Reach Your Savings Goals With These Simple Money Management Tips

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Summary
In this conversation, Louisa Larado discusses the importance of financial preparedness, especially during the holiday season. She emphasizes the need for a positive mindset and practical money management strategies to achieve financial goals. Louisa shares her personal experiences with budgeting and overcoming financial struggles, while also encouraging listeners to explore additional income streams to enhance their financial stability.

Takeaways

• Be proactive in preparing for financial goals, especially during the holiday season.
• An abundance mindset is crucial for achieving financial success.
• Practical money management strategies can help you regain control over your finances.
• Avoid strict budgeting; instead, focus on flexible financial planning.
• Pay yourself first to ensure savings before expenses.
• Identify and eliminate expenses that no longer serve you.
• Explore additional income streams to boost financial security.
• Celebrate small wins to maintain motivation in financial management.
• Engage in open conversations about money to reduce stigma and fear.
• Use SMART goals to effectively plan and achieve financial objectives.

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Disclaimer: The information contained on today’s podcast has been provided as general advice only. The contents have been prepared without taking into account your objectives, financial situation or individual needs. Before making any decision regarding the information, strategies or products mentioned on today’s episode, please consult your own financial advisor or other professional first.

Chapters

• 0:00 Financial Struggles for Christmas
• 4:13 Mindset: The Foundation for Financial Success
• 6:40 Practical Money Management Strategies
• 10:48 The Importance of Trusting the Process
• 15:28 Mastering Money Management Techniques
• 29:00 Empowerment Through Financial Knowledge
• 45:27 Setting SMART Financial Goals
• 51:07 Creating Additional Income Streams

Transcript

Hi, and welcome to the Living My Life Like It's Golden podcast. I'm your host, Louisa Larado And on today's episode, I wanna share with you some of the highlights from day two of our 2K Cash Boost by Christmas Challenge, where we were delving really deep into the topic of how to master your money management and how you can set yourself up to feel empowered and just know how your money's working for you.

So I really hope you enjoy it.

So over the next couple of days, we're looking at ways that I can help you get towards that $2,000 goal in time for Christmas. And it's just less than two months away, about eight weeks. I think it's eight weeks and like a couple of days until Christmas. So it is soon and it's going to come.

Soon then we realize it always does. I find this time of year just flies. And this year, what I want for you is to be 100 % prepared so that you can enjoy it. Christmas is this time that's meant to be just such an amazing, fun, connecting time with friends and family and loved ones all to come together and celebrate. And it's about giving and just a lot of fun stuff.

And Christmas growing up always used to be my most favorite holiday of the year. Like I could not wait for Christmas. And even as an adult, I still enjoyed it. But then when we were in that financial stage where money was tight and money was a stretch, I did not enjoy Christmas anymore. And it was really hard because it went from being something that I love so much. I couldn't wait every year. Just that whole lead up to Christmas, not so much the day itself that I just

absolutely love because it's all about, going to different events and it's just a lot of fun stuff that happens and just all the different ways to give and things like that. So that's what I really, really enjoyed. And when money became a struggle for us, when money was hard, when money did not flow with ease to our, in our lives and we had all these barriers that I sort of spoke about yesterday, what I found was happening was that money all of a sudden

was putting that roadblock onto the joy of Christmas. So instead of loving Christmas, I started absolutely just hating it, not looking forward to it in any way, didn't want even to think about it. I put off buying presents literally until the last minute because it was just something I didn't want to have to deal with. And it took all the joy out of it, which is really sad. And I know that if I felt like that when I was in a financially tough position,

I'm sure I'm not the only one. I'm sure there's other people out there with cost of living and everything else that's going on at the moment, just the prices of everything and so much more than it was. And it can be a lot harder for people. I want to give you the knowledge so you can empower yourself to be able to set yourself up for success this Christmas. So if you start running now, you've got two months to go, what you're gonna be doing is you will start having the tools in place.

and the steps that you need to take just to not only reach that $2,000 goal, but have that money as that buffer to get you through that season. So it's not like you're having to say no to fun events that are happening, or you feel restricted when you go to buy gifts for your loved ones. You know that money's already there. And it can be a sort of a tempting time of year where you just think, you know, I'll put it on the credit card or I use after pay.

and I'll worry about it in the new year. That could be that problem then. And then you had that dreaded, like, I call it like the post-Christmas hangover where you've got all this debt that you've accumulated that doesn't feel good. And I'm not saying all debt is bad or anything, but if it doesn't feel good, if it doesn't serve you, if you think, great, now how am going to pay for this? Then that is when it becomes an issue to you.

So that's whole reason why I created this challenge. And if this is the first day that you're listening to it, I really suggest you go back and look at the mindset stuff that we did yesterday. Because yesterday what we did is we laid the foundations, which is making sure your mindset is in the right space first. Because anything you knew you do in life, whether it's a weight loss goal, a relationship goal, a money goal, a health goal, whatever it is,

If you don't have your mindset in the right place, if you're just doing it because you think you should, or you're not a hundred percent committed on it, or you've got all these limiting beliefs and ideas that are telling you why you shouldn't do it. And those voice, you know, the voice in the head that says this is the wrong idea, then until you can learn to clear that and have a clear focus on why you want to do something and what, how it's going to benefit you.

