Know Your Money with Bronwyn Waner and Craig Finch
Know Your Money with Bronwyn Waner and Craig Finch
110. Designing Your Ideal Week for Balanced Living and Genuine Fulfillment
The episode delves into the concept of the Ideal Week, emphasizing how intentional planning can help listeners achieve a balanced life. We share practical insights on setting yearly goals, managing time effectively, and improving financial awareness to create a fulfilling and purposeful life.
• Exploring the Ideal Week concept for better life balance
• Importance of setting yearly goals before planning weekly activities
• Scheduling family time as a top priority
• Effective budgeting strategies, including the envelope method
• The value of reflection and adjustment for continual improvement
• Adapting your Ideal Week to personal values and life circumstances
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Hello viewers, welcome to our podcast today. Previously, with Mark Williams, we have spoken about a concept called the Ideal Week, craig, and you have showed me that over the last two years and it's really made such a difference in everything that I do in terms of how I'm earning my money, how I'm spending my time and being with my family, so we thought we could chat about it a bit more today and maybe explain the concept to Warren and a few other guests.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So the ideal week is, for me, one of the most important concepts that I picked up from our coach, mark Williams, and it starts on your year planner. You look at your year in totality and we often start in November saying what do you want to achieve next year? For us, our high priority is travel. So we block off those days when we're going to be on holiday and then we say, okay, we're going to be on holiday then. And where do we want to go? We've got a master list and then we try and tick it off where we want to go. It's not only overseas travel by any means, it's mostly local travel. So that's a big goal of ours.
Speaker 2:Some of my friends don't think travel is important, but they really enjoy their homes, so they often want to fix up their houses and that. So they'll put in their portion of the month. Okay, by February I want to retile something, or by June, winter, I'm going to do something in the garden because it's not going to rain. So they'll put those goals in for the year in your, your diary. But your weekly goal is very important, so it's what you do every day actually. So you know, we've said it before successful life is a progression of successful days. So you have to make sure that every day counts, you don't? It's not every day counts that you know you can't enjoy life. You obviously still enjoy life.
Speaker 2:But if there's some real important things out of your wheel that you want to put in your in your life, you must put it in spending time with your family. So every night I have supper with my family. Seven o'clock is supper time. You put in your diary. You actually block it off and say so. If somebody phones and says let's go and play paddle at seven, you say no, sorry, I can't. There's an appointment to my diary already. Then that appointment's with my family. I want to get fitter. So when am I going to go to gym? I'm going to go in the morning. That's early in the morning when I'm going to write my blessings down. So you put those all in your diary to try and make sure that all parts of your life in the circle is covered in your diary. And of course, finance is very important to all of us.
Speaker 3:How do you do that on the daily, then? How do you look after your money better on the daily?
Speaker 2:So for us, we have to see clients and we've got to go, and for you, you'll have to work and make sure that your studios are full of clients doing podcasts, Ideally. Yes, yeah, that's right. So a lot of your day is working time, but you put that aside so you don't. Somebody phones you and says oh, we're going to go watch the cricket because it's a cricket matches on the go and it's on a Thursday. So no, no, I can't do that because Thursday's workday. So I've got to go and see clients on those days. So, very importantly, that'll tie up with your financial goals that you need like you already need to fill up the studio with clients and podcasts, so you'll block those times off. So I mean that will be a big part of your day.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that is a part of it. I think that would be a big part of your day. That is a part of it, I think. Obviously you need the clientele to generate income, but for us there are other ways. We have to find savvy ways of lowering our costs without losing quality. So that's a big one. And if I look at the everyday person, who doesn't run a studio, who isn't a financial advisor, what are their everyday things? They would do, you know, not having a coffee at Starbucks every day.
