Real Financial Coaching Lessons: Stewarding Scholarships, Simplifying Business Tools & Sticking to Your Budget | 464

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. I have a lovely new client. She has six kids. We have just so many kids. I know. And she's just so precious. And one of them is in college.

1:42And she said that they got a scholarship and she was so proud of him. He worked really hard to get a scholarship. But now that he's in college, is kind of being a little lazy and carefree and whatever. And she said he got really close to losing his scholarship last semester. And she had a come to Jesus meeting with him. And she basically said, I just feel like we need to be good stewards of your scholarship. If somebody gifted you this money, we have a responsibility to do good. And I thought, that is awesome. I think that's such a great lesson. And we have a lot of clients, a lot of listeners that have kids going through, they're going through high school, getting scholarships, and then there are in college using their scholarships.

2:24And I think that the idea here is if somebody is giving you money, you do have a responsibility to be a good steward of it. And she told him, if you lose your scholarship, I'm not paying for your college. And she said he was a little stunned by that. He wasn't expecting that response from his mom because, no offense, she's been his fail-safe. And so she said he tightened up. She said he tightened up and he's been doing well and making, getting his grades in. And, but she said he needed that little wake up call to say, you were given this money. You have a responsibility and you're going to uphold that.

2:59That applies to all of us, doesn't it? It's like a smaller, a young adult size version lesson to all of us that we have been given this money. We have been given these jobs, these opportunities God is providing for us. it is our job to be a good steward of it and we know that's how you feel anyway because we hear from you we talk to you and you want to do that and when your budget's a mess when you don't know what's going on when you're spending without was just trying not to look at it that's not being a good steward and just like with this student he can lose it all he could if he doesn't be a good steward of his scholarship he doesn't do get to their grades do whatever it is that they expect of him then he will lose it and then we'll be back to square one your money you will see it go bye by if you're not a good steward.

3:43It's lost. And then you don't know you're back to square one every month. It's like a race to the bottom. And we don't want that for you. We want you to be a good steward. And obviously getting on a budget is a good way to do that. I think it just brings it back to don't take anything for granted because you don't know when it could be gone. And if you do have something like Shana said, you should want to do use it for good and you want to not lose it. And you want to make sure you're using to the best of your ability, whether that is a scholarship, whether that is your job, whether that is grant money or whatever you've been given.

4:11Yeah. And like with this kid, just like with you, he probably worked really hard to get it. Like whatever he did to qualify for it and then apply for it, he worked hard. And you want to honor that for yourself as well. And you work hard for your money. So you want to be able to have something to show for it and be able to get your goals. I have a lesson from a client that like nothing to do with any of that, but this is something that we've talked about before, but my client got paid a little bit more than she thought she was going to get. And she was really excited. And so she just went ahead and moved money over to savings.

4:42And she said, just in case. And then we went, we went into the budget and this was a client. If you guys have been giving up, maybe you haven't, but she was a teacher and this is over the summer and she didn't have a paycheck and we were already in the negative. We were really hoping that things would come through that would help her. And so she put money in savings just in case. And this is a moment where it's like, that's not a plan, right? Right. That's, there's no just in case savings. There's no, let me move some of this money because this is just how you can continue to like, just be messy.

5:16Like we're not doing this, like we're only doing what the budget says. And what the budget said is she needed all of that money to pay for everything for the month. There's no moving it to savings just because I want to say I save money. And we hear, we see that all the time. Like people are, I put, I automatically put$300 for my check each month into savings. You're like, yeah, but how fast did you pull it out. Oh, in a week. Yeah. Is it there by the end of the month? It's not. So just skip that step and just stick to your budget. If there is savings that the budget will tell you that, and it will tell you an amount and it will tell you what you're saving it for.

5:47All very specific, all on purpose. So she ended up pulling it, I'm assuming. She needed it throughout the month to be able to cover stuff. No, like her budget said right there, you need to put it, it needed to stay in the bills. So she put the money aside before y 'all met, just in case. And when you met, you were like, that's not what's actually going to happen. Yeah, we understand that your intentions, you know, what your intentions are, and we want that for you. But unfortunately, if the budget doesn't match that right now, this season of your life, you just can't put the money in savings. But there will be a time when you can.

