Since the Feel Great in 8 Challenge is meant to help you feel great physically, mentally, and spiritually, it’s probably about time I wrote a post about one of the things that I believe can cause the most stress…finances!
I am definitely not an expert at this topic, but I’ve been working for a little over a year now at finding peace when it comes to our finances and I want to share with you the things that I’ve learned.
My journey started about a year and a half ago when I finally got fed up with stressing over money all. the. time. For the first 8 years of our marriage, my husband was in school. I taught public school and then preschool in our home to help out financially, which meant we lived on very little. I knew money was a huge source of stress for me, but I just keep waiting for graduation to fix it.
So, when my husband graduated from optometry school and got a real job making more than we had ever lived on before I was positive my stressing over money days were over. Of course I was wrong, and a year later when I was still stressing about our finances I decided it was finally time for something big to change.
The first thing I did was invest in a budgeting program that would make it easier for me to track our spending. In my search for a program I stumbled across You Need a Budget (YNAB) and I am SO glad I did. This one little purchase has made a huge difference in my financial peace, not just because it makes it easy to track our spending, but because it taught us a whole new way to spend our money. I’ll tell you even more about this program and why I love it so much in a minute, but first let’s dig into my 8 tips for financial peace.
1. Live on last month’s income. One of the first things YNAB teaches you is to work until you are living on last month’s income. Maybe you all knew about this tip, but honestly, this was a whole new way of thinking for me. It took us 6 months of cutting back before we were able to get a full month ahead and it wasn’t easy, but it has made a HUGE difference in my stress level. No more waiting to pay a bill until the paycheck is deposited, or worrying if the paycheck is a few days late. Right now we are spending the money we made in March. It has been there waiting for us and any money we make in April is immediately budgeted for May’s expenses. It has been life changing and definitely worth the effort.
2. Tell your money where to go. This is another thing that I learned to do differently thanks to YNAB. In the past I’d always budgeted by tracking our spending and trying to cut back in areas, but I was never good at starting out with a detailed plan. Now, at the begging on the month, all of our money (the money we earned the month before) is told where to go. No more guessing or hoping we’ll have gas money left at the end of the month, I know exactly how much we have to spend in every budget category.
3. Record all your spending. If you are anything like me, the first time you record all of your spending for the month you’ll be shocked. Somehow how much you actually spend is more than what you think you spend. This is also an area that is a lot easier with a program to help. It takes me less than 20 minutes to download all our transactions 3-4 times a week onto YNAB. Then it automatically updates the app on our phones so that we can quickly check the budget category before making purchasing decisions.
4. Plan for big expenses. This is another area that most people probably already know about, but that I learned from YNAB. I was always the one shocked by a car repair and scrambling to come up with the extra money. Now we have a budget category for car maintenance and repairs that we add too each month. So, by the time that bill comes, we that fund has already been growing for months and the money is there to spend. So much less stressful.
5. Take money advice from the right people. The other step I took in looking for financial peace was to buy Dave Ramsey’s starter kit. The one I got was a little different, but he still has one available {here}. I love how Dave tells you to stop taking money advice from people who are broke. It really is true that there are better places to turn for a financial plan than our friends or family who are also struggling financially.
6. Keep taking baby steps. You can find Dave Ramsey’s 7 Baby Steps {here}. I think it is funny that he calls them “baby steps” because they have felt more like giant mountains to climb to me, but it does feel good knowing we are working, slowly but surely, toward our financial goals. We are still stuck on step two and working on paying of our medical school student loans with a debt snowball, but we are moving in the right direction and there is a level of peace in knowing that.
7. Remember less is more. As a society I think we have a hard time being happy with less. I thought I’d have this one all figured out after 8 years of being a student family, but it is still something I have to remind myself of constantly. Last year my husband and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary. Many of our friends were celebrating the same milestone with exotic vacations, so I started talking to a travel agent about the possibility of a fancy trip. In the end, the budget won out and we made different plans. My parents took the kids for 5 days and we stayed home alone. The whole thing cost us around $100 in movie tickets and a fancy dinner and it is one of my all time favorite memories with him. Spending less money doesn’t have to be less fun or less special and memorable.
8. Be grateful and give freely. By give freely I don’t even mean money. We give a portion of our income each month, but there are so many other things you can give that will bring you so much peace. Give your time to someone in need, share your talents and look for ways to serve. If you remember to live your life with gratitude for all you do have and look for ways to give you will find a greater feeling of peace.
If you couldn’t tell, I am a big fan of the program You Need a Budget (YNAB). I even did a little reading recently and discovered that the company was started by a local Utah family. I have been so impressed with the company, their support system, and their sincere desire to help people be successful. They offer free classes and training to help you get started and are quick to respond to any questions I’ve ever had. When I was thinking about writing this post I reached out to them, and they readily agreed to give a free download of YNAB 4 to two of you (a $60 value each).
And, if you don’t win, you can also use this referral link to save $6 – http://ynab.refr.cc/4B6NRF7
Every little bit helps, right? Good luck!
Thanks for all of your helpful information!
You’re welcome! Thanks for taking the time to comment Stacey!
I love every single bit of advice here. These 8 steps are exactly how I handle the money. We follow Dave Ramsey’s plan and were able to get completely out of debt about a year ago. What a freeing feeling!
That is SO awesome Holly! We are plugging away and dreaming of that day! 🙂