Speaker 1:So, for example, like how this has changed things for me is I was focusing on. So when Craig refers to the wheel of life, he's referring to all those different areas of your life. So at a point I was very focused on working, so that's like sort of the earning way of money, and then I wasn't necessarily spending time with Josh or spending time with the kids, and then that successful those consecutive successful days I'm working hard to provide, but I'm then not seeing the family. So I think how it can help, like an average person is, by listing what your ideal week is.
Speaker 1:Look at all those areas like what is it that you want? Do you want to be fitter? Do you want to spend more time with your family? Do you want to spend more time with your partner? Okay, you have to work eight to five. That's fine. That's what your time is. Are you going to wake up early and put in your fitness goal or spend that extra hour with your kids? Are you going to do that at night? Is there a date night? How are you going to incorporate all those things and your mental well-being? And it's just kind of making you more of a whole person.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I think that's a holistic view of looking at life. But you're right in saying that most of us don't spend time on how does my money look. So every Saturday morning, for example, you could say I'll sit with my wife and we'll discuss money for an hour. You're not going to fight about money when you discuss money. I mean you might, yeah, you might, but you certainly look at, you know what are the priorities, what is the budget? What do we need to accomplish in the next year, the next month? How do I spend, pat, look what's happening. And then you go to the concept like we've spoken about many podcasts ago, the envelope concept, where you portion portion of your salary into different compartments and you only spend in that compartment and you sit with your spouse and you go through it and say, okay, well, you know what.
Speaker 2:The battery in the car came up. Like Barman said a few episodes ago, we need to put a battery compartment in there so you sit and talk about it. So it could be a Saturday morning or it could be a Monday night. It could be some part of your time where you sit and talk about it. So it could be a saturday morning or it could be a monday night it could be some part of your time where you sit and you review your your actual day-to-day habit, spending, and then every month you should look at your balance sheet. You could say okay, how does my balance sheet look? What are my investments looking like? Are they growing? Do I need to phone bronwyn and find out what's happening in the markets? I just need to get a handle on how things are going and keep an eye on my own portfolio. So it's not a shock to you in five years' time, 10 years' time or when you retire and say I should have put that money aside, I should have put more into my retirement.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's like an allocation of your awareness to the different aspects of your life, really, isn't it? So the time with your family, your savings goals, your holiday goals, it's just having a constant awareness of everything so if you don't spend time with your family, then one day you may, they may, leave you.
Speaker 2:So how did that happen? I was working all the time. Yeah, because you were. You were unbalanced, your wheel was totally unbalanced. I was only focused on making money. Yeah, and if the the problem said if the wheel is as whole as possible, you're going to feel better. You're going to rub it off on your family, they're going to feel better.
Speaker 2:But the problem with not doing it in a diary you have to put those things in a diary. It sounds crazy. What time I'm going to wake up, what time I'm going to do my blessings first, or meditate, or pray, whatever you want to do to get you mentally positive. When am I going to exercise? If you don't put it in your diary, you would actually just get up and go to work and you won't do any of the other things. Yes, and then the important thing on a friday is to have a look back at your week and say did I achieve that? And you tick off that. How many times did I go to gym? I said I was going to go five and you went three. Okay, that's a problem thing. I must concentrate on that, why didn't we have family supper, those type of things? And you say, okay, and then, and next week's going to be, let's have a look and try and do better next week.
Speaker 1:But if you don't monitor it as well, it can just get out of hand and you end up just working and also like for me when it was coming to clients and booking time, I would just kind of say yes to the client at any time. I didn't have like when.
Speaker 2:When you're working.
Speaker 1:Yes, like what days and what times, and being clear on that has helped me, because then when I am with the kids, I'm not freaking out because I need to answer a client, and it just is able to give you that balance and I've actually done better and done more for the clients and more for the kids, because I'm more focused and present exactly.
Speaker 1:And also, I think, when it comes to money, often people do want to make a change. Like you know, I need to save more. I need to do this every week. How much time are you spending on reflecting on that? And even if you don't have a partner, like we spoke about it previously I'm not sure who did say it, but someone said imagine going on a date with your money and you're saying you're such hard work, I can never keep you, I'll never make it. That is, you've got to reflect on that, reflect on what you're saying to money or I just have to work so hard for you. I need to put everything. Have that time in your ideal week to focus on that, on your relationship with money.
