The Budget Besties Method: Step 3 Set Up Your Bills Account—When your bills have their own account, they always get paid | 466

0:00Vanessa:Most people lose control of their money because everything runs through one account. Your bills, your groceries, your Amazon order, it's all tangled together. No wonder you're stressed and second guessing if the bills are covered or you're swiping the card and hoping for the best. That's not a good look, y 'all. No, but it doesn't have to be this way. When your bills have their own account, guys, they always get paid. What? Mind blown, right? So the money will be there in your bills account. It's waiting and you can finally breathe and relax and just go about spending money. That's what we're going to teach you.

0:28And so today we're going to teach you how to create a simple system that takes the guesswork out of bills forever.

0:34Vanessa: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. 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?

1:03Vanessa: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. We want to help you take the guesswork out of your budget, improve your marriages, and even bring your kids in on the conversation.

1:35We 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

1:42Vanessa: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. Okay. All right. So we are on the episode four, but step three of our budget besties method. Yep. This step is to set up your bills account. We're excited for you. This is going to be a big deal. And I know that because I had a client one time that she said, she told me that it was the first time she had ever gone on vacation and did not worry about whether her bills were going to be paid. And it really hit me, and I know Vanessa too, because I've never been there.

2:23Personally, I've never been – I haven't been on that many vacations anyway, let's be honest. But I've never been on a trip or trying to relax or whatever, wondering if my bills have been paid because we've always had this system. But I thought, gosh, praise God that's true, but gosh, I can't imagine people not being able to let go, not being able to just relax on their vacation. And so I was really happy that was true. And it just made this system all the more incredible and awesome for us, I think, to teach people.

2:49Vanessa:Yeah. And I think realizing people are in that spot of the stress and the anxiety and the frustration of not knowing, the unknowing, it really allows you to not be present. And it steals your vacation. It steals your time. It steals your joy. and a lot of people a lot of people are stressed about finances and they don't realize it's about finances but they're taking it out on other aspects of their life and it all really boils down to money okay so one of my clients recently got on a call she is she travels for work and they got a call or an email or a letter in the mail something like that from their county saying that you're about to get in big trouble because your property taxes weren't paid like it was a big deal they live in a very small town and in a town like this if you don't if you do something like that like everybody knows oh that's gross yes and her parents are very like high prominent in the community anyways it was a big deal she was freaking completely out and so she had no idea what to do except she goes oh honey just go on your phone pull up the bills account go bring it to the annex and tell and show them that it was paid and she said that was so freeing and nice to be able to do that she said love her husband but if it had been the old way where all of the transactions were in one account he would have never been able to find it it would have been a hot mess because she couldn't deal with it.

4:03Vanessa:She was like in a meeting. So she couldn't screenshot her or get on there and help him. He had to do it all on his own. And she said that was such a saving grace for them. Yeah. And the point there is the bills account, we're going to teach you what else it does. But one thing it does is it limits the amount of transactions that you're looking through. So you can easily recall or find anything that happened when it's a bill. It's not scrolling through every grocery, every drive-through, every other thing to also find the bills. It's just the bills. That makes your life so much more simple. She said it was like 10 transactions for the month.

4:31Vanessa:And that's all. So they had to look through and it was right there. Yeah. It was right there. And then you could call those people out and tell them what's what. I like that for them. But the lesson here, you guys, is when your bills have their own account, they always get paid. What? Brand new information. They always get paid. And it's so clear and easy to know that they got paid because Vanessa said, typically we have no more than 20 bills a month, give or take. That's how many transactions you have to look through to find how much was a power bill or whatever it is that you need to know. Yeah.

4:58Vanessa:Imagine having a dedicated account just for your bills. That's it. It's the only thing that happens in there. You're not taking that card and swiping from it. It's not attached to any other platform. Like literally that's all it's doing. And think about the freedom that you're going to have knowing you have that taken care of and you can spend freely in a different area of your life, which we're going to get to next week for spending. But this is such a game changer when we transition people to having this bills account. Yeah. And so like Vanessa said, I can be at the grocery store. I can be at the mall buying a dress for my daughter or whatever.

