Why You Should Use The B Word

Have you ever wondered how you are going to pay an unsuspected bill that pops up?  Ever had a surgery that you did not know how you were going to pay for, but it was life or death?  What about dreading to go to work, but you do because there are car payments, house payments, credit card payments etc.

Most people are living paycheck to paycheck and can not afford to take pay reductions, furloughs, or worse being let go. One slip up in the paycheck will put us in a downward spiral financially.

Today I want to focus on how to add security to your way of life!  Today we talk about the B-word.  That’s right…Budgets.  Now stop rolling your eyes for a few minutes and read on.  This will truly help you!  It helped me over a decade ago when I finally got control of my finances.

Dave Ramsey offers an amazing course called Financial Peace University that I took over a decade ago.  I have applied his principals ever since taking that class.  The core aspect to this training is you guessed it, the Budget!  The budget is the foundational part about becoming a millionaire.  Of all the people doing their debt free screams on his show and the millionaire half hours 99% run off of a budget.  If you want to be wealthy in the future, you’ve got to do your budget! When interviewed the millionaires said they use a budget to make money work for them to grow their wealth.  No surprise lotto tickets, no rich uncles deciding to bless them, a budget.

Corporations also use budgets to make sure they do not run out of money.  By using budgets, corporations are able to apply income to certain business units in order to fund develop products, marketing, employee growth, legal services, etc.  The point here is that they are very intentional to make sure they are on budget to make money work for them.  Successful Corporations (Banks, Amazon, Apple, etc.) make money work for them to grow their wealth.  

We cannot just fly by the seat of our pants and hope for the best with financial security.  You Only Live Once (YOLO) unfortunately is not a term that works well with finances.  It’s the B-word that most people make disgusted faces when said out loud that will enable you to thrive long term.

During this pandemic season, I have had to reduce my income by 20 percent, we bought my wife a new used vehicle, and my wife changed jobs with a month of no income from her.  We were able to review the budget, see where we could cut costs during this season as well as move forward without getting into arguments.  It was one less item to worry about during this not so fun time.  We have been able to pay down the mortgage as well during this time.  Not just pay the mortgage payment, more payments onto the principal.

Budgeting has brought my wife and I closer as we talk about our future dreams and actually budget to make it a reality as we travel along in our marriage.  We even give our kids a budget for clothing and after school activities that they can manage how they choose.  They just need make sure they can afford it.  If they don’t have enough money, then they can’t do the activity.  Now the emotion is taken out of the discussion and the focus is on simple mathematics.  

If millionaires and corporations do budgets to succeed, what is keeping you from doing a budget?  

Do you not have the time?  

Does it seem like you don’t know where to start? 

What if I had a quick excel file you could use that auto calculates and allows you to do a budget?  Would that be useful to you?

Reach out and I would be glad to help you succeed with your finances and help you start the conversation with a financial advisor in order to win and have a better future!

Have a great day!

“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business.  I equip your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate explosive revenues with greater profits!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lWIVasmkFsoYL4h0AqIZgH6LC3qaw_gI/view?usp=sharing – client profile sheet

https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518 - Book

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/5AF12 - Sales Process Uncovered Online Training

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/68N10 - Trustworthy Online Training

Do What Wealthy People Do

What do Wealthy individuals do?  That is a question the majority of our population have.

I have sat with quite a few millionaires and learned this some interesting things.  First thing I learned is that 99% of wealthy individuals did not inherit their wealth.  Yep, that is right, they built it from the ground up.  Almost all of them did not win the lottery either.  So how did they do it?

The main reason these wealthy individuals did it is by using a Budget.  Yep, I used the B-word! They use budgets financially, with their time, and when they decide to take on a new venture. 

Hardworking individuals believe the B-word as a taboo discussion topic.  I get it!  I fought against using budgets until I took a class that helped me understand that if I tell my money what to do, it actually does what I want it to do. 

When I learned how freeing budgets can be, I was left wondering why I did not do this sooner.  I would have had so much more money at the end of the pay period and would have been able to invest more of my hard, earned money.  Yes, budgeting can be freeing for you and your loved ones.  My wife can use her money to buy whatever she wants with it. 

My wife and I started out our marriage with the monthly budget meeting.  We go through all of the line items including clothing, vacations, gifts, food, electric, etc.  If she decides to buy a whole bunch of coffee, she is free to do so without me condemning her because it is her money to budget for whatever she wants!  Have you ever had a fight over your significant other buying something that you haven’t agreed on? 

The monthly budget has helped our communication greatly as a by-product.  If you are in a relationship then you already know communication is huge in a relationship. 

Budgeting has been one of the single most effective ways for my wife and I to prepare for emergencies, taking vacations, date nights, etc.  We have had times where we had emergencies and by having a budget, we were able to overcome those emergencies quickly.  We also need to buy a new roof for our house that we have been planning for.  Roofs are pretty expensive and we will be able to afford it because we put it in the budget. 

You know what else has been great?  We actually give our kids a budget for clothing and after school activities that they can manage how they choose.  They just need make sure they can afford it.  If they don’t have enough money, then they don’t do the activity.  Now the emotion is taken out of the discussion and the focus is on saving up so they can do that activity in the future.  My hope is that they will keep budgeting for the rest of their life so they can retire with even more money that my wife and I.

Had we started earlier on investing into retirement we would have millions more when we retire.  Not a million…Millions! 

If you want to be successful and have a great retirement, you need to start with a budget.  I do not make any money off of this, but I also highly recommend you take financial peace university from Ramsey Solutions!  It is the class that started me on my financial journey over a decade ago and has helped our family with getting on track for a better future.

What is keeping you from sitting down and doing a budget? 

Do you not have the time? 

Does it seem like you don’t know where to start? 

What if I told you that if you emailed me, I would send you a FREE excel file that you could use for your own budget?   It does all of the calculations for you.  

Would that be helpful? 

If you want to become wealthy and have HOPE for your future, email me today and I will send you a copy of the budget file we use so that you can get on the road for a better future.

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business.  I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com