Today we're excited to come and answer your questions directly that you send in. These are questions that you guys either send in through our Facebook group or through email and we just want to take a minute to dive in and answer them so you get direct coaching from us. 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? When you don't want to give up this pumpkin spice latte? 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? You're in for the right place. We're Shayna and Vanessa. We're best friends, business partners and master financial coaches trained by Dave Francie. 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 a conversation. We can help you no matter where you're at whether you're the single mom who's never had $500 in their savings account or the millionaire who's paid off for real estate money. 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. Alright so Shayna one of the questions that we were asked was what is the biggest money mistake that we're seeing right now? I bet people would think it's something like oh you're not investing in the right fund or you're not using the right credit card to get your travel points or whatever but I think because we see budgets every day. I think what I'm seeing is people completely avoiding looking at their numbers. You can be investing, you can do all of that stuff but if you don't actually know your numbers because you're avoiding them that is the biggest mistake and it's such a mistake because when we look at them and I say it's not that bad and you have an instant solution there. You have instant data that you can take action, you can find some solutions, you can start to correct some things but if you refuse to look at them obviously that can't happen and that's what I see. Once we put the numbers on it's like oh and it's why? I can actually go out to eat. Yeah like why are you avoiding it? I understand but like that stop avoiding it. So I had a new, not a new client, a client that returned back after I think I had, she graduated about a year ago and she's completely changing jobs. There's a huge career shift and she said hey I just need to come back for a little bit and I need to look at the numbers because I had set her up on automatic, like she had a business so her business was automatic or all of her payments and her transfers and so was her personal and she loved it so much and now that everything's changing she needed to adjust and she said, I said when was the last time you pulled this up? And she said I haven't and I said oh great but I think to our point, to her point was she didn't have to because everything was automatic, it was done for her but and she said in the call I have been avoiding looking at them. I don't, I didn't want to look at it because I thought I was going to be way worse than what you just put on and she said thank you so much for laying it out for me and making a plan because now I know what's going on and we changed her transfers in the call, we did all that and she was so excited but like you said they don't want to look at it because they're scared to death but once we make it, once you make the plan and you look at it, it looks fine. Yeah so I guess the solution there or your call to action then is to look at it, get our one page budget template, get our budget system better off because then it'll do the math for you and everything and just look at it, it's not as bad as you think and it's definitely making it worse not looking at it for sure. This is your money, this is your life, take control, take some ownership and let's look at the numbers. Yeah that's just keeping you up at night, the unknown right, it's that worry, that fear but once you put everything on paper and again if you're a digital person do it digitally, if you're a paper and pencil person do it that way, it doesn't matter but our budget template like Shayna said it's budgetbestsees.com forward slash budget template. So if you use that and put it all in one sheet, can't be that scary like we said because it's five simple columns all together and you can see it and we guarantee that it will not be as bad so you gotta try it. Yeah you have to try it. Okay but as I have a question for you, why do I keep using credit cards for groceries and gas even though I hate myself when I do it or I hate doing that? I think this kind of goes along with the question that we just had too, it's because you don't know what's going on. Normally people have one account, a black hole of transactions right, so you have your mortgage coming out, you got medical bills coming out, you got your kids' soccer fees, you have your Starbucks, you have your pedicures, you have all this stuff coming out of one account and you're sitting there in the line at the grocery stand going what is still pending, what do I still have to pay, what hasn't come out. I had a lady on a call yesterday, she's a brand new client, she's showing me her planner that she has everything when everything is due because she's still paycheck to paycheck like thinking in her mind, she doesn't have to be but in her mind she's thinking she is. So she's, if I have five dollars at the end of this time that I know I can spend it, it's just a mess. So really they're putting it on a credit card because of the unknown of this black hole of transactions in one account, they don't know how much they have to spend. Yeah and I think that it's, there's this concept out there that groceries, like you have no idea because every week is different or this or whatever but actually it's not, it's actually ends up being consistent and you can choose for it to be consistent too. As soon as you set a number for how much you're going to do groceries a month and then you can divide that by weeks or bi-weekly whichever way your budget you want your budget to go, you make it consistent and you make it work. We don't want you to do it unrealistic but let's