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Make the Right Choices on the Money Battlefield

Every day, we face hundreds of financial choices.  Some choices are larger and more obvious than others, like the decision to buy a new car or invest the maximum in your 401(k).  Other choices –like the decision to eat an ice cream sandwich instead of a piece of fruit – don’t manifest themselves as financial decisions until you’ve outgrown your pants and have to spend hundreds of dollars on a new professional wardrobe.

The right choices are usually the hardest ones.  If it were easy to save money, spend responsibly and track your finances, you’d have fewer people in debt and fewer people reading this website!

Being a good Money Soldier means knowing how to make the best choices on the battlefield – even when they’re hard.  It’s always easier to run away.  Here’s how to fight.

Choose Not to Spend What You Can’t Afford

This is the hardest decision to make, because it involves saying no to a lot of opportunities.  As we’ve written before, money management means saying no to the culture around you – no to extra happy hour drinks, no to new clothes every season, no to a bigger apartment or a bigger car or that resort vacation everyone else in your office seems to be taking.

This might be the simplest financial strategy to follow – after all, Steve Martin did a very famous Saturday Night Live skit about the fictitious financial book, “Don’t Buy Stuff You Cannot Afford” – but nearly every aspect of our society is based around the idea of spending money, and making the choice not to spend money is often extremely difficult.

However, you’re not an ordinary person.  You’re a Money Soldier.  You have budgeting armor and enough firepower to withstand any type of societal peer pressure.

Choose to Invest

The flip side of choosing not to spend what you can’t afford is choosing when to invest.  No, I don’t mean stocks and bonds.  I mean investing in you.

If you need to spend a bit of money to move closer to your job, suck up your fear of credit cards and move.  If you need to get a master’s degree, figure out how you can get that degree with the least amount of educational debt possible.  If you need a good suit to get the job you want, buy the good suit.  Even financial guru, Suze Orman bought $3,000 of clothes – on credit! – when she got her first job at Merrill Lynch; she understood the importance of investing in herself, and it paid back in spades.

The choice to invest is hard because it requires you to make the decision between a good investment and a bad one.  $3,000 in clothes for your first professional job is sometimes a good choice; $3,000 in clothes every year is not.  Some degree programs take you where you want to go, others lead you in a path towards debt and fewer opportunities.  Be a good Money Soldier and do your reconnaissance missions before you commit to an investment opportunity.

Choose to Lead

How is leadership a financial decision?  Think of it this way: when you’re leading the team, you have the opportunity to guide – if not determine – the financial decisions.  If you’re with a group of friends or colleagues, your leadership abilities are what determines whether you go to the fancy cocktail place on one end of the block or the $2 well drinks bar at the opposite end.

As you continue to progress in your career and in your life, leadership means the difference between a team that goes over budget and a team that stays on budget.  It means a family that buys a house they can afford, not a status-symbol house that turns into an underwater mortgage.

However, leadership also means making tough decisions.  It means asking your family and your teams to sacrifice – to work extra hours, to stay at home for vacation or to cut back on entertainment and other spending.  These choices are especially hard because, as a leader, you want the people whom you lead to like you and want to work with you.  You have to find other ways of garnering respect, motivating teams and boosting morale without spending money.  Luckily, listening, paying attention to and spending time with your friends, colleagues and family members is all free.

Choose to Give Back

Jeff Bartel, Vice President of Corporate Compliance at Florida Power and Light Company, didn’t win a March of Dimes Humanitarian of the Year award for investing his salary into diversified mutual funds.  He won because he knew how to give back.

Giving back, especially when you’re not making a C-level salary, is one of the hardest choices to make.  When you look at your budget and realize that giving even $50 a month means you have to say no to your friends or miss the latest blockbuster movie, it’s difficult to make the choice to give.

However, giving a bit now helps you give more later.  It also helps you understand that everything is connected; that you need to help others and that someday someone will help you.  Giving is part of basic Money Soldier battlefield management; if there’s a man down, you don’t leave him behind.  You offer to help.

What are some tough choices you’ve had to make as a Money Soldier?  Have you ever made a money choice you later regretted?  Let us know in the comments.