the client that we are talking about today she was so used to floating her expenses with a credit card. Like it was so much easier to just put it on a card and figure out how she was gonna pay for it later. It just made sense to her because they were always a month behind, right?

So that’s how you charge charge, and then you figure out how to pay it off. Then you charge charge, and then you figure it out later. And then when we had the conversation of, Hey, we’re not going to, we’re not gonna do that anymore. And we were just talking to her about.

Like the power of paying for cash and stopping the credit card use, and that was really hard for her. I think we talked about this, I think it was like four months before it truly fully took place because it was that hard. Now I will say, I. I’m specifically talking more about her business because of the way that and a lot of our listeners have businesses, they’re entrepreneurs, and it’s just easier sometimes before that, maybe like you have a sale or or you sell something, but the money doesn’t come in until later, so they’re floating expenses.

So for her, it was easier to just put everything on a card. But it was also happening in her personal life. And again, it was just a system, a way of life that she created for her sons. ‘Cause they’re in the business as well, her husband, all of that. There’s a whole family thing here. But when we talked about stopping it, I said this is harder.

Like using cash to pay for something and not using credit and paying in the moment for it is way harder. And I think that that sunk in for her and she’s oh, it is way harder. Like she didn’t under, she couldn’t correlate it. And she couldn’t figure out why she couldn’t stop using their credit card.

And I was explaining to her it’s because it’s harder and that, that made sense. And so when we finally got like through with everything this month, actually the month of June, this is her sixth month of coaching. She’s gonna continue on again because she has a very successful business that we’re trying to finish and get things going with or getting get going.

She finally stopped using the credit card the end of May and June was seeing the result in her business bank account of using cash and only using cash. And it was like mind blowing to her to see how much extra money she had in the account because she wasn’t just frivolously. Just swiping here, swiping there.

Yeah. I think that there is like a whole mindset. It’s like how we don’t really know about the Amex is like the prestigious credit card mindset. Yeah. There is the mindset just put it, it’s business so I can have a credit card. Obviously don’t worry about it. There’s my business needs credit.

You hear that one. There’s, it’s just a thing and no, it’s actually not, your business also should be cash. Cash flowed. It should grow at the speed of cash. And I do think, I love the point of saying it’s harder. There’s this this meme going around on the social media where it’s this is harder.

It’s like a budget of comments. Take your heart, and then it says it’s supposed to be. Harder is better. That usually the thing that doing the sport is hard. But that’s good. It’s supposed to be hard. Same here. It’s supposed to. The harder way is supposed to be that way, but it’s going to, like Vanessa said, it’s gonna pay off, it’s going to when you start seeing money stack up, like she said, actual you have cash.

You’re not just hoping you’re not budgeting based on a hope. That’s great. That’s gonna be great. But also I think about the phrase like, your future self will thank you because Sure. What you’re doing. And what she was doing is making, is giving her future self a problem to solve over and over again and being behind and putting that anxiety and that decision making and that problem solving on your future self.

You dunno what your future self, we’ve already talked about two clients that had a their AC go out. What if your future self who has still with this has a day go out? Don’t do that to her. That’s not nice. Yeah. Don’t be that way to your future self. Do the work of figuring it out now so that you don’t, the future self just has to worry about going on vacation.

That’s what we’re here for, right? And yes, it’s gonna be uncomfortable. You’re probably gonna hate it at the beginning because you’re not used to it. You’re so used to just Shayna said, doing the easy thing and charging it and figuring it out later. But. This is growth. By you changing that habit and that mindset you are growing as a person. You’re growing in your financial literacy of understanding how to properly handle your finances the right way by paying for cash or paying, using cash and not putting it on credit and figuring it out someday. Yeah, someday. I love that. Which is also, no, Dave we know that, but I also think it’s if you want to be a serious business person, you need to know your numbers.

And that comes down with all of this using a credit card and just like putting off the knowing of your number, like you should know for, I don’t know what business they have, but for my products, for my employee payroll, whatever, for what I know I have the money and I know how much it costs and I know if I want to increase that or not.

Like I know how I’m gonna get there. Like you need to, as a business owner and as the CFO of your household, you need to know your numbers, not. Just be okay with like them being ethereal like that is we’re gonna take ourselves seriously and know the math. Yeah. She told me when, I just met with her yesterday, and she’s we have $143,000 sitting in our business account.

And she’s I don’t think I’ve ever seen that. And that was huge for her, but it was all because. We were only using cash. And when you use cash to pay for stuff, you are way more mindful of what’s going on. And we see that over and over again with our coaching clients coming in. They’re like, oh my gosh.

