Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. Meaning at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. Don’t worry though. I only recommend products that I believe will help you on your journey.
Check Out Related Episodes & Resources
- Please Stop Doing Money Dates
- Why You’re Not Budgeting Even When You Know You Should
- 4 Simple Things You HAVE To Know To Run Your Books Correctly
- Why You Need To STOP Saving For A Rainy Day
- FREE Cash Flow Calculator
Are you feeling overwhelmed with your budget? Or maybe lack of a budget because you’re stuck in fear? It’s time to take the fear out of your finances!
In today’s episode, I’m answering 5 of your questions when it comes to budgeting so that you can be unstoppable in your finances
LISTEN OR SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE IN YOUR FAVORITE PODCAST APP:
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | RSS
Resources:
Budgeting Simplified – https://aimeecerka.com/budget
Black Friday Deals – https://aimeecerka.com/blackfriday
Instagram – https://instagram.com/aimeecerka
Work With Aimee – https://aimeecerka.com/work-with-aimee
Podcast Key Points
0:00 – Episode Overview
1:45 Savings Accounts – Should You Keep Them Separate?
3:26 – How Can I Live My Life And Not End Up Retired And Broke?
4:52 – Episode Sponsorship – Budgeting Simplified
6:19 – How Do I Handle The Constant Unexpected Expenses?
8:22 – We Have Enough – But Can’t Get Ahead
10:14 – I’m Doing All The Work But It Doesn’t Make A Difference
12:03 – How Long Have You Been Doing This?
13:13 – Recap & Challenge – Which One Of These Was Most Helpful For You?
14:09 – Work With Aimee
Frustrated that you aren’t making the progress that you should within your finances? Create an unshakable money mindset with the Money Mindset Mastery Checklist
Read: Budgeting Successfully
Budgeting Simplified
This episode of the Your Money Your Life podcast is brought back to you by Budgeting Simplified.
Do you struggle with stress and overwhelm with budgeting? Or do you get frustrated that you spend so much time on your budget yet, at the end of the month, you’re not actually getting ahead? Then budgeting simplified might be just for you.
Inside of this course, you’ll learn how to budget successfully. A simple manner that sets you up to create prosperity, freedom and security, so that you can budget without stress and just four weeks to check out budgeting simplified and step into unstoppable finances with a budget that works for you.
Your Money Your Life, you can check out Budgeting Simplified now at aimeecerka.com/budget.
This year for Black Friday, I’m giving you a discount on several of my most popular programs. That way, you can access just what you need to move forward and Budgeting Simplified is one of them.
So get on the VIP list, be the first to know about when the deals go live. All the details, simply visit aimeecerka.com/blackfriday.
Are you overwhelmed with your budget? Or maybe you lack a budget because you’re stuck in fear. It’s time to take the fear out of your finances.
In today’s episode, I’m answering five of your questions when it comes to budgeting so that you can be unstoppable in your finances. Because this is the Your Money Your Life podcast where ambitious women come together to have clarity, prosperity, and confidence with their money without sacrificing precious time, and well-deserved fun.
Welcome to the Your Money, Your life podcast. I’m your host, Aimee Cerka.
After my husband and I faced three major financial roadblocks in the last six years, I felt like I wasn’t doing all that I could and I had let my family down. It always felt like life was a struggle like I had to work harder than everyone else. It just came easy to them, and I didn’t feel worthy of success.
Until, a coach helped me see the successes in our experiences instead of our failures. This allowed me to create and implement systems to grow our network by 200,000+ while spending time with my loved ones and on my priorities. Now I help motivated women create the happiness, family life, financial security, and long-term wealth they deserve.
If you’re ready to eliminate stress, struggle, frustration, and guilt within your finances, you’re in the right place. Welcome, I’m so glad you’re here!
Welcome back to another episode, we’re continuing our Ask Me Anything series. Today, we’re answering your questions when it comes to budgeting. So we got five questions.
