I came across a definition of sacrifice that was very intriguing and sparked some deep thought. The definition stated:

Picture provided by https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-importance-of-sacrifice-in-life

One of the first things that popped in my mind was God loved & valued someone like me so much that He sacrificed His Son for me and you. WOW! That's CRAZY! The next idea that came to mind was the piece of the definition that says, "something else regarded as more important or worthy". It doesn't mean that the "something else" IS more important or worth it's only BELIEVED to be that way. Let's break that down into two questions. Ask yourself:




For example, if you have $200.00 and you want to buy some shoes, in essence you are saying I'll sacrifice my $200.00 to obtain something I feel is more important, in this case it's the shoes. For some people $200.00 is an easy sacrifice and to others it's very difficult. In both situations multiple factors such as resources, emotions, upbringing, etc. are typically the cause of the conclusion of an "easy" or "difficult" sacrifice. As you can see sacrifice is something we do everyday even the time we spend, i.e. we sacrifice 40 hours a week of our time to obtain "X" amount of money in a paycheck. Now, let me reiterate my initial questions as they pertain to your money; think about this:

Picture provided by: http://www.azquotes.com/quote/798043

The answers to these questions would be all over the place from "I value obtaining as much money as I can get my hands on" to "I only want enough money to fulfill my needs" to "I think money is the top priority" to "money really doesn't matter to me". The spectrum is somewhere between these extremes and possibly others I haven't considered. In reality the spectrum really doesn't matter nor does the idea of sacrifice! But why???

Picture Provide by https://loveandacardboardbox.com/tag/love-is-sacrifice/

Simply put, what you feel you would sacrifice doesn't mean that's what you are sacrificing. How? You ask... Here's some perspective, if you say you want your children to live a life where they don't struggle with money possibly like you did (always sounds great in theory), what are you willing to sacrifice so they can have a better grasp on money? Are you going to learn how to handle money so you can teach them? Or are you going to hit them with the do as I say and not as I do? Are you choosing to spend your money on all the expensive things that drop in value like clothes & cars where you can "afford the payments" but sacrifice your child's college fund? I'm not saying you are obligated to pay for your child's college but if your plan is for them to get a student loan, how is that setting them up for financial success? Everyone's situation is different as some people are really scraping to make ends meet while others can easily make multiple moves with money without feeling the sacrifice. What's important is you take an HONEST assessment of your situation and determine what's best for you and your family.

Picture Provide by http://plan.ca/

If you don't like my example with children, what's YOUR plan? If you want to get on the road toward wealth (which most people agree they want) but you have credit card payments, car payments, you owe family, you owe friends, you owe the bank etc. What are you willing to sacrifice to get rid of the payments and become wealthy? Or do you see what you're paying on as more valuable then building wealth. As you can see something is going to have to be sacrificed to obtain something else... is the car payment worth your child's education?  Is your style of living now worth never being able to retire later? Is living in the moment more important then storing up for the future?

Most people would say that sacrifice is "difficult", but in reality that's only true depending on what you are sacrificing. It can be a hard sacrifice to say I'm going to live below my means, only pay cash for things I need/want, invest at least 15% of my money into retirement and/or real estate, in hopes that these financial moves will grow over time into much larger sums of money. In the same breath it can be an "easy" sacrifice to say, YOLO and spend money faster than you earn it. The decision is yours and yours alone, so what are you willing to sacrifice for yourself? For your family?

If you need financial coaching or help with a budget and would like a consultation email us at:
foffcoaching@gmail.com

If you enjoyed this post please share and comment
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter 
Follow us on Instagram