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The word budget gets a lot of searches on the Internet. In the results of the search one of the things that you will see mentioned quite often is free budget. Most of the time, these results are actually referring to free budget tools. But, wouldn't it be wonderful if we could actually get a free budget? It sounds great doesn't it? Someone else would tell us what we had to do to be financially successful. But, I don't really think that you want a free budget. If someone were to give you a free budget, and you had to live with it, you would not have any freedom.
A budget is a careful plan designed to meet your unique circumstances regarding your financial life. If someone else was to lay out that plan for you, and you had to live with it, you have lost the freedom to make decisions regarding your life.
That free budget would define the goals of your life regarding your finances. Someone else would tell you how much money you had to make. They would decide if you were to be an entrepreneur, a professional, a shopkeeper, or a ditch digger and thereby determine the amount of money that you would have to spend. They would decide if you were going to retire early, or never plan on retiring. They would decide if you need it to drive a new car or could get by with junkers. They would decide if you were going to be sending your children to college. I don't think any of us want to leave those decisions to someone else.
That free budget would also mean that someone else would determine how you spend every penny that you spend. That free budget would determine how much money you spend on groceries. Therefore it would determine what you eat. It would also determine where you live, what you wear, and what you do for hobbies or entertainment. Every aspect of your life would be controlled by the budget as it controls the amount of money that you can spend for any specific item. That isn't freedom as I see it.
That free budget would also be constantly analyzing your spending and adjusting that spending to meet the goals established by someone else in the free budget. Again, I don't think anyone really wants that.
The real free budget is one that we make ourselves. We make the plan for our financial life by establishing our goals. We decide where and how much of our money we are going to spend. We get to analyze our spending, and adjust it to fit our desires. That is where the real freedom comes in.
So, our budget gives us the freedom to plan and achieve a successful financial life. By the same token, failing to make that plan or making a poor plan or not living up to that plan can mean that we can fail with our financial life. That is true freedom.
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