say you say 250 dollars a week or something. Then you have to stick to that and you just, it's, that's all you have to think about is I'm not going to spend more than 250, there's 250 in there that's what I'm going to spend and maybe at the end of the week you have clean out the pantry or whatever, we do something but that, it like, it's like a forcing function, forking, forcing mechanism to make you stick to your own budget but you can have a regular budget. It's not like the groceries and gas just have to be this like I don't know what's going to happen this month, this is going to be weird, it doesn't, it can be very consistent. I think that's a good point because last week in our grocery budget and we have a pretty decent grocery budget because we have two teenagers in the house, they're hungry all time, they're playing sports and everyone's always eating. We have a decent amount of money that we spend and we do our transfers weekly because my husband gets paid weekly. Last week, so actually this week on everything replenishes for us on Thursday. So Wednesday we had $33 in our grocery fund and my husband said we need a couple things. I was like okay I'll go to the store because I love him so much but I know he won't work. He like wants to get extra things so I wrote down exactly what we needed and knew that I wasn't going to go over $33 and so this is the point like even us, we are following what we are preaching to you guys. The idea is to pick a certain amount of money that you know that is going to work for you and I, the amount of money that we have in our grocery budget is fine okay. We know that it's enough. I don't need more just because I was like oh my gosh just because I knew I had only had $33 to spend at the grocery store and when I went guys, me and Bo goes, I saw so many things that I wanted. You like television, television, television, I'm only picking up these four things right because I knew tomorrow when everything replenished then I could go grocery shopping and get everything I wanted then but it holds me accountable, holds my husband, my family, it holds us accountable to saying this is what we want, this is what our goals are, this is what we said we wanted and we're going to stick to it. Yeah and so to the, it sounds like we should do a whole episode on this that's what I'm thinking because we have a lot, we have a lot that we can offer with that but you're using credit cards like Vanessa said because you don't know how much you have so the solution here quickly is to open up a gas and groceries account set aside a certain amount each paycheck or each, each pay period and move it over there and start living there and knowing how much you have for gas and groceries. It's that simple okay so do that and then then we can work on the next problem that you have. All right budget besties it's time for surreal 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 bills account, separate spending, bill 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 budgetbestsees.com forward slash budget and grab yours. Now back to today's show. Okay Shashina another one that we get asked is why do I feel so guilty using an emergency fund for an actual emergency? Oh I know exactly how this feels. It's because we've had clients go through this a lot and it's I set this money aside for an emergency and now I don't want to pull it out to use it for said emergency and I think it's because this is your little nest egg this is what you feel really comfortable and secure seeing it built up and seeing it there so we're just going to have to let you know that it's okay to use it for an emergency that's exactly what it's for and then what we do with our clients is we put it in the budget to pay it back after after you use it. It's there for an emergency it's there for last minute when you when it's something you haven't been able to budget for on purpose and then all you can do the next month is just pay it back so you don't it's not like it's never going to come back again and the other part to this is if you have savings buckets the way we teed then you won't feel guilty at all because you have so many different things saved up that you're going to be like I'm basically amazing and I don't feel bad about it. And I think this is the savings bucket thing is the key here because the question is an actual emergency. We would define an actual emergency different than maybe some other people would define what an emergency is and so what we're saying is this is a true emergency something that was unplanned something that you need like if your refrigerator breaks that is an emergency if your dishwasher breaks that is different that's optional that is a it's something that you want to use but not necessarily that you have to use but like Shayna said your savings buckets for medical co-pays for your child's socrapies for Christmas vet bills things like that if you are saving for those are non-emergencies those are unexpected expenses that pop up throughout the year but we want to have those separate those are completely separate than your emergency yeah and so if you have those then you will feel good because a lot of those things that pop up are already covered and then you can use your emergency funds to to cover actual emergencies and then you can pay it back yeah you don't have to feel bad about it you you did this for a reason you saved it up for a reason good job on you and now you will be able to pay it back it's not a one and done only everything so the solution here is that your emergency funds separate from your savings buckets figure out how much you actually cost in a year and what you need to plan for the unexpected expenses and so that way when you do need to use it for an emergency you feel good knowing that it's a real emergency and then you'll just pay it back in the upcoming months when you need to put the money back for that yep okay