Is Your Lifestyle Getting In The Way Of Your Values?

Do you know what is important to you?  Really important? What are your values?  What are your dreams and what do you have to do to make your visions real?

Is your lifestyle getting in the way of your values? How are you living today? Will that help you live your dreams in 5 years, 10 years or 20 years?

If your lifestyle has run away with your future, you can regain control. Making changes is not easy but, if you are motivated and you have a good strategy, you can make a difference.

Step One: Identify What Is Important To You.

On a page of lined paper draw a vertical line down the centre.  On the left examine your life today and identify what is important to you and your family.  Include significant activities, actions and plans.  This may include: home ownership, volunteering at the local food bank, a private school for the children, and often pets, vacations and cottages.

On the right side of the page examine the life you want to have when you are 60, or even 70.  Your lifestyle may be quite different. Do you want to pay off your mortgage and live in your home?  Do you want to retire to Costa Rica?  What are your expectations for the future?  If you value them, list them.

Step Two

Determine and acknowledge that you may have to make changes in your spending habits today to live the lifestyle you are working towards ten or twenty years ahead.  What will the cost of that lifestyle be in today’s dollars?  Cost it out.  Using this as a base, add inflation perhaps at 3%, and an emergency fund to take care of medical expenses and long-term care for a time even further ahead.  Is your current lifestyle going to get you there?

Step Three

Re-evaluate your priorities in light of what you have learned through this process.  What do you have to do to close this gap between the reality of your current future and what matters most to you for your future life?

We can help,

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