Guest opinion: Creating margin in your life
I am a hyper-efficient, Type-A, competitive achiever. As a working mom, I often feel stretched in many directions when I try to be the best possible employee, co-worker, wife, mom, friend, church member, daughter, sibling and much more. You often can find me exercising, cleaning bathrooms or folding a load of laundry right up until bedtime, because I want to complete my list before bed. I think many women rarely have downtime, because we put so much pressure on ourselves to be perfect at everything.
I recently overheard a conversation where someone said, “I decided not to take on that additional responsibility because I don’t have enough margin in my life.” Wow. What a concept! It has me thinking about the lack of margin in my own life. I want to create margin with my time, but I’m not sure where to start.
I often talk with my clients about creating financial margin. If you spend less than you make, you create margin in your financial situation. That financial margin gives you the opportunity to make additional purchases such as buying that new dress at the mall, because you are not sacrificing paying your water bill. Without margin, you have less flexibility in your spending decisions.
Another example of financial margin is to have money put aside in an emergency fund in case you have a health event, job loss, or broken furnace that needs to be repaired. The best way to accumulate cash in an emergency fund is to save a little bit each paycheck. If we consistently save month after month, that emergency fund eventually will grow to an amount we are aiming to accumulate for financial margin.
Even though we all have different financial situations, each of us has the same number of hours in a week. Some will spend more hours working, some exercising, some cleaning and some watching television. I am not going to wake up tomorrow and magically have margin in my time, unless I work on it little by little. Margin also looks different to everyone. One person may desire to watch an hour of television each night to relax. Another may spend an hour at night responding to emails, so they can drop their kids off at school and arrive at work an hour later.
If you have a task or activity to decide on, ask yourself if doing it will make you happier. If so, you will know that it is worth your time and effort to complete the task or activity. If you practice and budget your time to “spend less than you make,” you gradually will be able to create margin in your life.
Brittany Heard works with Foster Group clients to define and achieve their financial goals. She enjoys helping clients make small changes that benefit them long-term. Heard’s opinions in this guest submission do not necessarily reflect those of her employer.
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