Why Is It So Hard to Manage Money When My Income Jumps Around?

Speaker A00:00:00

I was on a call the other day with a coaching client. He said something I just had to share with you today. He said this. He said, I feel my paycheck is a roller coaster.That's a great thing to talk about today. Now I'm gonna tell you right now, he's in sales. But let me ask you, do you ever feel like your paychecks are roller coaster as well? Think about this.Click, click, click. You're climbing up that big month, a big check. You feel amazing at that time. Then whoosh, straight down. You could see that in your mind.Your stomach's in your throat, stress is through the roof. And here's the problem. Most financial gurus give this advice. Just save more in the good months. That's easy to say, but here's the twist.I'm gonna tell you something right now, and I might aggravate a few people by saying this, but if you can't handle $100 on the downhill, let me tell you right now, $10,000 at the peak is not gonna save you because the problem isn't a ride. The problem is your perspective on the track. So stick with me today because we're talking about how to break that myth wide open.I'm going to give you the answer on today's show. This is Financially Confident Christian.Your daily dose of gospel, grounded insight and faith driven tips to help you break the cycle of financial shame with confidence. Welcome back to Financially Confident Christian. I'm Ralph.I'm so happy you've chosen to give me just a little bit of time today as we continue to help you become a financially confident Christian. And we're continuing in our series Breaking Financial Shame and Walking in Confidence.Now, if you missed yesterday's show, we talked about why income never feels like enough man. I gave some controversial ideas on yesterday's show, so if you missed it, I'm going to encourage you to go check it out.You can find all of our episodes@financially confidentchristian.com but today we're going to go on a roller coaster ride. Yeah. You ready for a few bumps? It's going to be a bumpy ride, as they say. Today, we're going to talk about irregular income head on.We're going to face that dragon. We're going to face that monster.And I'm going to give you some takeaways to help you get through that process because I'm going to answer this big question. Why is it so hard to manage money when my income jumps around? And for so many people, if you're in the gig economy.If you're in the side hustle economy. If you're in sales, you know the cycle. One month, you've got this feast. I mean, you're at the buffet. Things are just piling up all around you.The food is. It's great. Plenty of it there. Money pours in, you got relief. You're not worried about where the next dollar is coming from.But next month, man, it's a famine. Your bills are piling up. The fear starts to take over your mind.And the problem is most of these financial experts say, well, you just got to budget better. But that's not the answer. We got to get real for a second. Budgets built for steady paychecks don't work for irregular ones.There's not some fancy, oh, go do this budget. It's going to work. You're trying to force a broken system. That system doesn't work if your income isn't the same every month.I want you to hear that because these financial knucklehead gurus out there telling you by, well, it's just a budgeting issue. It's not a budgeting issue. The system is broke. And when you try to live in that broke system, all you feel is guilt and. And you feel shame.Because here's the controversial part, man, I'm getting a little controversial this week. The real issue is not the numbers. And I want you to just stew on that for a second. It's not the numbers. It's really that fear.That fear in the back of your head, am I going to have enough this month? And the truth is, if we're being honest with ourselves, fear has become your financial manager.But here's the thing I want you to hear, and I want you to hear it loud and clear today. Feast or famine isn't just a financial issue. If it was, I could help you solve that problem. But it's so much deeper than that. And so I do.This show, this show is all about bringing two worlds together. A lot of people ask me, ralph, what is your show all about? Well, I can sum it up like this. It's about faith, and it's about finances.And there's an intersection between the two. And today's topic is exactly that. It's faith, and it's a discipline problem. That's what we're talking about here.The real issue with income fluctuating is not a financial issue. It's a discipline problem. Well, where we get our best mode of understanding discipline, it's from the Bible. So let's Jump right into it.Let's go right to Joseph in the book of Genesis. And listen, I don't quote the book of Genesis often, but this is where we're landing today.And if you don't know the story, it's not just about green. And I'm going to read the passage here in a second.But Joseph built a system, and that's what I'm going to encourage you to do today, is build a system, because Joseph built this and made Egypt thrive when everyone else was starving. So today, I'm going to give you something that can help you to stop from starving. Let's get right into the book.And it's the book of Genesis, chapter 41, verses 34 to 36. You know, one of the things I do on the show is I want to ground what I say in scripture because.Because that is the absolute truth for how we want to live our lives. But let's get right to it. Genesis 41, 34, 36.Let Pharaoh appoint commissioners over the land to take a fifth of the harvest of Egypt during the seven years of abundance.They should collect all the food of those good years that are coming and store up the grain under the authority of Pharaoh to be kept in the cities for food.This food should be in reserve for the country to be used during the seven years of famine that will come upon Egypt so that the country may not be ruined by the famine. What was Joseph doing here? He had a mindset. He realized it's not just about survival. And that's what I'm going to encourage you today.If you've got income that fluctuates, and a lot of us have this income that fluctuates, most people these days have those side jobs or have income in sales or something like that. There is some fluctuation in this, but Joseph keyed in on this. It's not just survival. It's a strategy.And that strategy goes right back to the central core issue of this show. It's stewardship. And so many people have said to me, ralph, you know, having irregular income is a curse. I hate this. I never know what my income is.I just want to go get one of those jobs where it's just the same income every month. And I want you to think about that for a second, because I don't think that's the answer.Because in my view, irregular income is actually an opportunity. You might be saying, Ralph, okay, you got to explain this one to me, dude, you've lost me now.But see, irregular income is an opportunity to show discipline when others panic. And I love that thought. It's a way to show opportunity, to thrive while others scrape by. What was Joseph really doing?He saw what was going to happen. He knew what to expect. He had a plan. He had a stewardship plan. So now you're asking. Okay, Ralph, I get it. What can we do?Well, here's