broke up with my money.
It's the point just outside what I call our “Financial Comfort Zone", anything outside this zone causes us stress...
For example
Imagine you are quite happy with having an overdraft or a credit card bill of up to £1000. We can say you have a "Debt Comfort limit" of £1000.
How would you feel if you owed only £500? Relaxed, and comfortable with the debt? in fact you might keep finding reasons to spend more until you reach £1000 in debt.
Now imagine your debt increases above your Debt Comfort Limit to let's say £1500, you may begin to experience “negative” stress when you think about it. Your brain starts working overdrive, you get anxious and you start looking for ways to reduce your debt. You may find yourself palpitating and pondering on ways to get you to your “£1000” zone at which point for you, everything will be "ok again".
Whereas someone else with a debt comfort limit of £2000 will wonder why you are "over-stressing".
The same happens with your savings.
If you have a "savings comfort limit" of £1000. You might feel uncomfortable having any savings less than £1000.
But what happens once you go above £1000 in savings is quite remarkable. Because it's something I have experienced many times.
You get "positively stressed".
Yes many of us are positively stressed because we have too much cash available to us and we handle our stress by looking for creative and entertaining ways to get rid of all the excess cash.
Shopping for things you already have enough off, giving it out as gifts, giving to charities you don't care about, losing it, or getting fines are a few examples.
So are you uncomfortable with More Money?
I first noticed I had hit my Savings Comfort Limit a few years ago.. Every time I would get a pay rise, (a pay rise I would have put in long nights and early morning for 6 months prior). I would spend it so fast at the boredom-buster & money-sucking Wimbledon mall which I was subjected to passing on my home (poor me!!!).
Here a yes/no checklist to find out if you have a Savings Comfort Limit.
● Do you notice you can't seem to save above a certain amount before you start spending on things you could do without? (this could be £100 or £1 million)..
● Do you feel the need to “treat yourself” when you see your savings has exceeded a certain amount on things you don’t really need?
● When you come into a windfall of cash is the first thing do you think of how to spend it on things that make you feel better?
● Do you feel unfairly lucky to have excess access to cash when loved ones don't have?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, you might have a savings comfort limit. Ask yourself why you made the purchase, did it bring you lasting joy or was it temporary?
If we want to build wealth it's important to recognise these internal pitfalls which limit us from achieving our financial goals no matter how much we earn.
“Greatness lies outside your comfort zone”
What if?
What if you were able to save and keep your money without being stressed, spending, losing or giving it out?
What if you were able to grow your wealth so that you could really use it to positively change your life for good and the lives of your family and the generations to come? (Yes this is possible!)
What if you invested your extra income and created a movement that changed the world around you.
What if you could stretch your financial comfort zone (the amount of money you are naturally comfortable having without the urge to spend on things that won’t add value to you) without being in debt and without feeling uneasy, and uncomfortable?
What helped me.
Having bigger goals for each pay rise.
At the time, I really wanted to travel more. Wrote down the places I wanted to visit and experiences I wanted to explore.and I started saving towards my first home.
Now my big goal is to pay off my mortgage.
But I still hit my saving comfort limit from time to time and the temptations to spend on things I don't care about arise including the temptation to lose money by being careless and unaware of parking restrictions.
How to increase your Savings Comfort Limit and stop robbing the future you
1. Review your financial goals often. It is common to outgrow our goals.
2. Increase your pension contributions when you get a pay rise.
3. Open a cash ISA and save an extra money tax-free up to £20k
4. Open a lifetime ISA. The UK government add 25% to your savings up to £4k per year towards your first home or retirement.
While having and hitting a debt comfort limit could be saving you from excess debt, having a saving comfort limit can lead to self sabotaging your financial future.
Think of ways you at currently doing this and share them with me if you would like the support and encouragement to positively expand your financial comfort zone.