Have you ever told yourself? I deserve this. I work hard for my money. I've worked hard this week. I deserve to buy a new purse or a new shirt or some new shoes, or just go and relax and enjoy myself. Or, you know, I heard this, this week, I saved an emergency fund, but my kids hadn't been on a vacation in like two or three years. So I spent all of our savings on that. And now I don't know what to do with all this debt I have and now I have no savings. And I want you to really think about the term. I deserve this as a way to justify spending money that you don't have instead of putting it towards your bigger goals. Cause I know you want to pay off debt and I know you want to save money and I know that you hate being so stressed out about it all. So let's flip the script. Okay. Let's think about it in a different way. Instead of saying, I deserve this as a way to justify in your mind, spending the money on things that you, you know, aren't furthering your longterm goals and I'm not talking like not spending any money ever on yourself. Like you want to still enjoy yourself even while you're paying off debt. But if you empty out your savings while you are stressed and overwhelmed with debt to go on a vacation and now you don't know what to do, that was probably not the best thing to do. Right? And now you're stressed about how to pay for these things. Inflation is going crazy and now you have no money in savings. So I want you to think about how to use this mindset of, I deserve this as a way to motivate you towards your goals instead of hindering you from making more progress on your financial goals. So instead of I deserve this or I'm going to go buy this new item this weekend, say I deserve to be debt free. I deserve to not be so stressed about money. I deserve to have money in savings. I deserve financial freedom and the options to do what I want with my money, because that's what you get when you're able to create a plan and stick to it. Now, when you are creating a budget, the way that I teach you, how to budget, you're making a plan for every dollar on paper, right? Or a spreadsheet, but You're a plan for how you want to spend your money. And I encourage you to put some money in fun and I encourage you to put some money in vacation, but you're setting money aside for those things while still putting money toward those bigger goals. And so that is my point is if you're not able to save money for those bigger goals or you do, and then you spend it all on something like a vacation that you, I mean, really that's just the justification for spending the money. I mean, there are tons and tons of things that you could do on a weekend to make memories with your kids that doesn't involve completely draining your savings, right? So, and you could probably do a lot more things and make a lot more memories than a one week vacation for the same amount of money. So, you know, put some money aside for those things, but it's specifically for those things and not something else your emergency fund is not for vacation. It's not for new clothes. It's not for things that you just really want. You know, we justify spending money on things because we call them needs when they're really wants. I mean, think about it in life. We really only need very basic things. You need food, shelter, water, and, you know, some kind of mental stability, you know, not being under attack and, you know, having that security in that safety, but that's all very basic things, but you could justify spending money on food and going out and, you know, eating, you know, all high-end brands and going out to restaurants, all the things. So there's a huge range that you could be spending on, on food versus really dialing down to what you need right now so that you can get what you want later. So your goal is to focus on saving money or paying off debt. And when you justify those wants as means, you're really stealing from your future self and you're causing yourself to be so stressed out and not able to reach those financial goals because of that. So I want you to let me know what you really deserve. Take a photo of this posted on Instagram and tag me and let me know in the comments I deserve and whatever your financial goal is. Cause you've really got to flip the script on this. Instead of using the term I deserve as a justification for spending money, they literally know you shouldn't be spending money on that, but that's how you justify it to yourself. And that's how you make it. Okay? Because you really want to spend the money on that. And as you go through this process and the more you can focus on that bigger goal, you're able to dial down that voice in your head that tells you, I deserve this, spend the money you work hard. You know, you should enjoy yourself and all those things that cause you to just keep going further and further and further into debt. If you don't, you can still, and you should still reward yourself along the way. So, you know, if you get a big debt paid off and your reward is to go buy that purse that you've been wanting great. That's awesome because it's a milestone, it's a reward. But if you are justifying buying that purse, instead of putting money toward that debt, because you worked hard and you deserve it, that's, that's what I'm talking about. So I hope that I've made that pretty clear that I still want you to reward yourself. I still want you to do those things, to celebrate your successes along the way, but we're not justifying. I work hard. I deserve to spend money on these things instead of reaching your bigger goals. Now, like I said before, I encourage you to have fun money that you can spend on whatever in your budget, make sure it's reasonable and that you can still reach your other goals. So I'm talking about taking money from your goals, for things that you just want, and you justify them by saying that you deserve this. So let me know what you are going to work towards, that you really deserve on Instagram. And I will talk to you soon.