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The Biggest Financial Expense You’re Forgetting – Ep. 95
Are you in a good place financially? In this episode today we’re gonna talk about the biggest financial expense you’re missing and what a really simple switch can do. It just doesn’t feel urgent so it doesn’t get done. So, here we go!
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Podcast Key Points:
0:00 – Episode Overview
1:09 – When Your Good Place Financially
3:42 – Cost of Not Budgeting
4:14 – Bare Minimum You Need To Do
7:44 – Your Business It’s Causing A Lack of Confidence
9:44 – Your 3 Options
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
Discover the Secret to Financial Success: The Surprising Expense You Might Be Missing!
Are you in a good place financially? Things are okay, you’re not having to pinch pennies and feeling that restriction. That’s actually a very dangerous spot to be.
And in this episode today we’re gonna talk about the biggest financial expense you’re missing and what you need to do because it’s actually a really simple switch. It just doesn’t feel urgent so it doesn’t get done. So, here we go!
Welcome to the Your Money Your Life podcast. I’m your host Aimee Cerka. After over 10 years in the personal finance industry and multiple personal financial and medical crisis I was fed up with the lies are being shouted from the rooftops by the Guru’s and the media.
If you’re ready to eliminate fear, stress, struggle, frustration and guilt, from your finances, and all the areas they affect. You’re in the right place. Welcome. I’m so glad you’re here.
Welcome back to another episode, I’m your host, Aimee Cerka. We are talking about the biggest financial expense you are missing. And I’ve seen this come up in client conversations and networking conversations repeatedly in the last like six weeks.
So, this needed to be talked about. Okay. So, if you’re in a place that like you don’t have to like pinch pennies, you’re not feeling that restrictiveness you’re in an okay place, right? You’re in a good place financially, that’s really going to be like the game, the sweet spot.
That’s what we’re talking to right now. And I’m betting lots most of you because you know, you’re doing good. You’re hustling you got things going for you, right? Yes, we always want to do better, but things are okay.
We’re kind of handling it within your finances, when it doesn’t matter. So much like if you’re not trying to make sure you can make ends meet and keep the lights on. Most people tend to kind of let things slide.
I’m not saying that you need necessarily to spend less like you don’t have to go back to restrictive spending. That’s not what I’m advocating for at all, because I don’t think that you need to be restrictive with your spending, especially if you had the money not to be restrictive with your spending.
And there can be times in places like where you know, you’re pushing for this thing you’re saving for a vacation. You want to knock out a piece of debt, which yes, we’ll focus on our network. Yes, you can still knock out that those types of like seasons, or maybe you had really high annual expenses.
Those are the unexpected expenses that come up that you’d pay for yearly, quarterly; any of those things, okay. There are gonna be seasons where you’d have to be a little more tight and model more restrictive. But how much you’re spending and or receiving is irrelevant to what we’re talking about today.
The Importance of Tracking Your Finances
The thing that you’re missing and that you’re letting slide, because you’re not paying attention to it is the tracking; is the budgeting the money management system of budgets, a four-letter word for you. Now, just because you have a budget, like using a tracking system, like Mint, or YNAB, or which is you need a budget, any of those, like you can have that in place.
But that’s like the first step. That’s not even really tracking, that just gives you the illusion of tracking. Almost, because you’re not doing anything with the data really. But if you are not keeping track of these things, there are so many things that are going to happen.
A, you don’t know what you’re really spending. You will not catch fraud. You will not catch the double charges. You will not know like where things are actually at what you can spend what you should spend, like there is no awareness of where the numbers are.
And you don’t have to be a numbers person that’s perfectly fine. Like it’s not that big of a deal. But we need to have the system in place. So, you’ve got three options. Okay.
How Often Should You Track Your Finances?
Actually, before we get to your options, so let’s talk about how often like bare minimum, ideal minimum, like somewhere in there, okay? So, bare minimum, you got to do this once a month. Then we’re gonna talk about your business too here in a second.
