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
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- Understand where you are financially right now
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- Get it on paper (spending, debt, assets)
- Estimate your monthly expenses
- Manually track your actual spending against those estimates for a couple of months
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- 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
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- Groceries
- Shopping (in-person and on-line)
- Child-related expenses
- Ideas for developing, good sustainable budget/money habits
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- 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
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- Helps you to align your spending with your values, not someone else’s
- Debt pay-off methods
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- 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
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- An important financial datapoint, but not the “end-all, be-all”
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- 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:
Contact the Host - vince@thecfoathome.com