5:28And whatever money I spend there is not going to affect my ability to pay bills. My bills are going to be paid automatically without me having to worry about it. It's just so good. And it's also a way, this is the system where we get people a paycheck ahead. And we teach you how to do that because then not only are you not worried about whether they're getting paid, you're ahead, you always have money, you're just next level. Instead of waiting for the day, the second that something drops to be able to pay a bill, that's going to be in the past. And we're not going to be living paycheck to paycheck.

5:55It's going to be a nice steady non-roller coaster ride.

5:57Vanessa:Yeah, you're no longer waiting to get paid to and assign certain bills to certain paychecks because the money is always coming in. The money is always going out and it's just a free flowing account. So that is the vision. That's what we want for you. 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.

6:32Vanessa: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. Now back to today's show. So as we have mentioned many times before, just so that a bill is anything with a due date.

7:10And with other things that people teach in other budgets, there are fixed income or fixed expenses and variable expenses. There's needs. Soft bills. There's soft bills. We learned that. There's wants. There's all of this different stuff. We know that that can be confusing. What we want you to know, is it a bill? Then it goes in the bills account. And that includes the big ones like the mortgage or the utilities or whatever. And also the small ones like the Spotify and the Netflix. Your gym membership. Yeah. All of those are bills because they have a due date. They're recurring. Like you know that they're coming and that's what's going to stay in your bills account.

7:42Vanessa:We have a lot of people that come to us and say, oh, I have gas and groceries as a bill. And I'm like, that's not a bill. That is discretionary spending that goes in your spending section. It doesn't have a due date. You are constantly buying those things throughout the month. So again, like Shana said, a bill is defined as anything with a due date. 90 % of the time, it's things that are recurring, but not always. You may have a doctor's appointment this month, and they already have your bills account on file, so they're going to charge the card. That is a bill. So we need to put it in your budget.

8:07Yeah, and it will be in your budget, and that's how you'll still have enough money in the bills account because you're going to make sure you leave that amount in your budget, and it's super simple and easy. So the whole point here is you're going to set up or create different account just for paying your bills. It's going to have nothing else going on. Vanessa said you might have a debit card because some of those bills require a debit card, but that's going to stay like in your nightstand drawer or in your safe or somewhere. You're not going to use it for anything else. This bills account will not be used for anything else, but paying your bills, you're going to leave enough money in there to pay your bills, and then you're just going to let it go.

8:39Vanessa:So if you want to dive deeper in what this entire bill system looks like, You can go to budgetbesties.com forward slash build. It gives you a course. There's videos. There's information there to really help you set this up for success. Yeah, because we want you to – this is where we're going to teach you how to get a buffer in there, how to get a paycheck ahead, how to automate the bill and why you should, even though you're scared, to automate the payments to your bills, all of that kind of stuff. So it's its own separate little animal. So you can – like Vanessa said, it's at budgetbesties.com forward slash bills.

9:09Vanessa:It talks about a couple of these steps. So it's not necessarily just step three of our budget besties method. It incorporates the automation part of it, but that's fine. It's really going to get you, like I said, set up. It's going to, again, bring your budget to life. It's going to turn your budget, which is words and numbers on paper, into a full system. Yep. So the whole thing or the end result here is you're always going to know the money is there for your bills. You're going to be, your bills are going to be paid while you're on vacation, while you're off ice skating or whatever it is that you want to do.

9:35Like your bills are being paid. You don't have to worry about it. That's what we want for you. And also, again, one of the things that happens in this system is you go from living paycheck to paycheck to a paycheck ahead.

9:46Vanessa:Yeah, that's going to be really eye-opening for you to know that's possible, right? So again, we want you to imagine having an account that does nothing but pay your bills. If there's one thing you got out of this or this entire series that you listen to for the next eight Mondays is have an account. Like, don't do anything with it, but just pay your bills. So that way they're secured, it's easy, it's organized, and you always know that your mortgage is going to get paid. Because we hear that a lot. We don't, like, some people split, Shaina, they split their payments in half. Because they're not sure.

10:17Vanessa:Because they're not sure. Imagine knowing that you don't have to do that. Yeah. And so this, we hope that you enjoyed this. Remember, this was step three, set up a bills account in our eight-step budget besties method. And we will be back next Monday to talk about how to separate your spending. Don't miss this one. 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 autonomy. 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.

10:57Imagine 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.