Like, but that really quite applies here as well. Like, you really need to look at these things once a month and I don’t want to call it a money date. Because, you know, dating implies like you’re trying to impress somebody and all those things.
Like no, you’re the CEO, you’re showing up, you’re in charge. This is like an employee report. Get check in some money date; like just can we stop using that terminology? I probably should make a separate episode on why money dates?
The phrase money dates just drives me absolutely crazy because it’s not a date like that’s not the intention this week. Yeah. Okay, let me know on Instagram if I need to go on down the rabbit hole and another episode about why I don’t like money dates because we’re there phrasing money dates and why don’t feel like it’s serving you.
It’s not like just this personal preference Yes, I like to date my husband, I don’t have anything as a dating; money dates is just that does not work that does not serve you please stop. And let me know on Instagram @aimeecerka.
Staying on Track with Your Financial Goals
But the point is, we have to be doing these monthly check-ins. We call it, I call it month end is when I do my check in once a month. That’s like my bare minimum, okay.
But ideally, I want you to do this once a week. It doesn’t have to take long. The idea of setting this process up is a lot more overwhelming than actually doing it.
Okay, which is why I’ve actually made the done-for-you services work where I help you do this, or I do it for you available to non-Academy members, because it used to be, you had to be a part of the Money Mastery Academy to be able to access this.
Okay, but this is what you need, right? This is where we’re at. So, I’ve opened up some spots, we’ll get to that in a minute with the three steps, right. But the idea of setting it up is a lot more intensive, like it takes all the stress and the brainpower everything like out of it that.
I’m sorry, there takes a lot more to get it set up then and once it’s actually going. So, if I can help you get it set up, and then you can take the reins and go, that’s fantastic. Maybe not a great business plan.
Like long-term, I have to keep finding clients, there’s not like that repetitive income in there for me. But I know that you’re empowered. And that’s my goal. And the more people we can impact the better, right?
But you have to make the time to do these, even if you’re not in a place to be restrictive. The ideal minimum is weekly. That’s why we have the weekly check-in now honestly.
I do mine daily because I am in a relationship conversational. I am continually working to uplevel my mindset, uplevel my relationship with money, uplevel all those things, right. So, we have it set up that I do it daily, it’s really Monday through Friday, but you know it’s there.
And I have these systems, these hacks, these strategies in place to help me do it. But at a minimum, it’s a weekly. And then if you don’t have weekly, you have the monthly to fall back on them.
So, like your bare minimum is please do this monthly. This is also why execution lab is available to all clients so that we can come do the work together, like make it fun. Schedule the time that we need to do.
The Emotional Aspect of Money Management
Okay, now on the business side. Okay, first off, if you don’t know where things are at, there’s a lack of confidence there. It might not even be something that you like or are fully aware of, but you’re not showing up because you don’t know.
Like, Okay, do I have, what income have I made, what expenses have I spent those things so we can go back to the fraud, we can go back to the double transactions. All those things still show up. But in business, if you’re selling at a desperation, because you just got to hit this income goal, right?
That doesn’t work, people can feel that.
So, take care of the numbers, know where you’re at, then just have the confidence to move forward. And you might be saying, Okay, well, I don’t need to look a bookkeeper yet, or there’s just I don’t have enough time on my plate. And again, we’re gonna get to your three action steps in a minute or three options here in a minute.
But you have to know where these things are at. And we’re just talking about the financial numbers here. I would also argue this would apply to the non-financial numbers as well. That might be another episode for another day.
The Cost of Not Tracking
But like, if you aren’t doing this, you are costing yourself money. Missing transactions. It’s also statistically proven that the average person overspends $7,500 each year by not having a budget in place that’s just on the personal side.
So that doesn’t even apply to your business and things that you don’t necessarily need that you bought out of a motion because you like there’s a lot of different factors in there. That $7,500 number is also like about two three years old.
