From Cash Chaos to Financial Clarity: Real Client Wins That Will Inspire You to Organize Your Finances

 Is it recording yet? Mm-hmm. Okay. All right. So I have, uh, a tattoo artist that I work with. She is so fancy. She’s actually like in Nashville. She does a bunch of stuff for like famous people. It’s really kind of cool. Um, but she gets, and you know, you can imagine a lot of money in cash each month. And it’s like over $6,000 in cash.

I mean, this is the, I pause. This is a business model. Be a tattoo artist in Nashville, like you’re, you’re not gonna go pro. How fun. Obviously you have to be really good at it too. She does, like, they’ll invite her, like, so country artists will invite her to their shindig or whatever and whatever designs and brands and whatever that they, they have.

Um, they’ll, she will tattoo them on people for the event. It’s so cool. But also, I love that you said shindig, so that’s what the country event is, is a shindi. Yeah, there is in brand there. Uh, okay. So for her business, interpersonal, or it’s all kind of convoluted. This is the first time she literally had a business and then just added it to all of her other expenses.

Um, but she wasn’t really accounting for how much she was making, like really had no idea. Mm-hmm. She’s very busy as she should be. Um, she makes a lot of money. And she lives a wonderful life, but she, is this the first time in her life she said that she’s ever been in credit card debt and like, and so she’s like freaking out and it’s not that much, but she’s had to use credit because she has no idea what’s happening with her money.

Yeah. Just because she doesn’t know. Not ’cause she has to. Right. It’s not that she has to at all. She, it’s, it’s just so messy and it’s going out as fast as, uh, yeah, it’s going out as fast as coming in because she’s, it’s nothing’s organized. Mm-hmm. So, you know, she really came to us very, very excited about the sa, the savings bucket.

Strategy. I like the sound of that one. Yes. Mm-hmm. And she was so cute. ’cause as I was explaining things, she was like, love, love. It was like everything. It was adorable. And, um, and then all this, the spending accounts and how organized everything is and how the automatic transfers. And I told her, I said, look, my, my goal for you is to make your business as automatic as possible.

Obviously businesses, you can, it’s like one notch less than personal can be automatic. Um, because, you know, it’s, it is more, um. Uh, inconsistent. Yeah. But then, you know, then your personal, it flows over to your personal and that is completely just automated and you, all you have to do now is just pick up your debit cards and, and spend your money.

Yep. Um, but she had so much coming in in cash that she wasn’t really accounting for all that. Yep. So it’s kind of a problem. And so she was, uh, it was, she was using it to pay the nanny, but then also spending all her other money. So she had nothing left. And so what we really, you know, the whole point of all this is to.

It doesn’t matter how your money is coming in, you wanna make sure you put it on the budget. You wanna make sure you account for every last dollar that you are making. So that way, and it’s not like this isn’t going to the IRS, it is literally we want you to be able to see what is happening with your money.

Yeah. And so you can give it a job and you can see what it can do for you. Yeah. And we’ve had, uh, lots of service, like whatever. Yeah. Personal care, whatever you wanna call that type businesses over the years and your, your cash slips away if you don’t do this. Right. That’s, it’s not that you can’t spin it on something really fun or just.

Or whatever. That’s not what it is. We want you to know where it went. Yeah. Because a lot of times with these cash is, you know, could be up to half of what you’re making or at least you know, at least 20% probably what you’re making. Right. And that you need to know that that went somewhere. You don’t wanna just have it gone and, and lost throughout the year and you don’t know where it went.

’cause that is a lot of money. So we definitely just wanna put it in the budget and then you can, you can assign whatever you want to it. It’s not about that. Right. And it’s not about the IRS, it’s about just knowing that, that I made this money and it did what I wanted it to on purpose. Yeah, for sure. Okay.

So I, so I think my clients, these clients are five months into the, our six month coaching, um, program. By the way, if you want coaching, you can, you can get on a call with Vanessa and. See if you think it’s kind of a cool idea for you at budget message.com/coaching. Anyway, they have one more month until they graduate.

