Without money (Photo credit: Toban Black)
I read an article recently that had an interesting twist on work-life balance:
"The debate about work-life balance has a close sibling I call the money-joy sweet spot. If we work to earn money and we live to experience joy, then we need to make sure we use our money in a way that makes us happy."
This was written by Manisha who graduated from Harvard Business School and had a 15-year career in high finance. She writes about making lots of money which gave her freedom, choices, and opportunities. But the 80-hour weeks hurt her relationships with her husband, family, and friends. "I became a human doing, not a human being."
So she quit her corporate career and started herown business focused on financially empowering women to reach their goals. Manisha came up with a three-point plan to help people find that highly personal money-joy sweet spot:
1. Figure out what you are making per hour. Count the hours you work each week (Toggl.com can help) including the digital device time for work-related projects. Next, take your annual after-tax income and divide it by your hours. You can use this number to evaluate your purchases. This number gives you a benchmark for assessing spending choices. Money is a trade-off so the purchase should be worth the effort spent to earn it.
2. Do a joy audit on your life. Make a list of the things in the past five years that have brought you joy. Keep track of all the money you spend for one month (HelloWallet.com can help). At the end of the month, highlight the items that brought you joy. Take a look at the two lists. How mich of the money you spend goes to things that make you happy?
3. Create your money-joy return-on-investment (ROI) list. Identify two or three ways you can shift your spending to bring it more in line with the things that make you happy. Find activities that give you a strong "money-joy" return.
Analyze all facets of your life. As Manisha says, "the right answers are your answers." But the benefit from thinking in this way helps to make decisions that support your dreams--not just your goals. And this can make you happy.
What would you discover from your joy audit of your life?
What is your money-joy ROI?
Not commuting two hours a day has increased my joy and given me 10 more hours a week to do something that brings me joy. This has made me happy (and saved time putting gas in my car and the money that goes with that!)
Another outstanding book review. I thought Jann's Blog was about Jann's real world experiences, maybe her favorite student's sucess she had tracked, her personal business experiences, stuff like that. It's no wonder after 2 years of this drivel, you have only about a dozen readers, if that.........
Posted by: El Kabong | August 06, 2012 at 07:29 AM
Jann's Blog is certainly much more than a series of book reviews. She always provides a fair amount of personal insight, even when discussing the work of others'.
Many of us rely on her to be a gatekeeper for the more positive and inspirational material that we don't always seek out on our own. If it is something that has resonated with Jann, it is much more likely to be important and relevant to all of our lives. This saves me time to dig more deeply into the dark and often depressing news in the papers, TV, and internet - which there is so much of these days! However, we all need balance and Jann's Blog gives us the hope that there are things that we can do to better our own lives and the lives of those around us.
Jann - keep up the good fight!
Other readers _ try to find the few minutes for a brief comment on anything that you find useful or interesting or controversial. Let's not let Jann's light fade!
Posted by: Ben | August 07, 2012 at 04:44 PM
I'm glad that Jann's book reviews and her personal comments give you hope and you and ' many of us ' rely on her gatekeeper skills so you don't have to do that hard work of learning anything for yourself. Just let Jann decide for you what is relevant and important. Thank you for your inspirational comment.........
Posted by: El Kabong | August 10, 2012 at 06:41 AM