Got an idea? Give it a name.

That was the subject line of a marketing promo I just got from Go Daddy, and after reading the main point it reminded me how POWERFUL this can be for your *financial goals* too!

For many entrepreneurs, a great name sparks the transition between the dream and the reality. Naming a business makes it real.

Yup! Once you call it something it becomes “a thing”, and all of a sudden feels much more real than just hanging out there in your head… And even better if you sneak “sexy” into the name too, not unlike we did here with the blog ;) Everything is more fun with sexy in it!!

What do you like better – “My savings account” or “my SEXY savings account?”

Or “Vacation fund” vs “SEXY vacation fund”???

It even works for boring stuff! – “Money set aside for my DAMN SEXY taxes”, haha… (and they are indeed sexy because the more taxes you’re paying, the more income you’re usually bringing home!)

In all seriousness though, naming your goals really DOES help make things more tangible and gives you a slight little boost in pulling it off in the end… Which you’ll want as much as you can get!

Here are a few examples from around the community I’ve liked:

The F.U. Fund — A savings fund for all those who can’t wait to quit their jobs and go out on their own/retire/do whatever they want finally! Made popular recently by Paulette Perhach (NSFW).

The #YearofNo — A mission of saying NO to anything “extra” in your life for an entire year to get your savings/sanity back. Devised by Jamie Jeffers and family who went on to pay off over $24,000 of debt, while completely changing their spending habits in the process! (Go Jamie!!)

The Depth Year — Similar to the above, only more focused on *using up/appreciating/deep diving* into the stuff you already have in your life vs going out and accumulating more. Whether we’re talking stuff-stuff or ideas, dreams, skills, books, etc.

“It’s wonderful to have the freedom to continually widen our interests. But like many luxuries, it has an insidious downside. Ever-branching possibilities make it harder for us to explore any given one deeply, because there’s always more “newness” to turn to when the old new thing has reached a difficult or boring part… We need to find a way to put up our own limits. When we give ourselves fewer places to dig, we go deeper, and what we uncover is more rare and valuable than the usual stuff near the surface.” – David Cain

The “Impulse Tax” Fund — An account set up by reader Rachael where anytime she’s tempted to spend money impulsively, she moves that exact amount right over to savings so it feels like she really did “spend” it, only without the buyer’s remorse! A type of fund we also tried here a couple years ago (“Spavings Fund“) where we ended up with $4,040.50 in the end ;) (It really does work!)

Challenge Everything! — A mentality/mission from yours truly where every month I would tackle a new bill or expense in order to get them as low as possible without sacrificing quality of life. Which later went on to save me over $200/mo and completely infiltrate my *daily habits* as well. (We do so much without even thinking about it because we’re so used to it!!)

The Lifetime Wealth Ratio — Another dubbed idea of mine, in order to tell how much you’ve saved over your lifetime vs how much you’ve *earned* ;) Divide your Net Worth by your Total Income Earned and see how close to 100% you can get (or more, if your investments have flourished over the years!)

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This “naming of things” also works well in other departments too.

I remember once someone telling me they incorporate their goals into all their *passwords* to help motivate them even more. They’d come up with things like “BEdebtFREE2020” or “DEC15FinishB00k!” or “N3tW0rth$200k”, haha… Which is super genius if you ask me, and only somewhat depressing if you happen to miss your goal ;) (Though it would force you to actually update your passwords for once!)

All this to say, naming your goals with something much more meaningful to you could help you slog through the times where you need it most.

You’ll still have to put in the hard work regardless, but at least you can be a little more invigorated along the way! And better yet – the creativity is completely FREE!

Who else is doing this out there?? What are some of the fun names you’ve come up with? ;)

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Fun fact – Budgets Are Sexy was almost called “Saving Is Sexy” but Sandals Resorts was sitting on the domain, haha… Plus everyone already knows saving is sexy ;)

Fun Fact II – the word “sexy” shows up 10 times in this post… You’re welcome.

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24 Comments

  1. Leah May 21, 2019 at 6:15 AM

    When I went back to grad school for my MBA, I was working full-time and going to school in the evenings and on weekends. I knew there was a risk I wouldn’t stick with it and finish my degree, so I created a password for my school account using some version of “finish!”. Every time I logged in, my password gave me a little encouragement/reminder that I needed to FINISH! That was over 10 years ago. I graduated in 2.5 years, and the degree has served me well ever since!

    Reply
    1. J. Money May 21, 2019 at 6:19 AM

      Love that!! Haha… that’s great!

      Reply
  2. Max Out of Pocket May 21, 2019 at 6:48 AM

    Perhaps we could market ‘preventative health’ exams as ‘preventative death’ exams to get people’s attention? Sorry, ‘my sexy’ exam may get a little awkward. Cheers!

    Reply
    1. J. Money May 21, 2019 at 10:03 AM

      Haha, I could get down with that.

