Budgeting for the Badass Woman
I’m done with the money shaming of women. DONE.
When a man buys a new set of golf clubs, that’s considered a good investment. But when a women buys a new handbag, that’s considered wasteful. Why?
But what if that handbag brings you so much joy? And you can’t remember the last time you treated yourself like this? And what if it’s a gorgeous color and quality and you know you’re going to get so much use out of it? And what if it increases your confidence just by the sheer act of wearing it?
THEN GGUUUURRRLLLLL get it!
You work hard, you earn money, so TREAT YO SELF!
I feel when people hear the word “BUDGETING”, they immediately think of clipping coupons. But budgeting is really just a way for you to analyze and understand your personal flow of money. It’s for you to understand what money is flowing in and what money is flowing out. It’s a way for you to analyze your own personal money data.
In my 15 years on Wall Street and Bay Street, there was a mantra that the smart players in the market would use, and it was this:
“What gets measured, gets improved.”
They would measure their billion dollar portfolios from so many different angles and then they would improve on it, by asking these two questions:
1) “How can I make more money?”
2) “How can I reduce my costs?”
The reducing of costs also came with another mantra - “A dollar saved in a dollar earned.” But be careful with this one - cause it’s important to keep in mind - if you saved a $1, but that “savings” actually costs you $10 somewhere else, you didn’t *save* anything. Reducing your costs should be strategic. In your personal life, reduce costs intelligently by starting with the costs that don’t bring you any joy. If you’re like “Roxy, wtf does that mean?” Here’s an example that I hope will help:
For example, does your internet bill bring you joy? When was the last time you called your internet provider to get yourself a better deal? If the answer is longer than 12 months, it’s time to give those mofos a call and threaten to switch providers and see how quickly they come around offering you a much better deal than what you’re paying currently?!!
Which brings me to the second point of “Where To Start When You Don’t Know Where To Start”:
Step 2) Calculate your Income & Expenses
A great place to start is to start with any numbers that you can, like your monthly income and expenses.
You can use a budgeting software if that’s your jam, but honestly I strongly prefer a blank excel sheet or a good ol’ piece of paper and pencil.
Don’t underestimate how powerful this simple exercise can be.
You can do this exercise for all different timelines, but I think calculating your income and expenses over one month is a great start.
You can create two columns, side-by-side.
On the left side, list all sources of income that you make in a month. List your take-home (after-tax) salary, any side-hustle income, and any other sources of income you can think of.
On the right side, list all expenses that you incurred over that month. Here are some suggestions on what expenses might be: rent/mortgage payments, loan payments and their corresponding interest rates, car loan payments and their corresponding interest rates, groceries, coffee, takeout, clothing shopping, your Amazon bill, any subscriptions, insurance payments, any transportation costs (like gas or parking fees), phone bill, gym fees, travel expenses. A great way to review expenses is to go through your credit card statements, line by line, and add up those numbers into some reasonable category mentioned above. The more you include, the better.
It’ll take some time to collect all these numbers and that’s totally ok. Set aside some time for yourself and consider it an investment in your future wealthy life.
It does NOT need to be perfect. But don’t let perfect be the enemy of done.
Once complete, take a look and review if you’re happy with how it all looks. Do you see any areas for improvement? If you do, then congrats! That’s the whole point of this exercise.