They have been really, really great since day one. They’ve done the work. They have stuck to it. Mm-hmm. He came on the call and he is like, well, it’s just on autopilot. Like I’m not, he doesn’t, they don’t do, I told Vanessa, I don’t even think they look at their budget like I don’t think I sent it. We have a lot of clients like that.

I send them their budget. I don’t think they look at it. Everything’s just. And it just works. And they, and they get it and they know how to, how to make it all work. Um, and he’s like, I don’t have to worry about it. And, and, and I was like, that’s great. Um, but it does, it is taking a little fine tuning just a little bit.

So she spends a lot of money on the house. And not a lot, but she’s likes to, she’s a homemaker and that’s where her thing is like, yeah. Well, and I told her maybe this is a good point. Um, I own that. Like, your job is to make the home. This is not you, um, like spending money frivolously because you want, you, you just a crazy bougie person.

It’s like, my job is to make this house a home, make people comfortable, cozy, you know, this loving environment. And like she, one thing she bought was, um. A wheat meal to mill her own berries to make her own bread. And like, that’s the most healthy thing you can do. I love that. And I’m like, that’s not your personal spending friend.

Yeah. I love you. That is you making a home. Right. And I love that. And I wish I, I had, I wish I would do that, but I won’t. Anyway, so we put that into her personal budget because she’s gonna keep spending it and she keeps feeling like. Anyway, it was just like, it was kind of a, a little bit messy. So now it’s like, look, you have a $200 mm-hmm.

To make your house a home budget. That’s just what she’s doing. That’s what, that’s what works for their family. They have young kids and um, and they just got a pool and like all of this stuff. So, you know, she feels really good about that. So we added that to her, and by the way, they call it. Slush, they call it slush slush fund.

That’s their slush money. Mm-hmm. Oh, that’s true. Yeah. Instead of like pocket money, like petty cash or something. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and so that, that all being said, we have also had to up the, so he, we do a income holding account for him. So we’ve had to up it from 15 to 16 to now 17. And I said, guys, this is fine.

’cause they’re still putting a third of what they make in savings or in investments, and then they’re also sit dues and savings buckets. Mm-hmm. Um. I said, this is fine, but you told me that you wanna live on lesson you make, and you wanted to put this percentage in this into investments of what you make every year.

If you’re gonna let your lifestyle continue to creep this way, you’re gonna get away from that goal, right? Yeah. So we just have to be careful. It’s not that you can’t afford it. And you need to just check yourself every time you do this and say, is this the right move? Is this actually what I want? Or would I rather pull back on something?

Well, you just wanna like, like you said, hold yourself accountable. Like, oh, um, is this what I wrote down that I really wanted to accomplish this year or something? And that’s, it’s okay. And it’s okay to say no or it’s okay to be like, you know what, my. Goals have changed. My husband and I bought four properties and um, sold them when we realized, oh, we actually don’t want to manage four Airbnbs, like, no thank you.

Um, so things change and your life changes, but you just have to make sure it’s still honoring who you really wanna be. Yep. And then I’ll just give one more tiny little thing about the Amazon, the card that’s linked to your Amazon account. So they were giving you pushback because the prime membership build.

On the Bills car or should be a bills. Mm-hmm. And so it should, the Amazon should be on on that. And I said, that’s a one time a year thing versus when you guys are, ’cause they get movies and stuff. When you guys are buying from Amazon or getting these movies and stuff, that’s all the time. So that comes out of family.

It needs to be linked to your family fun account. Mm-hmm. If, if you miss the 1 45 once a year, you can just refund the family account. I don’t want you ha. The other thing, the other option is you have to keep refunding. Um, bills with the family fund because you spent, uh, movies, uh, movies, uh, from Amazon. So, which one’s harder, right?

One time a year or once a month, right? So just no, Amazon from Bills, but you know, honestly, I’m gonna, I’m gonna, um. Disagree. Yeah. Well, well, no, not on you, but their part because you can actually go into Amazon and strictly assign one card to the like subscriptions. So like you can assign whatever card you want to anything.

Mm-hmm. So they can set that Bills card to be just for their prime membership subscription every year. And then you can add the family fund account mm-hmm. For the charges. Like you can do that. Yeah. Um, you just have to know how we have the technology. Yeah. Okay, so my next client, she is lovely. She’s been actually coaching for eight months.

