Budgeting Through Every Stage of a Woman’s Life

  From babysitting money to grand baby, money budgeting matters at every stage of a woman’s life. Yeah. In this episode, we’re walking you through exactly how budgeting looks and why it matters from high school to your golden years.

Okay, so let’s dive in here. We’re women. Vanessa, this is the Financial Coaching for Women podcast. So we should talk about budgeting for women. I think it’s a good plan. Yeah. And I think that budgeting for women in different stages of life is very different. So like whether you’re in high school, whether you’re even.

Like you have this teen girl that has, doesn’t even have a job yet. Like it’s important to know how to handle money at a young age. Yeah, and it’s funny because we got the idea to do this episode from a friend and client, but mostly friend who got our system. She implemented all of it and she’s but my college.

Daughter and niece need this. Yeah. So can you, what do you speak to? How can you speak to them? So we’re like, oh. And so then we’re like it’s actually every age has like different nuances and we are here for everyone. Specifically we are women, so we know how to speak to you more specifically, right?

We want you to have financial literacy and we want, so we’re just gonna go through all the stages and see what trouble we can get into. Okay? So we’re, let’s talk about high school. Okay? So this is where you’re starting to make a little bit of money or your daughter, your niece, whoever you know you have around you.

This is their first time they’re making money. They maybe have a side hustle. Maybe they have their first part-time job or they’re babysitting. Yeah. That’s usually a pretty popular one. Yes, absolutely. And but listen, y’all, that money is disappear as fast as it’s coming in. Yeah. They the usual suspects, Starbucks, they need a new hoodie because they have hoodies, 3000 hoodies in deposit, but we need new hoodies.

And boom, all of their little money that they made is gone. And they’re low key nerve. Oh, we’re getting in the trend here. Yeah. They’re low key nervous about adulting, but they also wanna be able to buy stuff without having to asked permission or ask for the parents. So yeah, this is the first time they have money to themselves.

They’ve made it. They’ve earned it. And now they get to decide how they spend it. But what we really wanna do is teach them a responsible way from the beginning. Yeah. And so it matters here because what’s really cool, especially if you are the mom or the aunt or the grandma or something that’s really trying to pour into the, to this young lady’s life.

Is, it’s their practice. What they do. They can mess up, they can practice here. They’re in a safe space. They have mom and dad to bail them out. They really need it. But it’s, this is where you can actually teach them and help them learn. So it makes them be able to go into life confident about money if they learn now.

Yeah, it’s like when you’re making a movie, it’s take one. Yeah. This is what they have. It’s draft one. They’re learning to tell their money where to go before it tells them where to go. And before life, like right now, life is super simple for them, right? They’re going to school, they have some girlfriends, they’re spending money on movie tickets or whatever.

But before life gets more expensive and we’re busy, we are really figuring out how to handle it right? And before their budget does, right now, they just have to figure out how to spend their money wisely. Basically instead of they don’t have a lot of bills and all that, so it’s very simple to learn now and then as they go through each stage, it’ll get a, there’ll be a level of complexity added, but they’ll be ready.

’cause they’re leveling up. Yeah. It’s like on Mario Brothers. Yes. Yes. So you’re gonna be shocked by this, but what we want your high school girl to do. Is make a budget. I know they were shocked from this. Yeah. But this is a budgeting podcast, so it kinda makes sense. But listen, I know you may think that they don’t actually have that much money, so why do they need a budget?

They do need a budget. It’s really important for them to be able to see what their money can do for them. This is like. When we tell parents to make like a kid’s line item in their spending account and we’re like, Hey, you have the option to say, Hey Joey, here’s 50 bucks to the month. You get to decide how you wanna spend it.

That is a budget. You’re let, you’re allowing them to have some buy-in on the conversation and decide where that money wants to go. So when she’s making money for the first time, you want to show her what it can do. Yeah. So we’re gonna have a budget that is very simple, but it’s still gonna be a budget we’re gonna have. They may have a couple bills which might be just their insurance, or maybe they pay for their own phone or.

They have a gym membership that is something, or whatever, gas or maybe a subscription to games or something. Sure. ’cause kids have that stuff. We know we have kids. Okay. So they’re gonna have that. We’re gonna just list it out so they can see what they’re spending, what they’re spending their money on when it comes to bills.

