Fix Your Budget Tracking Now — Before Retirement Sneaks Up On You

0:06Welcome to the Wealthy After 40 podcast is a show for Gen X women and couples who are ready to ditch financial stress and feel confident about retirement. I'm your host, Dailene Higgins, money coach and retirement strategist to help you gain clarity and confidence with your money by creating a spending plan that aligns with your financial goals and dreams so you can spend intentionally, save consistently, and feel at peace about your future. Join me every week to understand your money, simplify your decisions, and take intentional steps toward the life you want.

0:51You're taking that next step to track where your money is going so you can be better about managing it. But you struggle with being consistent. You know this is something that you should do, but you haven't found a system that makes it easy and concise. I'm going to share three reasons why your tracking may not be working and three ways to solve those problems to help you get on that consistent tracking track. Too many tracks. So the problem, you've made a budget and you feel really good about it and you know that was the first step. And the next step is to actually track against the budget. As you enter into this next phase and this next step that you know you're supposed to do, you find that you're not consistent.

1:42And what that means is maybe life gets busy or it's not matching up. It's taking away from this consistency of, I'm just not sure how this is supposed to work. Or I just don't have the time to list all of these expenses against every category I have in my budget. Overall, you're not achieving that next step that you know you need to do. Being able to track your spending against a budget. It just, life is busy. The way you're doing it is taking up so much time. And you think, how can I get good with my money if I don't have the time? There's a lot of things we do. There's a lot of things that are taking up our time.

2:34And so obviously we take them in priorities and sometimes actually creating this tracking system takes up too much time. I was working through a similar scenario with a client inside my retirement ready coaching. She was struggling to find the time to update her system. I call it a system. It's the tracking. But after a bit of coaching, I helped her find that to add it to a task she was already doing every day. This was already a very important task. She was doing it faithfully every day. And we decided she would just tack this on the end of it. And that would get her the consistency. Yes, I know this is a James Clear thing, and that's not why we chose it, but just to create that environment for her so that she was able to take five, 10 minutes a day, not very much is what my system takes, and she was able to make this work for her.

3:34So if you're looking for a system that, like my other clients said, won't suck the life out of you, I would love for you to book a money clarity call, us backslash call. And we'll talk about where your money is going and how you can track it better. All right, so why is your tracking method not working? Here's three ideas for you to start thinking about why you're struggling. The first one, you may be expecting perfection. you might be saying as I am tracking I need to track every little thing in these 20 categories that I have listed and it's not working I don't have enough money it's not lining up right it becomes this whole piece of I'm not doing what I should we can't expect perfection a budget is only an estimate of what we think is going to happen and the best story for me to share with you which is different but I think it describes the way things are so much so much better than me just telling you your budget is an estimate because you are closer to your money you're closer to the time and the expenses but for the last 15 years I helped law enforcement officers budget taxpayer dollars.

5:01Now, as we began the process, we did it about, at one point, we were doing it six months before the budget went into effect. So as we're estimating for six months to 18 months ahead, we knew it was not going to be perfect. We knew it wasn't going to be accurate. As focuses change, as things placing demand on certain areas, we just had to realize that we got to create what is happening for today. And then as things change in the next year, we can shift how that is working. Right? So that shows that there was no restriction on our part. And the same as you. You're not projecting for six months ahead, but you are projecting.

5:53You're projecting that every month is going to be the same. And that can't be true. Okay, so you're estimating, you're hoping, but life happens. So don't expect perfection. All right. Reason number two, it might not be working is because your budget doesn't match reality. What I mean by this is you could have used a 50-30-20 or another template and fit your spending into that. This is what I would love to happen. But then as you track, it's not really what's happening. You've already created a spending lifestyle. And so the budget doesn't match who you are with money and how you spend your money.

6:38So tracking is never going to work. Number three, this is a big one. Your tracking system requires too much of your time. And because of that, when you don't have the time to give it, you fall behind, which sometimes you might be able to catch up. But then you always feel like you're in catch up. And then you are like, I don't know why I am doing this. And I don't know what this purpose is. If I'm two weeks behind, and now I'm catching up. Great, I'm tracking, but what does that mean? Kind of a little ding-dong in there. So what should you do instead? When starting any tracking system, so your first attempt at tracking against a budget, and I have my clients do this after I've worked with them, I want you to track for 30 days for accuracy.

