Accelerate Your Legacy
Accelerate Your Legacy
52. The Truth About Budgets & Freedom
In this episode, Laura Sexton discusses the misconception that having a budget limits freedom. She emphasizes the importance of reframing one's mindset and using coaching techniques to navigate circumstances positively. Laura challenges the notion that a budget restricts freedom, asserting that individuals remain in control of their financial decisions. The discussion highlights the significance of making budgetary decisions from a positive, collaborative mental space. The episode also explores how budgeting reduces decision fatigue, provides a framework for intentional choices, and serves as a tool to manage time during the holiday season.
In this episode we’ll discuss:
. Empowerment through budgeting
. Positive Decision-making
. Budget as a Stress Relief Tool
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Hello and welcome to the Accelerate Your Legacy podcast. I'm Laura Sexton, your trusted financial coach and money mindset specialist. Join me as we explore the world of money and money mindset while also paving the way for a lasting legacy that extends far beyond money. Together we'll eliminate stress, amplify freedom, and ensure you stop paying for your past so you can start saving for your future. If you're seeking peace in your finances, more margin in your budget, and a legacy that inspires generations to come, you're in the right place. Hey, Accelerators! I hope you are having an absolutely lovely Thursday morning. Are you feeling the spirit of the season? Are you guys in it? Is it magical for you? Or are you a little grumpy because things aren't turning out exactly how you planned? I can see both sides. I totally understand that. We had a stomach bug ripped through our house. That's why the podcast was late last week. It was not fun. I wouldn't recommend it. Zero stars. We went through it and I have decided that instead of being frustrated that we were all sick, I'm going to look at it as moving into the new year with a healthier immune system. Sometimes it's all about reframing the way that we see things and that's what coaching is. It is a chance to look at your circumstances and your mindset around it, and then change it and put a strategy in place to make things better for yourself. So, I've been doing some self coaching, and I would like to encourage you to do the same. If you have a journal sitting down and looking at your circumstances, and then looking at how you choose to change them. Or you can reach out to me and we can coach together because that would be fun for me. All right. I wanted to get into the lie. That having a budget limits your freedom, I have heard this occasionally. Usually people don't say it to me directly. People aren't like, I don't want to budget because it's not any fun. The act of doing a budget is usually what people say is limiting to them, but it's really because they're afraid that a budget is going to be restrictive and sometimes they're afraid that me is the financial coach that I'm going to tell them they can't do things. And whereas I have told people they can't go on their trip to Hawaii when they're hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. I don't ever say you can't do it indefinitely. And it's never my call anyway. So, if it wouldn't be what I would choose to do, but it's still what you choose to do. Let's figure out how to do that in the best possible way. So, the budget. Isn't in charge, and that may sound strange coming from a financial coach. The budget isn't in charge until after you fill it out. Once you fill it out, you give it the authority to dictate to you what you do and do not do. You see, you are in charge 100 percent of the time you are in charge of what happens to your money You may say, Laura, all of my money is flying out the window. I don't even know what's happening to it. That's your fault my friend. That's up to you. You get to choose how you handle your money. So, whether you're handling your money indifferently, where you're not paying any attention to it, that's your choice. Or, you can sit down and decide ahead of time, when you're in a healthy mind space, what your budget is going to do. You fill it out, and then your budget is in charge, but it's not in charge until after you tell it what to do. So, really, you are in charge. You're just allowing the budget to be the tool that's going to help propel you forward. You see, the most important thing to do when making the budget is to make the decisions when you are in a positive, collaborative mental space. Here's what I mean by that. If you are angry. And you are combative with your partner, that's a horrible time to make a budget because you can be very dismissive of what you're feeling or what the other person's feeling, because you're just trying to hurry up and get it done. That is never the way to make sure that things are done in a healthy dynamic. If you are feeling very restrictive and closed off and frustrated, your budget's going to reflect that. You're going to make decisions that are too rigid and you aren't able to stick with them. So then you're, okay, I guess I'm never going to be able to stick with a budget. Look, I just proved it to myself. You need to go in when you're feeling calm and collected and optimistic. And that's not saying I'm optimistic, so I'm going to overly fund categories and I'm going to, no, because then you're not going to do things correctly. You have to be in an open, collaborative, positive mind space. And when you are there, you are able to work on a budget that is actually a depiction of your day to day life. And it's also a depiction of what you want your life to be. Creating a budget cuts down on your decision fatigue, which Is huge. I can't tell you how many evenings I get to and I can't decide what's for dinner. Have you seen that meme says something along the lines of being an adult means deciding what's for dinner every night for the rest of your life. It's true. And it's hard. I don't know about you, but I get to the end of the night and I am just so overwhelmed. I can't decide on anything. And the kids are like, what's for dinner? And I'm like, I don't know. I don't know. I can't I've done. I've made all the decisions I can make because I'm at the point in my life where I'm making a decision for 5 different people, all of their decisions all day. All day long. It's not just me. It's me and my four children that I have to make decisions for and sometimes my husband wants me to make decisions for him. And so that's a sixth person. And it's like, that's so many decisions that I have to make. So making the decision. On your budget on paper on purpose before a situation arises, you've already made the decision. You don't have to change anything. You don't have to decide anything. The decisions