Your Money, Your Rules | Financial Freedom, Money Management, Abundance Mindset, Budgeting, Financial Planning

127 | Is Your Budgeting Software Preventing Wealth?

• Erin Gray | Spiritual Wealth Coach, Former Certified Financial Planner and CFO

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Your financial software is designed to track your past — not create your future.  In this episode, we explore how tools like Monarch Money, QuickBooks, and your banking apps reflect where you've been, not where you're going.

When you let old numbers dictate what’s possible, you unconsciously keep recreating the same financial story. True transformation starts by shifting your self-concept and making decisions from who you want to become, not who you’ve been.

We dive into:

  • How past financial data reflects old beliefs, comfort zones, and identity
  • Why relying on your history puts an invisible ceiling on your growth
  • The power of making decisions based on your desired future — even when it feels uncomfortable
  • How your nervous system resists new financial patterns, and why that’s normal
  • Ways to repurpose your financial software: celebrate what you’ve already created, then play with new “what ifs”

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Step 3: Ready to transform your relationship with money and build true financial confidence?

Let’s create a plan that feels aligned, intentional, and empowering—just for you.

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Money doesn't have to feel overwhelming. Let's create a plan that feels nurturing and custom to you.

From my soul to yours,

Erin

Speaker 1:

Have you ever noticed that your financial software is designed to show you exactly where you are right now and when you've been? It's built to track your past habits, which came from your old way of thinking, your belief systems and your identity. But if you want to create something new financially, you have to start focusing on where you are going, and in today's episode, I'm going to be breaking down for you how this simple shift can change everything. Welcome to your Money, your Rules podcast with me, your host, erin Gray. I'm grateful that you are here and let's dive into the awareness that I had the other day as I was looking at our own financial software. So on a couple of podcasts back, I talked about the new financial software that I'm using, which is called Monarch Money, and although I think that, like anything QuickBooks or Monarch Money or whatever you're using in your personal life and in your business they are necessary to see how you want to allocate your money and where you did allocate it for the past months, but that is the thing about these softwares, about taxes, about everything. It is about looking back to where you have been, not where you're going. So your financial software is very much so backward, looking by design. You know, like I said, quickbooks, sage, empower, monarch, your bank apps they are all tracking tools and they tell you what you have spent, what you have received and what your current balances are. And this is I would say it's valuable for your awareness and for your stewardship of money. And those numbers are a reflection of your past decisions and past decisions. They are driven from your previous beliefs, from where you might feel comfortable in your window of tolerance or your comfort zone in your nervous system. So, or think about, like your nervous system capacity, right? So as you evolve and grow and change your identity and you desire more, your expenses are going to grow. Like that's one of the things that I had to realize, because I was taught to keep your expenses low. But if I want to live in a bigger house, if I wanna take different vacations, if I want my business to grow, I'm going to have higher expenses, or I call them receipts of appreciation, right? So we have to take that into consideration. So I wanna talk about why this actually keeps us creating more of the same if we aren't aware of what we are actually looking at with our financial tools or software programs. So, if you only ever look at your current cash flow or your historical spending. Your brain this is when we are doing this.

Speaker 1:

Unconsciously and also subconsciously. Your brain is going to use that data to decide what's possible for the next right, versus intentionally deciding what it is that you want to manifest Our future. It is determined by our current thinking, our belief systems, basically our identity. Who we believe we are right now is what's going to create tomorrow and a month from now. So when I work with clients, we focus so heavily on their self-concept where they want to go, not where they have been. Yes, it is important, when you are processing your emotions and when you're feeling things, to allow those stories to come up. But what we don't want to do is continue to rehash all of those stories because replanting them in our mind and in our subconscious. So if you want support to peel back you know that onion of who you think you have been and transform your relationship with yourself and money, I would love to support you. If you want to schedule a clarity call, all you have to do is go in the show notes, click on the link and schedule a time that is going to work well for you and for us to connect. Let's see if we're a good fit for each other. So how do you actually start to focus on where you are going?

Speaker 1:

First and foremost, what I always say about everything, it is awareness and it is practice. You have to start making decisions around spending, saving, investing, pricing based on the future that you are building, not the who you have been, not on the past, not on your past decisions, not on what's currently in your bank account, because that is all based on your previous thinking. So what this looks like is starting to question who am I? And I say who am I? Not, who am I becoming? Because becoming, I think, even talking about like the future self that keeps it in some future state. But who am I right now?

Speaker 1:

Now, sometimes we do have to use what I call bridge thoughts or language that helps us, our minds, because if our body rejects, if you say I'm a multimillionaire, but your body's like, no, you're not, okay, you're going to reject that, right, the subconscious is going to reject that. But if you use language like I am in the process of being a multimillionaire, that might be more acceptable to your body and believable. So use language like that, so focusing on your self-concept, your identity, of who you are, who you believe yourself to be, what you believe you are capable of having and receiving. That is important work that I do with clients, because we can only receive to the capacity of what we believe we are worthy of having and who we are. So think about what do you feel on a daily basis? What action are you taking that is different from what you are currently doing? Because when you think differently, empowering thoughts, when you feel gratitude for the money that you have and for the money that is coming to you, when you feel gratitude for the money that you have and for the money that is coming to you, when you feel love with your money, when you feel empowered and confident, that is very different energy that you show up in and that you take action from.

