📍 I make good money and usually don’t have anything to show for it. I’m a clinical psychologist. I’m a single mom I’ve always been pretty good at making money and terrible at saving money.  I have this huge student loan debt that. never even look at, it’s $453,000. They’re not asking me for money yet.

 right now I’m like a little nervous guess. ’cause figuring out what works for me and my brain and stuff, because I have, I. I think I now have actually six accounts

 you want to know, I have money set aside for all of these things. I’m ready with whatever’s, whatever you’re coming at me with.  I love logging into my bank and going, my travel fund says I have this much money to spend. My kids’ education account says I have this much money to spend my annual bills. I have all that money saved. This is exactly how much I have and where it’s going. Like it takes all of the guesswork out of it for you.

 The bank is working for you. You are hiring them to do a job for you. It’s not the other way around. 

 Hi Nicole. We’re so excited to have you on Financial Coaching for Women Podcast. Welcome.

Thank you. Hello.

Hello. Hello. So well, thank you so much for coming on. We are so excited to hear your story.

So tell us what brings you to the call today. 

I guess like most of your callers, I make good money and usually don’t have anything to show for it. I’m a clinical psychologist. And I’m a single mom with two kids and on again, off again, support from their dad. And yeah, I’ve always been pretty good at making money and terrible at saving money.

And I live with that dread. And so then I found you guys about two months ago and I got the program and so I’ve been working with it. It’s been going really well. Yeah, I have to give myself grace and patience I want it to all be perfect 

from the beginning. Yeah. We hear that a lot. We identify with that. I we understand that.

yeah. So I’m trying to to be happy with what I have done and yeah. So I don’t know are you looking for a specific question or

Yeah. So do you find yourself, is there anything in particular kind of get, feel, make you feel stuck or that you’d some help with? 

Yeah, one thing I think about, okay I’ve got my budget. That’s I’ve been doing it. This is my second month doing it. That’s going pretty well. I have some of my automated. Things happening, which feels good. So I have four bank accounts now. I guess one thing I’m looking for is just reassurance that like, as I keep going it becomes like more clear and more organized.

’cause I’m like, one thing I’m noticing, which sounds silly, is that I thought I used, I thought I spent like $50 in my cats a month, but now I’m noticing I spend like

200. 

Yeah we, the, one of the, did she say cat? Yes. Okay. Yeah. One of the first things we hear is that

 i’m way more aware of my money than I ever have been because you are just noticing now where you’re where it’s going, right? Yeah. Yeah. And, like children, pet expenses seem to just be going up.

It just keeps creeping. So you’re not alone there. And yeah, and I hadn’t had a dog for a while. And when we added him into the budget, I didn’t, first of all didn’t know grooming was gonna be an expense. I was, I don’t know how I would’ve approved of this puppy, but anyway. But then I was like, oh, dog food again, and pet shots and grooming and getting their nails done or whatever you might have, so Yeah.

And then oopses. Yeah. And you don’t, oh, don’t, and then don’t even worry about the oopses. But but yeah, that’s just part of the process is like you’re, six months in you’ll feel like you really probably have a handle on everything, but you’re like, oh, this, oh this. And getting, like finding stuff as you go through the process.

Yeah. It’s annoying. Like you said, it’s not perfect immediately, which is really rude, but it is part of the process. Yeah. And we have a, especially our clients who sign up for coaching specifically too, it’s doesn’t go perfect the first couple months and this is why we tell people like, look, it’s a six month process because month one is figuring out where we’re at.

Month two is okay, now we’re implementing month three is do we like this? Is it working? So there’s a lot of tweaking that goes along the way. And so even when you’re doing it by yourself, like Shana said, the first step is when you start doing this is what, what is happening? And you start to realize what’s going on and you get better and better every month at sitting up, okay, I really thought I only needed $1,600 a month for groceries.