Keep Your Savings Separate for Clarity
The first one is about savings accounts, sinking funds, sometimes people call them sinking funds savings account, same type of thing. But the question is, “do you keep them all separate?”
Now I personally do. If you’ve listened to me for a while you probably know I love Discover like your credit card company has a banking portion as well. They’re safe checking and savings accounts is really what I utilize. I have the One Savings account at my regular bank that you know, they kind of make you open.
Then most of my savings is with Discover accounts and I keep them separate. We have annual expenses done as a checking account. That is one that I do like transactions through but everything else is done as a savings account. I do keep them separate.
From the business side, Novo is a great resource. They have something that’s set up, you have like one checking account, but you can have reserves within that.
And I believe it’s Capital One, they have a 360 program. I believe is what it’s called that allows you to do something similar. So you could do something like that as well.
But for me, I find it’s easiest just to keep them separate. I can see with them all being at one bank. I can do a bank transfer and it’s available immediately.
Balancing Today and Tomorrow
Second question. “How can I live my life and enjoy my money but not end up retired going?”
I have to be a Walmart greeter and live on welfare and that is the beauty of percentage-based budgeting because we build in that play account that we’re already working on having like being able to live life and do things that we love in moderation is not the right word.
Similar type of thing it has to be done, that we can live life and we can have fun without going extreme. But at the same time, you’re taking care of your responsibilities, whether that’s savings, whether that’s your financial freedom account, your education account, or whatever you’re adding to prepare for retirement.
You can do both of those at the same time with percentage-based budgeting and really feel good about it and know that you’re doing what you need to do. That was a very simple answer to that. Probably more complex question but percentage-based budgeting really answers that in a way that feels good because it is about balance it’s not about going extreme one way or the other.
Tackling Unexpected Expenses
Number three. “We seem to always have unexpected expenses come up. How do we deal with these without getting behind?”
I didn’t even realize this until just now. I feel like our questions are kind of building on each other
Most of the time when we see that happen, we have savings accounts that aren’t funded. The savings accounts that you should have should include at a minimum.
We had to have our contingency fund and an annual expenses slash, everything else fund. And what I find is we’ll set up a budget off of like one month’s worth of expenses.
But that didn’t account for the kids going back to school or softball registration or the card meeting something.
When Budgeting Alone Isn’t Enough
We have to start off knowing that it’s going to take a little bit of time to get going in a good budgeting system that you can just pay for out of savings. So don’t beat yourself up. Like if you can’t, if you don’t, just have the money in savings.
First off, that doesn’t do us any good. But have your two savings accounts and start adding to that annual expenses account, so that you have the funds there to pay for the expense when you need to. And again, we go into all of this inside budgeting simplified.
Boost Your Financial Confidence with Budgeting Simplified
If you haven’t checked out Budgeting Simplified, if you’re not a part of Budgeting Simplified, that is definitely a resource that I would be grabbing because these situations, these problems, they feel so massive, they feel so overwhelming. And it really can be a very simple, not necessarily easy, but a simple fix to move forward with them. And that’s another one.
It’s a simple little switch that makes all the difference really for your budget, and your finances in general. Which brings us to the fourth question. “I have enough, but we just can’t seem to get ahead?”
Simplifying Finances: A Step-by-Step Guide
There’s couple of things that we’ve seen that I typically see coming up when this happens. So the first is, are you actually budgeting? Or are you just expense tracking?
That’s the first question you need to be able to answer. If you’re not budgeting, we need a budget. Secondly, if you are budgeting, are you putting money aside first? Are you setting that intention first, when you first get paid? Or are you waiting to put any money in savings or investments until like the end of the pay period?
Because we’ll end up spending the money right? Okay, let’s reevaluate. Hopefully, you’re doing the percentage-based budgeting and that you’re able to look at those percentages.
Maybe there’s something that you can cut so that you can move ahead. And the third part is to be unstoppable on your finances. We have to play the well-rounded game.
