Budgeting for Your Lifestyle Decisions

How many times have you asked yourself the question if the chicken or the egg came first? The same sort of problem can be asked when it comes to your budget and your lifestyle decisions. Did you decide how you wanted to live first, and then budget for that? Or, did you determine a budget first, and then base your standard of living on that? The answer to that question will help you determine how financially responsible your current trajectory is.

Look at a few examples of how budgeting and lifestyle decisions direct with each other and see where you fit in the spectrum. What is it like living like a celebrity, especially if you don’t have the funds? Can you go minimal to appreciate the budget that you have more? If you like luxury items, how does that affect other more practical aspects of your life? And, if you’re going to school, what sort of budget decisions you have to make that will prevent you from going into debt because of added bills?

Living Like a Celebrity?

It might be a thought in your mind – is living like a celebrity financially responsible? The answer is that it probably depends. You do see some instances where celebrities spend money on things that you can’t afford. For example, there are obvious examples of celebrity breast reduction surgeries that the media reports on, because suddenly a woman who looked a certain way no longer does. These types of operations can often be expensive, so if you’re not a celebrity, you may not have the extra income to do cosmetic processes like this.

Smartphones In The Workplace

Going the Minimal Route

Perhaps you have decided to live life as a minimalist. Surprisingly, going minimal is not always the least expensive way to do things. Because some aspects of minimalism require specialized equipment or a specific type of living, these costs can be more significant than if you just got average size things and lived in a normal way. Be sure to look deeply into your budget before you make a hard-core decision about minimalism.

Luxury Priorities

Some people enjoy luxury goods. The trouble comes when you can’t pay rent. Or you can’t pay your phone bill. You get behind on some debt. You still want to buy luxury shoes, but your bank account is getting close to the zero point, and you are in significant credit card debt. That’s when you really have to step back and think about your priorities.

The Cost of Education

A final thing to consider along the tangents of this topic is how much it costs for an education. If you want to live a high-class, high-education lifestyle, you have to get there through hard work, and you have to get there through purchasing a college education. This can be many more tens of thousands of dollars than you expect, so do your research in advance about the complete costs of college.