Lessons

Lesson Info

Create a Weekly Spending Plan

So how do you keep this weekly amount because I cannot stress this enough if you keep your weekly amount you're going to have more money left over you're going to be able to deal with burial variable income much easier much better so start with cash only again I love credit cards will talk about them how to use them but why are you showing up here today because you want to see changes with your money because you want to save more so if you start with cash at least for a month that's a give yourself a month then by having cash only you're able to really keep it you're able to really be conscious about it and you're also able to see it happen to make it work so start with cash only at least for the first month so this I created this is a kind of money wonderful woman she's in her seventies and love her love her love her I've worked with her for a long time some years she truly makes three hundred thousand and some years she makes thirty thousands so I mean talk about feaster famine I've ...

had to live that with her so we had to create two weekly amounts for her we and I called and she and I devised it together the feast or famine account so she would call me or we'd have an appointment or we'd see each other and she'd say I that client has not come in I don't have projects this is going to be a thirty thousand year but you still have to live so she had her weekly amount of one hundred fifty a week and that she could live on in that worked with her in her budget and then if she had great business than she went up to seven hundred a week or eight hundred a week and actually believe it or not that's the harder part when you do well to have a weekly amount because when you're not doing well and you don't have a lot of money is what it is right? But when you're doing really well and you close some deals you're like, oh I want to go shopping I want to do this I want to do that so actually the feast is a lot more difficult in a lot more challenging so what I would think about is because the feast lets you save money for when the famine comes in and there's always feast or famine is a freelancer I know you know I always think I'm going to be so busy in january because I think you're done with the holidays you're going to deal with your money you've got your new year's resolutions and there's cobwebs on my phone that till about the last week in january it's it's I think people are just too hungover from the credit card bills or um I used february first seven are sells out bar none and the april when I can't give away so I'm always really busy in february but I swear those first three mix in january and I every year I've been in business now eleven years I think oh junior is gonna come I'm gonna be busy again I'm telling those first three weeks it is cobwebs on december I think well who's going to deal with their money in december you've got holidays, you've got thanksgiving nobody wants deal their money I'm working until december twentieth and I am booked until december twentieth and people would have me work december twenty fourth if I would let them but I'm going away for christmas for the holidays but I mean I work all the way up until december, which I cannot believe I think well, people are going to spend money working with me they're spending money on the holidays so you never know what your business is going to be like I'm eleven years I can attest to that so have your weekly amount because this will let you have a little more cushion a little more security on the weekly amount what are they for groceries and people fight me on this by the way the groceries they say well isn't groceries of fixed expense shouldn't be sure, but how many of you go to the supermarket thing well, joe, I don't want this olive oil or do I want that olive oil or try by organic shy by conventional or we going to do meatless monday? Or are we doing taco night? I mean, there's, especially if you have a family so you could have one hundred dollars grocery bill and you can have a five hundred dollar grocery bill, you can go to costco, you've got a whole foods, you goto um, you know, actually what? I lived in new york city, I loved fresh direct I don't know if anybody's used it in again, not supporting them, not endorsing them, but what I loved about fresh direct as I could first of all, it is a working parent, I loved it because it was really easy to get all my groceries delivered seven a m monday and you don't have to worry about grocery shopping, but more importantly, I could save my grocery list on fresh direct I'll never forget I haven't lived in new york a while, but it was one hundred eighty dollars and had all my staples for two weeks, and so I could always go to the grocery store other times during the week if I needed something special, but I knew for one hundred eighty dollars I could feed my family somewhat for two weeks or ten days and that was the staples the milk the eggs the broccoli the toilet paper and it was like no surprises and it was one button so it was took me thirty seconds to order it it would come monday morning before I got my week started and there were no surprises were often and if you go to the grocery store again you never know what your bill's going to be so I loved fresh direct for that so if you can use like an online shopping tool I think that can really help with that but again that one even came