Funds

Few days feel as prosperous as the first of the month. After payday, but before your bills have been deducted, your balance tells you a white lie, and you feel wealthier than you are. It’s your opportunity to indulge, order the items in your basket or piss away pounds by the pint. It never seems to last long, though. Sooner or later, your funds stop being fun.

Eventually, almost everyone I know has to budget. There is a moment of the month when you accept that continuing your course will leave you a little short in the weeks to come. Immediately, you’re annexed from the present and occupied by the future. Each transaction becomes tumultuous; you’re either calculating costs or internally justifying every outgoing. Even though it’s unenjoyable, we continually torment ourselves with personal boom-bust cycles.

My disposable income has diminished in the last few years; I’d be surprised if yours hasn’t, too. While external factors are primarily responsible, I have never been particularly proficient at budgeting, though I don’t know many people who are.

Regardless of your affluence it’s natural to live at the edge of your means. Financial crashes expose the fragility of how even the wealthy live; you can go from fortune to foreclosed overnight.

All too often, disposable income defines our enjoyment of life. It’s the amount you’re able to spend without contemplating the consequences. But that’s the system we’ve created; it thrives on us believing the only way to enjoy ourselves is through working harder or longer for financial gain. All the while, disregarding that more money typically equates to bigger bills.

Irrespective of how much I earn, I aim to make it to the end of the month without counting down the days to the next. Life’s precious until you’re wishing it away.