Lessons from the Sessions: Budgeting for Sports Seasons & Being Ready for Job Loss | 520

0:00Life is stressful enough. This is stressful. Your kid getting in a car accident. There's so many things that life is already going to throw at you that is dramatic, stressful. You don't need your money to also be one of those things. So getting it set, getting it like we talked about a client that we had where her husband had cancer, they didn't have to worry about their budget, it was already set up. And that's what we want for you. We want it to be we want you to know your numbers, we want you to know, like, worst case scenario, what would what would I be able to do? We want you to have savings so that you feel like you have some overhead there.

0:31And then we want you to not stress about your budget because life is stressful enough. 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? 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?

1:03Hey, 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.

1:37In 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.

2:04This is the Financial Coaching for Women podcast. All right, here is the first lesson. Vanessa, you ready? Ready. Budget by the season. Okay, so I have a client that I feel very, I understand your life because she has a daughter who's doing, she's doing volleyball and cheer. In this particular thing, it's school, which is, that's awesome because it's not as expensive. But either way, she has a savings bucket for that and whatever else the other kids do for their travel sports. But in this season, in volleyball and cheer season, every weekend, she's going to games, right? She's paying to go in the games.

2:44There's concessions, there's all of that. And so what we talked about was we didn't need to like add that necessarily to her savings bucket we want to beef up her family fun during volleyball season is coincides with cheer because football and volleyball at the same time and then we might be able to bring it back down once we get past that season but we just want to like make this easy for you i don't want you at a game like how am i going to afford this like where is the money coming from i can afford this game but i don't know if i'm going to be able to afford next month next and also we don't need a separate category we don't have to transfer it from the savings bucket, your family fund for this season is every weekend you're going to football game and volleyball games.

3:21Okay. Yay. So happy for you. So we're just going to whatever you had for the family fund, we're going to think about how much do we typically spend in a weekend. And we're going to add that into the budget into the family fund. And then we can change it later once it goes back down. Once it's a quieter season, which is a joke, when is that please tell me anybody. But yeah, so that's what we were saying. Let's budget for the season, not just we're not sticking this family fund number up there and never changing it just because it's an arbitrary number. I think that's important and just owning it because a lot of people in that last part that you just said, we're not sticking a number in our budget and saying that's it and then never deviating from that.

3:57If you have a certain situation going on during a certain time of the year, let's account for that. I had a same client that her both kids were in travel soccer and she actually decided to open up a separate sports spending account because she wanted something specifically for concessions and traveling gas for that and entrance fees and they want a sweatshirt or whatever she wanted that separate from her family fund which is fine but the idea here is like we acknowledge the fact that they needed this money it was a non-negotiable because it really put a damper in their groceries and gas and their family fund because she needed extra money she was like afraid to say that she needed it.

4:37And I was like, no, we're just going to own it. And we're going to say, this is what we're doing. And we're going to budget it in because you're spending that amount. So it's not, and here's what people were like, oh, I only want to put$2 ,000 for groceries a month, but I'm spending three. That's a problem. If you're, if you have a family, like I have my client, she has six kids. She needs a decent size grocery budget. That's fine. It's a lot, it says eight of them. It's a lot of people to feed, right? So you need to put a realistic number in your budget knowing that's okay and we're going to figure out around that because if that's what you're spending, it's not fair to put$2 ,000 in your grocery budget and then put the extra thousand on debt each month or on a credit card because you can't afford the other thousand.

5:16You know what I mean? And just that pressure. Unless you're truly in dire straits, don't put the pressure on yourself. We would rather you have$100 left over every month in your grocery account than you're just literally there like scrimping and not eating and stressing out because you can't make it on the budget that you've set. And likewise, we say everybody's bougie on a budget in a different way. So for this family, having a separate sports is their version of bougie. And it probably is just making their life so much better and simpler. For my client, they just upped, they're very simple with their budget.

5:48So they just upped their family fun account from$450 a month to$900 during the season. They needed an extra$75 a week. And that was just the honest truth. And again, I think they're a family of five. So just getting into the game, as we all know, is not cheap. And it's just... Yeah. And by the way, that's where we're having dinner. Yeah. And that's what this whole bougie on a budget, like this whole movement we're trying to start is about. We want you to be able to do these things. We know that this is the life that you want. Like you are excited to do this. We don't want the money to stress you out.

6:17We want the money to be there. We want you to know how it's going to be there. And so in some instances that might mean like we're taking less vacations. Like for this family in particular, they're not doing their deal lease this year because they have a lot of travel sports that they're that they know that they want to pay for and so once maybe next year they'll get more income or they'll do this or that and the other and they'll change it back but it doesn't mean that maybe you get to do everything in your whole wildest dreams but you get to choose you get to decide how you're going to be bougie and then you just need to make the budget that's why it's customizable it's not cookie cutter it's what makes you what works for you and your family yeah It's time to enter your coaching era because making good money should feel like making good money.

