4 UNEXPECTED Benefits of Budgeting - YouTube

alright guys I want to talk a little bit about some of the unexpected benefits of

budgeting and I didn't always budget maybe you do budget maybe you haven't

budget maybe you've never budget whatever so the first one is having

peace in my marriage with Linda and this is one of those things I never expected

to happen I had no idea that this was gonna happen but you can think of a

budget like an agreement between you and your spouse and so it normally happens

for a lot of us when you don't have a budget is one spouse will go spend money

on something that the other one is not interested in or thinks is not a good

idea and then tension arises or fights arise and so for us Linda would spend

money on clothes that I just didn't think we're necessary or I would go over

to Lowe's or Home Depot and spend money on a tool or something that she would

think isn't necessary and both of us individually are thinking well we had to

pay the bills we had to pay the groceries and then he just spent $50

over there at Lowe's on something we don't really need you know or me the

same thing with her buying a pair of shoes and so it inevitably caused some

sort of frustration but when we created a budget in more or less had our plan

where we came together and decided this is how we're going to spend her money it

eliminated that tension and there was no more friction there you know there were

no more surprises and there was no like hiding money or trying to hide purchases

so that she didn't find out about it we were clear on what was being spent and

we had talked about it and agreed upon it beforehand and so then it just kind

of eliminated all those fights and all that friction and ultimately just led to

a whole lot more peace in our marriage and that's a really good thing so the

second thing that really surprised me was that we actually had more money when

we started budgeting kind of without even trying and it was so long ago now I

don't remember the exact numbers but I distinctly remember feeling like I feel

like we have more money I feel like we have more money I feel like this is

easier just because I was starting to budget and if you've ever done any food

journaling this was the same thing for me to where I did a little food

journaling and you know which is basically just writing down every single

thing to eat and instantly just by writing everything down you begin eating

better and you eat fewer of the bad things because you're aware of it and

you're you're conscious of your decisions that you're making and it's

the same way with budgeting and so funny story here a few months

I finally convinced our senior editor Lauren to start budgeting with our

recommended budgeting method and she finally agreed and she did it and about

six or eight weeks after she started she came to me and said hey you're not gonna

believe it I spent about $800 less this month than I did the previous month you

know I haven't even tried like we didn't even make any major changes you know and

this is just really common that people start a budget and just because they're

paying attention they instantly spend way less money than they were before and

this third one was really unexpected and really defies a lot of the myths about

budgeting and that is that you actually have more freedom to spend money so the

reason that almost everybody doesn't budget is I think that it's restrictive

that it's going to take away their freedom but the reality is is that for

most of us it actually creates more freedom so the way this works is let's

say you have $3,000 a month coming in from your paycheck or whatever and

typically each month you just spend money like however you feel and you're

hoping that by the end of the month you still have some money left over so for

most of us when we spend money this way we are constantly feeling the pressure

of not knowing what's gonna happen at the end of the month and therefore we

will say no to all the things we want to do so if our kid wants a toy from the

grocery store we feel like I can't really afford that because I don't know

what's gonna happen or if you want to go on a date night with your spouse but

you're like I can only afford babysitter because I don't know we're going to buy

groceries next week and I'm not really sure you know or even buying a gift for

somebody where it's like I'd really like to give them a nice gift but I'm

probably just getting a cheaper one because I don't really know what's gonna

happen and just living with that unknown is really what strips us of a freedom so

it's not at all the budget it's the fact that everything is just a jumbled mess

and we don't know what's happening when and that's where the restriction

comes from that's where the chains are on the other hand when you designate

upfront that things are important to you so maybe that's going on a date twice a

month or maybe that's having money to buy any kind of book that you want to

improve your education or maybe that's you know money set aside specifically

for giving when you find a situation that you want to give in to and when you

do this you find that that money is just sitting there waiting to be spent and so

you can spend it without any guilt and without any apprehension of not knowing

what's going to happen and I'll tell you the first few time

I experienced this it was amazing where I would see oh wow there's $50 in my

education fund here so I'm gonna go to Amazon to buy a couple books or as we're

getting in towards the end of the month I'll find that there's money in our

entertainment or date night account and I'll be like honey we can go on a really

nice date we got money just sitting there waiting to be spent specifically

for this purpose and it's really liberating and it's the complete

opposite of what I always thought budgeting was being this really

restrictive thing that was going to take away my freedom and it actually provides

you a whole lot more if you do it right and the next one I list is that it

provides you a plan to reach your financial goals and this may not be

unexpected or maybe it is I'm not really sure but but it is really important

because when you have a budget that works it ensures that you aren't going

to spend more money than you earn and if you don't spend more money than you earn

then you are on the path to financial success and so see my other video about

the seesaw principle for more on this and it's really exciting when you start

to understand how these pieces work together but ultimately unless you're in

a situation where you have a really high income and you are a person who just

naturally doesn't spend much money then you're gonna benefit from having a

budget so anyway those are my four reasons for why I will never not budget

and why it will always be a part of how we handle our money in our house and

hopefully maybe I've convinced you just a little bit the budget you might not be

as terrible as you initially believed and if that is the case and you are

looking to get started I will tell you a little bit about our budgeting course

and it's fairly unconventional and different than anything else I've seen

and the reason that we do it is because it's the most effective way in the

simplest and the most likely to succeed kind of method of budgeting that I've

ever found and I've tested and tried a lot it is far easier to stick within any

of the budgeting software tools I've ever tried and it doesn't force you to

use only cash like the cash envelope system does and so anyway if you're

interested in checking it out we will have a link up above I never know if

it's this side or this side but one of these so at the time of this recording

enrollment is currently open and so you can join us but it might be closed when

you watch it depending on when you're watching it because we're only going to

be opening enrollment probably about two times a year so you can check over at

SeedTime.com/RMB and stands for Real Money Budgeting that's the name of the course

and so you can learn more about the course over there or you can get signed

up and get enrolled and we would love to have you with us but regardless of

whether or not you join us in the course I really hope that you decide that

budgeting is something worth trying out and that you give it a go

so that's all for today be blessed to be a blessing and I'll see you next time