Ditch the Cookie-Cutter: Craft Money Systems that Work for Your Life

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Ep. 219: Strategic Simplicity – Transform Your Money Systems Without the Spreadsheet Overwhelm

In this episode, I’m diving into the first of the three foundational modalities I use with my clients: strategy. But not the stuffy, corporate kind – we’re talking about strategic simplicity and building profitable money systems that actually work for you, your business, and your life.

I’ll walk you through the four key systems I use: personal budgeting, business budgeting, bookkeeping, and debt payoff. You’ll get practical insights on how to create sustainable, values-aligned strategies that bring clarity and peace to your finances. Plus, I’ll share a special giveaway to celebrate the launch of Money Simplified!

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The Power of Strategic Simplicity in Your Finances

Today we’re diving into the first of the three foundational modalities that I use that shape the work that I do with my clients. And that’s strategy, but not the cold corporate cookie-cutter kind. I’m talking about strategic simplicity, building profitable money systems that actually work for you, your brain, your business, and your season of life.

If you’ve ever felt like you’re doing all the things that but still not seeing results, this episode is going to show you how the right money strategy brings clarity, direction, and breathing room.

So let’s break it down together.

Welcome to Money Simplified

This is Money Simplified, the podcast where I help female entrepreneurs go from stress and struggle to unstoppable with money. Money is more than just budgeting and PNLs and we’re going to take you through all of it.

Here we blend proven financial strategy with mindset work and energetic alignment so you can create unstoppable finances, build an unstoppable business, and truly enjoy your unstoppable life.

It’s time to take my wisdom, my expertise to help you simplify money and go beyond the numbers. I’m your host, Aimee Cerka.

Special Launch Giveaway

Welcome. I’m so glad you’re here. Welcome back to Money Simplified. I’m your host, Aimee Cerka.

Before we dive into today’s episode all about strategy, to celebrate the launch of Money Simplified, I’m hosting a special giveaway. Here’s how it works. Share about the show on your favorite social platform, take a screenshot, share a takeaway, why you recommend the show and tag me at Aimee Cerka so that I see it. That’s the important part, right?

But when you do, you’ll be able. You’ll be entered to win a free coaching call or a money audit with me. It’ll be your choice. Or it’s my way of saying thank you for helping kick off Money Simplified and spreading the word.

Four Key Money Systems for Success

So let’s get to the episode. We’re talking about strategy today. So strategy in my world is not again that cookie cutter framework you have to do xyz, the rigidness that you see elsewhere.

I build simple sustainable systems for tracking income, managing expenses, using your money wisely, both personally and in your business. This is not about budgeting to restrict and budgeting being a four-letter word for people and feeling like you have to cut things out. It’s about creating a rhythm, a system that reflects your values, helps you feel in control and actually works with your real life.

We build this in layers too, so that like life happens. It doesn’t throw you completely off track. It’s not just about getting organized. We’re creating a money system that gives you breathing room, supports your goals, and puts you in the driver’s seat without turning your life into a spreadsheet.

Because while it’s not all about the money, we do have to know where things are at. You can’t be the powerful CEO. You can’t be have an unstoppable life, be unstoppable with money when you don’t know where things are at.

I’ve got four key systems that I talk about here within the Strategy 4 strategy systems that I want to cover. And we’re gonna, I’m gonna give you like a brief glimpse into all four of them.

Budgeting Simplified—For Real Life and Inconsistent Income

The first one is going to be Budgeting Simplified. That’s your personal budgeting system.

And here’s the key to, to tell if your personal budgeting system works. The first thing that your personal budgeting. The three rules for success with the personal budgeting system, okay?

It has to work for inconsistent income. As an entrepreneur, your income fluctuates. Does your budget handle it well? I guess the first rule is having a budget and then we need to redefine. Like budgeting is not just tracking your expenses. Budgeting is sending the intention beforehand of where your money goes.

The Three Rules for Your Personal Budget

Tracking expenses is a reactionary after the fact. That’s not a budget.

First rule of success, your budget has to be able to handle inconsistent income.
Second rule of success, it has to be able to scale with you. You are looking to scale your income, right? You’re looking to continue to grow. Your budget should be able to do that with you without you having to sit there and refigure everything because you’re set up for success.

And this is kind of a mindset strategy here as well. Like, you know what you would do. The things are already in place so you’re, you’re ready to receive it. My favorite way to do this is through percentage-based budgeting, which of course my personal budgeting system, Budgeting Simplified, is a percentage-based budgeting system.

