Why Do Big Bills Keep Blindsiding Me?

Speaker A00:00:28

Ralph, I'm always caught off guard by big bills. How do I plan for them? Let me ask you right now, have you ever had a bill show up and your stomach drops that pain, that self blame?You're like, what? How did this happen? Let me tell you right now, you're not careless. You're just tired of being caught off guard.But here's the thing I want to tell you. Most surprises aren't surprises. They're just unplanned. And that anxiety doesn't come from the bill. It comes from being unprepared.What if this time you saw it coming? You see it, you spread it. It removes the panic. Well, let's work on building better plans on today's. Hello and welcome. I'm Ralph.Thank you for joining me again today. This is financially confident Christian. And every day I work to help you break that cycle of financial shame and truly live in confidence.And I've been helping people just like you for 30 years. And the thing that I've really found that works is really forecasting those annual costs before they hit.Because when we break big cost into monthly bites, everything changes. Let me tell you right now, it's not magic. A lot of people say, ralph, what you do is magic. It's not magic. It's math mixed with peace.Because the truth is, I've lived this. I'm not just taught it. I've had those surprise bills. I've had those things come up. And when I really went back and studied, wasn't a surprise at all.I should have expected this. Like right now in Delaware, it's becoming colder outside. Well, guess what's going to happen next month? My electric bill is going to be higher.My heating costs are going to be higher. That's not a surprise. I know it's going to happen because the weather's getting colder outside. Well, let me tell you about this family I work with.I had this family, they were friends of ours, and they used to panic every single spring. I knew them, they come in to get their taxes done with me, and they would panic. Ralph. They said the taxes are expensive.I got to get new tires for the cars. The kids play every sport under the sun. The school fees are outrageous. And I said, all right, you want to break that cycle?You want to stop living in that fear, that worrisome fear of what's going to happen next. I said, let's take a few minutes and let's list all these bills, list them all out. And then what we can do is we can spread them out. Monthly.And he said, ralph, that's a great idea. That's revolutionary for us. So we did that. We planned everything out on a 12 month calendar. And guess what?When they came to see me next year, no credit cards, no chaos. And listen, they didn't earn more. It wasn't like either each of them got a big raise or either of them got a big raise for that matter.They just stopped being surprised. And that transformation was to calmness. So let's talk about this. Why do these bills keep blindsiding us?But bigger than that, how can we partner with God to see ahead and stay steady? Because we gotta move from frustration to faith based foresight. Here's how you do it.Number one thing I want you to know, anticipation beats reaction. Because what's predictable shouldn't feel painful. If you know it's coming, that shouldn't be painful to you because you're expecting it.It's on the horizon. Most, what people call emergencies are just annual bills in disguise. Listen, if you own an automobile, guess what's going to happen?You're going to have to replace the tires at some point. If you own an automobile, like right now, today, my car is in the shop. Well, guess what? I knew that was coming.Every 3,000 miles or every 5,000 miles, it's there. Well, God gives us foresight. God gives us this, to have faith in action. Because listen, you can't control everything. Trust me on this.I've tried to do that my entire life. I thought, ralph, you can control everything. You're really good, you're a micromanager, but you can prepare wisely.Because peace begins when you stop being surprised. That's the number one thing. You don't have to be surprised.Number two, a lot of people say, great, Ralph, okay, I can put a forecast together, but they're missing a piece. You got to do it with faith. See, forecasting isn't fear. Lot of people get stuck in that.Well, I'm scared this is going to happen and this is going to happen in the roof, on the house, and this and that. I get it. But forecasting doesn't need to be fear, it's stewardship.Take a second look back at last year's statements, because your future is hidden in your history. A lot of people don't get that.When I work with people to help them break that cycle of financial shame, the first thing I do is say to them, let's talk about what happened in the past. So you can write down five big 20, 26 expenses right now, because you've already experienced these.Maybe it's taxes, maybe it's your automobile insurance or your homeowner's insurance. Maybe your car. You know, this car is getting to be a maintenance nightmare. Maybe it's school costs.Hey, maybe every summer you travel, if you know those things now, you can assign them to months and divide that by 12 and start building up a buffer for that. You think about it like this. Let's say you've got this insurance bill every year. That's $1,200.Well, if you