Now I really need 1800. That’s my sweet spot. You start getting better and people start we put a buffer in, right? At the very beginning, when you first start doing your budget, we really recommend just adding like a hundred dollars, $50 buffer if you can. If you can do more, great. If not, we understand, but it’s because of all these unexpected expenses that come up that we just really, we don’t think about When we do our budget, we do income, debt payments, bills, gas and groceries, and probably kits like that’s like really the what we put in there and we don’t think about where else our money goes until we start.

Spending and we’re like, oh, there are more categories. Like you said, now you have four bank accounts. We really start figuring out where we need to put money.

 Okay, great, thank you. So then I guess the next big thing, there’s two big things. So one is I have this huge student loan debt that. never even look at, I haven’t had to pay any money on it yet. ’cause I went to grad school, it’s $453,000. They’re not asking me for money yet. It was in one thing and now they’ve shifted it over to forbearance and, it’s coming for me at some point and I have no idea when or how much that will be. 

But eventually I’ll be making this big student loan. Payment. So I know I probably should be having a savings bucket for that, but I don’t, because I’m thinking more about like my son’s birthday in March and the trip I wanna do in May, and

Question can, do they allow you to just go ahead and start making payments? Is that something you’re able to start doing?

I could, yes.

 Okay. I think that probably the first thing you wanna do is make a budget with knowing okay, I, I think I’m anticipating I’m gonna be making a thousand payment or whatever.

I have no idea. I’m just throwing a number out there. You need to start figuring out how that’s gonna look in your budget. You probably wanna add that in as quick as possible so you can really start living with that. And it’s not a surprise when it comes. Yeah. And just FYI, unless you’re gonna save $400,000 up.

The student loan is not a savings bucket. It’s just gonna go in the debt. Yeah. And you’re gonna pay it as aggressively as you want and as aggressively as you can. But it’s we’re not saving up for it because Vanessa said, it’s gonna have to be something we pay monthly at some point. It’s gonna have to be part of our budget regularly, however.

While you’re figuring out what that is, because they don’t make it easy. You have to like, go get a private investigator to figure out yeah, what is actually happening with these loans and stuff. But while you’re figuring it out, you do want to get your other savings buckets. You can work on those like son’s birthday’s always gonna be one, right?

And you have two kids. So we would put both of them in there, figure out which savings buckets you need and. Balance that with what your budget looks like. And then you said you sometimes get support or it’s back and forth, so if that happens, I might have like a goal to use that the months that it does happen.

I might have that. I wouldn’t budget regularly for it, but I would know if I do get it. This is where it goes. That would be part of my budget too, and it’s probably frustrating, but I think the best thing you can do for yourself is budget. Without it, like Shayna is saying, go ahead and just anticipate it not coming.

We’re not like trying to, crap on excuse, right? Excuse him, or crap on him or anything like that. We’re just saying let, and we’re gonna completely shift our mindset and say, I’m going to budget without it, and I have to make my budget work without it. A hundred percent. And then you can later, like Shana said, when it comes in, then it can go towards a savings bucket or it can go towards that.

It can go towards bigger things. It doesn’t, it’s not expected in your monthly budget because then that’s gonna completely throw you off, and then you’re just gonna get mad every month if it’s not there. And you don’t need that.

That’s not helping you.

 Okay. That’s great. Thank you so much. Okay. So the other thing, because I did get a pretty good tax return this year and I put aside, so I have one month emergency of rent, which I know I should probably have two months, but I have one month of my emergency rent baller pad. ’cause I took your advice and named everything fun

You say baller pad?

uhhuh,

Yes. That’s.

 And then I’ve got I think like about $5,000 that’s just sitting in this other account because don’t know what to do with it. Feel okay, maybe that’s my, like emergency money and

 That can really start, that can jumpstart your savings buckets. Yeah. Like, why don’t you sit down and actually think about how much money you spend throughout the year, right? Not this stuff that’s monthly, right? And look at like kids’ birthdays, Christmas travel, things like that. Sports or whatever.

Like all the things that you know that are coming that you absolutely need. Let’s, we’re doing on a need basis, right? We’re not doing bougie life yet. We’re gonna, that can come later, but let’s figure that out and see if you can use that money to start. So that way then you can figure out, can my monthly budget.