7:34Okay, this is not for you to stay on budget. This is not for you to stay within the amounts you put in there. It's only to track to see if what we have in the budget is correct. It takes the pressure off at the very first, and then you're able to create a budget that is actually who you are. That is so important. You already have that spending lifestyle, like I said. So track to find it. And there is a very good place to start. All right, another thing you could do if you find that you're maybe tracking to the penny, to the 20th category, give yourself larger categories. For example, you could combine eating out and groceries.

8:26They're kind of the same thing. So if you combine them, you have a lot more freedom. You're not stuck with only$50 in eating out and$200 in groceries when you don't have time to cook and you'd rather eat out. Give yourself the freedom to spend within a broader category. That takes away the restriction that you might be filling as you head into this budget and tracking piece. And the last one, simplify your tracking. We live in a digital day and age. We should take advantage of that. We should take advantage and not create a history of what we did two weeks ago to try and help us understand how we can be better with our money.

9:16We need to be creating that budget that helps us already achieve our goals, right? That's a piece of my money system. And then we track to make sure that our spending is not going up over how much we have allowed. And in the system, inside my retirement ready coaching, spending is one big bucket. It's not groceries and eating out together. It's not fuel and vehicle together. It is one big spending pot. You look at your bank account, you know how much you can spend before payday, knowing that you're still making progress to your goals and you know that all your bills are getting paid. I worked with a client who came to me and saying, I want to be able to spend when I can spend, right?

10:09When I need to spend. She wouldn't just go spend those spending sprees. That's not what it was. But she had three boys. They were in athletics. She liked to be able to provide them their snacks and rehydration type things. And she said, I just need to be able to provide for them the way that I need to and still be able to reach my goals. So I helped her set up the system that I work with clients. It is personalized for needs, but overall it is the same system. And I was able to help her find that freedom in her spending, find that she was able to spend on her children the way she wanted to and needed to, that she was able to save and not dive into her savings every other week.

11:00that she was able to begin to start enjoying her money. And this is her testimonial that she left with me. She said, Dailene has helped me to view our finances in a totally different way that supports having a quote budget and stewarding our money better without so much loose spending while not actually having to have a strict budget and track all expenses. That was key for her, to be able to still spend freely, but not take away from what she was trying to achieve, right? That quote loose spending, as she called it, was able to rein in because then she was able to see it more holistically in those broader categories in how she could actually provide the things for not only her three boys, but for her husband and their weekend getaways.

12:03Those were important to her, and she didn't want one taking away from another. So as we end this episode, I want you to recognize that your tracking system problem isn't you. And I want you to find one solution in those that we talked about today to start resolving what trouble, what problem, what challenge you have with your tracking and see if you can't move forward, move ahead. I think there's so many reasons why people think budgets are restrictive is because they create them in such a way that they are, but they don't need to be. So if you're ready for a system that not only helps you track with less time, but that adds freedom to your spending and helps you reach your goals.

12:52Book a money clarity call at elevatefinances.us backslash call. Link is also down in the show notes. And we'll discuss where your money is going and how you can track it better. I would love to help you free up some time, but also free up some energy and enjoyment with your money and not stress about every expenditure that you make. That's the shift I have loved watching my clients go through. Instead of chomping at every expense and wondering if it's the right one, a good one, and should I do this, to I know it is because this is where my money is. And I have this money that provides that for me.

13:34Thank you for listening, and we'll see you next week.

13:41Thank you for spending this time with me. If you're not already following the show, be sure to hit subscribe so you don't miss what's coming next. And I'd love to stay connected with you between episodes. So come join me inside my Facebook community, Retirement Ready Hub for Gen Xers. It's where we're having real conversations about money, sharing wins, working through challenges, and building a clear path toward retirement. And remember, retirement isn't just a dream. It's a plan and you get to make it possible. you