The third rule of success within your personal budget is it has to work without you. You have to have systems in place that you are not doing every little thing. Again, we’re not tying ourselves to a spreadsheet all the time.

We have systems built into check in with the system. Whether it’s our daily money minute, it’s our weekly check-in, it’s our month, and we have these roll-up systems that are life-proof. Because if you miss one, you’ve got something else coming.

But it’s set up that it doesn’t take you hands-on all the time. You’re still, you’re the CEO of your personal finances.

Prosperity Simplified—Business Budgeting Made Easy

The second core system that we work on within the strategy side here, this is going to be part of the profitable money systems is Prosperity Simplified. This is our business budgeting system.

Now there are so many great systems out there like Profit First. That’s probably the biggest one that I see and hear about from the business side is Profit First. And it’s a fantastic system. It works.

But I know that again, going back to the premise of the show, we had to simplify things because you’re not necessarily a numbers person. And even if you love numbers, I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be tied to a spreadsheet and doing these things all the time.

Why Your Business Needs a Budget Now

And this is like what I do, right? Like I have done for you services. We do the bookkeeping and the fractional CFO. Like we have those things in place, but I don’t want to be doing it all the time. We have to have the system.

And the biggest thing that I see show up for people when it comes to the business is they don’t feel like they really have to have a budget. Especially in the online entrepreneur space, we feel like we have to almost. It’s out of reach.

Like, okay, when I hit the next level, then I’ll do this. We think that we know it. Or bank account budgeting maybe like we’re looking at the bank account. We’re not really keeping eyes on it. We don’t know how much we’re actually spending.

And when we don’t know what’s going on, we have double expenses that are billing. You’re missing things. You might be turning more of a profit than you realize and you might be making less of a profit than you realize because we don’t have the system in place.

Don’t Wait—Implement Your Business Systems Now

So this isn’t something that you have to hit a certain income level or certain time in business to be able to have in place. And the thing that I love about Prosperity Simplified, because I work with a lot of entrepreneurs that maybe they’re still working on getting profitable in their business and there’s nothing wrong with that.

I want to make that very clear right now because a lot of people don’t turn a profit very quickly.

There’s nothing wrong with that. You’re finding a way to fund this and this is your long term vision, and you see what’s going to happen. You know that you’re going to be successful. It’s just a matter of time.

That is freaking powerful. And I don’t discount that at all.

But I created the Prosperity Simplified system with that person in mind because we feel like we have to wait. We have to get to the place where we’re going to have that success that we need, right then. Then we’ll need a budget.

That is absolutely not true.

Bookkeeping: Don’t Leave It Until Tax Season

There’s so much power when you have the Prosperity Simplified system, that strategy support system in place, because then you can go do way more with your money. You know what’s coming, you’re ready to receive it again. I think that’s the second time I’ve said this already in this episode.

The third strategy system that I wanted to highlight today in this episode is your books, accounting, bookkeeping, whatever you want to call it. And the biggest pitfall I see with bookkeeping is feeling like you need to earn the support again.

Like we have to hit that certain income level before I can do it, or that it’s not important, and you just kind of slide by. Whether it’s just using an Excel spreadsheet and figuring it out, or you’ve got QuickBooks set up and you don’t really have any clue what’s going on. You put it on the back burner until tax season comes once a year.

And that strategy is sabotaging you when you’re clear, when this is taken care of.

Bookkeeping is Attainable and Powerful Support

And one of the biggest things I see, like, bookkeeping is not as expensive as some people think it is. There are obviously very expensive bookkeepers out there. But one of the things that I hear from my bookkeeping clients all the time is like, I wish I would have done this sooner because they don’t realize how attainable it is.

Because this is such a weight on your shoulders, it’s taking up brain space. Like, you can’t focus on your business because in the back of your head you don’t know. Like, okay, am I really set up correctly? Am I really a true entrepreneur?

We feel these things when they’re not. When this strategy, this system isn’t in place, we feel it, and it affects your mindset and your energetics, which are the other two modalities we’re going to get to in the next few weeks.

Debt Payoff: Keep It Simple

But the systems here still have to be in place. We still have to prioritize them. It’s not this one day, I’ll have it. We have these things in place and then.

And the key is not creating meaning around it because we avoid the money. We don’t want to have a personal budget, we don’t want to have a business budget. We don’t want to get help with our books because we’re creating meaning about what the numbers mean.

They’re just numbers. And we’ll work on the meaning with the mindset and the energetics. You see how we need all three of these. But you have to have the systems in place.

