Personal finances is a stressful topic for most. It is the number one source of arguments in the home for many families.

When the money runs out before the month is over the tension rises. For many this is a way of life. A stress that never seems to go away even as they make more money.

What is interesting to me is how little personal finance has to do with math. You would think it is all about math since it is just dollars and cents, but when it comes to our personal finances math has almost nothing to do with it.

We do often use the math to justify our actions some how even if it is funny math. But the math has little to with the decisions we make.

If it was just about math we would never carry high interest debt or have the gigantic car payment that we can’t really afford. If it was just about math we wouldn’t spend more than we make. That doesn’t make mathematical sense, but we do it.

The answer: make more. Mathematically that makes sense looking at our current spending. A little math would tell us that adding some more money will fix the problem and it would if it was just about math. The challenge is with the added money comes the same set of decisions we have to make. They may be dressed up in fancier clothes and look a little different, but we are still left making decisions that require much more than math.

I’m not here suggesting how anyone should spend their money. Only pointing out that we should look deeper than the math when it comes to our personal finances.