Tired of Playing Catch-Up With Your Money? Simple Budgeting Guardrails That Work | 622

0:00Tell me how well it was going before. When you were just swiping a card, which is probably your bill's a card because it was your main card, she ran the mortgage payment to go through, right? She clicked it to run and then was spending out of there and didn't end up having enough money for the mortgage payment to actually clear the account. But the whole purpose of this is to create friction. It takes 15 seconds to pull up your bank app, look at the amount of money you have in there, and then go spend freely. I would say you sound like my 11-year-old. You gotta. That is the freedom that this gives you by separating your money.

0:33Do 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? If you don't already know how to budget or if you're using credit cards to get through the month. 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.

1:02We'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.

1:32We 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. Shana, you know how we talk about when you make those categories in your spending account, how they're like mini budgets, right? So you have a mini budget for gas and groceries, mini budget for dining out yourself and your kids and all that, right?

2:01Yep. It works really well. It holds you accountable instead of having one account with a black hole of transactions and everything gets lost, right? The other part of that is, now mind you, you've set these guardrails up for yourself, right? You've decided how much you want to spend in those categories. You've set that limit. You're excited about it. We don't want it to be like scarce. Of course, we want it to be an abundance of money, but the right amount of money for you. And it makes you feel good and that your budget allows. I have a client who had these guardrails put in place, right? They had their spending accounts.

2:32They're very excited about them being separate. However, they kept their bills account on them. No. Debit card? Their bills debit card? Their bills debit card on them. Don't do that. For funsies. For in case. It's not actually fun. Just in case. Because they were like, what if? And I'm like, if something happens, worst case scenario, you can transfer money from your bills to your spending account if you need it. Like if you have extra, if you have a buffer there, and if you end up running low on one of those accounts. But the whole purpose of this is to create friction. You want to have an account that has a certain amount of money in it that you're saying that you're only going to spend on gas and groceries or whatever.

3:12We're going to use gas and groceries as an example because this person was saying they go to Costco every once in a while and that's a lot of money coming out of their account and it's easier for them to just use the bills account for that. Sorry. We can have a whole podcast episode I think on Costco. However, you need to put the right amount in that account so that way you don't feel the need to use that bills debit card. What she didn't want to have to do was check the account balance. We tell our clients like, hey, when you go to the grocery store, all I have to do is pull up your bank account and you can see your account balance.

3:49Like yesterday I went to the grocery store. I had$300 in there to spend. I knew I was only going to spend about$100. On candy for kids? I haven't done that yet. Oh. I had to get my list for my kids. I thought it. Sorry. Anyway. I'm spoiling my kids and their friends with candy because they're BOGO. But I got that list late last night. So I'm going shopping today. I'm very excited about that. Got it. But yes. So they didn't want to have to check the account before they spend the money. And my question to you, everyone out there, is, well, how was it working before? Tell me how well it was going before.

4:19When you were just swiping a card, which is probably your bill's a card because it was your main card. You were just swiping it and things were going in. Things were coming out. You don't know what was happening. You don't know how much money you had in there. And we had one lady we'll talk about in an upcoming podcast. She said that she ran the mortgage payment to go through, right? She clicked it to run and then was spending out of there and didn't end up having enough money for the mortgage payment to actually clear the account. So again, that's not working. So we're asking you to, yes, put that money in a separate account.

4:49Check it before you go out the door. It takes 15 seconds to pull up your bank app. Look at the amount of money you have in there and then go spend freely. Okay. And then the alternative there, Vanessa, is how long it's going to take you to fix everything that you mess up because you used the bills account. because the bills account is doing a job. It's holding the exact right amount of money to pay all your bills. And because the five seconds, I would say, that you don't want to take to just see if there's enough money in your groceries or how much money you have so that you can spend the right amount when you go to the grocery store, you're trading that five seconds for an hour or however long it's going to take you to reconcile everything.

5:24And that is what we're trying to help you with. We know that how you feel about constantly have to reconcile, constantly have to can I, will I, should I, do I have enough, whatever. that needs to be a thing of the past. And you have to take a little bit of ownership here and live within that guardrail that you set on purpose so that you don't have to play that scramble. I'll figure it out later. Game. We don't want that for you anymore. And it is a shift. It is a behavior habit shift, but it's really as easy as just taking that, that Bill's debit card out of your wallet, out of your digital wallet.

5:53Done. We're just, we don't spend from that ever again. That's it. Yeah. People laugh at me because I'll, when I'm, we make their grocery budget, But they're like, how do I track my groceries? I mean, you look at the balance in that account. That's all you have to do. And they're like, yeah, but I don't know what I spent it on. And I was like, why does it matter? I said, girl, you want to go to the grocery store and spend your entire grocery budget on carrots? Have a good time. Nobody cares. Twinkies. I feel that for your kids. Chips. Whatever your vice is. It doesn't matter. Go have a good time.

6:20I have never checked to see exactly what I'm spending my money on every time. I just look at my balance and then I go spend. That is the freedom that this gives you by separating your money. And we just, we want you to get there and understand that we are setting that extra layer of friction by checking your account really quick. Like Shana said, probably five seconds. That's all you have to do. And then go have, and then go swipe your card. Yeah. Now the thing is, if you don't have enough money in there to do your groceries, like if that's what is actually stopping you is because I need more money and I never have it.

6:52So I'm going to use my bills. Then you need to adjust the budget. That's actually what needs to happen. So now I need to make sure I'm putting more aside for groceries so that I'm able to only use the grocery account. I never have to pull from anywhere else. That has to happen. And so that comes from both ways. If you need to be a little bit more diligent about how you're shopping, great. And you also need to be updating the budget to be realistic. Both of those need to happen at the same time. That way you don't have to have any of this consternation. You'll always have the money in there when you need it.