And then let’s talk about their spending. So we know that they. Have things that they wanna buy, which is great, but, you listen to us and we talk about separating your bills from your spending. This is no different. Yeah. This is where it starts. You wanna teach them that they have an account strictly to pay bills and they can feel confident knowing that’s there.

And then they get to have an account that is money just for them to go to Starbucks, go to Target, do whatever they want. And it also holds them accountable to the amount of money that they’re gonna spend. And here they’re gonna plan their gas as well. For example, my son gets gas every on the way home from work every other week, I think really is all he ever needs to go fill it up.

So he has a gas budget and that, that’s part of the spending here. They may not have a grocery budget, you probably don’t make them do that. And then the rest of it’s very it’s very simple, but they, we do want them to get in the habit of this is how much I spend in gas a month. Figuring that part out.

And it’s good for them to know how much they cost. Yeah. I think that’s great. Okay, so we talked about having a Bills account. Now you have a one savings or one spending account. It’s really all they need at that age, right? But maybe they have one or two savings accounts.

Okay. We really want them to maybe build a savings account for themselves. So an emergency fund, whatever that looks like.

Maybe it’s $500, maybe it’s a thousand dollars, depending on how much they’re making and how old they are. Just something to start out. But also it’s fun here, Shana, to start a savings account for a specific goal. So if they’re saving for a car or they’re saving for a big trip this summer or something like that.

Yeah. And we want them, and you can, you might as well put it in a high, I thought you were gonna say it was fun to put it in a high yield because then they can start really early learning how their money can make money. The compound interest. Yeah. And so this is why it’s important for them to budget though.

So if they work. Part-time at the, at Whataburger or something, and they’re only bringing in $200 a month or $300 a month or whatever they need to see I have to set aside this much for my insurance. I have to set aside this much for gas. I have this much for spending. And if I could put $25 a month in savings.

That’s why we want them to still be able to see the whole picture for their budget, even though it is very simple. And so then they’re gonna start using their debit card for their spending or cash if they get out cash. Or get paid and maybe they get paid in cash, they’re gonna use that.

They’re gonna start doing that and and learning this process of, I used the money I made to buy things and I used the money that I have specifically set aside for spending. Yeah. They’re not using extra, they’re not dipping into their money for their bills or money for their savings.

We really wanna set that limit and, yeah. Okay. And we want, we do want them to pay for their own insurance. Not because you can’t afford it, not because you’re not a generous parent, but because we want them to learn how to pay bills while they’re under your roof. And while you can you can help them.

Guide them. Yeah. Guide them. So what, what we would suggest is maybe start, they start working, or start working the summer before they’re gonna drive if they can. And save up some money into a savings bucket for insurance. And then as they’re working less during the school year, they’ll be able to refund that savings bucket to pay for the next year’s insurance.

Yeah. So we always recommend, like when they’re not in school, like holidays, summer, things like that, they can pick up more hours. We are not recommending your kids work 30, 40 hours while they’re in school. That’s not what we’re saying. Yeah. And we’ll talk about the college years when we get there, but it’s very good for them to know that they have responsibilities outside of school when they’re not in school.

Yeah. So for them to know that, hey, summer is a chance for me to save up money, like Shana said, let’s build that savings account, whether it’s a cash envelope or it’s an account in the bank. Call it insurance. Let’s watch that money bill and know that when that payment comes due, they have worked. That’s on them.

Yeah. They have that buy-in and they were able to fund that. Yeah. So if they’re 15 or whatever you might, or when they’re getting close to driving, get a quote for insurance, get a goal, and they’re gonna set that aside. And then as they go when they’re working, they’re gonna set that aside and use it for the insurance.

And then as they go throughout the school year, they’re working less, but they’re able to put a little bit in there still each, and then they’ll be able to maybe get some more hours, like Vanessa said, during the summer or the holidays or whatever. Yeah. So once they’ve, they set money aside for bills.

They have their spending money and they’re saving for a couple things. Remember, you’re saving their goals for savings here can change. So maybe this time they’re saving for a trip. Maybe this time it’s insurance, maybe this time it’s for a car. They, those can always be revolving for them.

But it’s a good chance for them to be able to know that they can fund it. If they set their mind to it, they set a goal, they know the amount that they’re trying to hit to watch that money grow and know that they did that, that is, it’s just really good for them. Yeah. And I just wanna reiterate this idea of, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make ’em drink.

