What would make your life better?  I’d be surprised if you didn’t say a higher income, most people do! No matter how much we earn, we think that more money would make our lives easier.

But in the same way that Parkinson's law states that "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion", so it is with money: the more you earn, the more you will spend.

In today’s episode are some actionable tools to make Parkinson’s law work so that you have more money. If you take these actions, over time your financial health will improve, and you’ll develop the habits of wealth.

Show Notes

• [00.43] Parkinson's law explained.

• [04.49] The complexity of time.

• [07.24] How you can use Parkinson's law to have more money.
  

Related posts and episodes

• The powerful insight of your bank statement and calendar

• Behind the scenes with Health expert and business owner, Lisa Raleigh

• How to fast track financial freedom at any age

• Temptation bundling – your new best friend!
  

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Quotes

"No matter how much you earn, you will always think that if you had more money life would be better." - Lisa Linfield

"When you are short on time, you spend more money." - Lisa Linfield

"And so we feel, we work so hard that we deserve a little more convenience in our lives." - Lisa Linfield

"People are always prickly when I look at their expenses and I tell them that they value convenience or a big fat house over making sure that their children don't have to support them in old age." - Lisa Linfield

"As humans, we will adapt to what we have." - Lisa Linfield

Script:

208 - Here’s how to use Parkinson’s Law to have more money to do what you really want to do

Hello everybody…

One of my favourite things to do was to teach home helpers in person about money.  We laughed from our bellies, shared from our hearts, and left feeling that there was hope for something different.

Whenever I asked them – what would make life better, they’d answer… a salary raise, to earn more income.

When I ask the same question

·         Students, teachers, corporate execs

Always have the same answer… higher income.

No matter how much we earn, we always think if we earned more income, life would be better.

Why is it that no matter what we earn, we think more will help.

Earn 10,000 – want 15,000 – speak to those who earn 15,000 – want 20,000… but they say they need 25,000.

Parkinson’s law.

Now Parkinson’s law was originally used to describe work.  It’s kinda like this

·         If I give you a project to do…

Effectively, we will use whatever time we’re given to complete a piece of work.  We either become less efficient, or we increase the complexity of the work we do.

But it’s also so applicable to money.

Here’s the thing.  Our expenses will use up whatever income we have.  We become less efficient with our money or we increase the complexity, size and scope of what we buy with it.

Doesn’t sound like you?

Then here’s the question – could you live off the money you had at university or your first job?  Nope.  Or when you first had children?  Nope.

I DEFINITELY have fallen victim to parkinson’s law.

·         Finished paying off our house – bought the Vaal.

Now there’s another complexity that creeps in… TIME.

See, there tends to be a correlation between the two – short on time, spend more money.

Just think of the last time you bought takeaways… most times it’s when you’re tired, and don’t feel like cooking…. Or you’ve forgotten to make lunch to take to work, so you head out and buy lunch.

In my life, it’s kids birthday presents.  Usually I wake up at the last minute that my kids have a birthday party to go to… so I rush out and buy the first suitable thing from the closest shop that always costs WAY more than if I’d spent time on the weekend going to the discount warehouse and buying it there.

But we can ONLY do this if we have the money to do this.  So as our income grows, we feel more space to save on time and spend on money… so we do.  If we had no money, we wouldn’t get takeaways or buy expensive birthday presents… we’d be more disciplined…

The problem comes in that over time, these behaviours become habits, and not the exception.  We feel we work so hard so we ‘deserve’ the convenience.

But that convenience comes at the expense of other things we could be doing with our money… slowly stacking it away for a holiday with our family… or towards our future.

In episode 147 I talk about the powerful insight that your bank statement gives you about your REAL values, the ones you live by… and people are always prickly when I tell them that they value convenience or a big house over making sure their children don’t have to support them in old age… or fancy cars over family holidays.

So let’s go back to our friend Parkinson and work out how we can use this to our favour to have more money.

As humans we will adapt to what we have.  So if you cut the amount of money you have to spend, you WILL adapt.  It’s very painful in the first two months… moderately painful in the next to months, and by month 6, you’re fine.

Trust me, I’ve done it… started my own business and gave up corporate…halved income.

In the beginning… easy things… but as you start to see the power of having more money for the things you really want … you catch on to how powerful it is. 

And then, like the layers of the onion, you begin to give up more and more.  It took us 4 years before we decided to downsize our house, cut our monthly expenses from the house drastically, and use that money to go on holidays.

Action 1:  Set up an automatic payment out your account for something you know you need to do – save for your emergency fund, save for Holidays early, or invest for your retirement.  Set that payment up for the day after your salary hits, so it’s gone before you can use it.

In addition to that, be much more intentional about creating a habit of preparation.  In Episode 12 right at the beginning of my podcasting journey I interviewed health influencer, Lisa Raleigh, and asked her what made people stick to health habit changes… Preparation… and it hit me between the eyes.  Meal prep for the week is key to being able to stick to a diet, and weekly preparation is key to sticking to money.

Look at your diary each Sunday and see what you need to do in order to make sure that you don’t fall into the trap of convenience spend.  Buy the presents early, ask your partner to do supper when you know you’re going to be late, or pre-prepare food that you can haul out the freezer.

Action 2:  Look at the week ahead and prepare.

Do those two things, and over time, your financial health will improve, and you’ll develop the habits of wealth.