The #1 Retirement Tool You’re Overlooking (and How to Use It Now)

0:00When I say the word budget, what comes up for you? For most clients I work with, it's words like restrictive, hard, complicated. But here's the truth. A budget isn't about restriction. It's about direction. And when you understand how to make a budget work for you, it becomes one of the most powerful tools in creating the retirement you want. Welcome to the Wealthy After 40 podcast, the show for Gen X women and couples who are ready to ditch financial stress and feel confident about retirement. I'm your host, Daylene Higgins, financial and retirement coach, helping Gen Xers master their money and create a personalized retirement plan so they can stop spinning their wheels and step boldly into their dream retirement.

0:48If you're feeling behind, don't worry. Continue listening to this podcast, as well as be sure to grab your free guide, 5 Must Do Steps to Start Retirement Planning Now at elevatefinances.us backslash must do. And remember, let's make retirement possible together.

1:11Welcome to the episode. I am so excited to talk with you about budgeting today. It's not a subject that most people enjoy talking about, but I believe it is very powerful. So a budget is the bridge between where your money is now and the retirement you want later. When you create a budget that works for you, not against you, it will become your most powerful retirement tool. This is why when I first work with clients, I help them create a budget for what is happening now? What are you spending on? Not what you want to happen in a perfect world. I think that is where a lot of people heading into making a budget, they're like, well, I need to do this and I need to do this and I need to do that.

2:04And if you create a budget that has those elements in it, your perfect world, and it's not for what is happening now, you are going to feel restricted. You're going to not be successful. The key is to create a budget for now. What are you doing? And then if there are, you know, those things that you need to add in, you know, change, include, we work towards that. That is how you get a budget to be powerful and guiding and giving you direction. because, you know, if you're going to learn how to like, let's say jump rope, speed jump rope, you're not going to just go, okay, well, I need to be able to do, I don't even know how fast those girls do it.

2:52I just saw it the other day and I thought, holy cow, but you know, okay, you're going to start out with what you can do. Let's measure that. What can you do? Well, I can do 10 jumps in a minute. I don't know, but you get your baseline and that's what you do with a budget. You get your baseline with your money in a budget right now. Right now. This is what's happening. This is what you say is going on. This is what we're going to work for if you want to add, you know, X, Y, and Z. Let's dial back. What is a budget? And what is the goal for you using a budget? Well, we've kind of talked about it a little bit, but it's really about clarity and intention.

3:36Clarity with where is your money going now? And then because you want to add X, Y, and Z, you bring in that intention. I intend to do these things, so I've got to be clear about what I'm already doing. It's not about depriving to get there. A lot of people are stuck in that, well, but then I won't feel like I can do this for me. Okay, well, we've got to really build this with some intention. And intention comes with goals and clarity and what you want to do, where you want to go. And the better you can see where your money is going, and then align it with what you want most, that is the goal for using a budget.

4:25Okay, and I don't know that a lot of people are quite doing that with their budget yet. They don't have a goal. They don't have a, I want this or I want that. Next episode, I'm going to share how I did that in my personal budgeting journey. But for you, really, you need to dial into what do I want from my money? And I think most individuals here have found me because they're looking towards retirement. Now, there might be a couple of things before that. That's great. But really, what is the goal? What is the goal? And that is what you want to start seeing happen with a budget. A budget isn't punishment.

5:07It's empowerment. It's empowering you and, you know, giving you ways to direct your money to that goal. Why is a budget important? A budget helps us know where our money is going, that all of our money is being seen, and that it just isn't disappearing. I even hear people say, well, okay, I've got enough money for my bills, and then I have another account for my spending. I do have just a little bit of extra in my bills though, just in case. Honestly, any money marked just in case is going to disappear. And you're not going to know what that just in case was. It's gone. It's gone. Really, a budget tells you what you want your money to be doing.

6:05And then the tracking system against that budget, Those are two parts of the money management system I help clients build really tells you where your money is going and how it looks and so that we don't just have it disappear. We have, you know, those guide rails, you know, all of those things on there so we know where it's going. And you'll never feel secure about reaching retirement if you don't know where your money is going. Budgets really help to build confidence, you know, confidence in where my money is going, confidence in that I can achieve what I really want to achieve, and brings about the consistency of doing those things.

6:48The money journey is for the long haul. Just like your health and wellness journey, it's going to take a while. You worked out today, you're not losing a pound today. Just because you were good with spending money today doesn't mean you're going to save$20. dollars, right? There's this instant gratification world that we are living in and health and wealth are not part of it. And we've got to, you know, really with our mindsets, think of that and understand that the budget is going to give us those gratification pieces at a different stage. The budget is going to help us guide to success, direct us to success, direct us to retirement, direct us to traveling six months out of the year, whatever it is.

7:40But the budget is your most powerful tool and your most powerful tool to reach retirement. So regardless, the end result of retirement, it's all about budgeting. I'm Sherry O, host of the Mature Allure podcast, where we talk about beauty, wellness, confidence, money, and all the things that matter most to women 40 and beyond. Join me and my guests each week for honest conversations that inspire, uplift, and keep you laughing. Tap into Mature Allure today.

8:26I want to share a couple of client wins and what budgeting did for them. Budgeting helped two different clients of mine be able to better communicate with their spouse and children instead of just spending money because the kids wanted it or the spouse wanted it because they now had a better understanding of where their money was. One was empowered to say, we can buy that, but you're going to have to wait two weeks. We can do that if you swap out this. You have concrete information to be able to have better communications with your spouse and less stress because they want you to spend. And so you do spend because there's nothing concrete.