I don’t even know if that’s right. Or teach somebody to fish. It’s better to teach them to fish. That’s the one, right? Yeah. Yeah. Than to give them a fish. That’s what you’re doing here. So when we say we want ’em to pay for insurance, we’re not saying it because they, you can’t afford it. We’re saying it.

This is a better financial tool and gift to teach them how to do this now than any money that you’re ever gonna get them. This is going to teach, this is gonna be worth more to them if you teach them this now. We always want them to be better than we were, right? So again, this allows them to say, Hey.

This is the amount of money I have left. Do I wanna buy this now? Yeah. Or do I wanna save and buy something bigger later? They are in charge of that decision. Yeah. And they get to start to see the difference between their bills spending and savings. And they can make these decisions and plan and it’s just good breeding ground.

Okay. So college students, Hey. Now you got a little more freedom, right? College is the next era of a woman’s life, right? When budgeting matters. And but also you probably have more bills, unfortunately, a couple more bills trickled in there. Yeah. Yeah. And your money’s flying out as fast as it can between textbooks, fast food, weekend plans with your friends the football games, whatever, all the fun things.

Yeah. But you wanna, you still wanna be responsible. And, but also you hear the word budget and it’s oh, I don’t really know. It may sound complicated. I think it’s gonna allow me to not, or not allow me to do the things that I wanna do. And you’re, yeah, usually they’re just like trying to barely make it to next week, right?

Yeah. Do I have $5 in my pocket. I remember my husband said he lived off of college off Ramen noodles. Yes. That’s literally what got him through. Yeah. But we wanna teach you like, yes, that may be the case, but you could also do it with a budget and you can also maybe set aside some money for some fun.

Yeah. And it matters here because like we said, things are not super complicated yet, but they are starting to get there. And this is a moment, unfortunately. Where you can, you have one or two paths. You can, you, a lot of times we’ll go. Toward the debt path with credit cards. ’cause we don’t know how to budget and with student loans, or you can decide right now, that’s not the way I’m gonna be.

I’m gonna, I’m gonna pay for stuff in cash and I’m gonna be like in charge of my money and I’m gonna be successful with money. You have, it’s a crossroads moment for them. It is. And I’m, I’m glad you brought up the debt part because I really believe that this is where kids start to get into debt.

Yeah. So they’re going to college, maybe they took out student loans and they’re not only using those student loans for. School. Yeah. They’re using them for room and board. They’re using them to buy a car. They’re using them for food. There’s a lot of things nowadays that kids are using that money for that they really should not be.

And then it puts them in this, oh, I graduated college and I have a hundred thousand dollars in student loan debt at whatever percent interest that I’m never gonna be able to pay off. Yeah. And I’m 22. Exactly. And so we want you to know that there is a way to be able to do this. From the beginning and not have that weight, like that burden of debt on your back.

Okay. So even here, you’re still gonna create a budget. You’re still gonna have your bills, you’re still gonna have spending, and you’re still gonna have savings. What we talked about before. But we want you. To start putting the money. Okay. So the equivalent when we talked about insurance for the high schoolers here, you’re gonna need a job.

We know you’re in college. We know it’s very important that you get good grades and you do your act, your extracurriculars. This is for you, not against you. We want you to have a job so you can pay for your own things. So you don’t go into debt so that you can learn to be responsible. You can feel the permission and freedom of being an financially independent and you don’t have to ask mom and dad for money.

Yeah. Like imagine being able to leave the house. And not have to ask for money to help support you because you’ve set up a budget, you know exactly how much you cost. You know exactly how much your school costs. You know exactly what you need to save for. Because what we want you to do the same concept with high schoolers, we want you to work in the off season as much as possible.

Possible. So that way when you go to school, you’re maybe working 20 hours a week. At that job during college, you know that, that timeframe where you’re in the semester but you are saving so much money on the off season that you’re able to fund your college in full. There are so many studies, Shannon, that we have listened to.

We’ve heard that you get, there are students who work through college. They make better grades, they have better time management. They’re out of, they’re not in trouble. They make better grades. Like all of that comes when you’re working, when, while you’re gonna college. So what you wanna do here is if you, depending on when you’re deciding to get your life together, when it comes to this, you wanna set, you can either set up a savings bucket for your tuition and like Vanessa said, work all summer to.

