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Let’s dive into the 7 crucial elements you need to ensure your personal money system is working effectively.

We’ll explore the importance of having a tracking system, handling inconsistent income, systematizing your finances, and ensuring scalability and flexibility. I also emphasize tracking your net worth conducting quick check-ins on debt and savings, and introduce the game-changing annual expenses sheet.

These strategies help you simplify and solidify your finances, making it easier to achieve your money goals without sacrificing your lifestyle. Let’s get your personal finances on track!

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Episode 159 Your Money Your Life Podcast Resources:

Podcast Key Points

0:00 – Episode Overview
1:29 – Why start with your personal money system
3:01 – Tracking system for money success
5:32 – Handle inconsistent income
6:52 – A true money system
7:39 – Scales with your income
8:44 – Flexibility in your budget
10:30 – Tracking your net worth
11:58 – Quickly checking in with important aspects in your money
16:40 – Recap
19:15 – Resources

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7 Things To Check To Ensure Your Personal Money System Is Producing Results

Introduction to Your Personal Finance System

Is your personal finance system working? Your personal money system, is it actually working? So I’ve got seven things here that we’re going to talk about to make sure that you are getting results and how to quantify how to see if you’re getting results, because it might not be in the way that you think it is. So here we go.

Podcast Episodes: Short and Sweet

This is the Your Money Your Life podcast. I’m your host, Aimee Cerka, a money confidence coach for female entrepreneurs on the path to six figures. After over ten years in the personal finance industry and multiple personal, financial, and medical crises, I was fed up with the lies that are being shouted from the rooftops by the gurus and the media. So now I help you simplify, solidify, and scale your money. By blending tactile money strategies with mindset work, you can create unstoppable finances. Together, you’ll finally figure out the money thing so you can make more money in less time without living off of beans and rice or sacrificing your lifestyle. Episodes here on the podcast are short and sweet. Being married, having four kids at home, homeschooling, being a CEO, and running the household, I’m kind of busy, and I know you are, too. So let’s keep it simple and get to the point. Welcome. I’m so glad you’re here.

Seven Essential Checks for Your Personal Money System

Welcome back to the Your Money Your Life podcast. I’m your host, Aimee Cerka. Today we are talking about seven things that you need to check, you need to make sure that you’re doing to ensure that you are seeing results with your personal money system. So originally, this was going to be like just one episode. We were going to bang out personal and business all at the same time. But when I was looking through it, I realized they really needed to be separate things. So this week, we’re going to talk about your personal money system, and then next week, we’ll talk about the business money system and the things that you need to do to ensure that that one is on track and producing results as well. So why are we starting with the personal money system? Because we’re female. Most of us are female entrepreneurs. Right? Like you have a business and you’ve started a business to make money.

The Importance of Personal Money Management

We talked about that so last week, a couple of weeks ago. But what we found is your personal money system, what’s going on in your personal life is just as important, if not more important, because the things that are affecting your personal money system, your personal finances, affect how you show up in your business. So if everything is a mess and it’s going crazy and everything’s on fire, like, you know, nuclear level problems going on over here, you’re not going to show up in your business the way that you need to. And you’re most likely not making clear business decisions as well. So let’s start with the personal. Right? What are seven? I’ve got seven things here. The first one is the biggest thing. And we’re going to have to do like a couple of caveats.

Take a Deep Breath and Get Started

Like, this is not what this is. This is what it is. But just take a deep breath with me real quick because I know when we get into these, like, tacticals, how to take care of these things, how to do these things, the step by step, it can be very overwhelming, and I don’t want that to be the case for you. Okay? So just take a second. Take a deep breath. All right. Ready? Here we go. The first thing that you need to do, you need to have to ensure that you’re getting results within your personal finances.

Establish a Tracking System

Within your personal, within your personal money system, is a tracking system. This can be done pen and paper. I prefer I use YNAB. It’s, you need a budget YNAB, and I’ll tell you why in a second. But let’s talk about what the tracking system needs to actually have. So you need to be able to see your categories clearly. This is one of the reasons that I don’t love Mint, which is another resource out there. They’re probably not.