Unfortunately, you can listen to all the stuff I'm going to share tonight, which is more the money management side of things. But if your mindset is still in that lack all the time or worry or stress, and you haven't gotten done the techniques and tips I've told you on last night's session, then what you're going to bring into tonight is you'll do it and it will definitely work, but it will work short term for you. It's not going to work long term because the things that I'm teaching you and I'm

purposely have done them in the order that I have is so that you're building on those skills. And what I want for you at the end of this three days that we have together, at the end of those three days, I want you to be able to go and apply what I've told you now for this Christmas Aiments goal to, you know, your 2025 money goals to other areas of your life that aren't even related to money. So,

You know, it's all sort of interchangeable, but I'm setting you up with some really good skills and techniques and tips. it's not one size fits all because you know, what works for me might not work for you, but it's picking and choosing and having the knowledge about what each of them will do for you to know what you can put in your own personal toolkit to set you up for success or the future. So that's like a bit of an overview of sort of what to expect. So today we are going to be

breaking down the money management side of things. So if you did the homework from yesterday, what we were talking about was just getting really clear on why, why do you want to reach this goal? Why did you sign up for it? Why did you take time out of your day to either watch or listen to this information and...

why did you make that decision that was gonna be something you wanted to do? And we broke it down and got really clear, not just that superficial goal, but we went a bit deeper. So if you haven't done that, go back and do that. We also looked at different limiting beliefs and ideas that are likely gonna be popping into your head every time you setting new goals for yourself or do something that may be outside of your comfort zone. So that is just designed for you just to become aware of these things because they happen to every single person all throughout the day.

in different areas of our life. Doesn't matter how successful you are or how famous you are. Everyone has these limiting ideas and beliefs, but it's becoming aware, acknowledging that, you know what, these don't have to be true. They're not set in stone and learning then how to change those. And we went through the exercise yesterday of just rewriting those beliefs into the ones that we desire instead, and then learning how we can then break them down and

find evidence to support the new belief that we wanna have. And these become our new defaults instead of the old one. Basically all the thoughts on our mindset, that's the stuff that may have been programmed from when we were like, eight, growing up, when we were watching our parents with money to the point of, know, anything that's happened. So I know a of mine got, a lot of things came up for me when we went through our bankruptcy. So I had a little new beliefs about money that I didn't hold before our bankruptcy.

all these new stories started presenting themselves and I made up my mind that, you know, I was terrible with money and so on. So that was keeping me really small for quite a while. And it wasn't until then I learned how to rewire those and change those thoughts and create the new beliefs that actually serve me that we managed to get our finances back on track. So they were the tasks yesterday and there was also the one on to starting a gratitude practice. Cause when we're

aim is to keep more into your abundance mindset rather than your lack mindset. Most people spend more of their day in lack than in abundance mindset. And that's just because of the way our society is that fast pace, where, you know, it's easier to complain than to celebrate something. that's just, you know, it's just sort of the way it is. It's the conversations if you work in a workplace, you just have to

engage in any conversation and I guarantee there'll be somebody complaining about something at least once throughout the day if not every conversation. I know as a teacher a lot of conversations like I go to it's complaining about the kids or the school or the system and it's really hard I find to avoid those conversations sometimes but it's just the way it is so it's trying to learn how to break that cycle. So that was yesterday. If you haven't done that

Go back and watch it, go back and listen to it and do those tasks. But I'm going to equip you now with a more practical side. Because for a lot of people, the mindset, even though it's the most important one, it's the one they miss because minds, when you're looking at your mindset, you have to go within, you have to actually look within yourself. Most people just want the concrete practical strategies that are going to solve their problem.

without having to change anything within themselves, without having to step out of their comfort zone, without having to reflect and think, actually, where am I not doing so well? Because it can be confronting. It can be really confronting to look within. So that's why a lot of people miss that step. And that is why there's only that small percentage of people in the world that are at that top level in terms of financial success. And most people are just getting by, because most people aren't willing to put in that.

tricky self-reflective work. And you only have to study any successful person, like look at your Warren Buffett, or Elon Musk, or anybody. They all tell you what a big part the mindset plays in their success and having these beliefs. And they think a bit differently outside of the box and not conforming to everything that society, I guess, is telling us that we should be doing. So.

Today though, I'm gonna give you the practical stuff, how you can master your money management. So you'll probably find this a lot easier than yesterday's session. It's gonna be really practical. And all the things I'm gonna tell you will work for you, because it's gonna break it down really easily. But if you want, like I say, that long lasting, go back and do the mindset work. And this is what I started with in my own personal money journey when,

after our bankruptcy, when I was trying to figure out how to just get everything back on track, I started with this step, which was money management. And it definitely worked. It definitely improved things, but I still didn't find I was getting ahead enough until I put all of the things I'm going to be teaching you together, all of the different components, not just this on its own. So if you do the things I'm going to tell you tonight, you'll definitely see some great results, but

make sure that you're doing all the things and not just this alone. another thing I just want to touch on before I get into that practical things is we spoke last night about the importance of belief and just believing that you can achieve something and a $2,000 goal I've chosen because I thought that it's something that most people can wrap their heads around. It's not too much outside of their comfort zone.

