MOOSE – a Simple Technique for Starting to Get Control of Your Finances

What you need is discipline—to save for college, to save for retirement, to pay down that credit card debt—but what you feel is discouraged. Every little indulgence becomes a setback, whether it be the $4 lattes on your way to work or dinner at the restaurant because you feel too tired to cook.

At the end of the month, the story is always the same: there’s nothing left for that college fund or retirement fund, and your credit card debt is bigger than ever.

Financial discipline isn’t an issue just for families on a shoestring budget, either. How many people do we know who make good money and then let it flow right through their fingers? The upscale restaurant with fine wine always sounds like a good idea, and long-term goals can always wait until next month.

At Financially Simple, we can’t make financial discipline easy, but we can make it a little less painful. The technique we advise (and use) is called MOOSE, which stands for “monthly out-of-sight-expense.” Simply put, your savings for the month are whisked away automatically, with no action necessary on your part.

The first thing we do is sit down with you to look at your monthly budget. You have expenses that are unavoidable and expenses we can work with. What if you were to make your own coffee in the morning and put it in a travel mug? Could you manage your meals so that you go out for dinner once a week rather than three times a week? We take that money and put it where it’s most useful. It’s no longer burning a hole in your pocket; now it’s working toward your financial goals.

The beauty of MOOSE is that you don’t have to have a lot of money. A family of modest means might identify as little as $25 a month to apply to long-term goals. With MOOSE, that money adds up over time. Another family might be able to put several thousand dollars toward their long-term goals each month. Either large or small… that money really adds up.

We’ve had many clients who benefited from the MOOSE program. In one case, a man working overseas as a missionary went from living month-to-month to building up $20,000 in a retirement account over the course of two years.

Another case was even more dramatic. This man had an income of about $60,000 a year and an unsecured debt of about $90,000. He didn’t want to file for bankruptcy, but he needed to do something dramatic. With professional advice and the MOOSE program on his side, he was able to cut his debt by two-thirds—down to $30,000—in only a year and a half.

The primary takeaway from this article is you CAN make positive financial gains if you take action. Don’t wait… grab the “MOOSE” by the antlers today! And if you have questions, feel free to reach out.