So, inflation I’m betting I need to get the updated statistic. I don’t know if I had to ballpark it, I probably would say looking at inflation closer to 10,000. But we’ll just stick with 7500 because I can take a vacation with my family of six for $7,500.
Three Options for Taking Control
Okay, like that’s a decent amount. So just know where you’re at. Like, okay, and if you’re not a numbers person or you’re like I just don’t have time for this, then you get help, right?
So, your three options are one, keep losing money. I don’t know how to word this, like keep doing what you’re doing. Take this and you like, no thanks I got this, like, I’m good. Don’t believe you, Aimee, you’re crazy.
Whatever you want to say, not a big enough problem. I’m not going to fix this now.
Okay? That’s like option one, option two, you hear me. And you’re like, you know what you’re right. Like, I need to get this done, and you make the time to do it yourself. Now, if you can do it, and you’re happy about it, you enjoy doing it great.
If it’s taking time off your plate that you don’t have, or it’s a frustration and a struggle, and you don’t enjoy the numbers, and you just need somebody else to do it for you, then let’s talk about option three.
The Power of Getting Support
So, option three is let me support you, okay. And depending on where you’re at, what information you need. So, what I’ll do is I’m just going to put a link in the show notes to book a discovery call with me, okay? Just a quick call, we’ll talk about where you’re at where you could possibly be looking for support and where you’ve got it handled, and you’re doing fantastic. Okay?
Call me crazy. Option one, option two, do it yourself. And if you can do it yourself all the power to you, I just want you to succeed.
So, it doesn’t matter. If you don’t need my support, go for it. Great, I want you to be successful. But I’ve seen time and time again, when we get the support, then we move forward, faster.
Alright, so I’d love to have a conversation with you. The links are gonna be in the show notes. It should be https://aimeecerka.com/discovery. But just check the link in the show notes.
We talked today about being in a good place financially. And when you’re in a good place, financial aid is where we kind of let some of those things that we did when we when money was really tight; where we were like pinching pennies and those things that we let go because it doesn’t feel as urgent.
And we have so many things that are calling for our attention. So, by prioritizing and knowing where you’re at with the numbers, both personally and on your business side, not just tax time, that is going to help you move forward. And if you’ve got a bookkeeper, fantastic if you’re doing the things that you need to if your spouse does the numbers, I just want you to be aware of where things are at and feel confident.
Just being able to look at the numbers, we remove the emotion from it. And that’s really what I do with a lot of the coaching portion is I give you a step-by-step strategy. You can go do that. I give you a lot of it here.
If you’re struggling with the emotion portion, that’s where the coaching comes in. And then just let’s talk let’s get on a discovery call.
But this was a little bit more of a rant today. Um, it’s important to me and I hate hearing like okay, well, we don’t have to be in a restrictive place. I‘m not really doing this. I’m not looking at the numbers. I’m not a numbers person. I just don’t have the time for it. Really the biggest one is like we’re doing okay, like we don’t have to do that budget thing.
Please stop. You’re costing yourself so much money.
Alright, I’m gonna stop rambling. That is it for this week. Let me know. Send me a message on Instagram shoot me a text message. I want to hear from you. What was your biggest takeaway from this week’s episode? We’ll see you next time. Bye for now.
Thank you so much for listening to Your Money Your Life podcast. Ready to dive in? Money Mastery Academy is like the all-inclusive resort. Everything you need to step into unstoppable finances and create that abundant life. Finally, take control of your money.
When you do that, the pressure will be gone off your shoulders and you won’t have to work 80 hours a day and night and your calendar won’t be booked to the max with work. Your finances and your money do not have to be a struggle.
With Money Mastery Academy, all this is possible. It does not have to be complicated and you can do this. Go to https://aimeecerka.com/academy and let’s make today the day that you draw a line in the sand and take control of your financial future for good. I’ll see you there!
