Welcome to the Pursue You Podcast, where we are empowering you to continually reflect, design and pursue who you were created to be so you can give the gift of your best self to your family, community, and business!
Today I am chatting about a very important topic: Expenses. Whether you own a business or manage the business of your home, expenses matter! They are especially important with what we are going through right now! I am sharing my keys on how to get real with your expenses to allow you to survive (and thrive) in this challenging time. Let’s start today! I will discuss:
1. How will I be able to better prepare myself and my family for the future
2. Alleviate an immense amount of pressure I am feeling and
3. Show up on the other side of this stronger and more confident.
[2:59] Don’t stick your head in the sand! Don’t ignore the reality of what is around you. I want to talk about NET, aka what you are bringing home. You have to answer 2 important questions:
1. When you look at how numbers might change, as yourself “how intense do I need to be with my expenses?” For example, real estate is essential and my real estate team can still work (safely!). My daycare, however, we closed down. We did not have families that required child care.
2. Are you in trouble in this moment? Will you be in trouble in 1 month, 3 months or 6 months? I have a month-by-month projection based on what each business’ income will be along with all of the expenses.[7:02] Follow these six steps:
1. Print our your most recent month’s personal and business bank statements. This includes credit card statements and all of your different banks.
2. Determine what are you spending each month.
3. Disassociate yourself with these accounts. While looking through, you may feel a connection to each expense. This will allow you to have a better picture of categorization.
4. Use each bank statement and separate into one of these 4 categories: Needs (food, shelter, utilities, transportation), Wants (things you acknowledge are not needs), Cuts (things you acknowledge are not necessary), “No Clue” (you have no clue what it is).
5. Start with the CUTS – it is an immediate impact on my expenses and positively impact my business and home life. Each day, go through one account. Create a plan of attack for each cut. Once you figure that out, determine which ones will be the easiest. Tackle those first and have some quick wins.
6. Investigate the “No Clues.” Perhaps it is best for you to focus on 2 of the “no clues” at a time. Turn the “no clue” into a cut, a want or a need.
7. Digging into the wants and determine the level of want: a. Really want, b. Kind of want, or c. It makes me happy but I get that it’s kind of “extra.” This will help you determine what needs to be recategorized to a “cut.” Start with your c’s and work yourself back to a’s.
8. Moving on to the needs! Can you put a pause on any mortgages? What kind of forgiveness are other companies offering? Why not call and see if you can cut costs on utilities? Even though it is a need, don’t brush it off as if there is nothing you can do to help cut costs.
9. Recalibrate! Now that I have cut all these things what is my budget going to look like? What new rules am I putting into my world? What is my new life looking like and what do my new expenses look like. The reality of the situation is, you could cut all of these expenses and its still not enough. But by going through this process, you can determine what steps you need to take.
10. Repeat, repeat, repeat! Right now, I would suggest doing this once per month. Get real with every single expense that is happening.
Remind yourself of the big picture here. This is about how when we are in a recession the way that money is going to show up might be its impact on your mind, your heart and your relationships. We can give our best to our businesses and our families when we have a handle on these things.
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More Episodes You’d Be Interested In
Episode 29: My Top Work-From-Home Hacks
Episode 28: Harness the Power of Your Mind with Mindfulness
Episode 27: How to Navigate Your Mind and Soul in This Unprecedented Time