Boundaries are a necessary aspect of life that we may have a natural tendency to push against or try to remove. But boundaries are a healthy component of life.
Think about it for a moment. People like to think that having an unlimited PTO benefit at work is a huge perk, yet most Americans don\’t utilize their vacation days. Most believe that a Plan to Spend or budget is limiting, restricting, or sucks the fun out of life, but most Americans have a large amount of credit card debt, auto loans, and personal loans. This point applies to so many aspects of life, and having appropriate guardrails in life can prevent undue stress and uncertainty from living \”free.\”
When dealing with your environment, it is necessary to build an environment around you that protects what you have built. That could be creating boundaries in the form of LLCs, insurance policies that protect you in the event of a health crisis, an emergency fund that protects you from the risk associated with running out of funds after a layoff, or even setting up parameters for within relationships to build and maintain trust.
My question for you is, what have you built that is worth protecting by creating boundaries?
Is it the relationships with your family, friends, or colleagues? Is it your active or passive income streams or your traditions, religion, or faith?
What is worth protecting, and how are you proactive in ensuring that it is protected?
Financial Boundaries
For example, let\’s consider boundaries with your finances, being that our primary focus is financial margin. We have looked at creating and working within a Plan to Spend or budget. When you do not have boundaries, you do not pre-plan for large purchases, utilize a credit card as your emergency fund, and do not intentionally work to build the lifestyle you want to live.
When building out a vision, then building goals out from that vision, I look at the 7 F\’s. These are; Faith, Family, Friends, Fitness, Finances, Fun, and Focus.
Part of this came from a mentor, but I have also read part of these used by others. So if you want to look at boundaries from a holistic point of view, you will want to look at what parameters are in-place for each of these.
So, what boundaries should you place in your life to have financial margin?
- Income/Expenses: Build a budget or Plan to Spend
- Debt/Credit: If you keep a credit card, pay it off every month in-full
- Insurance/Liability: Do not buy a home you can\’t afford
Call To Action
Take a look at the boundaries you have put in place and choose one to look closely at through the 7 F\’s, and see if there is one particular area that needs to be addressed.
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