53. Budgeting Tips, Debt Reduction, and Credit with Kate Grayson

Kate Grayson is a Money Coach and Founder of Beyond Money, where she specializes in helping people improve their financial lives on their own terms; no jargon, no shame, and no boilerplate solutions. On this episode of CFO at Home, Kate and Vince discuss tips for starting a budget, ideas for developing sustainable budget habits, debt pay-off methods, and more.

Key Takeaways:

• Tips for starting with Budgeting
• • Understand where you are financially right now 
  • • Get it on paper (spending, debt, assets)
    • Estimate your monthly expenses
    • Manually track your actual spending against those estimates for a couple of months
    • • Brings to light misalignments between how much you think you’re spending on certain items and how much you’re really spending. Some common areas of misalignment
      • • Groceries
        • Shopping (in-person and on-line)
        • Child-related expenses
•  Ideas for developing, good sustainable budget/money habits 
• • Regular “Money Dates” for couples
  • Budgets, like life, are dynamic and change. Keep the budget regularly updated so you can spot issues and “course correct” in a timely fashion
  • Use “Value-Based Bookkeeping” - View your spending through the lens of your values, then use that information to prioritize spending
  • • Helps you to align your spending with your values, not someone else’s
• Debt pay-off methods
• • Paying highest interest debt first (Debt Avalanche) - Often appeals to those with analytical minds based on the math. Not always the most emotionally motivating
  • Paying the lowest balance debt first (Debt Snowball) - Can provide more “quick wins” in terms of eliminating individual debts which can provide motivation
  • Pay the most hated debt first - Can be effective when there’s debt resulting from difficult life circumstances (injuries from an accident, divorce, etc)
  • The best method is usually a personal decision - whatever best motivates you
• Credit Scores
• • An important financial datapoint, but not the “end-all, be-all” 
  • • Maintaining good, fundamental financial habits (paying bills on time, etc) can help  your credit score without resorting to more “creative” methods
• Approach the subject of money with your “Non-CFO” partner with compassion 

Ways to contact/follow:

• BeyondMoney.co

• BeyondMoney.co (Instagram)

Contact the Host - vince@thecfoathome.com