Get Your Money Strategy in Place

The last one that I wanted to highlight would be like debt payoff. And this is really simple to do. We’ve done episodes in the past on you know, which debt payoff strategy is the best and etc. And really — newsflash — they all work. It’s like which one will work for you?

And I give my thoughts on which one I think will work. But the key with this one and like so many of the other systems we’ve talked about with the strategies today is within the mindset. Like we can give you this, but it doesn’t matter. And you’re not successful unless we have the other pieces.

These things aren’t rigid, it’s not spreadsheet heavy. Like these systems are important. We gotta have these strategies in place.

The Value of Integrating These Systems

And for a long time I’ve had a lot of the bite sized strategies. I’ve taken pieces out because I wanted to give you pieces of the puzzle to help you get into momentum. But what I’ve realized is that’s not working. So we are going to have a, a simplifying sale.

So what we’re going to do is there’s several of the bite sized workshops, the bite size systems that are retiring. They’re not going to be available as standalone products anymore.

They’re still absolutely going to be part of it in Money Mastery Academy and the Unstoppable Experience, those are my two main programs for you to work with me. Money Mastery Academy has all the foundational support, all the foundational systems and training with a little bit of support. And the Unstoppable Experience has more hands on support with it.

Okay, but the simplifying sale — go to workwithaimee.com — that’s where we’ll host it. If you want to grab one of those pieces before they disappear. And yeah, we’re gonna do a flash sale on, I’m gonna have them like 50 off. Let you have last time access before we simplify the offers, right?

That’s the fun as well.

Giveaways, Actions Steps, and Final Thoughts

Quick reminder. To celebrate the launch of Money Simplified, I’m doing the giveaway. So if you share your favorite episode or takeaway, favorite quote, Tag me at AimeeCerka. You’ll be entered to win a free coaching call or a free money audit with me.

Super simple share tag. You’re done.

Now, before we wrap up today, I wanted to quickly share because I know we’ve talked a lot, we talked about strategy today. That was the theme, right? These four key systems. But I have a client who implemented really two of them. Budgeting Simplified, Prosperity Simplified systems.

And she had tried budgeting systems in the past. She had learned things. You know, we got YouTube, we got other programs, all of those things. She had looked at them. But what she said was my system was the simplest she had ever seen. Like, and it made sense.

So she was able to implement it and it saved her marriage. They were in such a better place after they were able to get clear on their money with these two systems. She had so many of the other things in place. She just needed the right system, the right strategy to put it in place.

Prioritize What’s Important—You’re Not Behind

And things shifted so dramatically for them because they put the Budgeting Simplified and the Prosperity Simplified system in place. Like, they knew where things were at. In fact, they were able to take a pay cut and there wasn’t added tension because they knew they were okay because of these systems.

These strategies are so key, but they’re not the urgent, flashy things that we see. Like, we have to prioritize the things that are important.

Important because it’s not the red light flashing on your dashboard, but it’s so important.

So your action step here. I’d love to hear from you. What system or strategy is the one that you need to work on right now? You’re feeling bold, send it to me. I’d love to hear @AimeeCerka on Instagram.

And while you’re there, hey, make sure to share because we’re celebrating the launch. I’m doing the giveaway. Free coaching call or free money audit. It’s going to be your choice.

Connect With Aimee Cerka

Share the podcast on social. So when you’re already there on Instagram, tag me at AimeeCerka. You are entered. I so appreciate you in helping spread the word and kicking off Money Simplified strong.

Next week, we are diving into the second key modality that I use, which is mindset. We’re going to talk about several key shifts that have made all the difference for myself and my clients.

Remember, you’re not behind, you’re not broken, and you’re definitely not alone.
You’re building something real. And that takes courage.

So keep going. You’re doing better than you think. We’re doing this the unstoppable way.

And that’s it for now. We’ll see you next time.

Thank you so much for listening to Money Simplified. My favorite place to hang out is on Instagram. You can find me AimeeCerka to catch all the behind the scenes of my stories, send me a message to share your biggest takeaway, or just to say hi. I love hearing from podcast listeners.

When you’re ready to take action on your mindset, your money, or the systems behind it all, I’m here for you. Whether you’re snagging a free resource, exploring a mini course, diving into the fundamentals with Money Mastery Academy, getting in depth support inside the unstoppable experience, or scheduling a complimentary bookkeeping consult to finally get hands on help with your books, your next step is waiting for you.

aimeecerka.com/podcastlinks has all the information and of course that link is hanging out in the show notes for you.

We’ll see you next time.