Ask Melanie | Grasp your priorities in life with a budget
Melanie Nutbeam, a certified financial planner based in Hong Kong, addresses common personal finance queries.
Life is a lottery and, even for the most controlling, mostly beyond our control. All we can hope for is to manage the odds and relish the evens.
Financial planning is, at least, risk management and, at best, wealth enhancement.
A lot of financial planning comes down to common sense (don't spend more than you earn) but so does diet and exercise (don't eat more than you expend) and most of us need help with all this.
I'm always gratefully surprised at the number of people who want advice on budgeting and setting prudent savings and investing goals.
Motherhood stuff, yes, but a budget reveals more than we initially realise. It reflects not just what we spend our money on but what we choose to spend our money on. It's a mirror of personal values, of vices and virtues. Your budget may help you fathom what's worth striving for.
Once you've come to grips with that, you can at least defend against sideswipes.