already made. It's already on paper for you. So, if you have 12 dollars left and you're going out to eat budget and your friend asked you to go out for tacos. Cool. I've got 12 dollars. That means I can get tacos, but no margarita. Okay. Is that what I want to do with my time? Is that what I want to do with my money? If you are sitting there and your friend invites you out to dinner and you're going out to some way fancy schmancy restaurant and you have 12, guess what? You probably shouldn't go because you don't have any money unless your friend's treating you. Your decisions are already made on purpose, so you just have to stick with them. And sometimes this is an integrity issue. This is not in my notes, but I'm going to go here. It's an integrity issue. Are you able to hold yourself accountable to what you say you actually want? If you've written down, I only have 12 dollars to spend, but you go out and spend 112. You are no longer in integrity with yourself because you are not staying true to what you said you were going to do. To be a person of integrity, you have to make these decisions and then stick to them. Along a similar note, your budget will give you an out when people are asking too much of you. This comes up a lot this time of year, if you have been invited to 14 different parties, and all of them expect you to bake cookies for all the parties, and you're supposed to bring a gift to all the parties. You can say, no, I'm so sorry. It's not in the budget right now. I'm so sorry we chose to spend our money on other things this month, or you can say it in a way that totally takes you off the hook. Our budget is so tight right now. I'm so sorry. You're allowed to say it's not in the budget right now. Now, you were the one that sets the budget. So, if you wanted to change things to make that weird, crazy aunt happy, you could. But if you don't want to go over to Weird Crazy Aunt's house, and you just want to stay home, I'm so sorry it's not in the budget for us right now. Also, you have a time budget, my friends, and you only have so much time in the season, and I want you to enjoy the season. You cannot enjoy the season if you are overstressed, overspent, It's not going to be enjoyable. Budget your time, budget your money. Your budget also frees you from the stress of not knowing if you have enough. And this is really, really big, especially everything. Everything feels especially this time of year. If you don't know if you have enough money at the end of the month. To buy food, that's not an okay place to be. It is not okay for you to be stressed about whether or not you have enough money to eat, whether or not you're going to be able to pay your rent or your mortgage on the 1st, whether or not your utilities are going to get shut off because you spent a whole lot of money going out to eat, going to that Christmas party, buying a gift for somebody you don't even like, because you felt like you were supposed to. Do not allow yourself to feel shame or guilt over purchases because you made the purchase, but then you weren't sure if you were going to be able to keep a roof over your head, or you weren't sure if you were going to be able to make your car payment. Do not lose what's most important for what feels good in this one moment. Do not give up what you want most for what you want right now, the budget is going to keep you from that stress that anxiety. I know what it's like to be behind the mom at the grocery store who is having to take things off. The conveyor belt, because it's too much money having to put things back. I'm very thankful that I have never been that mother myself, but I have been there behind. That mother with her screaming child, and she's having to decide between the milk and the bread. And thankfully, when I am behind that person, I can say, I'll just pay for that. I'll cover that. Don't worry about it. That is a true joy and pleasure in my life. No mom should have to decide between buying formula and buying milk. You guys can hear my voice is going out a little bit. I'm still recovering. From a little bit of sickness, but I am pushing through the last thing I'm going to talk to you about this budget is that it's not actually hard to create. A lot of times people will push back and they're like, I have to figure out numbers and I have to do this and I have to do that. And it's going to be so incredibly difficult. And it's the fear and the stress of starting. That's keeping you from creating this 1 tool that can change your life. I'm not even pretending your budget can change your life for the better. And it's not that difficult to set up. I actually have my better budget boot camp. It is 15 minutes a day for 5 days, and you will have a budget that works for you. I promise you it is a spending plan that works for you plan your spending and then enjoy it. If you give yourself permission to spend your money. You're going to enjoy it so much better so you can do the 15 minutes a day for 5 days that better budget boot camp. It's only 27 dollars. I highly, highly recommend you go through it. It's a wonderful or. We can get together and do a budget deep dive strategy session where we spend 2 hours, just you and me digging into the numbers and making sure that you are set up with your spending your debt payoff your savings. And you're investing, let's make sure that. All four areas of your finances are set up on a plan so that you win in the new year. 2024 is just around the corner. If you blink, you will miss the festivities of the holidays. But don't blink. Enjoy the moments that you get with your family. Budget your time. Budget your money. Do what you need to do so that you have no stress. At the end of the year, I'm so thankful that I get to spend this time of year with 4 beautiful children who are happy. We are on the men to being mostly healthy and we are thriving in the season because they're singing joy to the Lord over and over and over again. The fact that our kids don't understand all of the words to the Christmas songs, I think actually makes them better. Maybe it's just me, but I think it actually makes it better. All right, friends, I so look forward to being with you again next time. Go out and make a difference. Thank you for investing your time with us today on the Accelerate Your Legacy podcast. Remember, your legacy isn't just measured in dollars and cents, but in the tools, habits, mindset, and reputation you leave behind. Don't just listen to the show, but take action on what you've learned. Share this wisdom with a friend who can benefit and help us spread the word by rating and reviewing the podcast. For questions or encouragement, reach out to me on Instagram at Accelerate Your Legacy or explore the resources listed in the show notes. I will be back with you next week. Until then, build your legacy with intention.