Uh, they have, uh, she makes very good money. She has an, she has a wonderful job and they just recently bought land to build their, their dream home, which is very fun. But she had, she came to us, she had 11 credit cards. Plus like four bank loans and two or three different student loans and a 401k loan. Oh, no.

Like it was just a mess. Like she had so much debt and um, but she didn’t need to like it was Right. That’s the thing. Yeah. Right. She didn’t, she did not need to, but she didn’t know She did. She didn’t know she could pay it off, like she wasn’t comfortable because nobody had shown her the numbers and she didn’t know how to look at it properly and all that.

And so, um, when, when I finally looked at her asset tracker, ’cause you know, when you set, when you set up for coaching, we do your goals, your asset tracker, your debt tracker, then your budget. And so when we were doing her asset tracker, I noticed she had like seven different savings accounts in like four different banks.

With like random amounts of money. And I was like, Hey, what are, what are all these for? No rhyme? Rhyme, right? Like, are they named, are they for something specific? And she’s like, well, this is just for our home fund. Like we’re gonna use this money to build our home, but everything else is just, there’s just money there.

And I was like, okay, but why? And she’s like, I don’t know. And so we. Pooled it all together and realized that she could pay off so much debt. So in a span of, um, eight months. Yeah. She went from having $292,000 in credit card debt with, this is no mortgage, so it was credit card bank loans, like I said, student loans and 401k stuff, and, and two, I think two vehicles.

So 2 92, and now she’s down to seven months later to $170,000 in debt just by. Organizing her money, showing her that she still had money for the house, showing her how if you save all this money, that’s not making you any money. Yeah. But you are paying 20% on interest every month. Um, you’re not winning the game.

Like there’s no reason to keep that money in your savings account. Yeah. So we kind of played with it and I like, like put her at ease and made a plan for her and she was like, oh. Then she felt comfortable with drawing the money and putting it all on debt and now her budget is so much, it’s like so simple and, um, she is, they’re super bridge, like she’s got a spa membership.

Her kids are going to private school, like. And that’s good. And she, she knows that she can do all that now. Mm-hmm. Like comfortably. Yeah. So, yeah, I think it’s just, uh, it’s important to be organized, especially when you have that much money, girl. Yeah. But, uh, it’s something that we, we say is you make too much money to rely on debt.

Yeah. A lot of times it’s, especially for her, it just sounds like it kept getting more complicated. It’s just a matter of convenience. Right. Because you don’t, you haven’t sit, sit to look at the numbers and, and figure it all out. Um, but you don’t need it. And that, that, and so you, and then, and then, so there’s that, and then like just the, just having 11 credit card y’all are talking to us about sometimes I don’t wanna open these extra deals.

I don’t wanna have four debit cards. And I’m like, you have 11 credit cards and these personal loans, or whatever you said. I’m like, that stresses me out. I don’t, I don’t wanna have to organize or, or chase after all that stuff. So, anyway. Good for her. I’m so happy for her. This is exactly why we do what we do.

Yeah. Um, so, okay, so I have a new co uh, uh, new clients as well, and so I, I love them. He is, um, she’s a therapist, but, and he’s a, um, uh, co cop. He’s a cop and so they’re really awesome. Their first session was so awesome, but, but we’re, we’re getting a little bit into the weeds now. Uh, they are combining finances for the first time, um, and understandably.

They didn’t really, I mean, they, they weren’t like lying to each other, but they were just kind of handling it separately. Understandably. He’s having a little bit of difficulty ’cause he’s not in debt and she is a lot of, a lot of debt. And so the reason like she is, and he’s so supportive. They’re so, she’s really ready to do this and, and so they’re coming together, but it doesn’t make it easier.

Doesn’t make it like less painful to look at those numbers sometimes, right? So for him, and, and now together, and now he’s watching. Now his paycheck doesn’t go into his account anymore. It goes into their main bills account and it gets all gobbled up with credit card payments, right? Mm-hmm. Uh, for or all their stuff.