It can be that time of year where I people are tight. So 2000 might be a little bit of a stretch for you. For some people it might be nothing. But $2,000, I want you to trust the process. I want you to trust in yourself. And when we set goals for ourselves, we often find it really hard to trust that process. We cause of all these beliefs, but I want you to compare it to wifi. So at the moment, you're watching this and back if you

are a similar age to me. would have grown up as a teenager where we had the internet was like first a big thing and you had the dial-up internet so you had to be plugged in and you know you couldn't have the phone running while someone was on the internet or if someone called you it would like kick you off. It would never take forever to connect and we can sort of get our heads around that because we can see the wires it's connected to the phone line. It sort of makes sense. Wi-Fi like

We just trust that it works. I'm sure most majority of people don't actually know exactly how wifi works, but we know that it's going to do the job that we, the task that we set. If we want to watch a zoom event like this, we trust that our wifi that we've set up the router and all the different parts components correctly. And that somehow this magical signal is going to send to our

internet and we can do all these things that technology allows us to do now. We don't judge it. We don't think, well, it could work, but I can't see all the steps. I can't see the process of why it would work. So yeah, I don't trust it. I'm not going to bother using it. We don't do that. We don't overanalyze it because we just trust that it will work. People have said, this is how it works. We see it working. So like, yes. But when we come to our own personal goals,

This is the way we go wrong. We overanalyze and we don't trust and we look for any reason why it can't go wrong. We don't just think, let's just go, let's trust and see what happens and allow that belief of believing that we can do it. Not always worrying about the how, not worrying about every single step, how you're going to get to your goal. But just knowing that this is the goal I've set. This is why I want to do it. And then trust in the process, just like we trust in Wi-Fi.

So that's something I just want you to have a think about while we go through the session today. All right, so let's now get into the money management. I really want you to know how you can master your money management just so that it works a lot better for you. It's a lot more effective and you feel really empowered about your money. So I've gone on both sides where I used to be like.

Originally, I was always really good at managing our money. Then we went through our bankruptcy and I decided within myself, I'm bad with money now. I'm terrible at it. Don't want to think about it. So I just buried my head in the sand after our bankruptcy. And I didn't, I knew roughly what we had coming in for like getting paid and things like that. And I knew roughly what we had to spend on shopping and expenses and bills and all of that sort of stuff. But I didn't really

it any more thought than that. each what would happen was we get paid and you know, I would just hope there'd be enough money by the end of the month or until our next pay came in to cover all of the expenses and if a bill came up, I'd pay it. But I wouldn't actually sit down and think, all right, this is how much I'm going to need this month. And what happened was we'd run out of money before our pay would come every single time. And, you know, we just couldn't get ahead. We weren't able to save any money we will

living week to week. And that, you know, we would eventually save up a little bit of money and then we would just have to go into that again, because I didn't really have a clue of how our money was working because I just didn't want to think about it. And I remember this was the time where the Barefoot Investor book, if you've heard of it, became really popular and everyone was talking about it. Everyone was telling me to read about it. And I was like, no, don't even want to think about it. I already know everything I need to know about money and it doesn't work for me. So not interested.

And so I was denial about money and this happened probably for about a year and a half. And it wasn't until I was like, you know what? I know all this stuff. I know that you need to have goals. You need to be striving for something. And if you're doing the same thing over and over, you can't expect anything to change. It just doesn't work that way. If you want change in your life, you actually need to change. So I just...

cited eventually, you know what, this is not working. We need to find a way to make our money work for us again. So the first thing I did was I went through all of our money and I went through and I figured out how much we had coming in, how much we were spending on things and started looking into a few different ways. And the first thing that I did was I started to budget and there's different ways people suggest budgeting.

And the most common one though that you think of is, and this is the way that we tried it first, well, I tried it first was to go through and allocate, okay, we're going to spend $300 a week on groceries. We're going to spend $50 a week on fuel. We're going to $200 a month on our electricity bill or whatever it was. So I'd allocate the exact amount to each account. And then

I knew this is what we were getting paid. So then I could put that amount in savings and I could put that towards that bill and so on and so on. What the budgeting did is it really just set us up to fail and it kept you in that lack. So I do not agree with a strict budget in any way, or form because it's set you up to fail. What a tight budget does is it confines you and you feel like if you go $2 over that, your shopping budget.

You're like, well, I've blown the budget already. And money's always changing. It's not a constant flow. You're never going to spend the exact amount on groceries every week, the exact amount of fuel every week. Things like some weeks you need to buy presents for people. Some weeks you go out and catch up with friends more than other times. You might have a different event that you're going to so that you're

expenses always fluctuate. There is no such thing as this month, this is all you're spending. And I know there are some people that live like this. I've seen what people that, especially people in the fire movement, which is that financial freedom sort of movement where people budget really tightly in the early years of their life, like in their twenties and thirties. So then they should be able to retire.

older, because they're putting all their money in investments. if you ever look into that, it's so tight what they have to do. And it's to this where they're only allowed to buy like the minimal amounts for groceries and things like that. And if that works for you, and that serves you and it makes you feel good about your money, amazing. But for me personally, budgeting in a strict way puts me in lack. And I see it put a lot of people in lack because it's focusing on that restriction. shouldn't

make your money feel restricted. You want it to be able to feel expensive. You want it to be able to change, to grow, to expect. So definitely didn't agree with the tight budgeting. So what I did eventually then was finally read The Barefoot Investor. And that book was like the catalyst for how I managed my money and such a great read. So anyone that has not never read it or never heard of it, go read it. It's by Scott Pape.

And it gave me a really good understanding of money management because I thought I knew a lot about money and I knew some things because we were big in investment properties prior to our bankruptcy. So I understood that sort of side of thing and mortgages and things like that. had a good understanding of, I had no understanding about shares or investing. And there was all these other areas that he speaks about in the book that just opened my eyes. So.