9:16Budgeting helped one of my client couples save$11 ,000 in 90 days. This helped relieve their stress of having enough money set aside for big bills, emergencies, and home projects. She emailed me the other day and said that they have filled pretty much all of their buckets with more than enough money and really looking forward to retirement. Budgeting helped another client. She was able to pay$2 ,500 toward her debt as well as save$5 ,000 during that 90-day period. $7 ,500 with budgeting efforts, putting in a system to be able to pay off debt and continue to save, which I know a lot of you are wondering how to balance that.

10:12You might be like my other client who wasn't making a lot of money, but she was being careful and intentional with her purchases. Now, she was in a pivot of careers. That's why the money was smaller, was less, and why she was a little bit worried. But budgeting helped her save$400 a month, which gave her nearly$5 ,000 a year to support her security and her future goals. If you would love a similar outcome of any of those clients of mine, book a Clarity Connection call at elevatefinances.us backslash connection. And let's discuss where you're at and where you want to go. Let's get some clarity about how budgeting can bridge this gap for you.

11:04And maybe why you budgeting, you know, you felt like budgeting wasn't working for you or isn't working for you. I'd love to help you gain clarity around that. Be sure to book your call. You can also find the link down in the show notes. So I'm not going to specifically walk you through how to create a budget. I've already done that in a couple episodes, episodes 124 and 133. I'll be sure to link those down in the show notes. Write them down, go look them up. Go listen to those episodes more about budgeting and how to budget for retirement. It'll support you. But I want to cover four tips, four ideas of how budgets can be your powerful tool in reaching retirement.

11:54Number one, budgets help us gain awareness of what's going on with our money. We make the list. If you remember me talking about my client who I asked her to do that first exercise I ask all clients to do in making a bills list. And she came back and said, I did away with four things. That was awareness. That was her just reviewing that, bringing that awareness about, and then making a decision, tracking what's really happening. Number two, you need to shift your perspective about budgeting. I know it's not going to be easy, but it is not a restriction tool. It is a choice tool. Having the budget, which I will share more in the next episode, but having a budget gives you the framework to be able to make decisions, financial decisions, when something unexpected happens, when a new desire pops up.

12:56We have that happen in life. It's where, you know, especially if you're with a spouse or if you're trying to figure out life, your budget will guide you through all of those things. How can we make this happen? What's going to have to adjust, to change, to shift? Your budget will tell you. Your budget will tell you. Number three, you've got to have a reframe that a budget gives you permission to spend on what you love without guilt. Now, I've shared it before. I always believe there's an element of fun in your budget. It's relative to how much you make. You've got to allow that that fun line, that allowance line, that gives you permission to spend on what you love, but also the other things.

13:45What do you love about, you know, living for the now and how is that working? But it's also got to support moving ahead and reaching retirement. Really look for that permission, build that permission into your budget. You get to create your budget, build that permission into your budget. And the last one is a reminder, you don't need a perfect method. You don't need to go searching for that perfect method. You need a budget method that you will actually use. One that makes it easy for you, makes you feel good, makes it workable. You understand. I've had clients come to me before and they say, man, I'm tracking, but I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing with it.

14:39And those are the things where you're like, I would like to, but I don't know what else I'm supposed to do or how I'm supposed to do. And I do find that with budgeting. Individuals will create a budget and they'll be like, now what? Well, budget is a tool and it's one part of the money management system I help clients put together. We then have a tracking system that goes along with that budget to help us refine and realign and do all of those things. So I hope this has helped you recognize the power in budgets. There is, I, you know, and I'm going to share more in the next episode. Budget, budgeting is what got me to where I am today.

15:22Budgeting is what helps me find peace and success in the things that I want to do and that are happening. It's got to be for both, because there's things that happen in life we have no control over, but we still have control over our budget. I want you to, if that's the only thing you take away from this episode is that you have control over your budget. And I want you to lean into that and create one that is really going to, you know, have the power to get you to where you want to go. Again, if you're struggling with budgeting, you have questions, jump on a Clarity Connection call. Again, links down in the show notes, but I also have a new way.

16:04If you have a question, a thought, or maybe something in here was not clear, if you go to the show notes, and I don't have a link I can share like I do everything else, a little bit limited, but it's called Speak Pipe. So down in the show notes, click that. You can leave me an audio message. If you include your email, I can respond back to you, answering that question, giving you some more clarification. And any questions that are left in that SpeakPipe, maybe you want me to create an episode around a certain question you have, share that information there, I will create an episode around that.

16:44But I will also respond directly to you as long as you include your email. Head over to SpeakPipe as well. It's down in the show notes. To recap this episode. Reframe your ideas and thoughts about budgeting. It's time to see budgeting as a power tool and not a restrictive tool. Quick analogy, you have 10 screws that you need to put into a piece of wood. Are you going to choose a hand tool, your hand screwdriver, or your drill with a screw bit? Yes, you're going to choose the power tool every time. So please, please, please choose a budget as your power tool to get you there quicker. I promise it will make it quicker.

17:29The budget is about giving your money direction to what you truly desire. And for most of you, that is retirement. And a little PS in here, you will still need to know how to budget in retirement. So why not figure it out now and know that whatever happens in retirement, you're better off because you know how to budget. We'll see you next episode.

17:54Thank 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 GenXers. 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.