And so that’s been a little bit difficult. Um, for him. And even though the good thing is they’re sharing screenshots, they’re they’re talking about their balances. Yeah. And they’re, they’re, they’re doing it together, but it, it’s still like, you know, the learning process. And I, and so I told him, I told her, okay, here’s what, ’cause he couldn’t come ’cause he is a cop, you know, ’cause they have to work and stuff.

I mean, everybody does, but I feel like their schedules are probably really hard. And he works in a, a city, right? That’s like He’s in California. Yeah. Yeah. He’s pretty in demand. So, um. So I said, okay, here’s what we’re gonna say. ’cause he’s coming to the next session. But I was like, right now what I want you to, to know or to tell him is like.

Just tell him, I know you’re working really hard and, um, and I’m, I’m going, just give me a few months to get this in order and you will start seeing the fruit from this. Mm-hmm. Like, it’s not gonna happen overnight. Um, and tell him also she decided to cut her hair appointment out because he’s, you know, he’s.

She decided, like they couldn’t really afford it, I don’t think, anyway, but she decided to cut it from the budget just to be like, I am really in this. I’m really, yeah, just show him that. Yeah. Right, right, right. Um, and she’s gorgeous. So I feel bad. I’m like, oh, but your hair is so pretty. I don’t know. No, I’m just kidding.

But I was like, you, you know, you could tell it was a sacrifice for her. Like, she’s looks really, really, uh, gorgeous. So, and then the other thing, um, I, uh, I, I, hold on cutting my hair. Uh, there was one more. Was it nails or something? We’re not in progress. Oh, oh yeah. Okay. Okay. And so then, because of everything that we figured out in this last session, she’s gonna be able to pay off a target card most likely.

And I said, make sure you show him, like show him the budget. Say we’re gonna pay this off this month, and we’re doing the thing that I said, and you agreed to do this with me and it’s happening. Right? And so I just wanted her to have a way to encourage him as he’s. Uh, joining this process with her and he is super supportive.

Like I said, the other thing is he is trying to get on board with the accounts and with understanding everything, but he doesn’t, he doesn’t want us to sell him the, um, ’cause his spending money is in his work. Uh, he doesn’t want us to z his haircut money. He wants to keep using the bill card. And I was like, okay.

Uh, we personally hate this, but I bet he’ll we’ll get him to come on board once he understands more. And once things are going, we’re just gonna keep the haircut money in the bills and we’re gonna be okay with it. ’cause I don’t, I know he won’t spend, you know, she might, she might have had a little more trouble.

I don’t know if she would, but I was like, it’s okay. We’re gonna, we’re gonna give him this, this win. This is a concession we’re gonna make. ’cause he is, we’re meeting him in the middle. Yes. Yeah, yeah. Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t have anything else. Oh, okay. Hold on. So stop talking if you something. I’ll let, just take a moment.

Um, okay. Yes. I’m gonna add to that. I think it’s, I think that’s a really good point. Sha meeting them in the middle because they need that. Mm-hmm. Like a lot of times this is a lot for them. Okay. Here they’ve been working and things have been happening, like within her situation, like racking up debt.

Mm-hmm. He maybe didn’t know or didn’t know, but didn’t know how much, or like the, the detriment to it or whatever. And then it’s like, Hey, let’s come on this appointment and we’re gonna do this together. And then it’s like they’re hit with. Everything that’s really, really going on. And it’s not that we’re purposely hiding anything from them.

Mm-hmm. It’s just that they’re working so hard and you’re trying to handle it. You’re just trying to deal with it and not burden them with what’s really going on. And so, but now that when y’all come on the same page, um, it is okay to like meet them in the middle, to let them see the progress slowly, and then eventually they’ll jump on board.

We see it every time. I don’t think that’s ever changed. Mm-hmm. I don’t think a guy’s like seen our process and been like, oh no, I don’t want that. Mm-hmm. I mean, literally they, they’re mostly the ones that are like texting us four or five months later going, this is the best thing that’s ever happened to our family.

Um, so, you know, just hang on and, and allow them that. And then, and then eventually you guys will both be there together. Yep.