To your tuition, your reward, anything that you like, these big, bulky payments that you have to pay for school. You’re gonna work some and hopefully get enough to pay for it. If you can’t, then you’re gonna have to go on their tuition payment plan, which is different than debt. Than debt. You’re gonna say, okay, I, if to go to school, I have to pay 500 or a thousand, whatever it is a month.

I, I have to put that’s a bill. I’m gonna put that in my bills column, right along with my cell phone, along with whatever I have to pay my gas, my insurance, whatever I’m paying. Those are my bills. So you’ll either pay that monthly or you’re gonna be funding it by working in the summer.

Either way, we still, like Vanessa, I want you to work, we want you to do most of your work when you’re not in school, but you’re just gonna, you’re gonna keep some of those hours ’cause you’re gonna need food, you’re gonna need it’s gas, you’re gonna wanna go out with your friends. So that’s what the little bit of work hours that you’re gonna have during college, that’s what’s gonna pay for.

And a lot of people don’t know that colleges have this payment plan. Yeah. So they’ll have you can pay for this semester and 1, 2, 3, or usually four. I think four is the max in that semester. But you can spread it out. Yeah. So like Shannon said, if you, maybe your semester is costing you $3,000 and you were able to.

Save 2000 over the summer for all of your college fees. Then you just have a thousand dollars that you can spread out over that four month payment plan, and you could probably work 20 hours a week to be able to make that happen. Yeah. And so here the goal is for you to graduate debt free, you guys, because we, like I said, we don’t want you to be 22 and have a hundred thousand or thousand dollars in debt or more.

Which is like a $1,300 payment or something crazy. It’s a mortgage. You haven’t even gotten your first paycheck yet. We want, imagine when you graduate from college, your paycheck, whenever you get this amazing job that you just learned about, learned for, or trained for, you’re gonna get to keep that money because the opposite is what we see and it’s very unfortunate.

You maybe you’re making $3,000 a month to start off, or 5,000 and a good chunk of that goes immediately to student loans. We don’t want that for you. If you put in the time now to get used to being on a budget doesn’t mean you don’t get to do fun stuff. That’s not what it means. Get used to being on a budget and paying for stuff in cash.

You can avoid that. Yeah, absolutely. And so again, we really want you to get in the habit of using cash. Okay? So we never want you to use a credit card for your spending. So make sure you’re using a debit card that is attached to your spending account. It’s completely separate than your Bills account.

Remember, you have actual bills now. You’re on your own. Maybe you’re living in a house with four other people, and you are the one making the budget for everyone and making the household budget and the mortgage and all of that. And maybe it’s your place and they’re paying you like they’re, you have a lot of responsibilities now, which is fine.

It’s less than you would have if you were, married and have kids. But this is another chance for you to get it right so soon.

  Imagine right now that you could be a millionaire when you're 30 40. By investing, you can, we want you to know that you can, the math, you just go on and find the math. We can prove it to you. Yeah. So start, if you can, start investing now just before you get used to, to the money before, before you get used to spending more than you make like some of us have done.

You’re young, you’re awesome. Like Vanessa, you have so much time, please. Start investing now and watch it grow and be amazed. Make it one of your bills. It’s non-negotiable. It comes out automatically and it is something that you never stop. Okay, so this is what we want just like gas. Gas never stops.

Auto insurance never stops. Once you’re an adult. This is one of those things if you, and as long as you’re. Not in debt, obviously, we don’t want you to be investing when you have a hundred thousand dollars in debt. We’re trying to do this before, we’re trying to get you to start investing before you’re in all of that debt or we don’t want you to be in debt.

But a lot of people will try to do both at the same time and you’re not winning the game. Yeah. So we want you to pay your college and the time that it’s due and then in be investing because you, like Shana said, have so much time on your hands. If you start now, you do 100000%.

Have the opportunity to be a millionaire in your thirties and forties. Okay, so now the next era is like young moms or newlyweds, grouping those together. And this is, this is the point in your life where the money is more tight, right? You’re not making a lot of money yet.

This is, you’re still new to your income making years and bills are very constant. They’re a little more complicated than they used to be. You have a lot more, you have a lot more. Bill’s probably a lot more going on financially than you used to, and you’re trying to figure it out, right?

