Seasons

In our household, November and December are our two most expensive months where money just seems to disappear! We have three birthdays in November and then right around the corner is Christmas! 

There are seasons in the year where you’ll find there’s not as much wiggle room in your budget to make progress towards your next mark. Unless you have a lot of winter birthdays, typically February and March are lower expense months for many families. Just like there are 4 seasons in the year, your financial life also has seasons that vary from month to month. It is ok if some months, you simply maintain your progress. 

If Christmas time squeezes your budget, just maintain your progress and be ok with sitting in the holding pattern for one month. You’ll make progress in months to come. You’ve already proven to yourself that you can live off of less than you make and you’ve already started making progress as you’ve filled up your tank. Simply maintaining for one month is ok. Look at the progress you’ve already made. To buckle down and tell the kids that they’re not going to get presents this year so you can increase your savings is a little overkill. Yes, they may not get as many presents as they did in past years if you were buying on credit, but it’s ok to wait to increase your savings until next month. 

There are seasons on an annual rhythm that we need to recognize, but there are also seasons of life where your priorities are going to need to be flexible. If you’re single and working right now, then it’s time to get after it and start working up the Fuel Gauge. If you’re married, have two incomes, and are waiting on having a baby right now, then put the pedal to the metal and pursue each target with vigor and speed. 

However, if you’re pregnant with your first child, your pace is going to naturally adjust. When we were pregnant with our oldest, expenses started to shoot up out of nowhere. First, Taco Bell became an actual budget line item for us. For some reason or another, that is what my extremely health conscious wife craved when she was pregnant and who was I to stop her? In fact, to make her feel better, I joined in on the fun! Except when she had the baby, she lost the baby weight and I kept it. On top of Taco Bell, we needed a crib, sheets for the bed, diapers, wipes, baby clothes and changes of baby clothes for when the diapers didn’t do their job. Expenses added up and quickly. As we tried to navigate this massive change in life, we also had to curb our expectations of making forward progress financially. It was a hard pill for me to swallow, but by the third kid, I finally understood the principle of seasons. 

It is natural and okay for the pace at which we pursue each target to change. When major life changes happen, there is a learning curve in figuring out your new budget. This doesn’t mean that when life changes, we can just spend whatever we want whenever we want. Absolutely not. However, in these seasons of change you can slow down your forward progress without going backwards. Any extra money you have at the end of the month might not have an allocation for a minute. You may just need to let it set as you figure out what a sustained budget looks like in this new season. Whether you’re moving, changing jobs, having a child, or suffering the loss of a loved one, seasons in life come and go and your pace of forward progress can and should adjust with the season you are in. 

When seasons change, the goal is to not go backwards. Don’t forget everything you’ve learned and start spending because you know you’re not making forward progress. We don’t want to erase all the progress we’ve made. Maintaining our position isn’t passive. It still takes intention. And remember, maintaining our progress isn’t a long term plan. It is for a short  season as we’re navigating the change in our life. We still are striving for forward progress, even if the progress is less for a period of time. We just don’t want to slip backwards as seasons change. 

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Zach Santmier is the owner of Trumble Agency, Inc. and the author of the personal financial course, Increase. He focuses on helping families escape paycheck to paycheck living so they can freely pursue their ideal future.