Episode 5: How I Avoid Budgeting

Dec 22

Before we get into today’s episode, I want to update you all on all the amazing financial resources I have in store from the Holistic Money Podcast in 2023. I am teaching a money masterclass, Money Mapping, in January, where I will teach you the four steps to make sure 2023 is your best financial year yet. Shortly after that, The Holistic Money Course, my signature program, opens for enrollment. This course teaches you my no-budget philosophy, how to set it up, how to get it automated, and how to change your relationship with managing money, so it stops acting like this thing that you should be doing and just becomes a natural part of your life.

Additionally, you're also going to get one year of weekly money coaching with me. So not only will you have the plan set up, but you'll also have the accountability, the coaching, and the continued financial education over one full year to execute this consistently month-over-month and make great financial decisions.

Now, in today's podcast, I'm going to dive in on my no-budget philosophy. I want to talk with you about how I avoid budgeting altogether, why it's never worked for me and what I do instead, so you have a stronger sense of what I mean when I say my no-budget philosophy. I do not budget, I don't have a spreadsheet that I reconcile at the end of the month, and I don't have budgeting apps. I have a highly-organized, highly-effective automated money plan that reflects the financial future I want for myself, and every account is automatically filled with the exact amount of money I want to spend every month. I am held accountable for my money plan, not the other way around. So please stay tuned and remember to subscribe to the Holistic Money podcast for resourceful podcasts that will guide you to your financial freedom!

Key highlights

[00:00:01] Updates for 2023

[00:01:14] Introduction to today’s topic: No-budget philosophy

[00:02:45] Why money management is important to your financial future

[00:04:55] Why I ended up creating a money management system

[00:09:34] What is a money map?

[00:09:50] Three different accounts that your money can be: Lifestyle, savings and investment, and the sub-categories

[00:20:33] Why I like to break up my savings accounts among different accounts

[00:25:21] The Free Money Map training

Notable Quotes

I don't have to spend time reconciling budgets or deciding whether cat food goes in the animal or grocery store budgets; I don't think about any of those things. I keep my planning very simple; it's very streamlined, so streamlined that sometimes it can be a bit confronting because there's no hiding from my financial goals.
Without strong money management skills, you will never build that savings account; you will never build that investment account. You will never use your money strategically to create more income for yourself, so you have more freedom.
if you don't have savings and investments, and passive income, you’ll never get to experience any real freedom in your life. You're constantly going to be tied to that job, you’re going to have to go to work every day, and you're not going to have the ability to spend your time and energy on other parts of your life that you may find interesting or that you may just actually have to tend to at the moment.
Management is so important because it is the foundation for you building wealth. It has nothing to do with how much you earn or how you spend, save, and invest.
A money plan, especially a money map, will make your life much more fun. You'll have much more freedom, much less worry, and much more confidence with money, all because you are using money in a way that aligns with the future that you actually want for yourself.
The key tenants in which I built money mapping were: I wanted clarity, intentionality, and visibility. I wanted to see how I was tracking my money, but I didn't want to be restricted by spending categories. I wanted to be able to spend more in some areas and spend less in other areas as the month unfolded, and I wanted to be in a relationship with my life and my money.
One thing I want to make sure all of you know is, I want you to know how much your reoccurring bills are every month. The reason why you want to know this number is because it can be helpful for you to understand what percentage of your gross income is going towards your bills.
One benefit of increasing interest rates is that interest rates on our savings accounts pay more.
Remember, the number one blocker to building wealth is not how much money you earn; it is how you manage your money. So what we're going to do right now is, no matter how much money you're earning, we're just going to cultivate and build the skill of money management, which most people don't have at all income levels.
Investment accounts are arguably the most important accounts on your money map simply because your investment accounts put your money to work. And the reason why you want to put your money to work is so at some point; you don't have to work for your money; your money is just working for you.