6:57Yeah. Imagine six months of private coaching where we'll tell you exactly what to do. No guesswork, no confusion, and absolutely no judgment. It's a done for you system that actually works. You don't know what you don't know, and that's not your fault. And that's why we're here. Financial coaching with us looks like two coaching sessions a month, personalized recaps, and after-hour support, you can text and email. So you're never stuck wondering what to do next. Together, we're going to build your budget, set up your system, and tackle any challenges that come up along the way, which, by the way, they always do.

7:30If what you're doing isn't working, and you're tired of trying to figure it out on your own, sign up for financial coaching at budgetbesties.com forward slash coaching before all of our spots fill up, and we will help you go further, faster. Six months from now, you'll wish you started today. So my client, she had a fabulous job. She was like VP of HR of a very well-known company that we all know. And she was very bougie. I love her so much. She had a very bougie budget and she was almost living outside of her means before her and I started working together. And I believe she was with us for about seven to eight months because she wanted a couple more months just to make sure everything was laid out.

8:12And we got everything organized. We set everything up. We got her spending accounts opened and set up. We got her debit cards. We got everything labeled. We had all the automatic transfers done. And so she ended, I believe, in May with us. During the time that we ended, she said, hey, I want to do a quarter check-in. So I want to check in September with you for Q4 to get ready. And what I found out was when we met was that she was laid off from her job. So in the time that we met, when we had the next five years planned for her and where all her money was going to go and it was all set up and all that came crashing down when we met, not in a bad way.

8:49She's very excited about this new opportunity and what it's going to allow for her. But she said, had I not got everything set up for you, this situation would have looked very differently. And yes, she got paid great money. And they gave her a wonderful severance package. So she's got a couple of months to be able to get everything in order before she goes out and looks for another job. My whole point with all this is there's no job is secure. You are expendable. So no offense, unless you're an entrepreneur. But you can walk into your job today and you can be gone. And what you want to do is make sure that your finances are in order and everything is taken care of.

9:26And you're living at least beneath or below your means. So that way you're not stressed out about this. And she said, I can't even imagine where I would be or my head would be at if we were still living the way that I was living. Because I think she was bringing in, she was the only breadwinner of the house. And she was, I think herself was bringing in about$20 ,000 to$30 ,000 a month. And she got bonuses very often and yearly and quarterly and other commissions. And we were spending every bit of that. She had very lavish vacations and everything going on. But the biggest part is we knew that if all that could go away and her bills and her spending was taken care of because that was definitely below her means.

10:04So I just want to, I think a lot of people want to get their finances in order. They don't know how they're scared. They don't know where to start. But just imagine if something were to happen with you in your job, you want to make sure that you're taken care of and you have a little bit of cushion and you have these savings buckets, God forbid, if you need to use for a different reason. then, but they're there. It's cash. You've become your own bank. You can fund your future. I think that what's the most important part of it is you get it all out on paper and then you know what you cost. I think part of the situation or the problem is we don't know.

10:40If you have a budget set when something like this happens, you know what you can cut. Not that you want to, but you actually know what you can cut. You know what your baseline is. You know what your minimums are for grocery. We have to have groceries. And if you don't have that, then that, like what we always say is life is stressful enough. This is stressful. Your kid getting in a car accident, there's so many things that life is already going to throw at you that is dramatic, stressful. You don't need your money to also be one of those things. So getting it set, getting it like we talked about a client that we had where her husband had cancer, they didn't have to worry about their budget, it was already set up.

11:13And that's what we want for you. We want it to be we want you to know your numbers, we want you to know, like, in worst case scenario, what would what would I be able to do. We want you to have savings so that you feel like you have some overhead there. And then we want you to not stress about your budget because life is stressful enough. Yeah, no, absolutely. And I think if you could just get this in order, it's just one less thing you have to worry about, like Shana said, so you can be present in those moments, whether it's cancer, whether it's a death in the family, whether it's you losing your job and God giving you the ability to be home with your kids.

11:44And I think that's for her. She said, I am home. I'm going to be home with my kids until January. And then my goal is to get a job because she's fine. She can, she financially, she can, and she's so excited about the gift of time. So, okay. We hope you've enjoyed this lesson. We went on and on about lessons from the sessions. We went on and on and we hope that you like it. We, this is what we deal with day in and day out with our coaching clients. So if you are interested in coaching, you should go to budgetbestos.com forward slash coaching, and you can book a free call with Vanessa and she'll a free financial coaching interest call.

12:16And we can see if this is something that you think would make sense for you. We would love to chat. Yeah, we would see if it's a good fit. And I look forward to chatting with you 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. Watch 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.

12:49Imagine 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.