3 Ways to Make Your Money Feel More In Control
How a Simple Money System Creates Clarity and Control
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If you’ve ever wondered why you feel out of control with your money even when you’re paying bills, saving for retirement, and carrying no balance on credit cards, this episode is for you.
Today I’m talking about why spending too much isn’t really the problem and why thinking you just need a stricter budget or more discipline may be keeping you stuck.
By the end of this episode, you’ll understand how a clear money system, built with visibility, structure, and intention, creates calm, clarity, and confidence so you can take control of your spending.
Topics covered in this podcast episode:
Why people feel out of control with money even when they’re financially stable
Why overspending or lack of discipline isn’t usually the real problem
How a money system brings clarity, confidence, and calm to spending
The three key components of a money system: visibility, structure, and intention
How budgeting and tracking give you a clear picture of where money goes
How organizing finances with structure reduces decision fatigue and stress
How intentional, value-based planning for spending and saving reduces guilt and shame
If today’s episode helped you start thinking differently about feeling out of control with your money, the next step is understanding what is missing from your system.
Book a Roadmap to Retirement Call and let’s explore your money system.
In just 30 minutes, I’ll help you uncover what is missing and how to correct those challenges.
Related Episodes:
A Money System For Practical Spending and Stress Free Saving
Unedited Transcription of Episode:
So last episode, we talked about overspending. I feel like I'm overspending, and maybe the better word is I'm not, I'm spending too much because in the sense of what I used in the last episode was you're not, carrying a credit card balance. You're paying it off every month. You're not on overdraft.
All of your bills are met. You're even setting some money aside to retirement. But internally, you don't feel fine. On paper. Yep. It all checks off. And even if I reach out to somebody, they're like, it looks good, but you're like, but I don't feel like I'm in control or I don't feel good about it.
Right. Whatever those words are. And I asked, for you to kind of share that with me. I hope you did or will. And we really talked about that. It may not be. An overspending problem, right? We talked about seasonal spending. We talked about, the different demands, and it's kind of in those moments that we feel like, oh my gosh, or I know with my client she got in a comparative state.
Well, is this what other people are spending their money on? Would other people spend it this way? And so really focused on the idea that you are overspending or you're spending too much really is tearing you down. It is creating this idea of inept, and what it truly is that you don't have a clear system to support your spending, right?
You don't have a system. And so there are no clear spending boundaries 'cause there's only two things we can do with s with our money. Spend it or save it and save it just means we're gonna spend it in the future. So honestly, all we can do is just spend it. Unless you're creating gener generational wealth and very few of, you're probably actually going to do that if you're listening to my podcast and if you are trying to bless your soul.
I hope I'm being helpful. I really just want people to be in a place here now and into retirement where they're feeling good about their money, regardless of the amount. We've seen people with loads of money, they're still not happy. So really it's just getting to that place where you feel good.
But right now you have no clear spending boundaries. There's no priority set. You haven't designated maybe your goal or your vision, or what are your priorities? I spent a long time since I've shared mine, I spend my money on books. That is one of my priorities. And so hopefully you can declare something like that too.
But you also have no structure for decision making. When things happen, you kind of have to go off of a sense of, well, when it's payday it doesn't sound like it's too high priced. Yes, I think I would enjoy it. Right? This is that situation. A money system should remove those things. So initially you think you're overspending or spending too much, and you tell yourself you need a stricter budget or you need more discipline.
But that is not, that is not true that you just need a system. That's going to show you what is safe to spend where and when, right? Because future or savings is future spending. So when and where are very crucial as well. So within my framework. So if you've listened to, let me find the episode.
Episode 1 72. I talk about my money systems. So if you have listened to that, or if you haven't, go give it a listen. But the episodes rounded are my entire framework, right? I do an overview and then I have four phases of my framework. And the second one is your money systems and. Your money systems, yes, I have some set pieces in play, but the elements within are personalized.
The structure can be personalized a little bit, but this system is going to number one, help you know what's safe to spend, help you know how to start creating momentum for the future, and really give you. So my phase three is your money decisions. You have to know how to make decisions off of that system.
That is crucial. So I know everybody's like, well, what is a system? And I share that in that episode of specifically what it is. But what does a system give you and why is a system important? It helps create control. And I want people to create this system of very ease control.