I was actually aware and I cared about where I was spending my money and how much I was spending because I was using cash. Yeah. So it works. And it’s not even like in the spending, it’s in the bills too. It’s everything. Yeah. Once you, once you see everything and you see what you’re doing, you get, you can actually make decisions.

But if it’s just going on credit card, you never have to worry about it. You never have to see it. You never have to understand it and make those decisions. Those decisions are good decisions to make and you should be making them. That is how you get $143,000 in the bank. Yeah. You don’t get that by just swiping and putting it, continuing to put all those decisions off to the future.

Yep. So I have a client that we are firing her bank. Okay. We are so firing her bank. I am so over her bank. Her bank is getting on my last nerve. So she’s a teacher and she’s going, I think she’s going to move to a teacher credit union. We’re gonna, I’m just hoping that’s gonna be better, Vanessa.

I don’t know. I think about the public’s credit union and I have hope, like maybe ’cause they’re really great. I don’t know about the future credit union, but the current bank is so fired. Okay. First of all. She’s only allowed two debit cards per person. And it’s even worse than that. The bank didn’t even know that.

So she goes in, right? We have our system. We’re like, go get your bills account, get your spending account, your gas and groceries. And then for her, she has restaurants. We want all of those. Okay go ahead and go in and order ’em. And then her the ladies there trying to get it and she’s there’s an error.

I don’t know what’s happening. And eventually they figured out that they only let you have two debit cards per person for this bank. I was like, oh, that’s stupid. So she’s been having to make it work a little bit and that’s not the point of the system. That’s what I told her. This is not the point.

The point is not still trying to have to figure it out. It should be super simple, easy, clear. So that’s, that was one hit. Then we come up with, she. They have transfer limits, like there are only so many automatic transfers that let her set up and obviously we don’t have that many. So she hit that already.

I was like, what is going on with this bank? And then two months she’s been coaching two different times, she’s had an unauthorized charge that she had to go in and say, this isn’t mine. And they’re like, oh. And they took it off two months in a row. So I’m like, look, we’re done. It’s time to go. When we were talking earlier about how people have.

Anxiety about opening up extra accounts for some reason. People have anxiety about switching banks. They’re like, I’ve been with this bank. I don’t wanna, I don’t know, I don’t, do not, there are better banks. There’s a better bank out there for you. There’s a dream bank. They’re just like lovely and here for you and they do all the things that you want.

They do not be afraid or do not put off switching banks because you might hurt their feelings or it might take you all Saturday morning one time. That is okay. It’s worth it. This is going to. Puts you to where you have more time, more energy, more brain calories saved because you took the time to do it.

So don’t be afraid. I think it’s interesting how I’ve had some people say that they don’t wanna switch banks because. They’re, they have loyalty, whatever with this bank or credit card that they’ve had forever.

And I wanna question that and if you know this answer, please email us at hello@budgetbesties.com. ’cause I’m actually really cur curious. Is that a thing, like when people go pull your credit to go buy a house, do they look and see the longevity that you’ve been with a bank and that counts in the positive?

Is that really a thing? I think bank accounts might be more for mortgage like when they do your stuff, but certainly credit cards, the longer you’ve had, the credit card is better. Yes. You have better credit because you’ve been with them longer. Yep. Okay, that, do y’all understand that this is like a game that they are playing and you are losing at it’s not, and I understand people get so frustrated when we say clo, close these cards because, what we’ve heard is that it hurts your credit the exact same whether you have it open and you’re not using it, or it’s just sitting there and you’re using it.

So just get rid of it and then you can move on and your score will go up eventually, because I’m sure you have a mortgage and that’s the best credit you could ever have, right? So it’s fine. So your score will go up, but listen. Why are you staying with a bank that’s not serving you, it’s not helping you.

It’s hindering your success on trying to set up a system that’s going to help your family. Find another bank that really do your research. We have a couple podcasts on that. Do your research. Find a bank that is gonna help you and then be with them a long time and then you can get your longevity points or whatever that is with them.

I think it’s just, it is you talked about the game. This is part of the game that they’re playing and. I want you to know that they don’t, you don’t matter to them. Like you might, you, they may matter to you and your loyalty to them and how long you’ve been with them. They will cut you off on a dime.

They don’t care. Yeah. Honestly, they don’t, they will tell on you. Yeah. Yeah. Like maybe if you’re, if you really have a small time bank, small town bank and all of them, maybe they care a little bit. The rest of ’em is all about the numbers. And if you’re not a good number, it doesn’t matter. And part of that, we always say credit card companies, but it’s banks, like banks, not just credit card companies.

