Budgeting Feels Boring? Dream Again and Build a Budget You’ll Stick To | 460

0:01So why do most people quit budgeting? I think it's because their future is boring. Yeah. Why would you bother doing math and writing stuff on paper and categorizing if you have nothing exciting to look forward to or anything in your future that is making you want to do it? Right. Vanessa, the thing that goes with that is what is the point of budgeting if you have nothing you're excited to spend your money on? I know. We talk about that with our clients. If you have no vision for the future, then why are you wanting to budget now? What's going to make you even make one or stick to it later on? Yeah.

0:30Usually budgets, people think they're restrictive or whatever. What we want to talk to you about today is why having something exciting in your future is going to make you want to budget. It's going to make budgeting maybe even a little fun because you know where you're going and why you're doing it. And that's exciting you. Do you make good money but have nothing to show for it? Are you tired of living paycheck to paycheck? Do you have big dreams for your financial future? Do you want to get debt free but you don't want to live on beans and rice? Or you don't want to give up those pumpkin spice lattes?

0:58Hey, it's okay if you don't already know how to budget or if you're using credit cards to get through the month. Hey, it's okay if you want to seem like you have your finances all together or you're not on the same page with your spouse when it comes to finances. We know what you're doing probably isn't working, but guess what? You're in the right place. We're Shana and Vanessa. We're best friends, business partners, and master financial coaches trained by Dave Ramsey. We've been in business since 2019, helping hundreds of amazing people like you create budgets, get out of debt, stop living paycheck to paycheck, and know exactly what to do with their money.

1:32In this podcast, we'll share with you everything we know plus everything we're working on with our clients so that you have the best chance at reaching your financial goals. We want to help you take the guesswork out of your budget, improve your marriages, and even bring your kids in on the conversation. We can help you no matter where you're at, whether you're the single mom who's never had$500 in her savings account, or the millionaire who's paid off four real estate mortgages. And we're not going to shy away from the tough love. We'll tell you what you need to hear and encourage you at the same time.

1:59This is the Financial Coaching for Women podcast. So we are in the middle of a series. Thank you for coming back. This is actually episode two of our series, and we are talking about dreaming and getting excited, building that vision for your future. Yeah. So that is step one of the Budget Besties method, right? Which is to dream again. And we have a good example of this is early on when we first started, you guys, we've been doing this for over five years. It's crazy. I remember you telling me about it and I remember asking them about it when we did a testimonial, but tell us, take us back to one of our very first clients and what happened and how it relates to this step.

2:38They were so sweet. They had two little kids at the time and they just knew that what they were doing wasn't working. He was a pilot. She was a stay at home mom. I had a couple, I think she taught swim lessons on the side. So just very average, Jesus loving, like humans, they were just amazing. And one of the questions I always asked on our free calls was, what are your goals? What's your vision? What do you want for your future? And they both paused. Like they literally both paused. They're staring at me like deer in a headlights. What is this foreign language you're speaking? Yeah. In the camera.

3:07And she started crying and she said, nobody has ever asked me that before. And I'm like, oh my gosh, not even each other. You guys haven't even had this conversation together as a couple. And so we sat there and outlined what that looked like for them. And they ended up signing on as a client and really got their finances in order because their life shifted in those six months that we were together. Yeah. And I remember them and you can go back and actually listen to their testimonial. It's pretty fun. We can link it in the show notes, but I remember them or that that is a good example. It's a very normal example of people when we stop dreaming and we do it.

3:42We talk about the rush of life, especially they were in the throes of it with young kids and he was transitioning careers and they were moving and so much like I'm, I can't even get past today. I haven't even thought about what I, what would make me excited, what, how I would dream again about the future. And that might be you. And so the point here, lesson here is you will want to budget when you get excited about your financial future. Yeah, absolutely. When your dreams are super clear and crystal clear, your budget becomes a no-brainer. That's what you want to do. You want to make it, you want to make that vision for your life so awesome, so amazing that today is doable and exciting because you have that future to look forward to.

4:23Yeah. And so what we're going to teach you in all of the steps is stuff like if I have a savings bucket for this trip to Italy with my family, that is going to be more exciting to me and watching that money stack up than not budgeting or than just spending money randomly at Starbucks or whatever that isn't exciting, right? Because you have to have a why here. You have to have a reason to want to do math, like we said in the first place. You have to have a reason to say no to something, and it's going to be something that's a better yes, something you're super excited about the yes. And that is what's going to drive you to not only make a budget, but to stick with the budget, to change your behavior, to do things different so that you can have that future that you're dreaming about.

