How to Stop Spending the Money You Need to Pay Your Bills | Lessons From The Sessions | 565

0:00She had a really bad debt in the past. and her ex-husband was on the loan with her. And she told me, 16 % interest, Dana, on a Jeep. Yeah, on a vehicle loan. So much money. And I think the payment was, gosh, it was like over$800 a month. Maybe it was 900. And she said, we talked about refinancing. What does that look like? Can you do it on your own? She wasn't sure. So finally she contacted the bank. I said, look, contact the bank that you're already at and ask them, I'm going to go to a different bank, but can you just see what you can do for me and see if it's possible to refinance this. Sure enough, they cut her interest rate in half.

0:37No co-signer. She's able to do it all on her own. She felt like a big girl. She's doing all of this by herself, taking care of her finances, cleaning things up. She's never felt more in charge and more in control of her money. Today, we're bringing you real life stories and lessons from our private coaching sessions. If our clients are dealing with it, chances are you are too. So we're breaking it down to help you avoid the same mistakes, feel less alone, and walk away with some quick wins for your budget. Do you make good money but have nothing to show for it? Are you tired of living paycheck to paycheck?

1:06Do 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? When you don't want to give up those pumpkin spice lattes? If you don't already know how to budget or if you're using credit cards to get through the money. 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.

1:36We'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. In 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 a conversation. We can help you no matter where you're at, whether you're the single mom who's never had$500 in their savings account or the millionaire who's paid off four real estate workers.

2:08And 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. This is the Financial Coaching for Women podcast. I have a lesson, Vanessa, that we may or may not have said every single episode of this podcast since we got our lives together and focused only on financial coaching. Okay? Okay. It's called Take the Bills Debit Card Out of Your Wallet. Oh, my gosh. Sorry if you were startled by that. I'm going to get that tattooed on my forehead for my clients. And to our not credit, to be honest, maybe we don't make it as clear as we really.

2:44Like, maybe we'll start mailing it to you and texting it to you and just so that you know that we mean it and we're serious and also that we definitely know that we said it. but let's say maybe I didn't tell her that it didn't occur to her she was terrible coach you never brought it up I'm excited I didn't but what's so funny is we got on the session she's I love the system it's working I'm seeing it I'm feeling it I'm like oh good and I really was excited and then we went into the numbers a little bit I'm like is it working what made you think that buying Ann Taylor out of the bills account was like working only a bell um so anyway long story short we i literally told her because so she travels a lot for work and so it's it gets convoluted she the first red flag was she paid for parking or something like airline wise with her bills debit card and i said why did you use your government card and i don't remember why she said she didn't use it but then we kept going i was like okay but obviously the problem is that The Bills debit card is still in your wallet.

3:47Like, it's still in your wallet because then you wouldn't have been able to use it. Okay. She also, she ended up putting clothes that she bought, dry cleaning, which is not the worst thing, school lunches, Uber, Dunkin', eating out while traveling, kids' sports stuff, and some hoodies that she got for the kids at the airport. It was like, okay, let's categorize all of these for you. I'm going to help you out. And you know where they're all coming from. So she's excited. So she started off the call like, look at all this money. I still have my spinning account. I'm a guest girl. I wonder why. Yes, girl.

4:15And then I was like, wait, where's all the money in your bills account? Okay, so the lesson is to get the bills debit card out of your wallet. It will just help you stick to your system. We've said it before, the sooner you get on the system, the sooner you're going to feel that relief that you want to feel. And so that's just really important to understand. She's taking that out so she doesn't have it. She's making sure she has her travel card with her all the time. And then also, sometimes, I said, if something by chance messes up, Let's say you bought a hoodie with your bills card somehow. Then you need to reimburse your bills account.

4:47Immediately reimburse your bills account from spending or wherever, whatever it is. You put that money back into your bills account because your bills account still needs all that money. Your bills account needs all that money to do all the things that we have planned for your bills. Yeah. I love when I highlight things for my clients. I'm like, okay, with all of this money, all my clients are going to repeat after me. all of this money in your income you're doing this with it so if that if you're doing something other than what we have listed here it's not going to add up and we're only keeping the amount of money and bills with a buffer we'll start off with a little buffer but that's it that's all you have so to start just spending money out of the bills account you can't do that yeah and you shouldn't want to do that you're taking the time to set up a system that's hopefully going to make you super successful and allow you to have cash available to you and less stress and there's so many benefits of separating your spending from your bills.