And you’re probably either flying solo on your budget because you’re, maybe your spouse is working and you’re at home, or you’re just trying to get him on board. Look, hey babe, I’m gonna do this budget thing. And he’s I don’t know. You’re learning how to combine finances. You don’t like, you’re, if you’re newlyweds or maybe no, I taught you how to do that, right?

And maybe things are getting complicated enough that you actually have to budget versus it was really simple before. That’s where we’re at. And so this is so important. Budgeting will make you on the same pa, get you on the same page. This is really important and it’s gonna help you figure out how to pay for this new baby.

Yeah. This life that you’ve that you’re in either way, this new married life, this new baby life, like the budget is gonna help you feel successful with all of that. Yeah. It’s like people ask, when is the right time to have a kid? It’s like there’s no actual answer to that. Yeah. You make it work, right?

Yeah. But could you imagine making it work when you feel financially responsible and you feel settled in your finances because you’ve made the right decisions from day one? Imagine going into your marriage, having combined finances, knowing that you have money for bills, knowing that you have spending money, knowing that you guys are saving up for future expenses and feeling good about the next step in your life.

Yep. So we still want you. The first thing we want to do is create a budget, do it together. This is very important. Now we’re doing it together. It’s a little bit different, but we’re gonna do it together and we’re gonna set, we’re gonna set up our bills account together as well. We’re gonna put all of our income, all of our paychecks going into the same bills, and then we’re gonna put all of our bills.

You’re not paying some, he’s not paying some, they’re all the bills are coming out of the same account. This is the first step and this is how we’re gonna combine everything. Yep. And then again, you’re gonna have your separate spending accounts, right? So this is the first time, so you have, your spending accounts are not, are still separate from your bills, but this is probably the first time you’re gonna have multiple.

Spending accounts, right? Maybe one for gas and groceries, maybe one for each of you. So you, he gets a spending account just for him for fun stuff. You get a spending account just for you for fun stuff. And then you probably have one right now for or you can for going out. Date nights, restaurants.

Starbucks trips, things like that. Yeah. And as the kids get a little older, it, you might have get them specific accounts so that you can, man, or have a kid’s account specifically so that as those expenses when they’re babies, they’re expensive ’cause you’re got diapers and all that stuff.

But they’re, they don’t go places, but not in T-Ball or have Yeah. But as they get a little older we were gonna wanna, set aside some money a month. And that would be its own account, but also. What we want now. Life is starting to get a little more complicated. There’s a little, you have a little bit bigger aspirations as well.

We want you to think about starting savings buckets now, because again, just kinda like our college person, if we can keep you from using debt. While you’re young, we’re like, you’re gonna win at life. We want that for you. Same here as you get the house, as you get this and that and the other. It’s very tempting to use debt.

We don’t want that. We want you to use savings buckets. And people forget, like they can make a budget on gas, groceries, and rest, like restaurant stuff or whatever, but. How much do you cost in a year? This is what we talk about with our clients and they have no idea. Because usually they’re using the credit card to pay for those things because they’re quote unquote unexpected and they forget about them.

So can you imagine setting up your budget the right way with savings buckets, knowing that you’re budgeting for Christmas, your budgeting for your parents’ anniversary, your budgeting for that trip that you guys wanna go to in two months? You’re budgeting for your house repairs that, that are gonna happen because, ACS need to get maintenance and you need air filters and water filters and things like that.

That is, we want you to step into your role of adulting and really start budgeting for these things from the beginning. If somebody had told me to set up savings buckets at 20 years old, I would’ve laughed, but I was married with a baby at 21. Okay. And had I done that, like my life would’ve looked so much different, I would’ve not.

Racked up over $20,000 in debt trying to fill my house and buy things for it that I quote unquote, thought I needed. It’s fine. Hey. That’s why we’re here now. Yes. So the next era, we’re just gonna call it the bougie woman, right? The bougie. Your bougie stage. Because now you have, you’ve been, you’re in your higher income, right?

You’re making good money now. But somehow. Unfortunately, you still maybe feel behind, you’re not living paycheck to paycheck on paper. But it feels like you are. Yeah. And you don’t know where your money’s going. And you feel guilty anytime you wanna spend money on yourself. Yeah. Yeah. Because you don’t know if you have any available.