6:17It's just not today. Yeah, and it will be on purpose because the budget tells you to do it. 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. 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 built account, separate spending, build savings buckets, and end the paycheck to paycheck feel.

6:58If 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. So I have a lovely client who is also a business owner. And I think a lot of our listeners, we have a lot of clients that come to us as business owners. So we assume, and we know that most of our listeners are as well. So she is a business owner and she has a lot of business bills because other people have them.

7:35Oh, yeah. I'm a business owner. So everyone uses this program. So I obviously need this program and it's supposed to help me. But however, it's so complicated to use. I don't understand it. And I have to use a professional to help me because I don't, I can't physically use it. And I don't even know all the features that I'm paying for. It's like this whole line. and this the specific one i'm talking about is quickbooks i don't know if i can say that but it's not i'm not trashing it i'm just saying that this is the program that she's using but it was too complicated for her her business was so simple she didn't need to have quickbooks and she only got it and it was the price the whatever plan she was on was a lot of money a month that she was paying and wasn't even using half of the stuff that it offered because she didn't know what it offered and she didn't understand it because it was almost to her like coding.

8:24So for me, yeah. So for me, this lesson for you guys is just because somebody else is doing it, and this goes for personal and business, just because somebody else has it, just because it's quote unquote, what you should have or what you're supposed to have or what somebody else tells you you need to have, or it's this industry standard. It doesn't matter if you are not using it, get it out of your budget. We never want to use a budget to restrict you from something. But one of the questions we ask you when we're doing your budget is, are you using this thing that you're paying for? And if the answer is no, then it's got to go.

8:58And you can find another program or a system that works that you like, that's easy to understand, that's simple, that may not as complicated, and you don't need a professional to help you, right? Then it just makes more sense. And it also increases the wiggle room that you have in your budget. Yeah. This makes me think that what you need to do is grow your business. We always say the speed of cash, but grow at the speed of your business. It's like the analogy of, I graduated from college, I'm going to get a house just like my parents, just like the way I was used to living. And the size of my parents.

9:30It's going to take you a minute to get to that point. If you have a small, simple little business, please be happy in the moment and just keep it small and simple if you can do the books by yourself. So that's the first thing. And then if you grow into hiring someone to do your books for you because it gets to the point where that needs to happen? Sure. I also think, Vanessa, we've, other than, I'm going to say it, other than Google Analytics, we have always understood, learned what the part of the business is before we outsource it. And so I think when it comes to your business and your finances, you can use our system and have a really good idea of what's actually happening with your finances.

10:07That's the first step. That's what you need to know as a business owner. It doesn't have to be super complicated. You just need to know what's going on. There are some back-end things that you need to make sure for tax purposes that you have marked this and that and the other so that when you hand it over to your CPA, it's actually going to make sense and he's going to be able to use it or she's going to be able to use it. But you don't have to get so complicated and you probably should understand it and know your numbers before you outsource it anyway. I also think that if you hire a professional to do something like accounting and they say, oh, I require you to have QuickBooks or a program that you don't want, you don't understand and you don't like, I think that's a red flag.

10:41sure i agree i think that like we don't use that program and we're a multi-six-figure company i don't want anything to do with that company not in an ugly way but i couldn't understand it when i did we did buy it and i couldn't figure it out because it was like you had to hire a professional and so the one that we use is very easy very just organized and simple and that's what i wanted in my life for me so that way when i did finally hand it off to somebody then it was easy for me to explain and train her. Yeah. And Vanessa always says like with a bank where you're not like you're hiring them to do a job.

11:12It's the same with these services. Like for our web designer, we're not going to hire somebody who doesn't do WordPress because we can't do our part that we need to do here and there little bits. If it's some new program that we have to learn, we don't want to do that. So they need to be able to do it. So they need to do the job that you need them to do, not the job that they want to do, and then make you have to do more work, even though you're trying to outsource it. So those are just the lessons that we have this week. We want to share That way, maybe it hits home for you. Maybe it's something that helps you as you're doing this journey, going along budgeting with us.

11:40It's like free coaching. Because these are actual situations that we're dealing with our clients and we're sharing them with you, hoping that it'll help. 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. Imagine less stress, more savings, and the freedom to spend money without having to track every dollar or babysit your bank account.

12:15Go to budgetbesties.com forward slash automate to start today.