out of my weekly amount so if I had seven hundred for the week it was seven hundred minus one eighty and then what's left over because groceries can be a tough parts is just family when you work with clients and you find that they start to really get into their savings plans based on these budgets how does it impact their spending do you find people like stop spending such that it is a great great question really great question when people change because usually when I'm working with an individual lights it's not a one time session we worked together over a few months and when they really change create a weekly spending amount and start saving maur the first thing I say to them do you feel deprived do you feel like you are truly sitting at home thinking I can't afford it no, nobody has ever felt deprivation they feel revelation they feel free they really they either say I cannot believe I spent money and all that crap that I didn't need they feel like they have now consciousness so no obi and I've worked a lot of people feels deprivation from creating this if anything it just lets you become free and really spend your money where you want it to be and it lets you like go on vacation, which is a big thing because a lot of people feel like they can't afford a vacation or it lets them feel like they've got a security net or it lets them feel like wow, if I don't get a job if work doesn't come, I'm not going to freak out because I have a security net absolutely I was just mentioned also one of the other enrollment downloads just because we're talking about all these different areas and you know, whilst we've got the slides and of course if you buy that by the course you do get access to the pdf so we do have the monthly spending plan yes, well, so this would be that moment we actually go over that, so let me can I I'm going to show this so actually and I think the month expanding claims showed a few thing there's a worksheet that might not be here so part of the downloads is that pie chart that looked really cool that showed all the different expenses so what I did is I just kind of put it on a spreadsheet here and I think you're going to get this is a pdf but this will help you fill in the categories and this took me ten years to put together ten years of working with people and their budgets is so it'll let you fill out all the categories so it has the fixed expenses but then also the personal care haircuts household cleaning supplies laundry clothing newspaper so this is a great exercise to sit down for half an hour and just really say what are those what others amounts again look at bank statements, lookit investment statements like a credit card statements or just doom off the top of your head so gal way had more figures online way but we need to clean the boy's okay let's clean the board. Okay, great. All right, well, I'm gonna get into a few more areas. Um so when we talked about prioritizing your spending this is just kind of directed towards the rather exercise so again creating that really spending him out which we're going to come up with yours police send mohr is you can see how much fun it's been for me to work on it I love it but every week think about it like this you've got one big thing and if you don't have a big thing, you can always save it, or you can say, you know it, I know that I do want to go shopping or maybe I'll get a massage this week, or maybe I will go to whole foods and buy all that fancy olive oil and spices and things like that that I can't afford. Or maybe I'll buy a really nice cocktail shaker because they'll start having cocktails at home and, you know, that's, really off on guard, by the way, is to have people over and do cocktails at home and, you know, see, there you go think of how much he's learned exactly cheap, but I think I agree, but, you know, I have to do an aussie style, yes, exactly or public. Stiles my sister in colorado does she's like you don't cook everything you have ever ready bring a dish, not new york. You don't do that, but anyway, the point is every week pick one thing. As I mentioned, my family of, of five siblings and my six six term mommy birthdays are a killer, so I know that if I have a birthday that I have to buy that week, maybe I'm not eating out. Or, you know, I get my hair done maybe three times a year, and I've just learned that I'd rather go three times a year to the fancy salon than every month to the cheaper salon. So if I'm going to the fancy salon that's two fifty all right, again, we're not eating out or maybe we are going to the theatre and we are eating out that I'm not going to buy anything. I'm not going to go on amazon and one click purchase I love the one click purchase and I hate the one click purchase it's just such a I mean, I love the convenience of it, especially with the mobile shopping, but it is a dangerous tool and yes, amazon does count in your weekly spending I know I saw that face, but the ideas every week pick one big thing and then with what's left over, you make the choices and so maybe that week you want if taxes is a big thing, fine, spend money in taxes that's my point is, I'm not telling you you you cannot do anything I'm actually saying you can you just have to do it within these confines or whatnot? And how I would summarize the weekly plan is that it lets me live my life on a daily basis with what I want to do and plan for the future, because by living