Joe Biden, an american politician about to end his term as Vice President of the United States, he also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom this week and he is the man who once spoke these wise words. We are all familiar with the expression “actions speak louder than words” and it is exactly what this is about.

Your expenditures are consequences of your actions, and where you choose to put your money is essentially what you value in life. The decision on what to spend the money you worked hard for is also a very powerful decision because it will shape your life and can either enable or hinder you from reaching your potential in life. Still, this is a decision that most of the time runs on autopilot in our minds. This is a realization a lot of people get when they start tracking their expenses and a common reaction is the surprise of how much money they have spent on coffee/snacks/eating out or some other small expense that increase fast by the end of the month.

Some people might value the luxury of being able to buy a coffee on the way to work, some people might value the experience of eating in a restaurant for lunch, but the truth is that most people haven’t even reflected over what they are spending on and why. When you haven’t made a conscious choice on what you are spending your money on it often shows that what you really value isn’t the coffee, it’s the comfort.

Going back to the fact that how you choose to spend your money is a powerful tool to shape your life, the question is, is it really comfort you want to invest in?

To gain control over your expenditures and to consciously invest in what you really value in life I highly recommend to have a personal budget. It doesn’t have to be complicated and the important part is to track what you are spending your money on. This is when you can start to see a pattern in your life, you can make changes of what you don’t like and increase your investments in what you really value.

I challenge you to log in to your bank account, write down how much you have spent in different categories relevant to your life over the past three months. Compare it to your income over the three months and analyze if these expenses are aligned with what you value in life. If not, what can you do to change this?

Take a moment to be inspired and listen to Joe Biden saying these words here.