Lessons from Real Coaching: : Budgeting Through Layoffs, AC Repairs & Real-Life Curveballs 428

0:00Today 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? 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? Hey, it's okay if you don't already know how to budget or if you're using credit cards to get through the month.

0:31Hey, 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. 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.

1:07We 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. This is the Financial Coaching for Women podcast. So my poor client, I love her so much. She was having just a bad month. Like, anything that could go wrong went wrong.

1:39Her house didn't get sold. The AC died. Like, Like her son's baseball took way more of her time than she thought. There was just a lot going on. I believe her ex-husband was going to lose his job or had been told maybe he was going to get laid off. So then her child support may not have been coming in. So it was just, she got a lot of bad news all at once. And the poor thing, she said, look, the budget still worked. She was like, I was, she told me before the session that she was on the floor, literally crying because she was so upset. Now, let me go back. When she first signed up for coaching, one of the things that she said, and I asked, hey, what is there that I need to know?

2:17How can I help you? And how can I serve you? And she said, I have really bad financial anxiety. That was one of the things that she said. I am coming into this. She's the one that was doing the sense transfers? No. Okay, there's another one. There's so many ways to be financially anxious. Yes, yes. And she just said, for so long, her husband did all the finances. And now that she's on her own, a single mom, she's very successful. She's a lawyer. But she said, I didn't have any control over anything. She said, I don't know how to do any of this. And so she was very anxious about all of it. And so anyways, we got all of her stuff set up, got her account set up.

2:53She was not saving, could not save for her savings buckets yet. We were just really organizing everything. And then the month that she had, I want to say it was like, I think we were going to put over$1 ,000 on debt that month because debt is, paying off debt was her goal. Life happened. but I told her I said look you're still paying cash for all this so what you didn't get as far on your debt as you wanted this month but you were able to take that money and use it to pay cash for everything all the hiccups everything that happened this month you are becoming your own bank like speaking that life into her to show her like it's not always about the number and the amount of money that you put on debt it's so much more than that as far as getting your accounts organized being in control of your money, knowing you have money, having the cash available in case something like this happens.

3:38And anyway, so it's just, I felt bad because she said the budget didn't work, but life, budget still worked. Sorry, budget still worked, even though life didn't add up and it didn't do what it was supposed to do that month, but it was okay. Yeah. And typically some emergency like this really does in two ways. It might, you might add to debt because you don't have a way to pay for it. And then also if you're, especially if you're maybe a financially anxious person, you might start spending money to make yourself feel better. And so really, truly, it is a win to just be able to tread water in a bad month.

4:11That's a lot. That's a lot that happened. And so be proud of, I didn't go back. I may not have gone as far forward as I want, but I didn't go back. And especially if it's like a mentally difficult month, that's huge and it's worth celebrating. And it's a big deal. Yeah, it is a big deal. And I think it was, and I don't think had she not had coaching, she could have dealt with that honestly by herself because she didn't have anyone in her corner. She didn't have anyone speaking life over her. She didn't have anyone looking at her finances the way we were looking at it and showing her how it was going to work because in her mind, the math wasn't mathing.

4:41In her mind, it wasn't going to be in the positive. But when we got done with the budget, I clearly showed her how it was in the positive. And she like just honestly couldn't believe it. I think she had me run the numbers like a couple of times. Fortunately, unfortunately, whatever. We're here like single women. And you've had several single men. You have a lot. Yeah. It's hard to do on your own. It's hard to do together. And it's hard to do on your own, especially if you are now having been been adulting for so long and never had to do it. And all of a sudden you are responsible for a lot. I think it's just it is nice.

5:10I think we should offer our services like we should tell attorneys attorneys like, look, let me help. Let us help your clients because you deserve someone in your corner, someone helping you someone that can that understands and can and be on your side when we get it like you're crying on the floor, We're crying on the floor. That's tough. And we want to help you as much as we can. It's just, it's very hard to do on your own. So we're happy to be able to help people when they're alone. Yeah. But I'll tell you what, I also love helping couples. And what's really funny is this next lesson, they are AC also died.

5:42Gosh. So it brings up a funny point. Just because you decided to get your finances in order doesn't mean your life is going to not life. Dave calls that Murphy's Law. And we've seen it again and again. Oh, I'm going to make good choices. Here comes all of these big expenses and bad things that happen to try to derail me. However, you're not going to be derailed. That's the goal here. So your other client wasn't derailed. Neither was this client. So literally the day, I think the day of their first session, their AC died. Oh, my gosh. We see it over and over again. And they're actually hoping that the insurance is going to end up paying for it.

6:16But otherwise, we're going to pay off$9 ,600 next month. Oh, man. Yeah. Okay. Anyway, that's not even the whole point. These awesome people came to us because she was searching, she was Googling, or he was Googling debt consolidation programs. And they found our podcast that we're definitely going to do another one on because it's super out. It's not super out of date, but we have more information. But we do have a debt consolidation podcast out there. The long and short of it is we don't want you to use them. We think you can do it yourself for many reasons. So they heard that and then they gave us a call and set up a call with you.

