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Welcome to Money Talk for Real, a podcast where I talk about making money, spending money, and everything in between. I'm Nick, and in this episode, I'm just gonna kind of hit you with this. You're probably doing worse with money than what you think. And I know that one might hit a little close to home because most people probably don't want to hear that. But yes, you're probably worse with money than what you think you are. Not because you're dumb, not because you're lazy, but maybe just because you've never actually been shown what, quote, good with money looks like. So in this episode, I'm gonna break down and and and keep in mind, this is gonna be my opinion, very opinionated here. Um, I'm gonna break down the signs that kind of, in my again, opinion would indicate that you're not as solid financially as you think you are. And I'm also gonna talk about the ways that people lose money every month and then what actually being good with money really looks like or at least can look like. And I promise by the end of this, you're either going to feel like I'm calling you out, or you're going to fix something. We'll we'll see what uh what the outcome is. But let's get into it. Let's start with this. The most people think that they're at least okay with money. You think you're fine. You're kind of in the I think I'm fine trap because either you don't want to look at it, you don't want to talk about it, or you're quote, getting by. You know, it's not painful, but it's you're not successful either. You're you're you're fine, right? You're in the fine trap. You're not amazing, but you're also not terrible. It's like uh, you know, you pay your bills, you're not crazy in debt, you've got some money in the bank. So you kind of just assume, all right, I'm doing okay. But here's the problem: that's a really low bar. Don't devalue yourself like that. That's not being good with money, that's just kind of surviving with money. Being good with money would mean that you're intentional. It would mean that you're in control, it would mean that your money is actually moving you forward. But most people, they're kind of just maintaining, and maintaining feels fine, I guess, until something goes wrong. So let's get real for a second. Here are some signs that I've came up with that would indicate that you're probably worse with money than what you think. Number one, red flag. You don't know your numbers. If I asked you right now, how much did you spend last month? How much do you have saved? How much you know, how much do you have saved from last month? How much went to random stuff? Do you know or do you not? Because if you don't know, that's a problem. Not knowing your numbers is not having control, which is a red flag that you're you know probably worse with money than what you think. Number two, you feel kind of just like randomly broke all the time. You ever had this happen? You get paid, and then all of a sudden you're like, wait, where did my money go? That's not random. That's a system problem. Next, I would say that you justify small spending constantly. That's a red flag. This is a big one. It's only $10. Has that ever come out of your mouth? Or you say, it's just this once. Or you might say, Well, I deserve this. You know, treat yourself. I deserve this mindset. Individually, nothing crazy, but if you stack them over time, that's hundreds of dollars a month. And I'm not exaggerating when I say that. Could even be thousands, depending on what kind of spender you really are. Next red flag. You rely on what I'm gonna call the future version of you. You might say something like, I'll save next month. I'll start budgeting soon. I'll figure it out later. I'm gonna, you know, after first of the year, I'm gonna start doing better. After my birthday, I'm gonna start doing better. After I get that raise, I'm gonna start doing better. After my wife gets a new job, I'm gonna start doing better. The future you is doing a lot of heavy lifting in those type of conversations. The last thing, you're not actually building anything. You have no savings plan, you have no investing habit, you have no system. Your trait or your your timeline right now is just income and then spending and then repeat. That's not a plan, that's a loop. So here's where it gets a little sneaky because most people aren't blowing money on crazy stuff, they're leaking it slowly, quietly, every single month. Just leaking money. Let's talk about a few of these. Number one, subscriptions that you forgot about. Streaming apps, uh mobile phone apps, games on your phone, and and streaming, by the way, could I I would also categorize that as content apps? So streaming apps meaning music. You might even have multiple categories, multiple apps for the same thing. Do you really need Pandora Plus and Spotify premium? Or can you get rid of one? Do you really need Netflix, Hulu, Paramount Plus, Stars, Peacock? Do you need all that or can you downsize? I'm not saying get rid of everything, but can you go back to maybe two streaming services? So streaming is music, it's video, and then also just content. For example, are you paying for a news article on the Wall Street Journal? Are you paying for premium content on the Associated Press? A lot of times those have a paywall after you read a certain amount of articles, they you have to pay for that. Did you forget about that and you keep paying subscriptions every single month? Another thing kind of going along with that, maybe you didn't forget, maybe it's just a random trial, a free trial that never got canceled and they automatically charged you. You don't feel these things all the time because a lot of these streaming apps, a lot of the music apps, the mobile apps, a lot of that stuff is not big money. You might not even notice it leaving your account until you do an audit on your account once a month and you see how much you've actually spent. You don't feel it, right? But it's there for sure. The next thing, uh convenience spending. Eating out all the time. You're on your way home, you're running late, you didn't plan very well, stop by McDonald's, stop by Burger King, stop by and get a pizza, order a pizza and have it delivered to your house. Order something on DoorDash, it'll be there when you get home. That's convenience spending. Eating out and delivery. You're paying to save the time. Again, not evil, but it's constant, and that all adds up. You do that every weekend, four weekends a month. The pennies turn into dollars over time. What about those quote, just browsing purchases? You didn't plan that, you didn't plan anything. It felt small enough to justify, though. You're like, oh, I'm just looking. This is cute. Boom, add to cart, checkout, automatically deducted out of your account. Another thing