wait till April, when the bill comes in, guess what happens? You panic. But if you say, wait a second, I know this. Every April, it's $1,200.Well, listen, if I put aside a hundred dollars each month, all of a sudden it's doable. And see, that's where faith meets math right there. Nothing I'm encouraging to do name it to protect it. See, a lot of people don't understand this.Separate money for purpose. It equals peace. So a lot of people say, well, I don't understand. What do you mean? Okay, create sub accounts in your own mind.Because if you just have this big category, well, this is our entertainment budget. This is our repairs budget. But the problem is, that becomes overwhelming. So separate down, break it down.Maybe your property tax bill is so much each year, maybe your insurance is this, maybe your cars are in are this much. But name it. Because when you name it, you protect it. When it's set apart, you're less tempted to spend it.See, organization, this thing we're talking about, this organization is spiritual. If you don't know anything else about God, God is a God of order. And it works that way. Organization is spiritual. It reflects God's order.Another thing I'm encouraging to do, you gotta revise and review this regularly. Stewardship is active. It's not passive. You don't put this on autopilot, you know, say, okay, next year.Ralph already told me, list out my big expenses, and then I'm going to put it on autopilot. And I'm not going to look at it. It doesn't work that way. You've got to review this at least once a quarter and life changes.And you got to be willing to adjust. You got to be willing to shift that. That's what wisdom's about. It's not about failure.It's about going back and saying, okay, I planned this, but guess what? It didn't work out. Those forecasts are faith plans. They're not perfection plans.God wants you to rely on Him, God has already promised you to take care of it, but you've got to be flexible because that flexibility keeps peace intact. Let's get to our Bible verse today. It comes to us from the book of Luke, chapter 14, verse 28. It says, Suppose one of you wants to build a tower.Won't you first sit down and estimate the cost? And I think this is perfect, because here a lot of people say, well, Ralph, the Bible doesn't talk about math.Well, Jesus is talking about math right here, but that's not exactly what he's talking about. Yes, he's talking about math, but he's talking about mindfulness. He's talking about planning. He's talking about removing that doubt.And when you remove that doubt, that's really leaning into devotion. And devotion is where the resolution to this we start off the question, how do I stop panicking about these big bills?It's about planning, removing doubt, and living in devotion. How about we pray together, Lord? We come to you right now and we.We're fearful of these big things that happen in our lives, Lord, but we ask that you would give us vision to see ahead, Lord.We're not talking about the ability to see the future, Lord, but just help us to understand what to expect and grant me consistency to fund those things faithfully. And Lord, as I do that, teach me contentment while I wait on your perfect timing. And we ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.All right, you Ready for your 1 action item today? I want you to go and look at your books from this past year, 20, 25, and find five major expenses.These are the things that you know, these are the ones that you're not expecting. But that bill comes in, you start to panic.Find those five things, and I want you to simply divide that monthly and create a little budget for yourself. And listen, I'm going to encourage you. Open up those sub accounts for each. Lay it out there, name it so you know what it is.And then I want you to take a minute and celebrate. Because what you've done right there is you've turned anxiety into anticipation. Yes, you're ready. Listen, this isn't some big piece of homework.It's just a friendly challenge. And if today's episode helped you breathe a little easier, I want to encourage you to do something.I want you to join our financially confident Christian community. I've been talking about this for the last couple days on the show, and we're really excited about this. It's still growing.So when you go over there and visit. We don't have a lot of people there yet but you could be another person in our founders group.Go to financiallyconfidentchristian.com/join again that's financiallyconfidentchristian.com Join I'm going to have some templates there, some examples.Hey, it's a great place to go and share what's working for you and and listen if you're struggling, it's a great place to share the struggles because you don't have to do it alone anymore. Again that's financiallyconfidentChristian.com/join now as I close today, God's not asking you to predict the future.He wants you to prepare faithfully because peace comes when you plan with him, not without him. That's a key takeaway. You're not falling behind, you're building ahead.So I want to encourage you, go out there today and be the financially confident Christian that I know you can be. You can do this. Stay financially savvy. God bless you and I'll see you again tomorrow on the show.