Yeah. And so now it’s time to make your money work for you. You’re making good money. It’s, there’s, now it’s time to adult. Yeah. We need to own this part of our life and stop stiff arming it or putting our head in the sand. And we don’t wanna just be surviving. We wanna be on like, owning it and yeah.

And winning. And this is a chance for you to be building the life that you want. Like you’re probably making. So you are right now. So when you were in high school, you were making the most money you were, you had ever made. When you were in college, you were probably making the most money you ever made.

We’re stepping into this new phase, this new money this concept of having money. And we want you to lean into that. Yeah. And we want it to work for you. I, and this is going backwards, but I do wanna say that brings up a good point. The reason it’s important on all of those stages is because if you can get it right, then you, as a college student.

You’re going to only ever make more money as that, that newlywed era of your life, you’re only ever gonna make more money. So you want to get the systems in place and the habits in place then because when you add more money, it will go the right places. It’ll do the right things because you’re going to make more money here though, in this era.

This is gonna be your high earning years. Good job. Congratulations on getting here. And also it’s not, it’s never an income problem. It’s always an expense problem. So if you are spending as much as you’re making, you’re never gonna win. So what we wanna do is be able to budget our money, budget our income at a lower level, so that way when more comes in, we want you to be stewarding it. And we know you wanna steward it well. Yeah. Okay, so what do we want you to do? Here we’re gonna have you do a 90 day audit to see where all your money’s going, what’s working, what’s leaking, whatever.

So we wanna see, look at your credit card statements or if you have one account, you’re gonna pull out the, that bank statement and just get some highlighters and see. This where you’re spending money, where like how much you’re spending on certain categories, where your bills are looking, like all that kinda stuff.

Yeah. So once you do that, you’re obviously gonna use that data to create a budget. So we’re gonna have a budget that has all of your income coming in, so all of the amounts of income. So if you’re married or not, if you have bonuses, tax returns, whatever, when all of your money coming in. Then you’re gonna have your Bills account.

We talk about separating your bank accounts. You have your bills account that’s paying all of your bills, and hopefully you don’t have debt, but if you do, it’s coming outta there. And then you have your separate spending accounts as well. Yeah. And you’re gonna be using the automatic transfers.

You don’t have time. You’re in the bougie era of your life, right? You don’t have time. You, the bank has got to do those transfers for you. You’re gonna set this budget up, but then it’s gonna work automatically for you. You’re gonna have a lot more savings buckets now probably than you ever have, because you can afford it.

Yeah. And you’re gonna, you’re gonna be putting money over into those, and you’re gonna have the separate savings accounts as well. But one thing that I think is really important to point out here is you’re gonna stop relying on debt. If you are, you’re gonna stop because now you make too much money and you don’t need to use debt.

You’re done with that. We want you to be your own bank. Yeah. This is the whole point. We want you to build wealth. Build your savings buckets. Start seeing what’s capable here. Hopefully you are investing, like Shana said, don’t, if you’re, if you had to use debt for whatever situation, stop using debt, you make good money, you don’t need them.

Yeah. And when Vanessa says, be your own bank, you are gonna have money in savings buckets for vacation, for Christmas, for your kids’ wedding, whatever, all the things. And because you have that, you don’t have to use debt. That’s why you’re gonna be your own bank. You’re gonna borrow from yourself and it’s gonna be great because you’ve built your savings buckets, right?

Yeah. Because you started knowing how much you cost in a year back when you were in college, maybe newlywed you had that knowledge ’cause you listened to this amazing podcast and you know that you need to budget that in, not in the moment when Christmas comes and it’s two months long and hey, by the way, you need $5,000 in two months to be able to fund it.

No, you wanna be able to fund $5,000 over 12 months. Okay. Okay. So now we’re onto that empty nester, which leads into retirement era. This this woman is past the hustle. She wants to start just enjoying her money trips, grand babies, hobbies. But maybe she’s nervous like that she’s gonna overspend or run out.

Really? Yeah. Yeah. And listen, you’re, maybe you’re not budgeting for survival here. That’s not, it’s not what you’re doing. This is the era in your life where you’re not surv, you’re not like just surviving.

Okay. So Shana and I have high schoolers. We are surviving. No, our budget is fine, but like our mental capacity and our physical capacity, E every day is a new thing. It’s go. You are not having, that’s not you right now. So you’re able to step back and breathe for a minute. And so you need a plan.