6:50Do you remember that call? I'm sure you do. They set up the call. So she listened to the podcast and set up a call. And then she sent the podcast to her husband, and he listened to the podcast and set up a call. And they didn't know that each of them did it. So I had two back-to-back calls with two different people. And then they were like, oh, you can cancel the other one. I was like, oh, I had no idea that it was for both of them. Yeah. They were so cute. Yeah. So they are. I just love them. They're going to be a lot of fun to work with. But they were the – so here's the deal. I'm going to tell you this really.

7:19Don't use Amex. Did I help? Did I help? Are we going to get sued? Don't sue us. Amex is a good way to get in a lot of a mess, right? I think it's like a prestigious kind of card or something, but they're tough. They don't work with you and they give you way too much credit and they shouldn't do. I like how you said that. It's a prestigious card. I think that's the perception. I guess. I don't. We wouldn't know, but I think it is. And I'll tell you, I actually had a client yesterday. She has three different debts with Amex, like all over$10 ,000, I think. And she's in a bad mess with that. and they won't do anything about it.

7:51They won't help them. They won't give them like a payment plan. And she's, I love my Amex. And I said, they love you. Yeah, I think it's because you can say Amex. Like that's better than most of them. I don't. And I said, honey, we have got to get this. And she doesn't want to get rid of it because of the airport lounge. It's smart. Whatever. I don't even, I'm like, I don't, it's not worth it. Yeah, you can. That's a whole different conversation. Not going to go there. But yes, they have four different Amex accounts. So they have a platinum, a gold, and then each of them have a regular one. I have no idea how all that works.

8:18I just, I'm just here to solve the problem. Yeah. Anyway, so they were calling because they, they got caught up in, in the cycle and they couldn't make their payments because they're so big. They have those platinum and gold ones are so big. And then the other ones are not quite as big. Anyway, so they were calling saying, we're going to hunt you down and get you, we don't want your money. That's why they were Googling the debt consolidation. And meanwhile, they also have, they have so much money. They just don't, they have so much money sitting in their account. They make really good money and they just were super confused.

8:48And I'm so glad that they heard us because they had so many options. Amex had some payment plans that they were going to work out with them or they could go with a consolidation company that supposedly is so nice. We're supposed to love them because they're nonprofit and that's fine for them. But we still are still a hard no on our part. So the real problem wasn't that they couldn't make those payments on there. It's just that they were completely unorganized and they had everything coming out on one account. If you can imagine, they both get paid a regular income. They both get commission checks.

9:17They have a wedding or a photography business. And then some bills are coming out of his account. Some are coming out of the groceries. Sometimes I get them. It was just a mess. So they didn't actually know. So once we made their budget, we were able to figure out, this is how you're going to get caught up here. And then the next month, as we've said before, the goal isn't to pay off debt tomorrow. It's to get a budget system that keeps you from using debt first, get organized, get confident, and then we'll tackle it as much as we can once you can really feel confident with how much money you have to put toward it.

9:51Alright 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. and 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.

10:27If 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. Now back to today's show. I think that's hard for some people to understand because they, I'm not just saying that people that sign up for coaching, I'm saying people who listen to our podcast, people that have a goal of paying off debt, they listen to what we're saying. They want to get everything done. And like you said, they want that success.

10:58They want that quick win. Yeah. That win tomorrow of being able to do everything that they want to do in that short timeframe. And it doesn't work that way. This is what we are teaching is lifetime. Like it's a lifetime of information and success. And it's a journey. It's a whole different mindset shift. It's habit change. It's all of that. That doesn't happen overnight. You and the reason why debt consolidation companies, those types, some of them aren't even called debt consolidation anymore. They're called something else, whatever. But they're so successful is that people want that quick win.

11:28So they want to know that it's gone and then they can move on with their life. And then what happens? They have that payment and then they have more credit cards that they get. So it's just, and then they'll consolidate that. And then they have two debt consolidation companies and they just rack up more credit cards because you're not changing anything that's happening. You're not in the root of the problem. And with going through coaching, with talking with you, going through this, they're understanding a whole different way of doing their finances, setting up a system, setting up ways to make sure that they don't go back into debt.

11:55That's what we want to work on with them. Yeah, and so they did end up using a program that Amex offered, which was really interesting because we've never, I don't think we've ever seen AMX offer anything nice, but they did. And so they did end up, but he actually didn't want, he was, we were going back and forth over the weekend while they were dealing with their broken air conditioner about which one he had to do, which one he should do. And he, and as you think the logical choice is which one is going to save me quote unquote money. And so he was looking at this one is less monthly. Okay. Let's look at the numbers in mass, like the total number of how much you're going to pay over the 51, the 51 month that they were giving.