4:59I think when we have clients sign on, one of the things that we talk about with them is we're not just putting numbers and words on paper, calling in a budget and calling us financial coaches. There's so much more that we talk about and that we explain and we go through habit change, mindset change. And one of those things is setting that vision for your future, because when you do have that, like Shana was talking about those aimless, like swipes on Amazon or swipes at Target or just running through the Starbucks drive-through or just handing your hard over to your kids and be like, oh yeah, I think hopefully it'll work.

5:30I don't know. Try it. Just those won't happen because you're more mindful about how you're spending your money because you're excited about what it's doing for you. And when you don't have that vision, then it's easy to just swipe until it doesn't go through anymore. So how do you do this? You don't need to get out of vision board. You don't have to go to a conference and find yourself. Okay. We want it to be tangible and easy for you. So we teach that we might want it to look at right now, because right now your money might be a little messy. You might have nothing to show for it, even though you make good money.

5:59So what do I want right now that is going to make me feel better? That's there. That's important. We don't want to miss that. But then we're also going to go to that one year, that five year, and then that future you, we're going to talk about those too. And so for example, Vanessa, when our clients start, when we're asking them, a lot of times their goals are very in the now. Oh yeah. They're within 12 months. Yeah. They're like, right now I want to stop feeling stressed about money. I want to get out of debt. Like it's all very now. A lot of them are very now focus goals. No, it is. And as it should be, because you're in this moment of wanting to do better, get better, understand your finances, get in control of your finances.

6:32And so they really want some type of quick fix, which is, especially when they sign up for coaching, it is that accountability. It's having somebody else coming in, looking at it, going, okay, this is what I see for you. But when they can't see it for themselves in the moment, because they're so stuck, right? All right, budget besties, it's time for some real talk. You don't need another budget. You need a budget system. Our simplified budget system is what you've been looking for. It's going to allow you to be bougie on a budget. You'll be able to easily set up a system that runs automatically and shows you exactly where your money is going.

7:05And it's going to give you permission to spend. Everybody loves that. Yeah. It's straightforward, pretty, and packed with walkthrough videos that break down the exact methods we use with our clients to get out of debt, set up a bills account, separate spending, build savings buckets, and end the paycheck to paycheck feel. If you're new to budgeting, this is the perfect way to jump in. And if you're already a budget nerd like us, you're about to meet your new obsession. This is the upgrade to your finances that you need right now. Yeah. So head on over to budgetbesties.com forward slash budget and grab yours.

7:38Now back to today's show. So yes, there's a lot of it in the now, but then we look at, and it's funny because sometimes we ask if, especially if they're parents like, hey, how old are your kids? Because that's usually like the timeline. If they have babies and we're like, okay, let's think about when they start kindergarten or when they start middle school or high school or graduation. So there's, I like to put it in like timestamps when we're talking about your goals. What does that look like when your kids are graduating from high school? So as an example, like if your kids are just starting preschool, what does this look like for next year?

8:09What do you want to have in place? What do you want to do next summer with them? What are some things that you have planned? And then let's look at five years. Well, yeah. And then also one year, like you said, get out of debt. That might be realistically, maybe in one year, I want to have all the credit cards paid off. Or maybe in one year, I want to be able to start all my savings buckets. There might be some different ones. And then there's some fun ones like, okay, I would like to go on our first family trip that we've ever paid for, or I want to do Christmas and I don't want to have to use debt.

8:36There's some shorter term goals that are really exciting that you want to think about what your family is going to look like, what you want to have happen. And again, everybody's goals are different. So if you're in a really tough situation and what Shana is saying to you is more of a five-year goal for you, that's okay. Your goals and what you have planned out for your future are very different than the next person. So none of it is wrong. So you have to plan out what's right and what feels good for you. And also what's, what is exciting you too. That is also very, we talk about everybody's bougie is different, right?

9:07You're what excites you is very different. And so the next sort of block a time you might look at is five years because we might like Vanessa we want that quick fix we're really focused on the now but five years there's a lot you can do a lot you can make a lot happen in five years and as Vanessa was saying everybody's five years looks different our five year her five years looks way different than my five years five years she's got two kids graduated and that's five years I will have a sophomore in college Shana so weird yeah but that's like totally different than like the couple we were talking about with the story yeah they're they're five years, their kids would barely be in middle school, right?

