Have you ever felt like your financial goals are just fantasies? I've been there, setting my sights high only to crash into the reality of unmet expectations. We often find ourselves aiming for the moon with our money, only to end up lost in space.
In this revealing discussion, you'll learn how to anchor your financial aspirations in the realm of the possible and why it's essential for a stress-free and shame-free journey to monetary success.
To sign up for my free live class: Sign Up Here
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Have you ever felt like your financial goals are just fantasies? I've been there, setting my sights high only to crash into the reality of unmet expectations. We often find ourselves aiming for the moon with our money, only to end up lost in space.
In this revealing discussion, you'll learn how to anchor your financial aspirations in the realm of the possible and why it's essential for a stress-free and shame-free journey to monetary success.
To sign up for my free live class: Sign Up Here
You Might Like:
Hey, this is Allison, and welcome to the Inspire Budget podcast where we talk all things budgeting debt and saving money Once we close out 2023,. I have a little treat for you to kick off a new year. Starting soon, I'm doing a special three part podcast series, so it's going to be three episodes. They're going to be super short, easy to digest and listen to, and in them we're going to be covering three massive mistakes to avoid when it comes to your money. Now, I've worked with thousands of women over the past several years and I've seen these same mistakes repeated over and over again, and the crazy thing is, most people don't even realize they're making these mistakes. So today we're going to be covering mistake number one. Before we dive in, I want to let you know that I am hosting actually two free trainings in January that I would love for you to come to. These free live trainings are meant to help you start your year off right when it comes to your money. They are both identical. I have two times for you to choose from, and it's called four simple steps to budget and pay off debt without cutting out all the fun. You can click the link in the show notes to get more information and learn how to sign up, or you can go to inspirebudgetcom slash class to save your spot. Okay, let's dive into the mistakes to avoid with your money. Now here's the deal when you are aware of the common mistakes to avoid, you can actually stop making them. You see yourself making them and you can start making progress with your money. You, honestly, might not even realize that you're making these mistakes, but once you hear them, you're likely to start seeing them in your life, which is a really good thing. That's when you can put a stop to them.
Speaker 1:Mistake number one is setting unrealistic expectations for your money and your financial future. Now, I remember reading a book on personal finance years ago, and the author recommended that I cut out every single thing from my budget and that's how I would be able to pay off debt or save money. Now, this was great in theory the idea of it was great but I found myself, when I started doing this, resenting my budget and I realized that I still wanted to be able to spend money on what I wanted while working towards paying off debt. And what I wanted at that time in my life was a Starbucks latte every single Friday as my reward for making it through the week. You see, I was a teacher and by making it to the end of the week I always wanted to celebrate with a Starbucks latte. But I had heard over and over again that if I just cut out lattes and I don't know everything else in life that brings you joy, then you'll be able to reach debt freedom, then you'll be able to invest, then you will be able to save money and that's when your budget will work. But this expectation that I just cut out all of my spending money on anything that brings me joy and fun and only focus on paying off debt was completely unrealistic.
Speaker 1:Now here's what happens when you set unrealistic expectations for your money. First you set a goal such as I don't know, I'm going to pay off my credit card debt in two months. Right, you set this goal and you've done the math and you figure out that if you don't spend money on anything and you send every extra penny you have to your credit card, you'll be able to pay it off in two months. But then life happens, things don't always go as planned and that incredibly awesome goal you wanted to meet doesn't get met. That's when maybe, you start feeling stress, shame. Maybe you even start to feel like a failure. Maybe you even start to think this won't work for me. Sure, reaching debt freedom or writing a budget might work for other people, but not you. And then, months later, you start the cycle all over again. You find yourself in this cycle of starting and stopping when it comes to writing a budget or paying off debt, which is ultimately leading to little or no real progress.
Speaker 1:I see this all the time. The problem doesn't lie in you and the unexpected expenses that pop up. Nope, that's not the problem. The real problem is that at the very beginning, you set these unrealistic expectations because you were eager for a quick fix or a dramatic change in your financial situation. So you set expectations for the version of you that doesn't really exist. This is the version of you that never has an unexpected expense come up, or the version of you that cooks a homemade meal every single night and doesn't ever spend a dime unplanned. But guess what? That version of you only lives in your daydreams, and when you set money goals or a budget goal for that version of you that doesn't really exist, you are destined to be let down. So it's time to let go of perfection and set money and budget goals that match your real life, you will have a more balanced life and realize that you can use a budget to reach your money goals for the rest of your life when you set realistic expectations.
Speaker 1:Now I want you to think back to the budgets that you've made in the past or the money goals that you've set in the past, and I want you to ask yourself if you have fallen into the trap of making the mistake where you set completely unrealistic expectations with your money. If you're nodding your head yes, right now then do me a favor. First, don't beat yourself up. Learning to manage your money effectively. It takes time, energy and patience. So the next time you set an expectation for yourself, ask yourself if you're setting this expectation for the real you or the version of you that just lives in your daydreams. When you do write your budget or set money goals that are realistic, your budget becomes something that you can actually stick to and those goals are doable. Now, if you wanna learn how to write a budget that will fit the life you love, you need a system in place, and I'm sharing more about that system that has helped me and over a thousand women write a budget that helps them live their life, pay off debt and still spend money on what they love, and I'm sharing all about it in a free live training coming up next week.
Speaker 1:Now you can join me for my training. It's called Four Simple Steps to Budget and Pay Off Debt without cutting all the fun. We have two sessions. The first training is going to be on January 2nd at 8 pm Eastern Standard Time. The second one is going to be on January 4th at 8 pm Eastern Standard Time. If you can't join me live, but you still wanna get the replay, that's totally fine. Make sure you sign up for one of the sessions, though, because I'm only sending the replay to people who register. You can go to inspirebudgetcom slash class to save your spot, or just click the link in the show notes, and I cannot wait to see you there. Be sure to come back tomorrow for part two of this special three-part series. See you then.