      Reply
  3. Christine May 21, 2019 at 8:10 AM

    I’m a little afraid to try the LWR, but I just may!

    Reply
    1. J. Money May 21, 2019 at 10:05 AM

      Do it!!! All the cool kids are!! :)

      Reply
  4. Liberty @ Love Liberty Shelter May 21, 2019 at 10:31 AM

    You definitely realize the power in a name when opening your own website. It’s hard to sum up everything you want to talk about on a blog, not knowing how your focus may change, but you’ve gotta go for it anyway! And in the process of blogging, you learn so much about yourself and that you do indeed have a story to tell.

    One decision I made from the beginning was not to limit ourselves by entitling our blog anything with “tiny house” . . . because even though that’s our adventure now, it won’t be forever.

    Love the motivating power of words!

    Reply
    1. J. Money May 22, 2019 at 6:11 AM

      Amen on that… blogging can open up a whole bunch of opportunities you never even knew existed… completely changed my life and finances and career and friends, and just about everything!

      Reply
  5. Angela @ Tread Lightly Retire Early May 21, 2019 at 11:40 AM

    I’ve done the password thing, and I’ve been surprised at how powerful it can be. Regular reminder of what you’re trying to do – or not do.

    Reply
  6. Mr. SoS May 21, 2019 at 2:05 PM

    J$:

    I am not sure if I was the one that told you about the password idea. I set my passwords as personal finance affirmations, just like you described above. I have been doing that for my passwords for years. When I am forced to change my password, I just set it to the next goal we are trying to achieve. Mine are not quite as specific as you mentioned, but maybe they should be. Regardless, we believe affirmations work and when you type something as often as your network password it begins to stick and then big changes happen.

    Mr. SoS

    Reply
    1. J. Money May 22, 2019 at 6:19 AM

      Excellent! I really should try it out myself one day… Maybe something like “FuTUREmillionaire!$$$” ;)

      Reply
  7. Kay May 21, 2019 at 9:33 PM

    And here I thought I was an original with using passwords that no one else knew except me and it was my personal affirmation or a goal. :)

    Reply
  8. Mr EncoreHustle May 21, 2019 at 10:20 PM

    So true about the power of giving an idea an name. Just think how many people have been inspired with just the word FIRE. I created my website encorehustle by mashing together side hustle and encore career. The blog is intended to educate and share ideas for those of us who are planning to work past the traditional retirement age.

    Reply
    1. J. Money May 22, 2019 at 6:20 AM

      Very cool – congrats on the launch and upcoming journey! Never know how blogging will affect you and all those who read it! :)

      Reply
      1. Mr. EncoreHustle May 22, 2019 at 10:18 AM

        Thanks. It’s blogs like yours that inspired me to start my own.

        Reply
  9. Menard Solve May 21, 2019 at 11:04 PM

    Once upon a time, I was the sysop (system operator) of a very popular Philippine BBS (bulletin board system)— the predecessor of the web and email before it became mainstream. I named it “Cantthinkofanameyet”. The name was easy to remember because it kind of didn’t have a name. 25 years later I can still remember the password— “cantthinkofapassword”. It only goes to show the value of giving something a name even if it didn’t really have a name… umm.. sorry if this is so confusing.

    Reply
    1. J. Money May 22, 2019 at 6:23 AM

      hahahaha… you win for comment of the day.

      Reply
  10. Kate May 22, 2019 at 6:03 AM

    Moments before opening this article I created a line in my YNAB budget called “Mortgage overpayments”. Not super sexy but at least it now EXISTS rather than being a *concept* (“I’ll put any leftover money at the end of the year onto the mortgage…”)

    Reply
    1. J. Money May 22, 2019 at 6:25 AM

      You had me at YNAB :)

      Reply
      1. Moneybee May 22, 2019 at 9:06 AM

        I’ve got a sexy name idea: Mortgage Time Travel! As in, any extra paid *now* can be seen as covering a *future* payment… and reducing your balance to where it was scheduled to be *in the future*! For me, I have the balance of the student loan I’ve been avalanching down to where it was scheduled to be in October 2024.

        Not related to naming things, but related to time travel and on my mind because I just got an email from me from the past: you could also use futureme.org to write an email to you when the mortgage is scheduled to be paid off, saying “You can thank me for already being done with the mortgage!”

        Reply
        1. Kate May 22, 2019 at 10:29 AM

          Done! I love Mortgage Time Travel! Updating YNAB now! Current *me* paying Future *me*’s mortgage payments!

          Reply
  11. Paulette Perhach May 23, 2019 at 12:42 PM

    That’s right, baby!

    Everything around you is made up. We invented all this stuff, and the names for all this stuff. Most of the names are dumb. So rename your world so that it makes more sense to you.

    Thanks for the shout out!

    Reply
    1. J. Money May 24, 2019 at 6:25 AM

      Hope to see you in a few months!

      Reply

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