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What can you do to cultivate money consciousness as a part of your life? It seems incomprehensible that you would have to work at "cultivating your money consciousness." After all, money is required for very nearly every transaction you will ever enter into. Whether you're buying a bag of chips from a vending machine or sitting down surrounded by the dozens of documents you must sign to buy a house, money makes it happen.

So why, if money is at the center of our daily activities, do so many people have so little awareness of money? More to the point, why do so many simply have no idea where the money goes? That is the real issue of money consciousness. I suspect there are very few who are not conscious of the need for money. When it applies to you, I'm sure that you are very conscious of your lack of money.

No, the real question would seem to be "How do I cultivate an awareness of how I'm spending my money."

A good starting point would be to create a budget. I've noticed that word typically conjures up all sorts of negative feelings, and I find that reaction hard to understand. A proper budget isn't some cruel device to take the fun out of life. It is a plan that recognizes reality and attempts to maximize the benefits available in the current reality.

The first reality recognized in a budget is that you have a finite amount of money available each month. You start with what that amount is.

From there, you recognize that you have certain things on which you will spend money as a result of decisions you have already made. Your rent or mortgage payment isn't a new choice every month. Neither are car payments, insurance payments, telephone or cable TV bills. You already made choices that obligate you to pay those and a few others.

But after you have looked at the amount of money that you have coming in and the amount of money that you have already chosen to spend, you come down to what is available to you to spend as you please - your discretionary income. Now you're starting to develop some money consciousness!

The next step in cultivating your money consciousness is to set priorities for the use of your discretionary income. Consistent with what we're talking about here, setting those priorities should be a conscious choice, not just a matter of letting things happen on a whim.

After the priorities have been set, the final step is to actually make the effort to keep track of how you are spending your money. If at the end of next month you no longer have to say "I have no idea where my money goes," you have begun to make money consciousness a part of your life. By doing so, you will find that you waste less money and have more available for things you actually consider to be important.

Learn more about this author, Jim Ruth.
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