5:38If that's what you truly want, if you want that piece, then just do the work to make it happen. And it's not that much work. All we're asking you to do is remove it from online platforms like Amazon, maybe on Venmo, PayPal. Just remove it from there and take it out of your wallet. After that, you're gonna be able to seamlessly use all your spending accounts while your bills account is a fortress, allowing you to pay all your bills. And then that's all you have to worry about. There's no more tracking all of your expenses. We purposely go through all of our clients' transactions to see if there's something that may have gotten stuck here and there.

6:09But when we start seeing stuff like Chick-fil-A and Uber and parking passes and different things like that, we're like, okay, what's going on? Yeah. So we just want to help you guys be as successful as possible with us. Yeah. And, and so again, in case we're not clear, where should the bills account go, Shana? The bill, I think you can put it in the freezer. Remember in friends when Joey put the scary book in the freezer. So like you could do that. It's like, you could do that. You could put it in your nightstand. You have a safe. It just isn't in your wallet. You're not using it. Don't just forget the numbers in your head.

6:41They're just gone. They're only paying bills. It's got a job. That's my next thing I was going to say. And if you by chance have memorized your Bells account card number, cancel it, get a new one, or just erase it from your brain. Erase it from your brain. There's so many other things you should put in there. Yeah. 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.

7:16And it's going to give you permission to spend. Everybody loves that. 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. Now back to today's show. All right, so my lovely client, she has, I actually don't, I think she maybe sells insurance.

7:52I don't know what she does. She's awesome at her job. She first came to me. Whatever she does, she's awesome at it. Yeah, she's doing great. And when she first came to me, she said, look, I don't know if I can afford coaching. And she really was sure about that. She just wasn't sure if that was something that she could truly afford on her income. Her and her husband have separate finances. And there's a reason for that. But right now I'm just working on her. And she had so many clarinas. And so many. Oh, clarinas are evil. What were the other ones? There's like sizzle, affirms, like all of that.

8:22She had so many of them. so many so that when she made her budget on our budget, she had to scroll down to see the next half of the page to be able to see them all. And we no longer have to do that. Okay. So she right now is at a place where I think she, we, this month we are paying off the last bit of her plus putting extra on her credit cards. And she was really stressed about the amount of money that she was paying on debt. She doesn't, she makes a lot of money, but also has some bills and she 100 % can afford coaching plus she's paying extra on debt. So she's paying off in the last couple of months that we've been working together thousands, thousands of dollars extra on debt because the money is there because we've separated it.

9:04We've organized it. We've even increased her gas and groceries amount. We've increased her personal spending. She's been going on trips. She has to buy two bridesmaids dresses because she's in two weddings. I told her she has too many friends and no, but she's really having a good time. She's enjoying her life. She's loving what she's doing. And she just needed some help. She needed a second set of eyes on it to see what was going on. And one thing I will tell you is that she was able to refinance her Jeep by herself. Okay. So when she first got her Jeep, she had to co-sign. She had a really bad debt in the past and her ex-husband was on the loan with her.

9:38And she told me in 16 % interest, shana on a jeep yeah on a vehicle loan so much money and i think the payment was gosh it was like over 800 a month or maybe it was 900 and she said i we talked about refinancing what does that look like can you do it on your own she wasn't sure so finally she contacted the bank i said look contact the bank that you're already at and ask them i'm gonna go to a different bank but can you just see what you can do for me and see if it's possible to refinance this sure enough they cut her interest rate in half. No cosigner. She's able to do it all on her own. She felt like a big girl.

10:12She's doing all of this by herself, taking care of her finances, cleaning things up. She's never felt more in charge and more in control of her money. Her debt is being paid off. She has money to spend on herself, on her daughter, on her son. She's got her bills covered. She's saving. She has some vacations coming up. So not only is she doing all that, she's also saving money every month for annual bills and vacations. And it's just because everything is organized and she's taking charge and making sure that she's making the right decisions to make it all happen. I love that. So it's just, I think it's also like one step at a time.