The thing that I took from his book, and I don't take everything that he says to be the way that you manage your money, because there's definitely parts in his book that I find just don't work for us, but as an overview, such a great starting point for people. And even just his weekly newsletter, I highly recommend you subscribing to it. Just really good insights and advice in there about money. But so what I really liked about him, his idea was

how he sets up, you might've heard of it, the buckets. So you have different accounts for different things. And I sort of took it a little bit further than what he suggests. So he suggests initially you have your general expenses account. You've got like your bills account. You've got a set in, have a couple of different savings account, one for a big goal, one for a smaller goal. And then you have your like splurge account, which is your money where you can just go out, spend on whatever you want. So could be shopping.

yourself clothes, eating out, hobbies, whatever, whatever the extra things you want to do. So we did it stuck exactly to his strategies in the beginning. And it was really, really good, really effective. And we actually started saving quite a lot of money just by following his steps that he outlines in the book. But what I found now works for us. So we've got I don't even know, we've got quite a few bank accounts.

But the reason I've set up so many different bank accounts is because I've wanted my money to really work for me. So for me personally, we have our main account, our main banking account, which is just our day-to-day expenses. So that's all the things like shopping, fuel, if we go eat out, if we need like to buy presents or things like that. So they're just day-to-day things, things that pop up in your normal day that aren't like in every month or an year.

something that you know is always going to be coming. So I've got the end account for that. Then I've got an account that's purely for my indirect debit. So this is for my bills and things that come out monthly. So things like my phone bill, my electricity, different insurances like car insurance, home insurance, internet, health insurance. So all of those amounts, I've worked out exactly how much I was spending on those amounts.

And what I did was I put those numbers, calculated exactly how much I need each month. And then the day that our pay comes in, I transfer that amount for the month straight into that account. And I don't need to think about any of my direct debit. So now my money is working for me. It's not, I'm not thinking, have I got enough money? My phone bill's coming up, all my internet's gonna be paid or my Netflix subscription's due.

That's all doing its own thing. So one account purely for direct debit. So you don't need to think about it. And the exact amount I know that I've needed for that month will go in and then it's done. Nothing else needs to be thought of. So anything that I have as a direct debit, so gym membership, Cairo appointments, all that stuff is into that account. Then I have another account that is for the other expenses that I know how much I'm spending, but it isn't like a monthly amount. So things like that are,

our council rates, vet bills like the dog's annual vaccinations and things like that. It has got kids extracurricular activities in it, things like hairdressing, dog grooming. So these are things that I don't have coming out every single month, but that I know roughly of things like our car registration and car insurance, which is more of an annual thing.

So I worked out exactly how much I would need to cover all of those amounts as well. And that goes into another account. So that account sits there for those types of expenses. Cause I know that one's gonna fluctuate. Some months, like at the moment, I've just had to pay two car rego, boat rego, and then we've got a car insurance that's due for renewal. So that's a more of an expensive month than, you know, another month where it might just be.

like the water bill or something like that. So that I know that amount changes month to month, but there's always a set amount that goes into that account. So then any of those expenses are covered by that. So I've got my two, you know, the main bulk of my outgoings covered, I've got my daily expenses, and then we've got different savings accounts. So at the moment, our main savings account is just attached to our offset. So that comes off our mortgage.

And that's for any big savings goals that we have, that we are working on. So at the moment, we just spend a lot of money going for a family trip to New York. So we've used all of the savings from that for that amazing Christmas holiday that we're gonna get to go on. And now we're building that goal up again, ready for our next thing, which again is another holiday that we're to go on in April with the family. So.

holidays are big on our priority list at the moment. But then we also have other savings accounts for different goals. So we might have some life for home savings, so projects that we want to do around the house. an example of that at the moment, we want to put air conditioning in. So we've got an amount coming into that account. And then other short term goals that you may have. So it might be this Christmas account that you're setting out. So you have that savings account where money goes to that just for that reason. And what having it sounds a lot set up.

at first and it can be a bit overwhelming but once it's set up in this way for me, I just find it works so well because I know exactly where all my money is going. I know every single thing is being paid for. I'm never late to pay a bill because it's all set up automatically. I don't even have to think about it. So after the initial setup, it's like set and forget and yeah, you just don't even think about it. So it makes it much easier to manage your money that way. In my opinion, it might not work for you this way but that's how I do it.

With the savings accounts, I definitely advise, especially for your bigger ones, that you set them up with a bank that you don't currently bank with and make sure there's something that's like a high interest savings account with no fees. And that way you're less likely to dip into that savings for something. And what that does, cause it's just those extra few steps. normally if you, you know,

ING is our Maybank account and if all my savings were just with ING, I know it literally would take me 10 seconds to transfer that money and go straight over. However, with our ones that are from a different bank, sometimes, especially if it's over $500, it takes a couple of days to transfer that money into our account. So it's not something you can just do instantly. It makes you more mindful and think about it and it's that psychological impact. Now, also in terms of having separate savings for separate amounts,

Originally, we just had one savings account, which was for everything. And every time we had something that had to come out, so for example, a holiday, you'd always feel like that's, it's that psychological reason to have them separate because you feel like, well, I've just withdrawn it. So now it's like down to hardly anything. Now you feel that lack again, or you feel like you've sort of failed because the money's out of it, even though it's for something that you needed and you wanted to save for. But if you know you've got separate savings lines,

It makes you feel better about your money. So that's what I like to do as well. So that's an overview of how I personally manage my money. So I've got different accounts for different things and I set it up so that they can work for me. So you need to find a way that works for you. So maybe it is the way I suggested, maybe it is read the barefoot investor and do it exactly the way he suggested, which is quite similar to what I've said, but I've just done a few more tweaks and I've sort of taken it even a bit further.