Kind of like the bumper guards on a bullying lane. If you're at bad at bullying like me, I really like to use those or I'm never gonna get any pins, and even at that best, but that is what. I mean by control in your money. You still have all this room just like in that lane, but you've set it up.
It helps to create three things. A money system should have three things that it will support you in that control. And as I teach control, it then becomes automatic. I don't. It's not automations, it's automatic so that it's ongoing. And then something big happens. You make a slight adjustment, you spend a little bit more time.
But this is not a system that is going to, as I had a previous client said, I want a system that's not gonna suck the life out of me. So here are three things that your system, if you're trying to put one together, needs to have. You need to have visibility. You need to know where is your money going? Very easily, very quickly, very much know this, right?
This could be, this is going to be one of two things. It's actually gonna be two things. You're gonna have a budget and you're gonna have something that's tracking within that budget very easily, okay? It's all about ease here. But you have the visibility so that you know, if you recall last episode I talked about you're avoiding dialing into those, deeper numbers.
But that's because if you pull up your credit card or if you look at your bank account, that's just a bunch of random letters, numbers, yeah. You know what you did, but it doesn't mean anything. So not only visibility, but the structure that is number two. Make sure that your system has structure to make the visibility easier and to make it easier to use,
that structure is going to give you the support. When you are building a house or you're building anything, you have to have a solid structure, and that is just the same with the money system. The third thing is you need intention. You need to create a system that is intentional for all of the areas of your life.
Okay? Now when I say intention, what does that mean? Value based budgeting, intentional spending. Those two kind of go hand in hand, but it means I have outlined what I truly want to spend my money on. Okay? It's what I need, but it's what I want. And every time I go for a want, I lose that shame because I have been intentional.
The money is there because of my structure. It is visible to me how much I have. So say there's something that you wanna do. And you're intentional and you've built it in there and you're like, okay, yep, I can spend on this. I can spend on this. You know what? I've done that one too many times this month, or one too many times this paycheck, whatever it is, as far as your structure, because visibly you can see that quickly and you're very intentional.
Yes, you wanna spend on that, but all of three of those things worked together to help you create that control. Okay, let me cover those three things very quickly. Again, visibility, so you can see where your money is going. It has structure so that you know how it's going. It's quickly looked at, it's kind of like in compartments or different areas and you've been intentional.
But even if it is one expense of intention. You still have that visibility and that structure so that you don't quote outspend what your intention was, indicated for. So I hope that makes sense. I know it's like, I don't know. But that's the kind of control you want. You wanna have visibility, you wanna have structure within that visibility so that you know more easily and you wanna build intention.
We have bills that we have to pay. Yes, we should be saving, but we gotta spend some money. People, we gotta enjoy life and we gotta enjoy life. So when you know where your money is going with those three ways, everything changes, you're more confident. You can make those choices very easily, right?
You're not just saying yes and then hoping it works out. You are actually saying, yes, I'm gonna go enjoy that thing. My one client, she says, well, I was the first girls trip I've ever taken where I didn't worry about money while I was on the trip, and it was all affording to the system, right? It gave her the confidence and it gave her the clarity, right?
Also you're very calm. You're very calm. Even if you've gotta tell somebody no, there's gonna be a calm way around it. You're gonna be able to say, yep I'm sorry. And so, just like I said with my client, she went on all the girls trips prior to a system and worried about money the entire time. That's not what we really wanna be doing.
I hear people saying, well, we're just gonna go on trip and we're gonna figure out how to pay for it when we come back. It's a lot of stress. That's a lot of worry. But if you'll have a system and that's what you wanna do and you build intention with it, you've got visibility and structure, man, you already know it's gonna be taken care of.
Yep. We're gonna go, yep, we're gonna be okay. There's no worry, there's no calm. And I don't know who wouldn't want that. So if you're like, you know what, that's probably the piece of puzzle I'm missing is a system and you wanna start exploring it or start exploring the problem that you have connected with me, and either the fan mail below, or as a DM on Instagram Ram, A money reset session is perfect for you.
Your money reset session. Two hours. Let's dial into it. I can start showing you how to refine the system you have or where, what steps you need to start building that system. So go visit elevate Finances us slash session. Go read through what that has for you. If you're interested, book a call. Let's chat.
So just a reminder that control doesn't come from restriction. It actually comes from clarity. Remember, control used in my ecosystem is all about positivity and how it can best help us live our life, enjoy our money, and really make retirement possible.
