J. Money posted about how he use one thing as a measuring unit for other things - it cost x # of cheeseburgers to buy that whatever. I am sure a lot of us have done that one point or another. I sure did in college. I still use it as a joke once in a while.
Then I got to thinking, why haven't I use this as a way to get to my larger goals? Let's say I want to go on a family vacation and it will cost $1000. It seems like I would have to look at my whole budget to see if I can afford to go on this vacation. So we save some money here and there, but when do we reach that $1000? I think that the author of the book Four Hour Work Week hit it on the head when he sets a dreamline and it brakes it down to daily achievements you can count.
If the vacation is in 6 months and it's $1000, then I have to save $5.56 a day to get there (1000/180 = 5.555). That's a venti latte a day. This seems achievable. Putting $5 a day away doesn't seem very daunting and it makes sure that in 180 days I have a vacation fund. Even if I have some unexpected expenses, putting $5 away doesn't seem as big a hurdle, not when you don't think of it as $167 a month.
Those infomercials that say "for $.25 a day, you could..." they are on to something.
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