What all this does, it might seem overwhelming for you at first, but it's actually the reason that it's so vital to have this awareness of how much money you actually have coming in. How much money do you actually have roughly going out? Not exactly, just roughly. This empowers you to make really good financial decisions. And I know a lot of people, especially women, I see this in more so, actually every single...

women on my side of the family thinks they're with money. they let, you know, my mom let my dad handle the money. My sister lets her husband handle the money. And they've just made that decision. They're bad with money. They're better at it. So they're the one that's going to deal with it. And when we have these money conversations, they just don't have the ideas about their money. And I feel like it's really money is, I know it's

It's such an important part of our society, even though people like us not all about money, but you know, it's something that our society values really highly. It's what we use as currency. mean, money on its own, it's just something that we've decided that this has this value. It really is just its energy that we've put this value upon and we use it to trade for goods and services. it's not something that

you need to be scared of because when you have this knowledge about your money and how you can manage it, when you can take charge of your money, when you feel empowered and like you know what you're doing and confident to handle your money, then it's really going to change a lot of things for you because you it's going to help you bridge any sort of money goals you have so much easier if you actually know how your money is working for you if you just sort of hoping for the best like I was doing before.

You're not going to get anywhere. You're not going to move to where you want to go. So become really aware of your money. And if you are not the one in your household that is managing your money, then do this together with your partner and become aware, create that awareness, empower yourself and inspire yourself to have that knowledge. So at the moment, it's

It's hard though, because we were not taught this in schools. And I know to this day, like schools teach it a little bit more now, but it's not really something that we speak about a lot. and money is still like a true subject. for example, when, if you were like deciding I'm going to change my health, I'm going to go to the gym, I'm going to lose weight, I'm going to do this exercise plan, I'm going to do this meal plan, you tell people about it. You're not going to...

but you're scared or nervous, you're like, I've decided I'm going to turn my health around. You openly tell people about that. No problems at all. If you make a decision and think, I'm going to get my money on track. I'm going to have all these savings goals. I'm going to start working on, you know, having this extra $2,000 for Christmas or whatever your money goal is. Are you going to go around and tell your friends and do a Facebook post about it? Probably not because money is

some reason we think it is a scary topic to talk about, that it is something that it's that's giving that money that power over you rather than you having that power over it. And it shouldn't be that way. Like have conversations about money, be open about it. If you've got kids openly discuss money with them, discuss how you're managing it, be that role model for them because they need to learn it from somewhere. And like from me growing up,

What I learned about money was I saw my dad just working hard. In our family, my dad worked really hard our whole life. He's a jeweller and he would have a work bench at home. So he'd come home and he'd do all the work at home and he would work all day and even to this point. So he was staying with us last week and he would come in, he leaves for work at six o'clock in the morning and he gets home at least six o'clock every evening.

That was it my whole life. remember him doing the same and he's been in the same profession for 40 years, but money was something you had to always work hard for. That was the thing that I saw and you know, maybe sacrificing some family time or having maybe to work on the weekends. And my mom was a stay at home mom. she didn't have that. The drive, guess, to have that money as well. So.

I had lots of different stories growing up about money and how it worked for our family. But, and it's likely that you've seen patterns in your own family if you watch how they've had money. you've had, money can be a big topic of like dispute for lots of people or something that can cause a lot of problems in families and relationships. So if that's happened to you, then you might have those stories passed on to you too.

So start the open conversations, but don't be scared about money. Having this knowledge, having the tools now, this is like I say, gonna really empower you to take control of your finances. So.

Think about that as you're managing your money. And when you're doing these filter things, when you're starting to look at how much money you're making, don't judge it. Don't think, my God, I only earn this amount, but I spend like triple the amount. Don't judge what you're doing. Take this as like just this knowledge and this power that you're like, all right, well now I know exactly, I'm really clear. Then I can look at how I can change things or I can.

make it work to my advantage. Cause if you're just going on this ignorantly, it was like I was speaking about, I think it was yesterday when we were talking about, it's like you're looking at the world through the wrong glasses prescription and you can't see it clearly. You can't see what the next step should be because if you've got the wrong lens on, you don't know how to fix anything. If you're not looking at a problem, you're not looking at the big picture when you put the right lens on.

and you've given yourself all this knowledge now and you've seen how your money, how much you've got coming in, how much you've got coming out, then you can actually say, okay, well, maybe I am spending a bit more than I earn, or maybe I'm putting too much stuff on my credit card, or maybe I'm spending way too much in one area that doesn't really feel right to me, then you've got that knowledge. You don't need to judge it as good or bad.

or label it or break the self or feel bad or feel unworthy. just have to think, yes, well, now I know. So now I can look at fixing it. that solution focused mindset when you're doing these sort of activities that I'm going to be giving you today. So money management is so important. So now you know how I personally do it.

The thing that's really important in all the different accounts and things that I just told you about is the day that our pay comes in, and this is what I advise everyone to do, you pay yourself first. And what I mean by that is if you know it's your payday or your partner's payday, how much are you allocating straight up before anything else comes out into the savings accounts? How much are you gonna pay yourself for? Maybe you've got an account that's just for

fun stuff. So how much are you going to put in that? Then you've got your money for all your bills and expenses that you know is that set amount. And then whatever's left, that's your general day to day spending. So that is how I advise people to set up their money because what I was doing originally was I was of the mindset that you pay all your bills, you pay your day to day stuff. And then if you have stuff left over, you can put money into savings.

