If you’ve had a traditional corporate experience, you might think that the human resources department is overrated. And sometimes it’s true that sometimes they can be little more than birthday party planners!
But a good HR department is worth every penny that’s doled out in salary because they make the overall work environment more comfortable, more efficient, and they make good work more likely to happen.
Good HR is so good, in fact, that there might be a few lessons worth taking home to your budget! Here are three ways you can apply HR best practices to your money management habit:
Create a Positive Money Environment at Home
In an office setting, it’s important to constantly assess the feeling, or “temperature” of the room. Are workers friendly and relaxed, or is there a hurried sense of stress? The results you get are are affected by how efficient and comfortable you are in your workspace.
The same goes for talking about money at home. Try to be proactive about every aspect of “the money talk,” down to the time of day you talk about it with your spouse and what you’re wearing when it happens.
For example, instead of saving the meeting for a work night when you’re tired, rushed, and preparing for a new day, set aside time on the weekend to make your favorite drink and relax with your spouse while you review your goals. Viewing the occasion as a necessary but pleasant encounter (rather than a stressful, last-minute one) will make a difference in your numbers and your stress level.
Review Your Progress Regularly
At your job, your manager monitors your progress so that you can be sure you aren’t slacking. Put the same amount of effort into your home finances!
Make time to actually review your goals! Instead of random budget meetings to get through the week and meet whatever short-term goals you’ve got, schedule at least once a year family meeting to review all fo your finances (alllll of them, even the gritty details of student loans, interest rates, and mortgages). If you can, do this quarterly so you can track your progress even more closely.
Don’t Tolerate Cheating, Lying, or Hiding
If you lied about your timesheet at work, you’d be fired. So don’t tolerate that kind of behavior at home. When it comes to saving receipts, sticking to a grocery budget, or putting away 10% of your check into savings, you’ll only be as successful as you are honest. The first step to make any progress is to be honest with yourself and your spouse about where you are and where you’d like to go. Any dishonestly will just set you back in the end!
A positive money environment starts at home. And maybe by changing your attitude, you might find better progress!
Do you intentionally work on having a positive money environment at home? Do you think stress would affect your spending (Duh….)?
Thankfully it’s just me, myself, and I that I have to work with when it comes to my finances most of the time. But even I can get frustrated with myself.
This is really excellent advice. Talking about money with a parent or a spouse isn’t easy for most people. It is rarely more difficult than we make it out to be in our heads. I’ve found that the more regularly we talk about money and the less formal we make it, the easier it is talk about money at difficult times – like when I spent three times my budget for my daughter’s interview suit. Ouch! (But she got the job – actually, was offered all three internships and had her pick of them)
Congrats on your daughter’s job! And you’re so right — once you make it a habit, it’s much easier to stick to and follow through with.
I think you make some very important points! Ever since we’ve started meeting regularly about money and put everything on the table, we have become so much closer as a couple. We set goals together and celebrate when we reach them. When you’re on the same page about money, it makes you much stronger as a couple. I highly recommend it!
Thank you for your comment!
I liked that you sort of emphasized the last tip where you said don’t tolerate any of the three things mentioned there. I couldn’t agree more. I have a self-made poster at home (used to have one on my desk too when I was still working for a corporation) that said “Be GBF” (Be Guiltless, Blameless, Faultless)and it applies to everything.
That’s a great reminder to have around all the time. It sounds like it’s great to help re-orient you when you’re making a quick call or decision.
This is exactly why I’ve always advocated a family meeting over a penny by penny tracking system. Budgets are about making good decisions in the moment. It’s difficult to do that when you aren’t open and honest about where your money is going each week.
So true!
“When it comes to saving receipts, sticking to a grocery budget, or putting away 10% of your check into savings, you’ll only be as successful as you are honest”
Very poignant. This is a GREAT post – Thanks for your insight! I’ve always kind of thought a household is like a business. You’ve really spelled it out beautifully.