on my weekly amount, I'm able to say for those bigger things that we all wanted, teo, we're all here because we want to do that, right? Okay, I'll get started on some numbers, we have some numbers, I'd like to throw a question to you from the chat and then give you some more scenarios so cat stone says, hi, my name is cat, and my husband and I are wedding photographers in vancouver, here's the question, how do we say noto all the vendor get togethers, christmas parties, networking events that air in a way, good for business, but hard on the wallet? Is it a write off up till the point? We're spending so much money on staying in touch with our industry. So how do you reckon I, oh, that's, a great question, it's. Funny, because group that I work with in new york, this lovely group called the playwrights of new york, just a lovely group of playwrights. And I was meeting with one of playwrights and I mean he's been nominated for a tony award I mean, this is just a really but everyone's got their money issues and he said the same thing he's like you know I have to go to these parties or skin and there's the producer is going to be there and this playwright person's going to be there and all these people are going to be there howto why he's like it's crazy actually have to take them out even though I want them to take me out and so this is something that my husband actually told me you wanted first started my business because I was doing the same thing he goes ok right down where you got your money from who gave you work in priority so with this photographer list all these vendors top to bottom who gave me the most business and I will go to the first two and three and I'll say no to the rest so with the playwright you know I said you've got ten people that you want to go off for drinks who gave you business last year work smarter, not harder what's the bottom online you know, that's the business person in you and I know I get it I want to say yes to everything I really wanted to go to this dinner two weeks ago and I just couldn't I just couldn't do it, I knew I couldn't afford it was a total business dinner, but it was going to be just a great opportunity great group of people is going to cost me a hundred twenty five dollars I'm like, don't become to get any business from it now I'm exhausted, I can't do it so I would just I would focus on the business who's giving you the business brand photography question is, I make about double that double the amount my spouse does, but I have way more credit card debt and student loans. How do I live with my spouse of spending so that I can put money towards death? I e I don't know if that's about the money that is a relationship question, I mean, they need to start communicating about their money so that's the first thing because are they looking at their money together? They not, you know, so if they're looking at their money together, which, you know that's a pretty controversial like, should you look at your money together? I I would say overall, you should look at your money together, but it's, nice to have your own little pot just that you're in charge of and you don't have to have any questions answered, and I think it it makes for a happier marriage is a relationship, but they've got to start looking at their money together because the debt there in the relationship together is that his dead is it her dead I mean that's part of the issue there and then I and they both have to have spending plan so what is she spending her money on it's important to her and I work with couples all the time and guess what we come through weekly spending plan is a couple so maybe their weekly spending plan is eight hundred dollars she gets for she gets six hundred of it and he gets two hundred and so that way they have found the money to pay off their debt so they've got to come up with a weekly spending planet maybe she gets a little bit more so we have some numbers that have come in are you ready for a couple of areas? Yeah okay this one is from right start photography income for twenty thirteen is forty three thousand two hundred dollars okay, thank you my calculator for that is that before taxes or after I am not certain I'm going to assume it before so thirty six hundred a month on and then monthly fixed expenses eight hundred forty three dollars forty three is fixed variable first while I took twenty percent out for taxes so correct me if I'm wrong so this is their after tax so do you see by the way I'm just taxes it's in my equation it's in my conversation can't get away from it it's like you get paid taxes out hey I know the numbers get lower kills me trust me and then variable expenses nine hundred dollars a month so variable can I play around with that uh potentially and then the goal the stated goal is for one year from now to be able to buy a house for about twenty thousand dollars does she have an emergency savings account or do they have an emergency account uh not one that is listed I'm going to speak for them and says I don't okay so what I would say is that maybe they won't be able to buy a home in a year but if their burial expenses or nine hundred and they don't have any debt to pay off so they basically have eleven hundred extra so they've got to start putting hundred among towards an ira two hundred a month towards their rainy day or emergency accounts and then the rest they can save so it's a seventeen months