94. Breaking the Cycle of Debt

These days, Crystal Williams, Financial Coach and Founder of Smart Money Financial Coaching, works with women and married couples who “make too much to feel this broke” move from financial stress to financial freedom. However, she’s also honest about not having always made the "right" decisions with money. It took Crystal decades to change her relationship with money and truly get control over her financial situation. Today on CFO at Home, Crystal shares how she and her family broke out of their cycle of debt, the money habits she developed and teaches others today, money management tips to prepare for uncertain financial situations, and more.

Key Takeaways

• Budgeting is key to getting and staying out of debt. Making a realistic plan for your money and tracking your actual spending against that plan is budgeting; tracking your spending after the fact is not. 
• 5 minutes a day is enough to keep an established spending plan up to date. 
• For new budgeters, budgeting with a spreadsheet (without a link to bank accounts) can be useful in getting the hang of the process by being closer to your transactions. 
• Cash can still be useful for budgeting expenses like restaurant meals and other in-person out of pocket expenses. 
• If you’re anticipating an interruption in income, pausing your debt reduction plan to build up a emergency fund/savings may be wise

Ways to contact

• SmartMoney Financial Coaching
• SmartMoney Coaching - Facebook
• SmartMoney Coaching - Instagram
• SmartMoney Coaching - LinkedIn

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