the first thing I want to tell you. Do stop listening to the financial knuckleheads out there. You can't smooth your income from month to month. That's ridiculous. It doesn't work.And it's just going to make you feel guilty and it's going to make you feel shame and you're going to stay stuck in this cycle that just keeps repeating us. What you've really got to do is start building systems that turn that inconsistency into opportunity. See the answer?Like I said on yesterday's show, the answer isn't more money. The answer is being intentional and living an intentional stewardship plan. So here's your one action step for today.I always want to give you something that you can take away from this show because I present an idea. But then I want to give you something you could actually do to do something to change this dynamic. So here's what I'm going to encourage you to do.The first step to this is you've got to start by defining your essentials. Ask yourself this question, kind of like what I talked about yesterday, those survival things, those absolute needs.Let me encourage you to do the same thing today. Define your essentials. What does it really take to keep the lights on? It's a really blunt question.Utilities, food, transportation, all those minimum payments on those debts. I want you to write those baselines down because that is the definition of your essentials. What does it take to keep the lights on?And then once you do that, I want you to redefine your budget. You need to stop thinking about it like some monthly calendar.So many people get stuck in that budget cycle of, well, this month I got this, this month I got it. You can't do that if your income is irregular. It just doesn't work.For that type of income, you've got to develop what I'm going to refer to as a priority based plan. And it works like this. And it's not rocket science. Your first dollars go to those essentials. What does it really take to keep the lights on?That's where your first dollars go.The second set of dollars, once you've kept the lights on, the kids have food, you got Heat, air conditioning, whatever that looks like in your house. You got gas in the car. The second set is your buffer fund.That's where you're going to help build that savings account for those months that you have less income. Yes, if you want to call that smoothing, I guess you can argue that. But it's really a different mindset.And the final thing, once you get past that, then you can spend some money on extras, because you got to build that buffer with purpose. It's not just about surviving during those famine months. It's about building stability and giving yourself options.And listen, here's the big takeaway for today. Target about one to three months of essentials. It's kind of like an emergency fund, but that's the way you've got to live.If you have this type of income that fluctuates from month to month. And then you got to treat those feast months differently. So many people. And listen, I'm guilty of this, too.So many people who live in this type of economy, they've got a great month. What do they do? They start eating out more. They go buy stuff. They inflate their lifestyle. I've done many shows about this.You can't assume that's going to last. So you've got to change your mindset. You got to get your head straight. You got to funnel those extras into that buffer.Funnel that extra time you got. Listen, if you don't have as much work coming in, take that time investing yourself. Do some skill building.It's all about building that intentional stewardship for Kingdom Impact. Because when you do this, and I truly believe this works, it breaks that fear cycle. Because like I said, that is what is motivating you.You're so scared because you don't know what's around the bend. And this, by doing this, it gives you control. So many people, like that guy I talked about, the coaching client said, ralph, I'm on a roller coaster.What he was really saying to me is, ralph, I don't have any control. Well, let's get back to control and turn that irregular income into leverage.Because, listen, in those months of feast, you can really supersize that budget buffer. And then you don't have to struggle so much. Why? But we pray together, Father, God, confess, we've let fear drive our money choices.Lord, we've been stuck on that roller coaster. And so many times we blamed our paycheck instead of confronting our perspective.So today we ask that you would teach us to see irregular income not as a curse, Lord, but as an opportunity. We ask that you would give us wisdom like Joseph to prepare in plenty and trust you during those months of famine.Lord, help us to steward faithfully, not fearfully.Help us to break the chain of fear and guide us to use every dollar to glorify you, no matter when it arrives, no matter what it looks like, on a month to month basis. And we ask this in confidence, in the name of Jesus. Amen. Irregular income isn't the enemy. Know your enemy.If you want to be successful in war, you've got to know your enemy. Your enemy now is fear. That is what the enemy is. And budgets made for steady jobs just don't fit your world. I'm sorry they're not going to work.But what does work is God's wisdom, the wisdom of Joseph. So start by redefining what is enough for you. Build a system like we talked about on the show.Those baseline essentials, build that buffer and then you've got some extras and sit back and enjoy the ride. But turn it into stability. And now maybe you know somebody right now that's in this same situation.Maybe you work with somebody in the sales field or in that gig economy that those side hustle and you're thinking, Ralph, we have these discussions all the time. I ask you to do me a favor. Send them a link to the show, send them a link to the podcast in general. They can gain a lot from this.Just send them to our website, that's financiallyconfidentchristian.com and let them become part of this movement to try to break the chains of financial shame and move to confidence. And while you're there, I want to give you a free copy of my book. I just finished writing this book.It's called how to Become a Financially Confident Christian. It's a great book to help you really get your mindset straight because that's what we're talking about.How, how do I find that confidence in the only true source of that and that's in Jesus Christ. So go get a copy of that book.You can do that by going to financiallyconfidentchristian.com/becoming one more time, no strings attached, financiallyconfidentchristian.com/becoming and get a copy of my free book. You will absolutely love it. Now tomorrow we're going to talk about a new struggle and that's why do I struggle to use my talents to earn more money.Tomorrow I'm going to talk about how to boldly leverage your God given abilities. And I'm going to give you a little sneak peek if you're not doing that. We may be thinking about a sin situation here.So make sure you join me tomorrow on the show. It's really going to be a great show tomorrow. And remember this, irregular income isn't a problem to fear. It's an opportunity to steward.Now, I know you can do this. I believe in you. Now go out there and be a financially confident Christian. Stay financially savvy, God bless you, and you have a great day.