Do you think it’s possible to be creating opportunities for yourself? You could actually create different opportunities for you and your family by doing something new or doing it differently.  I’m going to show you two different people. We’re going to call them person A and person B. I’m going to share one change between these two people and also explain the difference it makes because of the things they’re doing and how they are creating opportunities.

Creating Opportunities Examples

Opportunity Example: Person A

So person A. this is someone who is saving money. They’re really starting off on track. They’re saving money, and it’s easy. So not necessarily a priority, but they have the behavior of saving money.

Opportunity Example: Person B

Person B, on the other hand, is actually saving money just like person A, but this person is prioritizing this. They are saying to their spouse, “We want to save.” They are choosing to save money first before doing other things.

This is the one thing that’s different between person A and B. Now, let’s multiply this over a span of 10 years. You can imagine the difference that these two people have in the balances in their accounts.

Opportunity Result: Person A

Person A has savings available when they need them, which is great. They’re starting out and making good habits. With person A, they have the ability to save money. If something comes up, it’s not going to be catastrophic for them. Now, since it’s not necessarily a priority, they’re just going to do it little by little along the way. This isn’t a bad plan.

Opportunity Result: Person B

Person B says, “We’re really going to save because we don’t know what’s going to come up.” And they actually have a larger balance available. What is created for person B is actually more opportunities!

What Does This Mean?

So let me explain this “more opportunities” for person B.

Let’s say 10 years down the road in your career you want to switch jobs. If you “perfect career” means you’d bring in less pay but you’d get further ahead in the next five years, this would be a good option for you. If you choose to take a pay cut in this situation, you’s have more money available in savings than you’s need because you had saved purposefully.

Maybe you actually want to start your own business. Now you have money that’s available. You have a time that you can go help this business get off the ground and running.

Another option is retirement or giving more money away, or setting your kids up well for the future. For some people there were funds– even a grandparent– who gave funds to you for a down payment or college funding. You could look back and say, “That made a really big difference in my financial future – because when I left college, I didn’t have to worry about needing to pay student loans off.”

This gives you the opportunity to say, “I’m going to save up money for that down payment or for something else.”

So all of this is to show that one difference between two different people who are savings. It is not “bad” plans for either of them. But one thing that was created by person B, by saving money as a priority earlier in life, is having more available for the future.

This purposeful saving gives person B opportunities and flexibility to be able to go back to school. Or do something that came up along the way, that they thought would benefit them down the road.

Hopefully you can see who you are and maybe there’s some changes you want to make? Or maybe you just need to keep right on track with what you’re doing.