Limitations of Other Tracking Systems

And then they were bought out recently and Credit Karma now owns them. I just don’t recommend them for that reason. Like, it is hard to see the categories. You can’t delete some of their custom categories, like you’re, it’s a cookie-cutter system. You’re forced to fit into their box. And it’s harder to see the things that you need to and that are important to you because you’re trying to fit your life into their software. So you need to be able to see your categories clearly. Now, I know that there’s a lot of banks that offer like your category, your spending history, and they’ll show you where you’re spending.

Why Bank Summaries Aren’t Enough

It works. It’s not a good tracking system. And here’s why. Because I’m sure you have multiple accounts, whether this is just like a bank account or credit card, whatever you’re doing, this tracking system needs to be in place so that you can easily and quickly. Because again, we don’t want to spend a lot of time on this. See where you’ve spent across the board, whatever, how many of our accounts are using within. We’re going to get to the percentage-based budgeting system in a minute. So if you’ve got multiple accounts, whether it’s like an account for each category, or if it’s just like, you know, you have your bank account and you’re using your credit card for the rewards points, like, either one’s fine.

Seeing the Big Picture

Regardless, we need to be able to have that 10,000-foot view, easily accessible with categories that make sense across all your accounts so that you can quickly see what’s going on and get a true picture. Okay. Gotta have the tracking system. The second thing that you need to ensure your personal money system has to make sure you’re seeing results and that you are on track. It needs to be able to handle inconsistent income. Now, as entrepreneurs, our income fluctuates. But I’ve also found, like, when I was working W2 and my husband was in the trucking industry, I guess he’s, my ex-husband was in the truck is in the trucking industry, that income fluctuates. Right? So we have to have something that handles that, the inconsistent income.

Managing Inconsistent Income

Because if you have to sit there and stress about the fact, like, okay, it’s a low paycheck month this month, so then how are we going to cover these bills? And then you had the high paycheck month, and you’re like, okay, but what can I actually do? Because I don’t know what I’m going to have in the future. It causes so much uncertainty, and you don’t need that mental stress. If your personal money system is actually working, the system takes care of that. It handles the brunt of the work for you, which includes the inconsistent income. So your system needs to be able to handle the inconsistent income. YNAB, as a tracking system, does work, but that’s not your budget. That’s like the caveat there. Your budget needs to be able to handle the inconsistent income as well.

Systemizing Your Money Management

The third thing is, you know, it needs to be systemized. It needs to be able to handle the brunt of the work for you. I love numbers. I don’t want to be in front of a spreadsheet for hours upon hours upon hours. I know you don’t either. So while there’s a lot here that we’re discussing, it’s not time-intensive. Once you have the correct things, the proper things in place, it’s so simple. And that’s why that’s my goal.

Simplifying Money Management

Like, let’s just make this simple so you can do more of the things that you want to do with your money. So you’ve got the tracking system. You’ve got a budget that can handle inconsistent income. And if you don’t, just, we’re going to talk about resources at the end of this episode. Okay. Tracking system handles the inconsistent income. It needs to be systematized. So it’s handling the brunt of the work for you.

Scalability of Your Money System

The fourth thing, it needs to be scalable because you want to grow your income, right? And as you continue to grow your income, because I know you’ve got this, you’re going to do that. And hopefully, like at a minimum, you know, we’re out earning inflation, which we will do an inflation series here soon. I think that one when we did the poll. But it needs to be able to scale because if you’re at one income level and everything’s fine, but then you grow your income and then like everything falls apart, what the heck was all that work for? Like you just have to do it all over again. And then in the back of your head when you’re setting the next income goal that you want to raise your income again, you know that if everything breaks down when you hit that income goal, like why would you do that? Like you’re just creating more work for yourself and then you will self-sabotage with your income goal, knowing all of the hassle, hassle, headache that is going to show up with your growth. So tracking system handles inconsistent income systematized to handle the brunt of the work for you. And it’s scalable. Okay.