That’s why there are four parts to the unstoppable finances framework and the defensive side with your money management. This budgeting here is just one side.
Overcoming Money Mindset Obstacles
If you’re not working to improve and increase your income, the game is set up against you, which we learn about inside the battlefield with our money mindset and the way the economy set up the rules that we’re stuck playing.
If we don’t have those other pieces to it, together, we’re not going to get ahead. And it can feel very frustrating, very overwhelming, very discouraging. Even so, those are the 3 things that I want you to check — if you have enough, but you can’t seem to get ahead.
And the fifth thing, I feel like this is a theme for the Ask Me Anything series. Because this is what happens for so many of us. It’s more of a statement, okay? I’ve tried all the things before and it just doesn’t work.
I feel that I really do. And I’m sorry, because it sucks when you’ve done all the work, and you’re not seeing the results that you wanted to. And again, there’s a couple thing that come up.
Consistency Matters: Building Your Financial Future
Two main things that I want to talk about. The first thing is if you’re doing all the work, and you’re actually doing all the work, and you’re doing it consistently, and not seeing the result.
There is a money mindset obstacle that is still holding you back. I hate to say that, I mean, it’s true. Like I don’t hate to say it from that perspective but that is exactly what I went through.
And I remember how defeated I felt because it felt like I had wasted all this time doing all this work. It felt like it was for nothing because I was so self-sabotaging with the money mindset obstacle.
So if that is you. Again, I get it. I understand I am with you.
But I want you to be encouraged that when we figure out that money mindset obstacle that blocks and you get past it, your results will show up so much faster because you’ve already been doing the work. Okay, so that’s the first part there if you’ve tried all the things, and it just isn’t working.
The second part is, how long have you been doing this?
I mentioned it a little bit when we’re talking about that money mindset issue. Our consistency is so important, which is why the 4th part of the unstoppable finances framework is that coaching, that support, that accountability, that having somebody that is going to help you do the things that you know you need to be doing. Just life happens, and then when they don’t get done, okay?
So really, regardless of which side of that equation you’re on. If you don’t have Budgeting Simplified again, I think it’s a great place to start.
I do have support options on there to handle both of those within that program that you can add on because you know that you need that additional support. That is definitely there, that I’m here to support you. Kind of felt like we ended that on a most like a negative note but I want you to be encouraged.
If you’re doing the work, and you’re not seeing the results. You’re probably not that far away from your breakthrough.
So we answered five questions today continuing our Ask Me Anything series talking today about budgeting, budgeting successfully.
Finding Balance: Budgeting for Enjoyment and Security
We talked about our savings accounts. We talked about the balance between like enjoying life and not having to be a Walmart greeter when you retire. We talked about unexpected expenses and how to handle those so that you don’t keep getting behind.
We talked about what to do if you feel like you just can’t get ahead. And then lastly, we talked about if you’ve tried all the things and it’s just not working.
Your challenge for today is I want to hear which one of these was most helpful for you on your budgeting financial journey. Where you’re at? Send me a message on Instagram @aimeecerka.
I can’t wait to hear from you. And we’ll see you next week for another episode of the Your Money Your Life podcast.
Thank you so much for listening to the Your Money Your Life podcast. My favorite place to hang out is on Instagram, you can find me @aimeecerka. Send me a message or post a screenshot and then tag me! I love hearing from podcast listeners.
Take Control of Your Finances Today
After all, your finances are unique and your support should be too. Ultimately, we’ll create a customized plan to ditch financial struggle for good that works for you. Your goals, your priorities, your life.
Go to workwithaimee.com to get started with one of our most popular programs. Or you can book a q&a call with me and we’ll figure out what your next step should be.
If you love today’s episode, make sure to subscribe wherever you like to listen to podcasts. That way you will receive new episodes right when they are released, then leave a rating and review. It helps amazing people just like you find the show faster. We’ll see you next week!
