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Money is more than just a means to pay for necessities—it is a tool that can help you build the life you truly want.
However, many people fall into the trap of spending reactively rather than intentionally, often leading to financial stress and unfulfilled aspirations.
By aligning your spending with your personal values, goals, and desires, you can create a financial plan that supports long-term satisfaction rather than momentary gratification.
There are many methods to uncovering whether you are doing this, today we're focusing on one powerful method known as Future Authoring—a structured goal-setting approach that helps you define your ideal future and create a plan to achieve it.
By integrating Future Authoring principles into your financial strategy, you can ensure that every financial decision moves you closer to the life you envision.
Before making any changes to your spending habits, take a step back and reflect on your core values and long-term vision. Future Authoring encourages individuals to visualise their ideal future across multiple domains, including career, relationships, health, and finances.
Most people are able to think on a high-level about what they want, however, the greater the detail you can go into the better.
For example, many want to travel that's great but where do you want to go? what do you want to see when you are there?, how long do you want to go for?, how frequently do you want to travel? etcetera.
Once you've identified your values, the next step is to create clear, actionable financial goals that align with your envisioned future. Future Authoring emphasizes breaking down large aspirations into achievable steps.
Specific: Clearly define what you want (e.g., "Save £60,000 for a home deposit").
Measurable: Track your progress (e.g., "I will save £2,000 per month").
Achievable: Set realistic targets based on your income and expenses.
Relevant: Ensure your goals align with your values and envisioned future.
Time-bound: Give yourself a deadline (e.g., "Reach my goal in 30 months").
Tip: Write down your goals as part of your Future Authoring exercise and revisit them regularly to stay on track.
A crucial step in aligning spending with your goals is understanding where your money currently goes. Conduct a financial audit to identify areas where spending is out of sync with your priorities.
Review your last three months of bank and credit card statements.
Categorise expenses into essentials, discretionary, and misaligned spending.
Highlight any spending that does not contribute to your goals.
Compare your actual spending to the future lifestyle you envisioned in your Future Authoring plan.
After identifying spending misalignments, create a value-based spending plan to ensure that your financial decisions support your priorities.
This is entirely personal, and there is no one right answer, and it will most certainly change over time.
Tip: Instead of depriving yourself of all non-essentials, mindfully allocate money to the things that truly bring joy and align with your future vision.
As income increases, it's easy to increase expenses proportionally—a phenomenon known as lifestyle inflation. However, this can prevent you from making meaningful progress toward your financial goals.
Keep a fixed savings percentage (e.g., commit to saving 30% of any salary increases).
Tip: Set up automatic transfers for your savings and investments.
Spend mindfully — Prior to commiting to a signficant expenditure, ask, "Does this align with my vision?" Every time you tap or use apple pay, it's an opportunity to invest in your future or to detract from it.
Tip: Regularly compare spending habits with your future plans.
Spending money in alignment with your goals and desires is key to financial and personal fulfillment. By leveraging the principles of Future Authoring, you can create a clear vision of your ideal future, set meaningful financial goals, and ensure that every pound spent contributes to a future that reflects your true aspirations.