Afford the debt payment. And can it fund some of the savings buckets? So the savings buckets are half what people might call an emergency. So if you have your emergency fund, that’s good. That’s a good start. And then what happens is, oh, the summer camps for kids came up and I forgot about it. And oh, let me pull from my emergency.

That’s obviously an emergency fund. That’s emergency, but that’s what people think of for an emergency fund. But if you can plan out your state, not that you don’t necessarily get it perfect, but for a lot of. The parts plan out your, er, your savings buckets, then you’ll, you do reduce the need for a emergency fund.

So that might be like, maybe you pay insurance twice a year or you pay car registrations, or these bigger things that come up that you’re like, gosh I don’t wanna have to fork out $700 this month for it. I didn’t think about it. We’re gonna put those in savings buckets and that way. Those are taken care of.

You have an emergency fund like you are ready. And that is, I know that’s a really important feeling as a single mom. You want to know, I have money set aside for all of these things. I’m ready with whatever’s, whatever you’re coming at me with. And then so that, that’s important to, like Vanessa, get those ones that you know you need.

Maybe Christmas, birthdays, whatever. And then you can start to say, do I wanna pay extra on student loans or any other debt that I have? Do I have, do I wanna add in some vacations, do some more fun things like based on what, whatever is left in your budget,

 Okay. And then the savings bucket that ideally each their own account? Because I feel like that’s getting to so many accounts, but

that’s.

a.

 The idea, the concept is that every single category has their own savings account. And here’s why. We have seen people try to come to us like, oh, I’m just gonna make one savings account and I’m gonna have an Excel spreadsheet over here that tells me exactly how much money is going to what category.

And then I’m gonna go back and subtract from that one category every single time I spend money and I’m gonna know exactly where I’m at. And I’m like, you’re not actually gonna do that. You may do it one time and then never go back and do it again. Let me tell you, I have 14 accounts, or I have a lot, probably more 16.

It’s fine, but I love logging into my bank and going, my travel fund says I have this much money to spend. My kids’ education account says I have this much money to spend my annual bills. I have all that money saved. This is exactly how much I have and where it’s going. Like it takes all of the guesswork out of it for you.

Yeah, and there’s some block that we have with accounts. There’s something special. It’s just like basically a file folder. It’s not, don’t think of it like some big ordeal. Just think I’m filing my money in different file folders, right? So that I know where that it’s there, where it is, where to pull it where to go for it.

I know that I’ve. Separated. I’ve organized it. I know. It’s like that’s really what we’re thinking about with it. It’s like not a big, we just have in our mind like the same thing from when we were kids or teenagers. Like I can have one account for checking and one account for saving is not a big deal.

And but the other thing to know about the savings accounts is we want those to be as much as you can high yield, like a high yield savings account. That way at least it’s making a little money. Like you have $5,000 that you’re gonna figure out where it’s gonna go. That can be making you money.

While sitting in there, while sitting in there being saved for whatever else. Same with your emergency fund. Yeah. So think of it as, the digital version, digital envelope version of that, the old cash envelopes that people used to have. And I think one question I’ll ask this for you, but even for everyone listening is like, what is the block with having more savings accounts?

Do we know what that is? Or is it just gosh, that just seems like a lot.

 yeah, that’s a great question. I think, ’cause right now I’m like a little nervous guess. ’cause figuring out what works for me and my brain and stuff, because I have, I. I think I now have actually six accounts

We can almost be friends. I’m just kidding. And they’re all names.

and I feel like I need 15 more, but two at each institution. So I’ve got like

Okay, hold on. Pause. That’s what’s overwhelming is them being at in different institutions.

yeah, so should I not do that? I have Ally, you guys said the high yield. So I have that’s where like my big money is. Then I have my, is it okay to say all this? I don’t know if it’s US savings. I don’t know

That’s fine. We,

okay.

anything negative about any of them, it’s fine.

