Prioitize Your Spending While you may be on a plan to get out of debt, it is actually good to make some purchases. You should know by now, however, that without a plan you may end up with some stuff you don't want, need, or even enjoy. If you take a quick look around your house, you'll soon see what I mean. A prioritized spending plan will help you decide what is most important to purchase in your life. First, you'll start by listing all the purchases you'd like to make. The timeframe may be this week, month, year, or even longer. Once you have your list complete, take another blank sheet and draw a line down the middle. Label the first column 'NEEDS' and the other column 'WANTS'. Now you'll transfer all of your desired purchases from your first list into one of these two columns, paying special attention to things that you actually need. Theoretically, these things should come before your wants. Now that you've determined which purchases are needs and which are wants, you can prioritize by labeling the most important purchase with a 1 and the next most important with a 2. You should continue down your list until every purchase has a number. Now, you have a prioritized list of things to purchase. Try this with your spouse to get a conversation about money started. If you're like most of the couples that I work with, you will discover some very interesting things.
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