if they're not going to do that but then eleven thirty seven minus three hundred is a thirty seven seven twenty thousand eight hundred so it'll take him about two years to safer down payment but at the same time they've created an ira in a rainy day fund so it's fantastic that they've made forty three thousand but what if nobody calls tomorrow I hope that doesn't happen and I'm sort of the doom sayer saying what if what if so I'm creating this in case nobody calls and guess what if everybody calls then you can just always use that towards the down payment but let's start creating a safety nut and then let's also start creating money for an ira so it might take two years but at least you're doing in and you'll get there very quickly uh okay m b twenty three who is a she lets see I'm going to give you her number she has itemized everything look, can I just say I am so excited to hear from you guys? Thank you. See how much you know hands on your garden so her total expenses per month one thousand two hundred thirty seven dollars caution to the penny so there's that her fixed expenses let's see that's total so let me see she has broken it down monthly fixed total expenses uh it looks like what do you think? Just backing a bat down. So what? She sang so bill in lieu of rent we're doing them. We're gonna do right down. Well, I'm just curious if it's fixed versus variable looks thiss looks to be mixed right? Because she has groceries gas we have it'll into yeah, well, what did you get her condition? Does she give her income yes average is one thousand two hundred fifty six okay, so we need to work with the expenses yes oh calling them it looks like she's calling that title expect that she's calling the fixed ropes but actually looks like you could probably pull some kind of think that's probably a good thing, right? Right, so I mean, I don't know if we've a chance to go into detail here but so she pays her cell bill as part of rent so she's wanna sell bill fixed? Yeah that's ok, so her rent that one hundred sixty seven she has her discovery card credit card fifty two credit card she has student loan repayment of eleven dollars she says load it down to eleven dollars but it will hurt me she has lowered into eleven, actually not doesn't two hundred sixty seven eleven dollars to she must mean she has a lot of violence. E gah ah, yes type that bears a sallie mae student loan for one hundred twenty so she has to sixty seven and one twenty. Okay, jim twenty two netflix eight dollars we should get some work. Yeah, doctors thirty seven the medical prescriptions fifty two thirty seven fifty to ninety that there's a city card for sixty two dollars some assuming that's a monthly so she had another credit card of fifty two and then I'm sorry it was this one is that he turned fifty two for the credit card. So is that past debt that she's owing is that that feels like yeah, yeah. Feels like that's like a mentally. You think maybe it's her minimum that shows yeah. Car insurance seventy seven to insurance, cool there's, another student loan for fifty three dollars. Yeah. So these student loans air holding her back a little bit. And then, uh, gas one hundred fifteen plus fifty three. They saw her student loans are for forty that's a third of her income. What was gas? I'm sorry. Gas was one hundred fifteen and then groceries two hundred five. Five. Right. So, um, while you're working on that, her goals are to have her own place. She lives with her boyfriend and his family. Well, it still has to buy most of hiss and her groceries, and she wants to be able to save for a wedding and by a better computer and camera. Okay, I mean there's, just there's. Not a lot of room here, to be honest, because she's earning fifteen thousand dollars a year. And she has four hundred forty dollars a month in student loans so this is a costs a case of I think she's doing a great job with what she's doing she's got to figure out a way to earn more money because just a little interjection so she has clarified she has had that federal line reduced to eleven dollars she's saying that's going to take a longer to pay off but she's got it from the so it was two sixty seven but it's eleven right so let me just check on that so the student lawd that she had yeah it was to sixty seven but it's been lowered to eleven bucks so she's got eleven plus one twenty plus fifty three correct so that's two hundred dollars a month in loans getting it yeah you know I mean there's just not a lot of room here I mean she's got the credit card debt I mean what would I cut here assuming she needs the car in the gas she doesn't have health insurance I mean the groceries two o five for a month that's not a lot of money so I can't necessarily come up with a lot to cut here so I think the fact that she knows these numbers and says ok, I've got twelve thousand fifteen thousand a year two hundred dollars a month what can I do now to start paying myself a thousand dollars more a month minimum. Because what she's it's great that she's saving for the camera, and to want to move. But she doesn't have a savings account. So she's got to start saving for the savings account and then the ira to putting that in there. So her saved to spend khun b, the camera and the rent. So it's a little bit tougher, sometimes working when there's not a lot to cut, but at least it's a place to start moving from there. So thank you so much for sharing that.