Flexibility in Your Money System

The fifth thing that you need to do, need to have in place to ensure that you’re getting the results that you’re looking for and more within your personal money system, it needs to be able to be flexible with the priorities that you have. So when you start out, you might be working to pay off debt, right? So if your system is all set to pay off debt and then you finish that and then you have to redo everything, it’s not working. So I teach a percentage-based budgeting system. This makes it super simple to be able to pivot from, okay, we’re paying off debt. Okay, we’re saving money. Okay, we are setting aside for a vacation. We are cash-flowing investments, whatever it might be. We are, you know, creating funds for your children. Like, whatever your priorities are, it’s super simple to pivot back and forth and you don’t have to do a lot of work, which again, helps you achieve the goals and the income that you’re looking for.

Tracking Your Net Worth

Okay. The sixth thing you need to track your net worth. This is the true financial picture of where you are. This is, this is where everything’s going on. So within your net worth, we’re looking at your, the income that you have coming in, right? Because your income can help you increase your net worth, but it’s not the most important thing. The assets that you have, we’re looking at liabilities and then, you know, the cash that’s on hand. And we are looking at this at a minimum quarterly because it helps you to see trends because we want to see trends with your net worth to see that we are growing and increasing over time. Because while some of these numbers can be arbitrary, the goal is for you to create a picture of success. Like we’re doing well, right?

Why Tracking Net Worth is Important

Like we can see that progress, especially if you’re an analytical person. Like I’m totally there with you. I like to see the numbers. I like to know that I’m moving in the right direction and that you’re getting results, right? Like, you want to know that you’re getting results and if you’re just throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks and we don’t have something to actually measure against, then you won’t know if you’re getting results. And we’re trying to avoid that. So tracking net worth, this could be something as simple as you use a spreadsheet or a journal. I don’t care what it is. I do include one in one of the resources we’ll talk about in a minute. We do a quarterly wealth update for ourself. Like my husband and I, we sit down, we do a quarterly wealth update so that we can see this big picture. We do it on a spreadsheet because that’s what’s simple for us, but it doesn’t have to be that way. It’s just getting a clear picture and you can do this on paper too. So I say quarterly because we want to see the trends. So quarterly minimum. If you are like, I don’t even know what’s going on and everything feels like it’s on fire, then let’s start doing it monthly. Let’s do it the first of every month and get a picture of what’s going on.

Regular Check-Ins for Debt and Savings

Okay. The seventh thing. This involves debt and savings. So again, you can see where we’re at in this process. If you’re paying off debt, we need to know where you’re at. If you have debt that is moving. So this could be, if you don’t know the difference between a line of credit and an installment loan, this would be important for you. So if your debt is changing, your balance is changing and that’s all you’re doing, you’re using this loan to keep you afloat. Then it’s a line of credit, okay? We want to get away from that, but we need to know where you’re at. If your balances aren’t going anywhere, like this is an installment loan, we still need to know where you’re at and how things are moving because we want to see progress over time. So we want to check in with this on a regular basis. So again, if you’re paying off debt, we’re going to do this at a minimum monthly because you want to know where you’re at and you want to know how things are going. The same thing goes for savings. If you’re saving up for your first home, if you’re saving up for an emergency fund, whatever that is, we want to be able to measure where you’re at. If you have no clue what’s going on and you’re not getting that feedback, then you won’t know if you’re getting results and you don’t know if you need to change anything. And that’s the worst feeling in the world because then you’re just trying to throw stuff at the wall. And again, we don’t want to do that.

Planning for Annual Expenses

The last thing here within savings, I think it’s actually, I had to clarify if it’s actually six, we do an annual expenses sheet as well. So this is all the things that don’t come out every single month. So subscriptions, if you pay for a subscription once a year, this is like HOA dues, if you’re paying those, if you have to renew your driver’s license, if you have to renew your car registration, if you’re paying like quarterly tax estimates, those annual expenses, non-monthly expenses, you want to track those and plan for those as well because they have a tendency to sneak up on you. And I don’t want that to happen for you. So your system needs to include a way to plan for that. And again, you can do this with a percentage-based budgeting system.

Quick Recap of the Seven Key Points

So let’s recap really quickly. Your personal money system needs to have these seven things to make sure that you are seeing the results that you are looking for.