I have my US bank account that everything just comes into, 

And. That’s like what my bills, that’s like my main like card that I use. And so then I made one more account with that us that’s like for fun, so that I can just have my two cards that I actually like use. Which one is for like bills and groceries or whatever. And the other one’s for fun. And then I have another, which is a first entertainment, is right now going Amazon and 

Do you like having, do you like having all those different banks?

I think it’s okay. I think I just get nervous about adding more and where are they gonna be, and then I guess I

Yeah.  So we, we really want them to all be in one as much as possible. That way it’s not, there’s no, like, where is that again? But for the. You could just keep all your savings with Ally and then keep all of your checking and stuff in one. That would be the short term solution.

And then, we would, we, if your bank doesn’t offer high yield savings. Then you can use Ally as a checking. They do offer checking and they have cards and all that. So we just think it’s easier to have it all in one place as much as possible. Yeah. And it’s less confusing to you.

And also it reduces the amount of time that you get your money. So if you are at one bank but you’re savings buckets or spending account is at another bank, you have to wait 24, at least 24 hours for that money to get over to the other bank before you can use it. Yeah. So it’s  

okay.

You get paid on a Friday and you do that transfer, that means you’re not getting paid till Monday. And so you don’t have, it just confuses stuff. Versus if you get paid and need to make the transfer the same day in the same bank, you’re gonna have that spending money available in that account.

I guess I’m intimidated to try to think about getting all

my bills.

changing it all,

Yeah,  I think I’ll, so we’ll tell you when our clients come in, that’s probably the biggest challenge that we have is if they have to switch banks, that is the, probably the biggest challenge, we’ll use a good word, opportunity, that they have to do. But it’s, it just makes everything so much more streamlined when you get there, 

Okay.

So then pretend like I have all these accounts in Ally,

Okay. Got it. Got it. Okay.

so I have my checking account and all my money comes in there. then have all that edit automated to my other, like I can have 15 or 20 accounts all in a ally and it, that’s all

Ally allows you to have 10 checking, 10 savings, and three checking.

Okay.

 That’s the only stipulation with them. There are, like, credit unions are really great about allowing limited stuff. There are some banks that allow it too. Sometimes you just have to go shopping. But here’s the thing is to remember is.

The bank is working for you. You are hiring them to do a job for you. It’s not the other way around. So when you are shopping for a bank, make sure you find one that wants to do what you want it to do. They’re out there, you just have to look. Yeah. And so you just want, what’s happening with the bank accounts is a reflection of what’s happening on your budget, right?

So all of the income is coming into that. Bills account, your bills and any debts that you have are getting paid out of it. And then the transfers are going to each one of those spending and savings categories is a different account. That’s what’s happening is the transfers are going there.

And hopefully they’re automatic. You’ve renamed the accounts so you know all of that. So what other, what was like the, what was the question? So you said say they were all in the same bank, so what is 

So you guys don’t, but I’m assuming you don’t have 15 cards, right? So

No. Okay. Yes. Okay. That was the question. Okay. Good. Two cards. That’s all you need.

Okay.

You have one for your groceries, I guess you do Amazon orders and groceries in the same account, right? Is what it sounds like.

Yeah. Yeah. Right now,

And that, is that Amazon like groceries or Amazon? Like spending, just like shopping.

now it’s Amazon spending as I’m trying to figure out that’s where I’m at right now. I want

 Okay. So you want one personal and one like minimum. You want one personal and one groceries. Okay. So your personal checking. Is like spending money. That’s where the Amazon stuff should be going. If you wanna spend money on Amazon for fun days, it’s your personal spending. And then you have one for groceries.

Sometimes people have a third one for like family fun, entertainment, restaurants, but you don’t even have, you can just keep that in account and transfer when you go out to eat or whatever. You can transfer to your personal that time. But you really just, the separate grocery one and the personal spending and the personal is where you spend everything out.

So let’s say you have your savings bucket for vehicle maintenance. You’ll transfer the oil change money into your personal and swipe at that time, so you only have to have two cards in your wallet. Yeah. Everything that’s a savings bucket is a savings account. You don’t have debit cards for them. You’re just holding the money there, and when you need it, you transfer it out of spending into your excuse me, out of savings into your spending account, and you swipe your card.

