Why Do I Always Blow My January Budget?

Speaker A00:00:28

All right. I thought I'd start today's show with a listener question. And when I got this question, I said, man, there are so many people that feel this way.Because honestly, I felt this way myself, Ralph. I start every new year full of hope, but by mid January, I've already blown my budget. Why do I keep doing this? I feel like I'll never get ahead.I'm going to answer that question in a second. But I've got some really exciting news today. We launched a theme song for the show.You're going to hear it in the intro here in just a moment, but if you're interested in hearing the whole song. And Abby, my producer, done a great job putting a music video to go with it. You can find it on our YouTube channel.That's at financiallyconfidentchristian.com/YouTube. Again, that's financiallyconfidentchristian.com/YouTube and I'd love to hear your feedback on it. Let's get back to today's question.And really what we're talking about there is that feeling of trying again and failing. And you're feeling exhaustion. But I want you to know something right from the jump here. You're not lazy. You're tired of trying this alone.And that's the reason I do this show, because so many of us have felt that that moment you open up the bank app and you feel dread. And we all got to admit, January hits harder than December ever, ever warns us it's going to. And here's the truth. Bills don't care. It's a new year.They don't care less. It's January. They don't care. But the good news is this. And this is why I love doing this part of the show. God's not measuring your balance.See, it'd be really easy to say, well, God, I'm failing. My balance isn't going. But he's rebuilding your belief. So let's talk about rebuilding that on today's show.Hello and welcome to Financially Confident Christian. I'm Ralph, and I just want to thank you so much for joining me.Each day I try to help you break that cycle of financial shame and do it with confidence. And I've been guiding families just like you for over 30 years. And I've seen January chaos personally.And I'll tell you this, I've learned that peace is greater than perfection. See, it's real easy to strive for perfection, but you're never going to get it.And here's another thing, big takeaway today, a 90 day plan beats 90 days of panic. Let me share my own personal story. If you've listened to the show for a while, you know, I used to be an executive of credit union.Now as an executive at the credit union, everybody kind of looked up to me. I'll never forget this one morning.I'm sitting in my office, it was about 8, 8:30 in the morning, and my phone rings and I reached over and grabbed my phone and it was one of the ladies at work with me. She says, ralph, she says, we got a problem. I said, what's going on? She goes, your checking accounts overdrawn. And instantly I was panicking.I was like, how could I have done this? See, I've been there too. I've made those mistakes and I was able to solve the problem.But man, talking about an emotional situation, because here everybody's looking up to me. I'm the executive of the credit union. And now I'm, I'm in that same. We called it the dreaded list, to be honest with you. And I found myself there.So I just want you to understand I'm not coming at you from judgment. I've been there just where you are. Let me tell you about a friend of mine. Friend of mine always dreaded January. She said, ralph, I hate January.She said, I make these New Year's resolutions, but they always fall apart. Listen, I'll talk about that in a couple days. I'm not a big resolution person.But anyway, so with this friend of mine, I said, here's what we need to do. We need to really plan out the first month of January and then we'll plan out February and March.And we, we sat down with her books and we looked at what those things were coming up. We looked at her bills, we, we looked at those renewing subscription. We even talked about that heating cost spike. Hey, in January in Delaware.Gets a little cold out here. So we sat down, we made a plan, we put together an idea sheet and then forget. She called me in February.She said, ralph, she's never going to believe this. She said, this is the first calm that I've ever felt in February in years. And I just smiled. I said, yeah, that's what peace looks like.Before, we felt that stress, but now we feel that stillness, knowing that we've got a plan. And listen, fans sometimes fail, but we have a plan. So let's get back to our question today. Why does this keep happening every January?But bigger than that, how do we build a plan that reflects trust, not tension? Because we need to move from emotion to empowerment. Well, I've got some ideas here to help you do that.First thing I want you to remember, it's all about God's grace before guilt. See, God starts with compassion. God doesn't start with criticism. He's not picking on you. He's not pulling you down.So if you don't hear anything else, I stay today. Stop starting from shame. You don't have to live in shame. There's grace. And that grace can fuel your progress.And listen, if you make a mistake, like I did that morning at the credit union, what