would be the upgrades that you really didn't need. Maybe it was a better version, it was flashy, it had some new features, maybe it was a faster option, a nicer brand. You didn't need that, but you bought it anyway because it was flashy. They sold you on something. Their marketing tactic worked. And here's the thing none of these feel like mistakes. And that's exactly why they're dangerous. Because they don't feel like you're losing money. But you are. And if you don't feel like you're losing money, you don't feel the, I guess, negative repercussions. You don't feel the negative impact on your finances, so you're gonna keep doing it. Humans need to be slapped on the wrist sometimes, figuratively. So why does this happen? Well, what you know, why at the end of the day, the real question is why are so many people bad with money without realizing it? It's mainly because no one teaches you this stuff. You know, there's memes on Facebook about really, you know, happy I learned about the Pythagorean theorem and not taxes. Well, right there with taxes would be in school, they should teach you about money, how to manage money, how to think about money. Just being in the mindset and thinking about money can really help you out in life before you get out of high school and actually have money problems. But you're not taught that. You're not taught how to manage money, you're not taught how to think about money, you're not taught how to build systems. So you kind of just guess. And nowadays you really guess off of what everybody says online. And I realize the irony. Here I am doing a podcast online, but you kind of just guess on what people say. And another reason this happens and you get into these situations is because you make enough to get by. This is a big one. You're not struggling, you're not struggling enough to fix it at least, but you're also not thriving enough to grow. So you kind of just stay stuck in the middle. Another thing is everything is designed nowadays in this world to take your money. Everything's designed to take your money. The subscriptions I talked about, the ads. People are paying big money for the ads. They really hope you click on it. They have some really good ads because that's how they make their money back. And those ads are designed to work, to get you to spend money. What about the websites that have one-click checkout? It is easier than ever to spend money right now. The limited time offers, that's called creating a sense of urgency. It's a marketing tactic to get you to spend money right now because you have FOMO. They make it seem like if you're not buying it right now, then you're missing out. And so they take your money that way. You're constantly being nudged to spend money. You also don't feel the long-term impact. I've talked about that a little bit. But you spend $20 today, it doesn't hurt, right? It's not a huge deal to most people. But if you do that repeatedly every day or every week or every month for years, that's where the damage is. So let's do a kind of quick reality check here. Let me give you a quick scenario, an example. Let's say that someone makes $60,000 a year. They think they're fine, but they have no real savings. There's no investing. They're always tight at the end of the month. That's really not a money problem. That's a management problem. And you could argue, well, $60,000 a year really isn't a lot of money nowadays. Compared to what? Compared to something you saw online or what you think you should be making. I understand, you know, there's economical inflation. Prices have gone up. There's no argument there, but so has people spending. That's not a money problem in that scenario. That's a management problem because someone else making the same amount of money with a system could be saving consistently. They could be building a cushion, working on their margin, working on their gap between expenses and income, actually progressing on the exact same income, yet, person two, in my example, has a completely different outcome. So let's flip it for a second. What does it actually look like? What does it mean to be good with money? Number one, know your numbers. Not perfectly, but at least clearly. Understand. When I said a minute ago, if I asked you those questions about your finance, would you know the answer? Know your answers, know your numbers. Have a simple system, something, some sort of structure. I say this on every episode, some sort of system. When money comes in, it goes where it's supposed to go. And where it's supposed to go is determined by you. You tell it where to go. Be intentional with your money. The next thing I would say is build something, whether that's savings, whether that's investments, whether that's just some sort of financial progress, build something. Work on something, have a plan. Again, be intentional. You need to spend on purpose, not by accident. And then you'll start improving month by month. Small wins compound, pennies turn to dollars over time. That's it. It's not complicated, it's just consistent. Because the truth is that most people don't have a money problem. They have a blind spot. They have just an unknown, maybe they're not educated. And ironically, that's the whole purpose of me doing this podcast is to try to help some people understand money. You can get advice all over the internet, and I hope that you would take mine seriously. Once you see that blind spot, you can fix it. You just have to recognize it, be aware of it, and honestly, be in the mindset to willing to change it. Changing your personal finances can change your life. I understand money doesn't buy happiness, but money makes the world turn. So you might be worse with money than what you think, and that's okay. That could be a good thing because now you know, and once you know, you can change it. I hope this hits home for some of you. And if you have a financial situation that, you know, this that where this feels like it is hitting home and you feel like you are worse with money than what you think, let me help you. Let me at least talk about it and give you my two cents worth. You can submit your information to me on my website at money talkforreal.com. There's a link called debt help. And you can record, you you can just talk into your microphone and record and send me an audio version right there through the website. I can play it on the show and walk through your financial situation. If you're uncomfortable doing that, you can also type it all out. But that's money talkforreal.com slash debt help. Money talkforreal.com slash D E B T H E L P. If this hit home, send it to someone else who says, I don't know where my money goes. You might be able to help them too. Thanks so much for listening. Leave a five star review. I'll catch you on the next episode. This is Money Talk For Real.