There's never any money left over. You got to put it in savings. Doesn't matter how much you earn. The more you earn, I always find the more expenses you have is that lifestyle inflation. I don't know if you've heard of that before, but what lifestyle inflation is, is people get these higher pay rises and then they start spending a bit more. they might instead of shopping at Kmart, now they might shop at David Jones or something. So they're upgrading all the time and the

the difference is not always that much different because all of a sudden you can only save the same amount still or you're back to zero again. So lifestyle inflation is a real thing that happens very commonly. So if you look into that, but so if you pay yourself first, if you make sure savings are allocated before anything else, you'll avoid that falling into that trap and that happening for you. The next thing that is really important.

that I want you just to start thinking about when you were doing this, when you're sitting down and you're going through all your expenses and this can take a bit of time is to look for any expenses that you're paying for that actually don't serve you anymore. You're just paying for and you sort of might have forgotten about it or it's something that you like for a while, but you don't like so much anymore. So it might be something you're subscribed to. I was subscribed to like lots of different streaming services and you you think,

not even using half of these or anything that just doesn't feel good. So for example, another really big one was our internet. We'd lived in the house that we're currently living in now for about two and a quarter years. And for two years, our internet was terrible. Maybe it was good for the first three months and then it was terrible. The service was always bad. It was always dropping out. I'd always just have to connect to my phone.

But I just put it off and I kept paying for our internet. I'm like, why every month I'd see that, see it out of my accounts, cause they're all set up. I'd see it come in. I'm like, my gosh, I'm still paying for this service that is terrible. I'm not even getting a service. And it didn't feel good that I was paying for it. Like I, I'm a big believer in getting behind everything you're paying for. I'm feeling good about every single expense you have. And

And what I mean by that is, say, let's say you had your electricity bill coming in. And especially when I used to live up north in Western Australia, your electricity bill would be like a thousand dollars for two months. So it's insane. So every time you see the power company logo and you're like, my gosh, here we go. What's it going to be this time? And it's a lot of money. You think, how am going to come up with this money? But

What I learned is such good strategy is to, have to get behind every single expense you have. want, remember you want that abundance mindset. You want to feel good about everything. So now when I get electricity bill, I'm like, yeah, I am so grateful because this, I'm paying for a service that I love that makes my life like a million times easier. And we all know how much easier it makes our lives when we have a power cut, we don't have it.

And we have to do all the things without electricity. And we're like, my gosh, everything's so hard. just having that, being able to turn on a light, being able to have this conversation with you right now, wherever you are in the world, being able to, you know, put things in my oven and all the little things, even open my garage door so I can get my car out and drive. All these little things. I'm so grateful. I'm so behind paying for my electricity.

I'm so behind paying for my taxes because I get to drive on these great roads. There's great paths and parks for our family to enjoy and I can ride my bike and feel good. I've got street lights that I can see. I've got, I don't need to take my rubbish to a tip. A big truck comes and empties my rubbish for me. I get to go to the library and borrow books. As a teacher, I get my wages paid through taxes. So.

There's all these different things that you can get behind your money for, even if you don't think it right now. So that's another little tip I want you to think about. coming back to my internet, so I was paying this internet bill and I couldn't get behind it because the service was not there. it's one of those things, know, sometimes you just need to stop and order everything and think I've got to take action and these are the things that are not serving me and

now I'm going to stop them or change something else. So it literally took me five minutes, change my service to another internet provider. The next day I had the modem delivered, it was set up ready to go. And it was something I'd put off for two years, two years, five minutes done. And now I'm paying for a service and I'm getting more value than what I was doing before. So coming back to that, as you're auditing your finances, you're going through everything and seeing

where your money is currently going. This is something you really need to do if you want to manage your money effectively and be on top of things is to come back to that and say, where are the things that just don't feel right? Where are the things that 100 % cannot get behind paying? It might be activities that your kids were really loving and now they're not into so much. And you're like, well, why am I even bothering with this? Like, it's not serving anyone. I've got to drive them to these activities. Cut them out.

Is there things that you're spending money on maybe shopping wise that you think, I don't really like this or anything. You know, as you're going through each item that you see coming out of your accounts, what didn't feel good? What things you subscribe to that you don't even use anymore? Is there something you've been meaning to get around to canceling and you just haven't done it yet? Or is there things like when your insurance is coming up for renewal,

instead of just automatically renewing it, can you look into different service providers? And this is another really great tip that I got from, I'm pretty sure it's from Bearford Investor in the kids book. And he suggested when it's, cause it's one of those jobs when you're for insurance, especially car insurance, going through and comparing them all takes a lot of time. So he said, give that job to your kids to do and whatever they can save you in the insurance amount.

then they get to keep that cash. So not only does it teach them how to shop around and look for insurance, and they're gonna get the cash and you're gonna save some money. that's what I did. I've been doing with my kids for the last few years and it's such a great strategy. I've got to do it again this week. That just reminds me, because we've got another one coming up very soon. But that's a really good tip you can start doing as well. So looking around at where you could save money maybe on expenses if you think they're a bit high.

Quite often companies, if you give them a call, they will lower their rates, things like car insurance, health insurance. Even if you've got a mortgage, any mortgage repayments, I regularly call up our bank and get them to review our home loan rate. And you can always tell them that you're to be looking at going to another provider and even get a mortgage break from someone to come and give you some different alternatives if you've got something to take with you. And every single time you do it.

they reduce the rate. So it's just a matter of picking up the phone and making calls sometimes. But these are some little things you can start doing so you're making your money feel good. not only are you now empowered by your money, because you know exactly how much you've got coming in, roughly how much you've got coming out. But now you're starting to say, okay, well, where are the money leaks? Where are the stuff that's not serving me? Where can I make some changes and feel good about it? And

Every time you do one of these things, like every time I get off the phone, say to my mortgage provider and say, can you save me some money on our thing? And they say, yes. And I'm like, my God, I just like saved, you know, $10,000 over the course of my loan or whatever it may be. It's a big deal. So you can celebrate, start to celebrate those little things. It makes you feel good. It boosts your confidence with managing your money too. So definitely get rid of any expenses that aren't serving you. Now,

So that's a bit of an overview of account management. Part of your money management though is always to have money goals, always need to have them. I told you I had different savings accounts. So there's always a goal in mind for each of these different accounts. Whenever you're setting any sort of goal, not just with money, but in life, the best type of goal you can set, you've probably heard it before, it's called a SMART goal. And SMART goals are always something that is specific, it's measurable.

