Embrace Today's Desires. Empower Tomorrow's Passions.
Honest, lasting personal finance improvement takes time and requires many actions. However, in my book, there is still only one must do action to improve your financial situation. 
Even if you do all the other “responsible actions” with your finances, without this one action your finances will never be as awesome (or satisfying) as they could be.
No, I’m not talking about budgets.
Improving your credit score.
Automating savings.
Or paying off your credit card debt.
Budgets come in many shapes and forms. And no one budget type is right for everyone. However, I loathe percentage-based budgets. Absolutely. Unequivocally. They upset me and, if you have an ounce of individuality, they should upset you too!
When first starting on my personal finance journey, one of the largest challenges I faced was determining how much I should be spending in each expense category. To answer this question, I turned to percentage-based budgets. After all, I had no clue what was “normal” or what I “should” be spending, but I had a mountain of debt that I needed gone ASAP.
Percentage-based budgets seemed like the perfect answer to my dilemma and a great way to set my finances on track.
If you are like most Americans, you have likely asked, “Can money buy happiness?” Yes! However, only if you think about and spend money in certain ways. Many studies tout the amount of money required to buy happiness. 
Yet, these studies rarely provide:
Let’s explore all three of these points. And snag more happiness and satisfaction from your money along the way.
Have you ever felt the thrill of achieving a financial goal only to discover a few days, weeks, months after achievement you feel the same as before you met your financial goal?
If so, you are not alone. This feeling is the result of your financial goals. Financial goals are oxymorons creating emotional highs and lows with no lasting satisfaction.
Due to financial goals’ point-in-time focus, you trap yourself in an emotional high/low cycle. Instead, you need to create time-based goals with supporting financial milestones. Spending money to support time-based goals allows expression of your core values, increases your happiness, and fulfills a basic human need to be your “best self”.
The real question is not, “Do you live paycheck to paycheck?” The real question is “Do you know the ideal way to live paycheck to paycheck?”
Everyone lives paycheck to paycheck. Yes, everyone lives paycheck to paycheck.
In all the classes I have taught, ranging from doctors to auto mechanics, I have noticed this one consistent theme. No matter who is in the audience, they claim to live paycheck to paycheck.
Clearly, all paycheck to paycheck living is not created equal.
Could you pay your bills long-term without a paycheck? If not, then you live paycheck to paycheck too.
How a person lives paycheck to paycheck varies dramatically. And there is definitely an ideal way to live paycheck to paycheck.