10:44Obviously it helps to have somebody tell you the steps, right? It helps to have somebody look at it with you and do it. But one thing at a time, one thing at a time leads to the next thing. And not only financially, like her budget got better, every debt she paid off, every corner or whatever. And obviously when she got a better payment and interest rate with her Jeep, but also like your confidence builds, you get a little bit more a little bit more I'm saving money I paid for I'm paying for this vacation in cash like all of that your confidence grows and you start to take control and it feels like a million bucks but it doesn't necessarily happen overnight it does it is like a gradual slow build sometimes and because you have to do the first thing first you have to figure out you have to weigh buying my bridesmaids dresser playing off a clarinet and you have to make these little decisions but each time you do like James Clear says it's a vote for the identity of who you want to be who you're becoming and so it's just it's really great to see her be able to go through these wins and get out to the other side confident and control.

11:37Sometimes you don't have anybody on your side to do that. And who are you going to talk to? You're like hairstylist. You're gonna be like, Hey, I have all these debts. It's so much. I have to scroll the page. I'm like, how much should I, what do you think I should do? So coaching is really great for that. If you, especially if you're feeling alone. And I think you pointed out, Vanessa, she didn't think she could afford it. A lot of times you can't afford not to. It's a six month commitment. We get that. That's, that feels like a little heavy maybe, but imagine or understand the investment that's going into your future and her children's future, all of that.

12:06Obviously, the amount of money that she's saved now that she's paid off all these different things, like it's worth it. Oh, it's paid for itself like twice in just a couple of months that we've been doing it. And again, it was something that she didn't think she could afford. And I told her, we actually had a lot of women who come to us, even if they're married, but they're doing this by themselves. We've had a lot of divorced women. We've had a lot of, and that's why we are Financial Coaching for Women. They come to us because they feel alone and they need somebody in their corner. They need somebody there to help them bounce ideas off of and just talk to all these big, heavy decisions about.

12:36And she knew, I think once we, when she paid for coaching the first time, she said, the money's there. I didn't realize it was there. I was just blowing it all month. And so, and we see that a lot. We see a lot of people that say, I did not get afford it, but you're spending$600 out to eat every month. Yeah. And I will say that a lot of times you think because you've convinced yourself that you're bad with money or you're this or that or whatever, that you're going to be mad or sad that you didn't get to spend that much money. But I guarantee she feels like a million bucks for not spending that money, for paying for coaching, for paying off her debt, for taking control, for feeling, getting more confident.

13:12Like that is actually what happens to everybody. You're not, you're, we're not going to put you in a position and you're naturally, you're just, your natural inclination as a human is you're going to be like, I would rather be responsible with this money. You always want to, to be that way anyway. It's just, you don't know what to do. You don't know what to do. So you just spend money because it's like, that seems like a, I know how to do that. I already know how to spend money. One of the things I will say is she's in a situation where she needs to exit. She needs an exit plan. And she did not believe that it was possible on her income with the amount of debt that she had and everything going on in her life, emotionally, personally, physically, just mentally, all that.

13:47And when we put it all on paper, we realized not only is it possible, it's not possible in a year, it's possible in a couple months, like being able to take that step in the next direction and the right, the next right step for herself and her kids, she can make it happen. And so I say all that to say that sometimes you don't think you can do something by yourself. Sometimes it takes somebody else to come in and go, you know what? You actually can look at this look at it this way and it all starts to click it all starts to make sense so we just want to throw it out there if coaching or if doing a budget having getting our simplified budget system it's something you never thought you could do or something that you could owe or something you could be good at we want to take that shame off of you want to take those negative words away from you and make you realize that you can do it it is possible and there is so much help out there for you like we offer so much stuff in the simplified budget system course and also with the coaching we have coach Michelle, there's so many resources that to help you.

14:41If you make good money, but have nothing to show for it, this quiz will help you figure out what's really going on with your money and what your next step should be. You'll get a personalized result in a simple action step to help you feel more organized and less stressed. Go to budgetbesties.com forward slash quiz and take the free quiz today. That's budgetbesties.com forward slash quiz to find out what's really going on with your money.