It's achievable, it's relevant and it's time bound. So I specifically set the goal for this challenge, which was $2,000 cash boost by Christmas challenge. That is a smart goal example. So it is specific. I know exactly how much you're going to save $2,000. It's achievable. I know that most people, you're working, or even if you're not, I'm going to give you some ideas soon on that. There's a, can, you're able to

create to maybe put between now and Christmas, eight weeks, that's roughly $250 a week. So most people might be bit of a push, but you should be able to put $250 a week aside if you do all the things I'm going to tell you, especially tomorrow, to reach that goal. So it's specific, it's measurable. I can measure it because I know $2,000.

It's achievable, it's relevant, and it's time-bound. So I know the date, which is by Christmas. So that is a two-month goal. I know that date. It's really, really clear. So any goal that you set, you're more likely to achieve it if you make it a SMART goal. So for example, a holiday goal that I have. So we had to save up. knew how much airfares were, how much accommodation was, I to a travel agent and inquired.

I knew when I wanted to go by. So I knew that was the amount I need to save up by this amount of time. So be really specific, but make sure they're achievable too. so try and use, so if this, I'm sure this isn't your only money goal, but this can be your starting point. But when you're going into say 2025, whatever goals you're setting for yourself, make sure you were using the SMART goals framework. Don't just say, I want to save up $5,000. But you haven't saved by when. You haven't.

like put a timeframe on it or anything like that. So the more likely you are to achieve something is if you make it a smart goal. really, another good example of this is my running. I've spoken a little bit about yesterday, but I've never been much of a runner until my adult life. was something I wanted to push myself and get out of my comfort zone and test myself. And generally,

I don't run unless I've got like a goal that I'm working towards. So it would be always be like a type of race. So it started out as a 10 K like fun run. Then it was a half marathon and then it was a full marathon. And when I had those goals, I knew that I had to be able to run this distance by this time. I was, I reached those goals every single time. Cause it was really clear. It was measurable. I could break down that goal into action steps. I knew what I needed to do in terms of training and then

I could action the goal. And the times where there was no race and I just wanted to run for fun, barely did it, barely did it. So it's sort of that accountability thing as well when you have a goal. When you have a goal in mind, it keeps you accountable, keeps you focused, it keeps you on the right path. So make sure you've constantly got money goals when you are looking at managing your money. And you can even call like your different savings accounts, whatever your money goal is. we might have one.

And one is my holiday account, one is my home account and you can get specific on that. A really important thing that most people miss as well, and this comes back to your mindset staff is to celebrate any wins every time you reach a goal. It doesn't matter how big or small it is. Have something in mind that you want to do to celebrate it because so often we go through and we do all this great stuff and we achieve all this stuff, but we don't actually take the time to acknowledge it.

especially if it's something money related, because we don't want to feel like we're boasting or bragging or again, that whole money is a taboo subject side of things. So what we do instead is we restrict ourselves and we just think that keep on going and we don't even think about it. I love to have an idea that, okay, this is my goal. Once I reach this goal, this is how I'm going to celebrate it. So don't...

miss the celebration of your goals because all these little wins, even if they're little ones, are going to add up to your big successes and it keeps you fueled in that abundance mindset. Write them down and keep a record of all the different goals you've reached. Share with like a loved one or a family member or an accountability partner and celebrate together. Don't miss opportunities to celebrate your wins. That's so, so important when you're managing your money.

Now, the last thing I want to touch on before we end our session today is, so we've talked about how we can manage money. Now I want to open you up to some ideas on how you can create a bit more money in your life. Now, most people are of the belief, not all, but most, that your income is fixed. And what I mean by that, so as a teacher, I know I am, I've been a teacher for 20 years.

And I'm at the, much, unless I want to go into like admin type roles, I'm at the top of what I can get paid. There's no more. There's no more room. There's no, you can't just go in and talk to the principal and say, give me a raise. Cause that's just, it's set. And a lot of people are of the opinion that that's it. this is my job. This is my income. This is what it's set at. There is nothing more that I am able to earn. And if this sounds familiar to you,

And it doesn't matter what job you're in. If you're, unless you're an entrepreneur, if you work for someone else, a lot of people think that we have these set incomes. I do not agree at all that income is Everest. There's such a thing as a set income. The only one that sets the income is you for yourself. So yes, in some jobs, like I said, my teaching job, I've reached the top level that I can be at with my income. So,

I need to then look for other ways that I can create additional incomes. And there's always so many things and you are only limited, the only limitation is your thoughts, your mindset and your imagination really. So as far as I can remember, I've always created additional streams of income. And originally when I was younger, it was through investment properties then.

When I had kids, started doing different like little side jobs as well. So I always sort of had teaching in the background, but I did different coaching businesses. I used to run lots of workshops and retreats. I used to make things that I would sell at markets. I used to make and sell kombucha, which is a fermented tea drink in the back room of like a little granny flat at the back of our house that we had. And I'd always have all these customers come every week and buy all this freshly made kombucha from me.