Speaker 1:

So I always like to tie it back in and bring in the nervous system, because I think that you know we can talk a lot about and we can write down our affirmations and we can say all of these things to ourselves, but if we haven't taught the body how to feel safe and how to be at ease with it, then it's going to do a couple of things. It's going to take longer, and or it doesn't actually happen because your body doesn't believe it. So when you think about tying this back to your nervous system, this is why some of this work feels uncomfortable, Because your body wants to stay anchored into what it knows, even if that isn't what you want, but feels familiar in the body. So what we have to do is make it feel familiar and natural to the new state of being. So when you start operating from future possibilities like raising your prices or investing your money in bigger ways, it might feel in the body unsafe, but it just what I think of it when I the language that I like to use is it just isn't familiar yet. That's all that's happening. It's not unsafe. It's nothing's gone wrong. It's just something that I haven't practiced a lot yet. So it doesn't feel natural to the body, and so it doesn't mean that it's not correct for you. It just means you haven't practiced it enough.

Speaker 1:

So the goal is to practice it a lot. You know your work, our work. I think you know a lot of us have grown up like you have to work hard for money. I don't think that's true. I think what we have to put forth a lot of effort in is into our mindset, is into our nervous system. Regulation is in. When our minds say that that can't be done, we immediately correct that thought and we think another thought we are practicing being more at ease and in flow than we are restricted or tightened up or feeling stress in our bodies, like that's what I think, and I'm air quoting. The hard work is so it's building up this new tolerance for these new levels. So you might be thinking like, okay, well, erin, how do I do both? How do I still use my financial software wisely and to help me move forward down my path, but also not look at it from. This is where I am and this is where I'm going.

Speaker 1:

So I think, first and foremost with this is to use it to celebrate what you have created up until this point. You know, look at your total assets and your net worth and the amount of money that you've circulated and find and feel gratitude in your body for what you have done. Yeah, I don't think a lot of us celebrate. I think we withhold that from ourselves until we think, you know, we get to our end goal, versus celebrating Like every time you get to sit down with your money is an opportunity for you to celebrate and then create some future focus plans, setting goals, playing with what ifs living in your imagination and what I call the 5D. That's how we actually bring it into the 3D observed world. So play with. What do you want? What would you love? You know how much money would you actually want to start circulating? If you're circulating 10 to 15,000 a month? What would it feel like to circulate 30,000 a month? And I always say and encourage, and what I want to do for you, for each of you, and for my clients, is to empower you right.

Speaker 1:

So, maintaining and standing in your power, letting the software that you're using be a tool. It is not the crystal ball, it is not something that you know. Our past does not get to dictate what our next chapter is, where we are going, your self-concept, your imagination and the feelings and the actions that you are taking. You know what that screenshot is is what you've done in the past, which I've always found so fascinating, like with gap rules and taxes and even with medical charts. It's like it's all based on our past, but that's not how we create our future. So it's like what does that even have to do with where I'm going. Nothing actually.

Speaker 1:

So, looking at things from a very not holding or gripping tightly to that, I think a lot of us look at oh well, maybe we had debt because we started our business, or you know our month last month. It's just data and information. We don't have to become attached to it and make it mean anything about us. So, to recap is I want you to look at your financial software as to show you what you have created and what your belief systems were in the past. So, if you aren't aware, you are going to be looking at the observed world, meaning. You're going to be looking at your reports and you're going to make meaning from those reports and from those meanings and from those thoughts and those feelings. You're going to create more of the same, instead of looking at it and just seeing, oh, what was I thinking that created that? Or just celebrating what you did create.

Speaker 1:

And then, what do I want to create next month or over the next six months or in the next five years? Like thinking from your first and foremost, your imagined state, and what would you love to create? True, I think, true financial and personal growth comes from making decisions on where you are going, not where you have been, and I think this is where we also get to be really kind to ourselves and to our nervous system. Like your nervous system needs time to acclimate to this new vision, and I think and I always encourage clients where we are expanding, you know, think about your window of tolerance like a rubber band as you expand and you are growing. What doesn't feel very kind or loving to the nervous system is to just go so far outside the comfort zone that you almost have a retraction. So what would be a little bit outside your comfort zone? Maybe it's not going from $15,000 to $30,000 in you know expenses a month, but what is something that maybe you can start investing in yourself, that maybe you've been saying no to.

Speaker 1:

You know what's that next goal that feels maybe a little uncomfortable in your body but that is requiring you to have more faith and belief in yourself. And what kind of feelings would you have once you've accomplished that? And what action? What different feelings would you have once you've accomplished that? And what action? What different action would you be taking? So, starting to play with, I always say like, keep it fun, keep it light, and what kind of thoughts and beliefs do you want to play with to allow for you to expand? Okay, thank you for tuning in today and, and if you found this episode helpful, it would mean a lot to me if you left a review. I appreciate you and I'll see you in the next episode.