Are your money behaviors sustainable?

For a long time, I didn't realize that I could be failing even while having external "growth" and success.

It wasn't until I heard this definition of sustainability for the first time that I realized there was more to the equation:

"Sustainability means that you meet your current needs while guaranteeing your future self is secure."

With money, I failed this definition in two critical ways that I thought I'd share with you. Each failure happened at different times on my wealth-building journey.

1. Failure one: Early on, before I got good with money, I was unsustainable because I was spending all my money and going into debt. My future self was not secure. I didn't have a plan outside of a focus on getting to the next paycheck. And I was finding myself to be more in debt over time, even as I started to earn more money. My future self was getting less and less secure.
2. Failure two: Much later, I failed in the other direction. As a natural reaction to my first failure, I became so future focused and constricted with money that I wasn't practicing how to be happy in my current moment. Because I was focused on getting to an early retirement and THEN I'd have "made it".

In one case, I wasn't securing a future for myself. In the other case, I was not in touch with my own needs in the current moment.

This is typically what is wrong with much of the "grind" culture that is popular today. Because even if you start to see outward success, if you are "injuring" yourself through emotional burnout, exhaustion, or not learning to appreciate life in your current moment, you may be winning a battle but losing the war - a Pyrrhic victory.

An example to bring this to life: this concept could be compared to red lining a vehicle when you drive, where you are driving your vehicle so hard that you burn out your engine. It’s good to keep a pulse on your mental and emotional connections with money and work on aligning them in a positive way. You don’t want to be redlining; you can still approach wealth building with intensity, but make sure to check in with yourself.

Of course, striving for sustainability doesn’t mean that we don’t “redline” our money engine. We can get serious about paying off debt and we may spend less on ourselves to get the job done. Just like we might like to drive fast from time to time. But the key is to learn balance. Make sure to reward yourself in the here and now when you create success - whether it’s opening a brokerage account, saving a little more than you did before, or grew your skills in a job to (hopefully) earn more money over time.

Here are a few questions you can carry into the weekend and ask yourself as you work on wealth building:

1. Is what I am doing in this moment healthy for me now and for all my future selves?
2. Is what I am doing right now sustainable – can I healthily maintain what I am doing now and into the future?
3. Is what I am doing allowing me to grow over the long term in a healthy way?

Beyond just checking in with yourself emotionally, a tactical way to address sustainability is to make sure you save enough money to enjoy the present moment - while saving for the future. Some will say to spend 30% on your “wants” and save 20% for the future. Only you know yourself, and you get to play with these "dials" with intentional decisions. Whatever ratio you land on, check in with yourself to make sure it’s covering your current needs and your future plan.

The reason that this is so critical is because wealth building is a lifelong process. There are countless people that “made it” that then lost all their money. Just like there are people that start with nothing and consistently save and invest who find success after 10, 20, or 30 years of patience. Our goal is to find an ability to tap into this growth in a way that is helping all parts of ourselves: physical, mental, and emotional.

And the math backs this up. Because it takes seven to ten years for money to double on itself, it is critical that you can maintain your healthy habits long enough for it to take effect. Focusing on sustainability is the key to doing that.

So here is wishing you a healthy, happy, sustainable weekend!

Cheers,

Greg