Think As Inc

Minding The Bottom Line

June 7, 2010 on 3:48 pm | In career coaching | 1 Comment

Successful businesses mind their bottom line.  Your career is your business, and your personal bottom line matters.  People with strong balance sheets are better positioned to ride out tight labor markets.  People with profitable bottom lines have a cash cushion to rely on during that career change or entrepreneurial venture.  People who mind their personal bottom line have money to fund their career and life dreams.  (If you still don’t believe this, maybe it’s a blind spot; see above!)

However, budgets and to do lists often don’t work.  Wishful thinking about how you could/ should/ would spend your money or your time is often not as illuminating as seeing how you actually spend these resources.  Sometimes, you don’t need to plan.  You just need to see what is actually happening.  Then, you have your wake-up call:  a point-in-time audit of how you’re doing.  For helpful hints on accounting for your time, see the August 2002 newsletter for the Time Diary exercise.  To account for your money, simply check your account balance at the beginning of the year versus the end of the year.  If you use multiple accounts, total your findings for each account:

How much money did you spend? 

How much cash did you withdraw?  Are you bleeding cash? 

How much did you pay your credit card companies?  Are you overextended? 

How much in checks did you write?  Checks leave a paper trail, so you know where this money goes.  Are you happy with where your money is going?

What expenses are fixed versus variable? 

Are you spending your money on your dreams?