9:42But that does help frame your goals. And so maybe it's, I want to have the car paid off, or maybe it's, we want to be going on regular family vacations, or maybe I want to be able to move back home or whatever. Maybe we want to be able to buy our first house. What are the exciting things that you want that you can list as your goal that will help you stay motivated to do your goals or your budget? Here's another rude thing that we like to do to our clients. We're like, okay, imagine your children graduated college. what does that look like? This is different based on the age of your kids, but this is where we go with things.

10:13Your kids are graduating from college. Oh, hey, they just got married. Where do you want to be living? What do you want to be doing? Are you retired? What are all those questions that you want to ask yourself that puts you in that excited? Shana said it gets you excited about your vision for your future. And then also, hey, you have grandbabies. There are so many awesome timelines that you can place ahead of you to paint that vision for your future and how you want to be set up financially. Yeah. Basically when we're looking at this, we try to talk about what do we, what is our goal right now?

10:40Because we know that's usually where you really focus. Maybe one year out, maybe five years out, but then we have what we call the X, which is what Vanessa is talking about. This, a lot of people would say 65. When I retire 65, this is what I want my goal. We don't say that because we don't think you need to wait till you're 65 to reach these big things. So we say X, X years. So maybe it's 20 years from you. Like for you, for Vanessa, she's talking about when your kid's graduating, maybe you don't have kids. Maybe that's not even a factor. Or like us, the big milestone we had was when my husband retired from the military and that was, he was 38.

11:11That has nothing to do with being 65, but you might have this bit, but him retiring and losing half of, more than half of his income was a big deal we needed to figure, have as a timeline and what our life was going to look like and what we wanted to accomplish by that point. And the same might be for you. You might have, who knows what you might have going on, but that's why we say X. We're not saying you have to be 65 or 70 when you retire and this is the only next after the five-year goal this is it or maybe you just want to do 10 years and see where could we be there but either way you want to look and our clients have all kinds of different goals maybe they want to be starting their own business maybe they want to be be able to have a house at each kid's college location we don't know we don't know we're not speaking for anybody maybe you want a house in europe yeah you just don't know yeah and who knows what your goals are but that's what's so important we can't even speak what it is because we don't know what lights you up, what's exciting.

11:58And here's the key thing too. If you're married, you guys are doing this together. And this is so exciting, so important. Like you're dreaming again together. You're like, you both are going to be invested in this because you have a dream that you're outlining together. Yeah. And we want to bring back to the point of the, you're going to get excited about your financial future. So you're going to want a budget. That's the whole point. You're going to want a budget because you're excited about your future. This is the whole part about dreaming again. Like Shayna said, if you have somebody to do this with, it is a lot of fun.

12:28And if you don't have somebody, find a friend, somebody who knows you well, that can help paint that picture for you because you do want that vision. You want something to look forward to. Yeah. So you can go to budgetbesties.com forward slash dream and grab a downloadable printable. We've often suggested you take it to date night and just start here, start dreaming again. Remember we like to think about at least personally when you were young and you're excited and maybe if you're married, you guys have this big old vision and future and you were excited. We want you to feel like that again. So get it down, start dreaming again, literally start dreaming and put it on paper, grab that downloadable and do it and see where it takes you.

13:05Yeah. Sometimes life just grabs ahold of you and you forget. You forget those dreams that you once had and we want to bring them back to life for you. Okay. So that's step one out of the eight steps for the budget besties method. And we are so excited. You will, we will be back here next Monday. You'll have some episodes in between, but we'll be back here next Monday to give you step two, which is to build your budget. So remember, go to budgetbesties.com forward slash stream to get that printable and we'll see you next week. If you're tired of feeling like your finances are all over the place and you're ready for a simple set it and forget it way to budget, we have something special for you.

13:39Watch our automate your budget masterclass at budgetbesties.com forward slash automate. We'll show you step-by-step how to finally organize your money, how to set up your accounts, and put your budget on autopilot so your bills, saving, and spending run like clockwork. Imagine less stress, more savings, and the freedom to spend money without having to track every dollar or babysit your bank account. Go to budgetbesties.com forward slash automate to start today.