This week, I’m talking about re-evaluating your spending priorities during COVID-19. With so many restrictions on travel, eating out, and closed stores, this is a unique time to really think about the areas of spending in your life that are most important to you, as well as those areas that are least important. 

Today, I’m talking about spending needs vs. wants vs. wishes. Understanding the difference between each of these categories and where something falls into is very important, yet the lines are often so blurred between needs, wants and wishes, that certain spending categories can become needs in our minds when they're really a non-essential item.

If you’re experiencing financial difficulty during this time, or if you have faced financial hardships in the past, you learn quickly the difference between needs, wants, and wishes. So I encourage you to use this time to think about your spending habits and your stuff. Is there anything in your life that needs to go? Anything that needs to be downsized or traded in for a more simple, less expensive alternative? 

You may have been used to getting your nails done every 2 weeks and it was something that you HAD to keep up on...until now. Maybe this time has shown you that spending an hour and 40 bucks in a salon twice a month was not a great use of your time and your money. Maybe this crisis has helped you realize that your car or your house or even just your gym membership, your NBA season tickets, or your spotify premium subscription are a luxury that have become a burden that you really just don’t value that much and it’s more trouble than it’s worth.

With all the talk of essential vs. non-essential businesses and activities, I encourage you to use this time to think through the essential (the needs) vs. the non-essential wants and wishes and allow this time to re-shape your intentionality with your spending as we move forward and begin to re-open the economy and opportunities for spending money re-emerge. 

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.

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