You need a whole new plan that what you were working with before. Yeah. And so budgeting is gonna matter here because we want you to be able to do all those things that you said without fear. You’ve earned this season, you worked hard, you have put in the hours, and we want you to be able to be generous and have fun and still be able to sleep because you’re not worried about money.

Yep, absolutely. So how do you do that? Obviously you need an emp, empty nester’s budget. Oh my gosh. We hope we didn’t hurt your feelings by saying that No one’s gonna hurt my feelings by saying that when my kids leave. Yeah. But it’s a brand new kind of budget. It’s because it’s your life, your bills, your life, your spending, you’re saving.

Everything looks completely different once you are an empty nester. Yeah. So you need to know what that looks like. Yeah. So you need to make a whole new budget for that. Yeah. And then we’re gonna probably start saving setting aside d we’re gonna have different. Savings bucket. Yes. We’re gonna have grand babies, maybe we’re gonna have weddings, graduations from college.

Maybe you’re gonna have way more traveling because you can. Yeah. Maybe ’cause you have the money, but also you have the time. We don’t know. Yeah. But you’re gonna have different savings buckets in this empty nesters era because it’s, you earned it. Like we said, it’s your time and you’re probably making.

So much more money. Yeah. Because again, this is you’re keeping more money at least. Yeah, you’re definitely keeping more money. But again, you’re in a phase of life where you’re making more than you were in your twenties and thirties and forties. And so you’re able to do so much more with it.

So yes, maybe you can put a thousand dollars toward your kids’ wedding a month. Maybe you have. Plans to go to Europe and you can put a thousand dollars in your travel budget this month. So we want you to see what’s possible. So make sure you make those savings buckets, see what you plan on spending this year.

Yeah. And listen, if you haven’t gotten outta debt yet, this is your chance. We definitely wanna do that before you hit retirement age. Yeah. And then also if. If you can, we want you to work on paying off your mortgage once you get to the retirement. We don’t want you to have a mortgage. So if you can if you’re, if you’ve cleaned everything else up, put some emphasis on that.

Yeah. And listen, we want you to continue to build wealth. Okay. This is a wonderful time to be investing. I like to say that, I remember when I was in co high school, I was like, oh, my parents are so old. That’s just, when you’re younger. When I got married and had kids, my parents had a whole nother life.

Like literally my dad, my mom, they quit their jobs. My dad started his brand new multi million dollar business at 55. Like literally had a whole different life and their financial situation drastically changed. And I remember when I was in high school, it was bad. There was foreclosure signs being put up.

There was $800,000 being paid to the IRS. It was a very stressful time. Yeah, for taxes for my parents. ’cause they had, they sold their business anyways. It was very stressful. And, but I look at where they are now. My son is 16 and so in 16 years of what they accomplished after I graduated college and when I was married with kids, like it was a lifetime ago.

Yeah. Yeah. So do not think that it’s too late at all. That’s the lesson. We, they went from, bankruptcy to millionaire seed. That’s not a word, but I made it. And it was all po in the empty nester stage. Just understand that’s what we know, that you’re not behind. You can totally do it.

Yeah. And you’re capable of it. And then, so then, as you move out of empty nester, then you’re also gonna, or once you’re in there, you really wanna make a retirement budget because again, that will be completely different. Hopefully your mortgage will be paid off. All of your debt will be gone. You will you’ll have less or maybe not less, but different.

Your income will be way different. Your expenses will also be different ’cause you won’t have. Ne necessarily as many bills or things that you’re funding because you’re in the retirement phase of life, right? And your budget, your income will definitely be different. ’cause this is probably when your retire, your income is gonna go down in retirement, but it’s gonna be funded with what you put in retirement, this all this time, so it’s definitely gonna change. And you need to know, okay, if I cost my husband and I, whoever we cost this much in retirement, how much do I need to pull out of my said retirement to be able to fund that life? You need to have those numbers on paper. So we hope that you’ve enjoyed this. We went through all the different eras of a woman’s life and what she, why budgeting matters and what she needs to do in that era to make it work.

Yeah. And listen again, this is something that people didn’t tell us when we were younger. I wish they had, but we hope that you can share it with somebody. Share it with your youngsters, share it with a niece, nephew, and we hope that they get some value out of it.