I'd go down to markets and I'd run workshops and teaching people how to make it. And I'd always had a range of things. was literally my whole adult life. I can't remember ever just doing one thing. I was a dance teacher for a while. I did a bit of gym instructing for a while. I've always had additional things. And I've never been closed off to the idea that this is my job and this is the only thing I'm gonna do.

And what that status has always made that I have additional streams of income coming in in different ways. So if at the moment, the $2,000 goal and you've gone through your money management and you're like, I still need a bit of extra money to reach this goal, then I'm just gonna really quickly talk to you about some different ideas of ways that you could possibly generate additional income. So every single person has got a skill or a talent or something they're passionate about.

or a strength. And we are actually living in a time where it is easier than ever to create like a little side hustle or do something additional to what your main job may be. It's never been easier thanks to like technology. So you could do something on your own like what I was just gave you a few different examples of what I did. I used to do tutoring as well, being a teacher. could then do tutoring. Don't even need to be a teacher to become a tutor. You could do things like

babysitting, dog walking. You could go and become like a Uber Eats driver or do Amazon deliveries or there's literally no limit to other than what your imagination can tell you. You could, if you've got like a shed, you could rent out part of your shed for storage. If you've got a vehicle that you don't use that much or like a caravan or a boat, they can, there's different like websites, bit like Airbnb that you can

rent out your caravan or rent out your trailer or rent out your boat and people book it in and you're creating all these different additional incomes. If you've got a room in your house at Spare, you could have that as an Airbnb room or get a housemate to come live with you. Don't close yourself off to thinking that your job is your only way to get income. There are so, so, so many ways and

You could teach people something online. might be a skill that you have. might run a workshop to show people how to do it. If you have that drive and that idea, there is nothing stopping you from creating a bit of an additional income right now. You could go on AirTasca and find people in your area that need jobs to be done. So just have a think now. You don't have to do any of these things, but you could just have a brainstorm and list down

any different ideas that you had that you could do right now to start creating additional income for you. And it doesn't mean that you have to go out and become, know, have a website and start doing coaching or whatever it is. Just start something small, something you could do, a little thing on the side. If you are like a stay at home mom at the moment, do you have a friend who's going to work and their kids are...

in daycare or something, or they need someone to look after your friends' kids and you can look after them and all the kids can play and entertain each other and then you can get the money that they would pay the daycare instead. Like there is ways, there is ways. If you want something enough, you will find a way to create that additional income. So you're literally only limited by your imagination. These are just a couple of ideas. I just wanted to touch the surface just to get you thinking.

a bit outside your comfort zone or a bit of a few things that you may not have thought about before, but there's definitely ways that you can do that. So list down anything that comes up for that. Now we are running out of time. So I literally talk about this for days, but I'm mindful of time. So I want to give you your daily action tasks for today of the challenge. And these will go up in your dashboard as well. So you can go back and have a look at them.

So your first one, your first daily action challenge, and this may take a couple of days, don't be too hard on yourself if you don't do it today, but get clear on your incomings and outgoings. So with your income, you wanna do a bit of an order, how much have you got coming in, go through your bank statements, have a look at where the money is coming in, where the money is going out, you can go back for the last couple of months and sort of get an idea. You wanna know things like how much you're paying each year for things like your car radio,

insurances, you've got like rates and things like that, all those sorts of things. So just sort of become mindful. Again, this is not to judge you. This is not to think, my God, I'm spending so much money or I'm not earning enough money. This is just purely for you to have that awareness and empower you to have the knowledge of how much income you currently have coming in versus how much money is going out. Then you can make informed decisions based on that.

So that's your first task. Your second one is while you're going through your, these expenses, just know you don't need to do anything about this yet, but just note down all the ones that don't feel good. When I was speaking about that, the ones that aren't serving you anymore, maybe things you don't use, they just don't feel right. You're not happy. You can't get behind paying for them. Don't do anything about it yet. I'll tell you what we're going to do with them tomorrow, but just brighten them down.

list them down without any judgment. And the third action task I want you to do today is go through or just have a think about those things I was talking about as additional forms of income. Did anything come up for you that you thought, actually I could do that. Maybe I'm going to go start making something and go sell it at my local markets or I don't know anything that came up here. Again, not to overthink and not to think I've got to go do this right now.

Just write down any things that you think you could do to create some additional income. Don't need to do anything with them yet. I'll tell you tomorrow in our last night of the challenge. So there are your three steps that I want you to do.

Now tomorrow we're going to be talking all about the roadmap, the actual action steps. I've given you a lot of information today. So just process it all. And tomorrow I'm actually going to show you the exact action steps, the roadmap you will need to take to make sure I guarantee you, will reach the $2,000 goal.

Louisa Larado (59:54)
thank you so much for listening today. If you've enjoyed today's content, you can still register for the 2K challenge. Now, when you register, you'll still have access to tomorrow's content, which is gonna give you the exact roadmap and the exact steps you will need to take to reach the $2,000 goal in time for Christmas.

But you'll also have access to all the resources and the replays of the last two days of the challenge, which you'll have access to rewatch a few times over the course of the week. It's free to join. You don't have to pay anything, but you do need to register so you can get all the links that you need So to do that, just go to louisalorado.com slash challenge, or you'll find the link in the show notes below.

If you've enjoyed the content today, I would love for you to follow or subscribe to the Living My Life Like It's Golden podcasts so you'll be notified when all new episodes come out. Feel free to leave me a review and rate this episode as well. And I'll see you next time.