7:21And I do think sometimes it might change your rhythms. I've always since I've been an adult gotten a bulk of money for groceries at the first of the month and so that changes how I was able to I had to shop I shop differently because of that and I it took me a long time to figure out how to have money left over at the end of the month to have money for food right but if you're getting your money weekly then it might be harder for you to get some of these bulk things so you're just gonna have to figure out a way to you just have to change the system and figure that out. But you don't use the bills no matter what the answer is not using the bills, right?

7:57Bills account to spend from no matter what, but you just have to figure out what your rhythms are and how to make your budget match. Okay, Shana, let's pretend like we're in a coaching session really quick. And I am client and you are the coach. And I say, I don't want to have to check my bank account balances and my spending accounts before I spend my money. Oh, hopefully we're friends out as like, no, give it to me. Okay. Just, but I'm, I think this is what they need to hear. I think that it's good for them to hear because I could hear some of them saying that. I would say you sound like my 11 year old who doesn't want to have to get out of bed in the morning or whatever it is.

8:30And I would say that and lots of love. And I would try to find a way to be funny about it. I really would. But that's really what that sounds like. It's like, but in a minute, you got it. Okay. We're adulting. We're adulting here. And really, truly, we're trying to make it as simple and easy for you because it's not, we're not saying you have to be a nerd. You have to be like in your finances. You have to be budgeting and accounting and tracking. We don't want any of that for you, but there is a very bare minimum that we need from you that you actually have to do physically with yourself. There's a bare minimum.

8:57And we have done our work to make it as little as possible. We really have. I think that's a good point. So we're not asking you to track every expense. Some budget coaches do. Apps. There's a lot of budgeting apps that make you track all your expenses. We are not asking you to do that. The trade here is just check your account balance in that spending account when you go spend money. And that's all you have to do. So I think it's a pretty good trade. I think so. I think it's winning. And also not - Our process is winning. And not having to figure it out later or stress later. That is what you're trading and it's worth it.

9:28It's time to enter your coaching era because making good money should feel like making good money. Yeah, 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.

10:06If 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. Yep. So speaking of people who are in fifth grade, is that what you are when you're 11? Yeah. And then she'll be, she'll be 12 this year. No, she's in sixth grade, but I have, I actually, we're, I'm bringing this up because I had two different clients that had similar situations where they didn't really understand what, what's going on with their account.

10:41They both have businesses. So what's going on with their accounting and all this kind of stuff. One of them, I said, okay, if you don't understand, then you need to go to your accountant and say, explain it to me like I'm in fifth grade, explain it to me like I'm 10 years old. And that's okay. Because what the problem I noticed with both of these clients, which I think is pretty consistent, I've seen I felt this before, is it's like you're afraid of your accountant, your CPA, you, you think that they're like, so smart, or whatever, that you're dumb, and you don't deserve to ask these questions, or you don't deserve to know, or they brush you off, and they treat you rudely, which is definitely a case a lot of times, but actually they work for you, you're paying them to do something.

11:20And so therefore, it's very valid for you to ask questions, and and ask for explanations of how they're structuring your stuff and all that kind of stuff. And then also, it's valid to fire them. Okay, you're not stuck. There are other accountants, and there are ones that will explain stuff to you that will be kind to you that will treat you with some dignity and respect when you have when you go for these questions. And if you're, like I said, one of them, she just, I feel like didn't have good communication, but the other one, she's afraid, almost afraid of having these conversations. And that's not how, that's actually not correct.

11:55That's not how you should feel. You need a new accountant if that's how you feel. So I just wanted to make sure that you all know, and this is not even if you just have a business, this is your personal CPA. This is your bookkeeper. This is your bank. Like all of this is your financial advisor. Yeah. Your insurance agent. Like if they can't be bothered to explain it to you so you really understand what's happening, then they're not the right person for you. Yeah. And I'm glad you expanded out to say it's more than that one person because it's these people that are in a position that are supposed to know more than you, but maybe explain it in a way that makes you feel smaller than them, right?

12:32And you are hiring them to do a job for you. And so therefore you are in charge, right? So they have paycheck because you give them a paycheck. They're doing a job. And so we want to make sure that we understand what's happening. And also when our clients come to us and we have them ask them questions, we want you to feel empowered. We want you to feel in control. I had a client break up with their financial advisor who was their brother who said terrible nasty things to them and also promised them all this stuff that was going to happen with their money that he never did. And so it's just, it can be really icky.

13:04And you would just want to make sure that you are explained what's happening because you deserve to know because it is your money. Yeah, and then I'll just give you this. And this goes again, like Vanessa, like we said, your financial advisor, your banker, your insurance agent, whatever, all of these people, I would recommend, depending on the cause, I have both of my clients print their budgets, print their both their personal and business budgets out, and a list of questions specifically. And I would recommend that for you as well. whatever it is, come prepared so that way you can't get derailed or not get your question in.

13:37And literally, if you can't write down the answer to your question, then make them explain it again. If you don't understand it, that's okay. They can try again. Okay. And if they don't want to try again, you can get a new person to take your money. Yes. Somebody else will be happy to take your money for sure. If you have questions, guys, like this, and you're not really sure what to do, we have a wonderful community. It's our Budget Besties membership. It's for those who are graduated clients and those who have purchased our Simplified Budget System. That's the only people that can join. We have weekly office hours.

14:06Shane and I are in there monthly for coaching. You should definitely check it out inside your Thrivecart portal or email us if you have any questions. These are the types of things that we answer in there. And you have so much support, so much help. We have event only, or excuse me, we have membership only events that we're going to, we have going on and exclusive offers just for members too. So anyways, come on over and we would be excited to see you in there. If 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.

14:38You'll get a personalized result and 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.