so last question for today so why is it so hard to stick to a plan when life is non-stop so I feel like this is a twofold question here because there is probably a couple answers I was gonna ask you did you feel personally attacked about the life and being non-stop okay sorry that's why I think this question I was like and this is relatable but okay so there's two things here one of the things I feel like is the problem is because you don't have a plan so if you think you have a plan and things are non-stop it's usually because you don't you haven't actually looked at the plan if you said it like three years ago and you're wondering why it's not working it's probably because it's not relevant to what's happening right now the other part of that I believe is because you're maybe trying to do things manual and you're trying to do transfers you're trying to pay bills you're trying to set yourself up for success this way when really if you set everything up automatic which is what we love then your life can go about knowing that everything is happening for you because you took the time to set it up in the beginning yeah life is life being life and life and life will be life and life being non-stop does not allow you to do anything else that's the problem that's why you can't stick to anything because your plan has you having to go in and do something manual your plan has you having to track this and that the other your plan has you having to go through and do math in the moment instead of being able to just know that you have money to spend that's not that's nobody has time for that nobody in this room nobody listen nobody has time for any of that what we want you to do is be able to make these micro decisions that's what our system really does for you is hey I'm at the grocery store okay I have 33 dollars because I get more money tomorrow or whatever or hey I'm at the grocery store every Sunday I know I have 250 dollars in there because it just got funded or whatever and that's when I do my shopping like those are the micro decisions okay I'm window shopping I'm browsing I want those boots how much do I have in my personal spending those are micro decisions you don't have to think about anything else and then your bills are being paid by themselves that and then the other fun one that we've taught we've taught you lately is the kids account right they can make their own decisions and that is like when those things are happening you don't have to do anything there's nothing for you to stick to you actually would have to spend more time unsticking to the plan by going in there and cheating and messing something up on purpose on manually yeah because it's already all taken care of for you yeah and this is part of adulting right like setting these systems up in place setting these guard walls up for you so that way you're not using credit cards how easy it would have been for somebody in my shoes and not on that Wednesday night having 33 dollars and in their grocery account going you know what I actually just want to spend more no like you set this plan up for yourself and you want to be successful so you're going to stick within that because that's what your desire is and it's so easy to use a credit card and just swipe it and pay for it later but we really have to step in and go no yeah I'm gonna stick to the plan because I have a plan and it's automatic and I think knowing that everything is happening for you like we've had a client say one time knowing that her money was coming and was always going to be replenished kept her from overspending yeah so I think always knowing that my grocery budget that my kids account that my personal spending money all that is being replenished all the time is keeps me in check and keeps me from wanting to go above and beyond when you're talking about that what I was thinking is you're you could have created a future problem for future you if you decided to just go use a card or figure it out later I'm just gonna swipe in the bills account or whatever that's what not adulting is and that's not very nice to future you then because then you're just setting your future you up to have this problem to solve don't do that and as I said use your guardrails have the system be an adult and it's really not it's not like honestly about being adults but being nice to yourself being kind to yourself get the system set up so you don't have this anxiety you don't have this back and forth constant thing going on throughout the month when it comes to your money and your budget yeah and I threw a toddler temper tantrum about work the other day because I was recording I thought I was recording a video and I wasn't recording for an hour so I had to re-record this training video that was an hour long it's fine I refuse to do it for the whole 24 hours answer like my brain was going but this is the same thing don't allow yourself to throw a temper tantrum in the moment and be like I'm just gonna swipe or I'm just gonna use the bills card which you shouldn't have on you to begin with listeners we love you so much we do love you so just allow yourself in the moment to say no I'm not gonna do this I decided in the beginning when my was when my brain was in a good place that this is what I wanted to do and you're gonna continue on this route because you've set those guardrails in place for yourself indeed okay so if you actually have questions like specific questions first of all you can come on a live call budgetbesties.com forward slash live call you can come talk to us and we'll talk to you specifically but if you just want to submit a question you can go to budgetbesties.com forward slash ask and we'll be excited to answer your questions for you 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 otomy 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 around my clockwork imagine 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
