A financial plan is one way of giving dollars a name or a purpose. Each month a financial plan can be used for our day-to-day income and once those commitments have been met the fun can begin.
What do you do with your extra dollars that came in as unexpected bonuses? We have looked back at things we sold or money we received and asked ourselves what happened to it? What do we have to show for it? Our answer was most often that we did not know. Then I had an idea.
During the past several years I started naming extra money or the money that was not expected that we used to blow on a nice dinner or a movie. The stock market has always interested me to a small degree and I decided what the heck why not invest that bonus or extra money into products we admire. Yes I now have a couple shares of Disney Stock.
My rationality is that the money was not something I was counting on and if I lose it that is ok too as I had fun while it lasted. We have our retirement funds at T-Rowe Price and I called them about getting my first stock started. They were helpful on the process as T-Rowe is basically a do it yourself investing firm.
Now when I get unexpected money off I go to T Rowe Price to see where I can invest my money as my dollars have a name. It has been fun to watch our investments go up and down as the market ebbs and flows. As time has went on my few stocks have grown and I have enjoyed watching them grow.
The money that once would have been lost by the wayside without a name now has given us great pleasure as we daily check the stocks to see what is happening with our investments. Do we have a clue what we are doing? NO but we did invest in funds that have a meaning to us so that makes it all the more interesting.
Right now I do not have a plan for this money but someday something will happen and we will have this fun money waiting in the side wings.
Why not consider naming your dollars and having some fun watching them as they grow and mature?