I have super duper exciting news to share with you…I’m officially on my way to becoming an actual real-life financial coach!

I’m so excited but not just for me and getting to check this goal off my list, but I’m excited because this means that I’ll be able to serve YOU better. I’ll be able to better respond to your questions, write better content, and provide even more value to those that are enrolled in Real Life Money Plan.

And that makes me ecstatic!

So you wanna know what I’ve learned already that pretty much made a light blub go off in my head????

When it comes to issues with budgeting, it usually falls into one of three categories (or sometimes even in all three categories!):

Budget Problem Areas:

1. Perspective Problems: You don’t know “why” a budget needs to be done. It seems like a pointless endeavor or is only for “poor” people.
2. People Problems: This usually means that there is a relationship issue and is very common among those that are married but happens even with those that share or borrow money from friends or family.
3. Process Problems: You don’t know the actual mechanics behind setting up and sticking to a budget.

So part of my training is that when I’m listening to you, my goal should always be to help you identify which one of these problem areas is affecting you. And truth be told, I think that at various points or seasons in our lives, we suffer from at least one of these problems.

When I was younger and way dumber with my money, I definitely suffered from a perspective problem. I didn’t want to be embarrassed because I used the word “budget” because all my friends thought that was something only really poor people did or even worse, things that only our parents did.

Yeah, I know, shallow. But it was totally true.

In the early years of our marriage, we suffered from people problems because we were having to figure out how to manage money together. Then once we figured it out, we had to deal with other people problems – mainly our family and friends that thought we were insane for trying to become debt-free.

And even though I was very blessed to be raised by a mama that taught me the mechanics of budgeting while growing up, I’ve still found myself suffering from process problems. Mainly, I suffer from not know how the heck to save for retirement.

I may have an accounting degree but the school of accounting and the school of finance are actually two different animals all together. In the school of finance you learn all about investing and compound interest and things that make my brain hurt, but in the world of accounting, you learn how to manage the money you currently have.

So, I’m suffering from a process problem and working with a CFP to figure out just how the heck we’ll ever retire. And I want to encourage you to not be afraid to admit to suffering from one of these problems. No one has it all figured it – not even me. We all have something new to learn.

My challenge to you this week is to go over the problem areas above and identify which one you may be suffering from and brainstorm ways to overcome that issue.

If you need a little help figuring out which area may be an issue for you, go through these questions to see what they reveal to you:

Questions to ask yourself:

• What’s your process for creating the budget?
• What has been frustrating you the most about budgeting?
• Where have you seen your budget working?
• Have you been raiding one category (or your savings account) to cover another one? Why?
• How well are you and your spouse communicating about the budget?
• How are you defining success when it comes to budgeting?

Now, you don’t have to share these answers with anyone, they’re for you and are meant to get you thinking and taking action. You know I’m a big fan of taking action and making positive changes.

So, I encourage you to take action today!

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