This is Motley Fool Answers. I'm Alison Southwick and I'm joined as always by Robert,

not the Bruce Brokamp. Personal finance expert here at the Motley Fool. Hey, bro, how you doing?

Not sure exactly what that means, but I'm doing great, Alison. How are you?

I'm good. Well, this week, Motley Fool's chief investment officer, Andy Cross, gives his take on

yet another exceptional year for stocks. And we answer a question about when to claim Social Security.

If it'll even still be around by the time you retire. Oh, womp, womp, all that and more on this

week's episode of Motleyful answers. Chances are, as an answers listener, you're probably already

much better than the average bear when it comes to budgeting. I mean, you could be listening

to a murder podcast right now, but you'll listen to us talk about required minimum distributions

for the 11th billionth time. RMDs, am I right, bro? Can't get enough of them, I tell you.

I'd rather be listening to a murder podcast. But anyway, the point is, you're probably on top of

the concept of budgeting. But have you tried values-based budgeting? It's a way to be more

deliberate with your spending so you get the maximum psychological reward.

I first heard about it from Joel O'Leary. He's over at Budgets Are Sexy and he also blogs over

at 5am.jol.com. Joel, along with his wife, were inspired to reevaluate their spending after

reading Smart Couples finish rich. Values-based budgeting sounds simple enough. Determine what you value and then

budget your spending so that you're using your money on things that are truly fulfilling for you

personally. You know what? It's probably better if I just have Joel explain it to you.

I've always been a good budgeter with my wife and saving and stuff like that. So nothing was ever wrong.

However, maybe like three or four years ago, we started to

study personal finance a bit more. And we noticed two big things. Number one is most people

spend a ton of money on things that really don't actually provide them a lot of joy. Money

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