They have more money. Then we know what to do with their marketing. Is whatever. I remember Geico came out with their gecko. Because they wanted all of the little kids that were watching those commercials to be loyal, brand loyal to Geico, and eventually set up Geico when they got older, like they’re playing, as Vanessa said, a game generational.

You don’t need to worry about that game. USAA, which is direct competitor with Geico. They do put, thank you for being a member for 24 years or whatever, like that’s supposed to mean something because again, on a dime they will turn on you. They won’t, they don’t care. They just want your money and as long as it’s good money to them, right?

So don’t think that you need to worry about being loyal to them, that it’s like being loyal to an old shoe that’s falling apart. What is that gonna, how, what is that gonna prove? What if you could get a new shoe and your feet stop hurting? Love that for you. There’s a bank that has more modern features, has.

Like they wanna give you some money just for joining. Let’s go. Yeah. Just take advantage of whatever different bank that, that you can come across that’s going to serve you for what you want. I think it goes back to that point, Shana, we talk about you’ve probably been at the same bank since you were 18 because your mom or whatever Yeah.

Walked you into that bank and that’s the bank you got when you got your first job. But this is 21st century y’all. There’s so many more options out there and so much more available to you if you just do a little bit of research and find out. What is serving you best? Why are, if you’re at a bank that has all these stipulations and you don’t like it, why are you there?

Yeah. Move. And that’s the thing, like unfortunately, like you said the banks that your mom took you to, they’re not probably moving forward into the next like generation or the next. Century, right? Because what reason do you have that? I can only make so many transfers? Don’t like, get over it.

There’s no actual reason other than you just have some arbitrary rule or some arbitrary break in the system that, that nobody knows how to decode really, because you’re using a 2 22 decade old system. That’s really where we’re at. I will say when I first started this system with my bank or my credit union they had, they called and they were like, why do you wanna do that?

You are gonna mess it up. You’re multiple debit cards is gonna mess you up. And I’m like, no, it’s not. All of my debit cards have a different design. Our bank has 10 different designs you can choose from. So every single one of my debit cards has a different design. It’s very easy for me to understand and label like which one is which.

So what And why are you telling me how I’m gonna handle my money? That’s not their job. That’s my job. I will do just fine. Thank you very much. Yeah. Yeah. And I just think that, a lot of these things are just old fashioned, probably. Yep. And if they want to join, if you tell them and bring it to their attention and they might wanna join the century, cool.

Stick with it. But if they’re, if they just have rules and you can’t make as many transfers as you want. You can’t have multiple debit cards, or you’re getting random, and not, especially specifically if you’re getting unauthorized charges often let’s not. We’re all done with them.

But you wanna go find yourself a bank or a credit union that will work for you, that will make your budget easy. Not harder. And so you’re gonna look like Vanessa said, we have podcasts out there. Yeah, but you want multiple be being able to have multiple checking accounts, multiple savings accounts, unlimited transfers.

Apparently we need to add that one in there because we didn’t even know you. That was a problem. Yeah. You need to be able to have debit cards for each checking account. Like we want all of these things and all of the other stuff that we talk about to be available to you with your bank. And if you are, like Shannon said, really loyal to your bank and you wanna stay, ask them why.

I’m a huge why person. Yeah. I love to know why. So ask them why is this a rule? And they probably don’t have an answer for you. ’cause Shana said, it’s probably just a thing that they came up with, right? And they stuck with it and they never changed it. ’cause nobody ever questioned it. Maybe if you question it, you can help them get better, right?

And so ask them. I’m a huge advocate of, I always send things and say, Hey, can you send this to your. I don’t know, prototype team or whatever, can you ask them if they can make this change to help better serve your customers? Me, I’m a customer, right? And they’ll say yes, here, or they’ll give me a link and ask me to submit it myself.

So don’t be afraid to do that either. Yeah. And actually that is what I started to tell her was go back and ask them, can they just change this, change it for you, just give you more debit cards because because you’re asking, maybe it’s just some arbitrary thing. But then we, we doubled down on that unauthorized charge.

I’m like, nah, girl. Nah fan. We gotta go and we’re not gonna Three strikes real. Yeah. And and the last point here is don’t delay. I know you think it’s gonna be annoying, it’s gonna take work. Yes, it is, but it’s gonna be, it’s gonna pay off. The sooner you do it, the easier your life is gonna be to have the bank that will set up the system for you correctly.

We call it the messy middle with our clients. Like when you do all this and you make the big switch to the banks and your accounts, it is a messy middle, but you will get out of it and it’s gonna serve you so much better in the long run.