  1. Tracking system: You can see all of your categories and everything across all of your accounts. It’s a true picture.
  2. Handles inconsistent income: So that you don’t have to stress about what happens if it’s a low paycheck month and you’re able to plan and not stress out about the high paycheck months either.
  3. Systematized: This means it’s doing the brunt of the work for you.
  4. Scalable: So that you can grow your income and everything doesn’t fall apart and then you don’t have to recreate the wheel. And it makes you work towards your income goals, like you’re willing to do the work because you know that your system is going to support you.
  5. Flexible: It changes with your priorities, whether you’re paying off debt, saving money, setting aside for a vacation, funding investments, funding college for your kids, whatever it is, your priorities can change, and your system will work for you.
  6. Tracking net worth: We need to see the trends. So doing this quarterly minimum, if everything feels like it’s on fire, let’s start doing this monthly.
  7. Tracking debt and savings: We need to know where you’re at to see the progress that you’re making and making sure that you’re getting the results that you’re looking for. And then that final thing that we talked about with the savings is the annual expenses sheet. So you can track and plan for those things so that you know, that non-monthly expenses don’t sneak up on you.

Resources for Financial Success

All right, let’s talk resources real quick. First thing, the best place to be is Money Mastery Academy. It’s the twelve week group coaching program to help you finally figure out the money thing. And I have set it up for it to be, you know, attainable. Like that. It’s not a ticket at all, but I wanted to include everything.

I want there to be just the one stop shop. Like, I am sick and tired of being in this situation. I’m ready to figure this out. Aimee. Just give me the solution. That’s the academy because it has everything in there that you need. It’s all the step by step training. You know, we start with the cash flow calculator.

So, you know, and then I tell you where to start within the portal, but it’s all there. Everything that you need is already included. And then you’ve got the support that you need on top of it. And then we can diy things and pull out pieces like your budgeting system. That would be prosperity simplified. When you buy prosperity, simplify, which is my business budgeting system, you get budgeting simplified, which is the personal budgeting system, as a bonus. But both of those are included with Money Mastery Academy. So, like, it’s a no brainer there that just to have everything there.

Um, let’s see. Prosperity Simplified because we talked a lot about the budget today. Budgeting Simplified. I’ll throw that link in the show notes as well. Um, and then the budgeting for success worksheets. A lot of the worksheets that we talked about, that’s all there. Again, it’s all included with the Money Mastery Academy. But if you are in, like, I need a DIY, I’ll include the links below for Prosperity Simplified.

Budgeting Simplified, and the Budgeting for Success Worksheets. That’s what I’ve got for now.

Looking Forward to Next Week

Next week, we’re going to talk about the things that we need to have in place for your business budgeting system because, yes, our personal is our foundation, but we also need our business set up for success. And this is going to be applicable to you regardless of what income level you have achieved in your business. So we’ll see you next time. Send me a message on Instagram @aimeecerka. If you have questions, let me know. I am here to support you. We’ll see you next week. Bye for now.

Free Cash Flow Calculator

Are you tired of not seeing consistent cash flow? What if you could stop wasting countless hours working on the wrong things only to leave yourself more frustrated than you started, all without jumping from strategy to strategy, just trying to find one that works and without requiring a week of reflection or a time audit because you don’t have the time to do the things you need to. As it is that’s you. My cash flow calculator might be perfect for you. This assessment style calculator reveals your blind spots and what you’re missing so that you can finally see consistent cash flow month after month. So grab my cash flow calculator and unlock the right work that you’re probably already doing in order to finally see consistent cash flow month after month. It’s only going to take you 90 seconds, and you won’t need to know any of your numbers to actually do this. Then, as a bonus, there’s a special way you can get me to give you feedback on your results. Simply go to https://aimeecerka.com/cashflow to access.

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Aimee Cerka
Aimee Cerka

Money Confidence Coach - I make money simple for female business owners. By blending together simple strategies, and mindset work to simplify your money so that you can step into your unstoppable life. It's time to go beyond the numbers, so you can finally embody your ideal life. Click Here to Learn More