did I do the next day? I restarted. That restart is sacred.Because if we, if we use guilt, we're going to constantly look back, we're going to constantly go back and compare what we did before. But grace looks forward. See, it's about the idea of hope rising. Second thing, plan small, but win big. I want you to focus on 90 days, not 12 months.12 months is way too far. If you're struggling with your finances, simplify. Just look at the next 30 days. Look at the next 60 days. Hey, if you can do 90 days, great.But look at those recurring things. Look at those seasonal costs. Look at the things that are known events.Because listen to me, right now, financially, there aren't a lot of big surprise moments. Most of the things we have are not surprises. So build that buffer we talked about that emergency savings account. Build on that.Build that breathing room, because small steps now are going to prevent big stress later. And listen, celebrate any forward motion. But then I want you to look to replace panic with prep. See, preparation is peace in disguise.You want to know where. Where panic is hiding. It's lack of preparation. See those holiday hangovers that so many of us face?Those things happen in January because we haven't planned for those. But if we plan, we can break that pattern. Because here's the truth. God is blessing, diligence. God doesn't want drama in your life.Listen to me right now. God does not want drama in your life. God doesn't want you to struggle with your finances. He wants you to look to Him.And when you look to him, he blesses that diligence. And peace starts in December. Peace starts right now as you're thinking about next year.It doesn't start in January because a calm start is holy stewardship. Now, I'm going to say something's a little rough sometimes. You think, God, what's up with your timing, dude? Like, you're not getting me anywhere.But listen to me. You don't have to Fix everything. Just be faithful. Because trust grows step by step. It's not going to happen overnight.You didn't put yourself into a financial struggle overnight. And here's something else I've learned in my own time on this earth of working with my own finances.Sometimes God withholds more to teach us that he's enough. We got to have that provision that begins with perspective. See, so many people think peace is in the paychecks. Peace isn't in your paychecks.It's in Christ alone. Let's get to our Bible verses today. I've got two for today. The first one is from the book of Proverbs, chapter 24, verse 27. It says this.Put your outdoor work in order and get your fields ready. After that, build your house. What is this verse telling us? It's telling us to prepare. It's telling us to get ourselves in order.And that's an honor to God before you build that house, before you build that financial for January, before you feel that, oh, I can't do this, Ralph. Oh, I'm failing again. Ralph. Put that preparation together. Second verse from First Peter, chapter five, verse seven.And this one, man, this one's a big hug for you. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Listen to me right now. You're not meant to carry this all alone.We've got a loving God who wants to help you. He wants you to look to him to do this. How about we pray together and start looking to him right now?Lord, we come to you right now and we're broken, Lord. We feel guilty, Lord. Help us to replace that guilt with gratitude for all the things you've given us, for the provision that you've given us.And Lord, as we prepare for this new season, this new year coming up, help us to prepare with peace and not panic, Lord. Help us to not live in fear. Help us to plan without fear, Lord. And we know that you can do this, Lord. So we ask you for the power to do this.And we ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen. All right, I've got one action item for you today.I want you to today, take a few minutes and just plan your expenses for the first month in January, in February and March. Just put them down on paper. Here's the things that I know are going to happen. And once you do that, take a step back and pray over them.Just thank God that you saw these coming, and ask him for the provision to help get you through, because this is an invitation, not a command. And if this spoke to you. Like I said at the beginning, you don't have to walk this road alone anymore.We've got a community that you can join absolutely free. The easiest way to get to it is you go to financiallyconfidentchristian.com/join. What are you going to find there?It's a safe place to break that financial shame. It's a place where you can share your real stories and real peace of things that you've struggled with.I'm going to have faith based tools and community support out there because listen, every story matters including yours. So if you're interested in that, go to financiallyconfidentchristian.com/join Listen, you're not behind, you're becoming, you're not condemned.You're being restored. God's not done writing your story. So go out there today and be a financially confident Christian. Stay financially savvy. You can do this.I have confidence in you. God bless you. Have a great day.