12:31and let's also look at the fact that your income is allowing you to pay off early so you're not going to pay all that interest anyway you're going to be able to go quicker and the other thing with regardless of how nice they are or how nice they seem or how christian love them they might be for debt consolidation they are taking control and you will most likely just because you're making a payment doesn't mean they are so your credit is still going to take a hit you're still out of control you still can't decide okay i'm going to i'm going to pay this one off this month or whatever You're just paying them and they're in control of it.

13:01You can't contact those creditors anymore. Nothing. You've relinquished that ability to do that. So that's why we went with the one with Amex because that is directly them working with their creditor and we're going to pay them off early anyway. And there was no – And also, if somebody offers you, you need to make sure you do look or they do not give you a penalty for early payoff. Don't take a deal that is requiring you to pay for the rest of your life in order to do it. I was actually going to add, that was my note to add, because I just had a client who was looking at calling the companies and making a deal about, hey, can I get a lower interest rate?

13:31Can I get a lower monthly payment? And a lot of them now are saying, sure, but there's a penalty for paying it off or you can't pay it off early. And so it's, okay, but if we do the math and this new quote unquote payment plan that you're giving is crap, because you're now going to be paying more in the long run if you had just kept your regular payment. So that's not what we're looking for. We're actually looking for some type of relief. So do not allow them to say, oh yeah, you can do this, but you can't pay it off early. Because what they're trying to do is like we talked about with the credit card companies with your monthly minimum payment is they're trying to make it low enough to where it doesn't bother you.

14:04So you don't think about it. Yeah. Yeah. So if you are going to look at these deals and you get confused, you should just schedule a free call with us at budgetbesties.com forward slash live call. Tell us what they're offering you and we'll try to nitpick it because they're trying to, they're not, they are trying to be sneaky, but it is sneaky. You might think, wow, this sounds like a great deal. Vanessa said, I'm only paying this monthly, but this is a life sentence also. So we want to help you. We don't want you to get mixed up in that. We always want you to be in control. With these clients, what we really did is we made sure that they set up a system because they were spending, she said drug dealer money.

14:37It was really funny. They were just, because they got a bunch of big pay increases. That'll be for another podcast. But what we did in order to stop this massive spending spree that they were on, separate a bills account, all of the bills, not the ones that I pay, the ones that he pays over there. All of your bills are going out of one account. All of your income, similarly, is going into that one account. It's very clear. That's all that's happening there. Income's coming in. Bills are getting paid. Then we're going to set up, and they're pre-kids. They have dogs, sometimes fur babies kind of deal.

15:08They have one needy dog and one independent dog. Kind of like how when you have kids, they're just like different. So they have dogs with no kids yet. So their actual spending accounts are pretty simple and their savings buckets as well. So they're going to have, they have their gas and groceries account. They have a restaurant account and then they have each have their spending accounts. And y 'all, we did not set up small spending budgets. We did not. I believe it's$1 ,500 each. For the month? Yes. Dang, girl. This is, again, we are not here to tell you what you're going to spend. I feel like they're being real realistic.

15:35They're not going to go from spending drug dealer money to spending$100. Okay. But even with that, they still have so much money to pay on debt. Do you see how not having a system is what keeps you in this cycle? They have, even with that amount of spending, which I'm like, please tell me how you're going to find out how to spend all this money. Do you have time to do that? Anyway, it's fine. They're still going to be able to pay off debt. And that's the goal. We want you to, whatever the system is, set it up so that you can live in it and then hit your goals. And it's all very organized. And they're not doing, they're doing all this without signing up for a debt consolidation company.

16:06Like all they needed was a system. and they needed somebody to come in and clean things up for them and show them what was possible with their money. That's awesome. Yeah, and so the idea was, like, you don't need a debt relief program. You don't need a debt consolidation program. You need a budget system. Hey, we saw one of those. I feel like we have one of those. It's a really good one, too. Yeah, you should get it. It's at budgetbestings.com forward slash budget. We have a lot of stuff about debt on there, right? A lot of stuff that will help you with your debt. But also, like we have said over and over, getting set up on a budget, getting your spending accounts and savings buckets set up is what is going to help you get the debt problem fixed.

16:40That's the root of the problem. Paying off the debt is not solving that. Being able to know that I never have to rely on debt because I know exactly what's going on with my money, that is what's going to solve your long-term problem. Yeah, paying off debt is a byproduct of what happens when you get on a budget system. So just know that a lot of people will come to us like, hey, do you do credit repair? No, we don't focus on that, but it is a byproduct of what we do when we work with you and set everything up the way that it's supposed to. And like Shanna said, set you up on a system that shows you what's happening with your money, mostly automatic and so you know that you're going to be successful because you're not touching it and we don't do credit repair because we teach you how to be your own bank that's the goal we want to teach you how to be your own bank and borrow money from yourself if you need to not from someone else 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 watch our automate your budget master class at budgetbesties.com forward slash automate