Speaker 2:So we find most people don't even complete a budget. The problem with a budget is that you're looking back oh my goodness, look what happened. In January I spent too much money Whereas the envelope concept that Bronwyn's explained as well, where you portion your whole salary into different pockets and you can only spend from the pocket that's got money. So in that closed pocket, if you haven't got any money there, you can't spend it, so you don't go and take it from your food or your entertainment or your annual holiday or any of those pockets. So that's an excellent way of doing a forced monthly or, in effect, a forced daily budget. Where it's not, oh, look back at what happened. And then it's looking at that and tweaking that every month.
Speaker 2:And most people don't do that. They just leave it year by year and they get into trouble. The credit card gets bigger and bigger. They just leave it year by year and they get into trouble. The credit card gets bigger and bigger. The more you spend on the credit card, the more they give you to spend and you just get yourself into this hole, do?
Speaker 3:you find that with some of your clients, you also have to help them realize that maybe, given their income, their wants and their needs also come into account. So it's all very good and well wanting to have a Porsche, but if you can't afford to have a Porsche and save for retirement and send your kids to a nice school, then ultimately choices have to be made and you have to let go and go. Well, I am fulfilled with my life. I don't need that Porsche to make my life better. So where can I just accept that life is good and that I don't need certain material objects in order to make me happy?
Speaker 1:But that's why I think this Ideal Week will help you with that, because if you really are able to look at all those different areas in that wheel which you can download from our website, which is.
Speaker 1:Growthfpcaza. Wonderful, it will say your partner. What is it that you it? Eh, wonderful, you know, it will say your partner. What is it that you want there? Your friendships, your family, your health, your wealth? Where do you want all of that and how do you fit that in? Because if you do want that Porsche and you do want to send your kids to private school and you really sit with that and say, okay, well, how can I achieve that, but still getting in all those different areas, then it can help.
Speaker 3:But it helps you be more realistic about what truly means something to you of what's going on for you, isn't it really? Yeah, ultimately I think that's what it sounds like to me the the circle is a bird's eye view of your life. What you want, um. What matters to you, um.
Speaker 2:That's a great point, warren, because the eight areas you don't have to always fill the eight areas If I don't know, let's say friendship isn't important to you, then you don't have to worry about that slice of the pie because you've got other. But whatever's important to you, you make sure that those goals are put into your diary on a weekly basis and you monitor how the progress is on those goals. But otherwise it's just every day is the same day and you're achieving nothing and you don't know what you're achieving because you're not checking that out.
Speaker 1:Yes, Can you give the practical steps like that you would take, so say exactly where you start, how you do it and how a person can factor their day.
Speaker 2:Well, the year starts, you know, and I put the. For us, holidays are important. Put the holidays, I know, when I'm going to work, then I need to know what I need to earn to achieve all those and then I need to know what I have to do to achieve it. So my work portion will be put in. I'm going to work six days a week, or four days a week, or three days a week, whatever it might be. You might be in a salaried job, but you have to work every day. So that's great, I can work every day. I'll just do my best at work. Hopefully I get a bonus as well. And then I put the other.
Speaker 2:Practically I put on a spreadsheet and I've got my ideal week on a spreadsheet and I say, okay, what time am I going to wake up? I'm going to get up at six, by half past six. I've done my blessings by seven. I'm at the gym. Well for me. I go walking, then I go to the gym and then my day starts. My first appointment's 10 o'clock, then I go 10 o'clock, 12 o'clock, 2 o'clock. Monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, or I say no, monday I'm going to be in the office and I'll be with the staff, and so you can look at that and say, okay, monday is an admin day in the office with my staff, and then I'm out to see clients. Tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday morning I do self-development and then Friday afternoon I play golf, for example.