 ​

 Okay. And, okay, so then that does lead me to my big Amazon, ’cause Amazon was like a big confusing thing for me because it can be groceries, it can be cat food stuff, it can be household stuff, it can be fun stuff.  So

The good thing about Amazon is you can attach multiple cards. So the everything that’s groceries, you can have the groceries card to it. Anything that is shopping, that’s where you spend, that’s where you use your spending. Yeah. Debit card. So the subscribe and save. I really recommend using that if you’re gonna do, if you’re gonna get stuff for groceries from them anyway, because.

You can set that all up and it’ll be automatic. You’ll get it. Like I just told Vanessa, what was it? Oh, we’re not gonna talk about that. But some feminine products, she needs to put that on auto so that we don’t ever have to think about it from coming from them. But there’s certain things you set up, subscribe and save, you get discounts and then they’re coming automatically.

You can set it to one card, like Vanessa said, you can make sure that’s your grocery card and then that’s done. And I would do the same thing for my cat stuff if it’s cat, like I just do it all out of grocery, all household stuff. Yeah. I just, that’s how I do it. To make it simple. And then my personal when I I just went and what did I buy this morning?

Oh, you be shopping girl? I did. I’ll show you. I can’t, oh, I got new pens ’cause I’m, I need some new pens and I, my daughter wanted mechanical pencils, so we got some pretty pens and pencils. And that came outta my personal my personal account. And I was able, and you’re able to choose it right there.

It actually defaults for me. It defaults to that personal one, and then I go make a fun purchase. And that’s why I recommend the subscribe and save, because then that’s also, you won’t actually, it’s already set up. Yeah. You won’t accidentally select the wrong card. You know what I mean? 

That’s great. Okay. And then you guys, yeah, and this is like the, this is like the stuff, it’s like this organizational stuff. ’cause my brain is, good at some things, but not necessarily.

Hey, we get it. Your brain is mostly mom and clinical psychologist. Okay. That’s.

I’m like, I don’t know products are groceries. That’s

Yeah, I know, exactly. So I think we just need to rename that as like a household account. ’cause I do like any cleaning products. Yeah. Any toilet paper towels and all the food. Anything that you’ll get at the store when you go Yeah. That’s what we basically say. It’s just easier, it’s not just food.

You’re gonna go get mop. Mop refills or what, like all this different stuff. So we’re just trying to reduce the amount of categories, if you can bulk, bulk things into three or four categories and it just helps your brain Yeah. Figure out how, where you put all the money when you spend it.

So supplies is household supplies for you guys.

Pets. I put all of the stuff that we do for pets other than their shots. The grooming that, that goes into a separate account, but yeah. Their food. The treats. Toys, treats. Yeah. Anything that I would just get I say everything I would get at Walmart, but anything that you get like reoccurring, like all the time need.

Yeah. Anything you’re spending money on a monthly basis is going into that account. Yeah. Shana said, big stuff for pets like. Your pet emergency fund, their annual visits, their flea, heartworm, all of that stuff that’s into savings buckets. Yeah. Because people, you should not be, you should not be buying your dog’s heartworm and flea worm and your cats monthly.

’cause you save so much more money if you can buy it six months or a year basis. So do that.

Okay. Okay. Yeah. That’s

Wow. Yeah.

That’s super helpful.

Okay. Good. I’m glad because we have not, we haven’t, it sounds like we need to podcast that episode on that, but it’s we have failed. Yeah. Hopefully we’ve helped you and then other people will hear, probably have the exact same questions.

Nicole. So grateful that you asked that because it it might feel like it’s obvious. It sounds, if it feels obvious to us, but we don’t explain it enough. So now hopefully a lot of people will know. Cat stuff, which category goes in.

Yes.

Thank you so much for calling in. We’re so appreciative of your questions and again, I think we not only helped you but others we look forward to hearing back from you to see how it all went.

Okay. Thank you guys so much.