Speaker 1:And then how did you come up with all of those rocks or points to put in there? Is that where the wheel came in? The wheel came in.
Speaker 2:How did in there Is that where the wheel came in. The wheel came in, so I took exactly, I took things out the wheel that are important to me, and then the rocks are very important. So you block off the most important thing. So, for example, work, so that's a rock, I can't change it. If I'm working nine to five, I can't change it either. So that rocks in and I can't say no, I'm not going to. I'm rather going to go to gym or I'm rather no than I'm working eight to four. Whatever the case might be Okay.
Speaker 2:But what about my family? Well, let's have supper with my family every night at seven. So I put that in my diary. So a friend phones me and says let's go and play paddle. I say sorry, I can't play paddle. I can play after or I can play before. I can play on Saturday morning. I can't play Monday to Friday because we have family supper night and then my own personal gym I want to do in the morning because that's like get it out the way for the day and that's in my diary.
Speaker 2:But if I didn't write it in my diary and I color code my diary you can look at it, I color code, it's all done and I've done that for many, many years. If I didn't, if you don't do it, you're not good. If you don't put in your diary, you're not going to do it and the rocks goes back to. If you had rocks, pebbles, sand and water and a jug. Most people put the sand or the water in first, then the sand and then, by the time you get to putting the rocks in, there's no space for it. But you put the rocks in, the pebbles will filter between the rocks, the sand will filter between all that. Then the water goes on top and everything fits in there.
Speaker 2:But the most important thing is the most important things out of your wheel that you need to put in, and it might just be family, work and my personal health, or it might be, you know, whatever other. It might be spiritual. I need to make sure that that's. I'm spending more time on that part of my life. And then finances always is for me it's got to be once a week, have a look at what's going on at your bank statement. People leave it far too long. They don't even look at it year by year. We ask clients for a three-month statement. They often don't even know how to get the three-month bank statement from the records, and that's important. So finance has got to be in for me once a week somewhere and the big meeting with yourself or with your spouse how's everything going, how's my balance sheet looking? And then you'll I think you'll end your life retired very comfortably.
Speaker 1:Does that make sense, Warren? Do you have any questions or thoughts?
Speaker 3:No, I think it makes a lot of sense. I think it's. It would be a good practice for everyone just to have a look and see where they are on a weekly and determine where they should be allocating more of their time and also what's important to them.
Speaker 2:You put in a diary.
Speaker 3:So I use PayPal. I don't know the diary for me. I don't have a diary, so I think I should try it.
Speaker 2:A calendar, a calendar on your phone, whatever electronic device you've got, you just put it in. So if I phone you and you look at the calendar on Monday and I'm sorry I can't, I'm working.
Speaker 1:So, for example, if you've got a fetch fin from school, that should be blocked out of a time that a client can come and do a podcast.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, for me it's hard, yeah, no, no, it is. It's very hard and it will be. It will be blocked out. But I think I don't know. I just like to do things in my head Always have, so I know exactly what I'm doing during the week, but it's in my head.
Speaker 1:But for me, knowing you, you do put other people first sometimes. So if someone came and said I have no other day I can come, I need to come at this time.
Speaker 3:You know, please, you know, please, can you book it? You might go, okay, cursed, please can you fetch finn, you can't do this.
Speaker 1:I might do, yeah, whereas if that's in there you kind of learn to go. No, unfortunately I can't. Can you come next week, that's a good point it's hard, but it teaches you that, that way of being, and then you're more fulfilled, your family's more fulfilled, and you will still earn.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3:It does make sense, yeah.
Speaker 2:I hope that helps everybody.
Speaker 3:I think I'll try it. Thanks so much.
Speaker 2:Be well. Thank you for listening. If you have enjoyed this podcast and would like to subscribe, please visit our website, wwwgrowthfpcoza. The information we have provided in this podcast is our personal opinion. For more detailed information, please discuss your financial situation with a financial planner.