Why Does My Money Disappear So Fast Every Month?

Speaker A00:00:00

You work hard, your paycheck lands in your bank account, then poof, it feels like it just vanishes away. Do you ever feel like your money has a mind of its own? Like it's slipping through your fingers before you even know where it went?Let me ask you this. What if you could gain crystal clear clarity and finally take control of your financial flow?Well, stick with me today because I'm going to tell you exactly how to do that. I'm going to tell you how to do that 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. Hey there. Welcome back to your daily Financially Confident Christian. I'm Ralph and it's great for you to be with me again today.This is the show that helps you answer that question. How can I become a financially confident Christian?And we're in day three of our new series, Breaking the Financial 30 Days to overcome your toughest money struggles. Now, yesterday we bravely tackled the fear of looking at your bank account and took that crucial first step to peek at your numbers.If you missed it, I'm going to encourage you to go check it out.You can find all of our episodes@financiallyconfidentchristian.com well, today we're going to build on that courage a little bit and we're going to confront a common struggle, the mysterious disappearance of your money. So today let's ask this question. Why does my money disappear so fast every month?Yeah, you're probably thinking, ralph, I know exactly how that feels. Maybe you know this feeling all too well. Even your paycheck hits.And for that little bit of time, money feels abundant and you can breathe a little easier. But then quickly, it just dwindles away. And then by the end of the month, you're scratching your head, you're wondering, where did it all go?This struggle is the lack of awareness about where your money is actually going. And it leads to financial confusion and persistent stress.It leaves you feeling powerless over your money, like it's a runaway teen that you just can't control. This burden of living with financial uncertainty prevents progress on your goals that you work so hard to get to.And if you're not careful, it causes a lot of anxiety as well. But here's the thing, and you gotta hear this today, money doesn't just disappear. There's no magic to this. It doesn't just disappear. It's spent.The problem is it's often spent unconsciously. See the lack of A clear plan or a budget is usually the culprit. But see, stewardship requires knowing where your resources are going.And this is a biblical principle. Let's look at the book of Proverbs, chapter 21, verse 5. It reminds us this.And I've used this on this show many times because this show is all about intentionality. And part of being intentional is to have a plan. But this is what Proverbs 21:5 says.It says the plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty. See, gaining clarity through understanding your money's flow is an act of wise stewardship.And if you do it right, it'll replace that chaos with order. And it empowers you to make intentional spending choices. And that's what we all want to do.So now you're asking, Ralph, how do you stop your money from disappearing and actually gain that clarity over its flow? Well, you know, I've got an answer for you.And the single most crucial solution is to create a simple, crystal clear snapshot of your monthly income and your essential expenses. This is your first step towards truly understanding where your money goes and taking back control. Hey, we all want to take back control, don't we?So here's your one vital action step for today, specifically designed to help you understand where your money goes. The first thing I've got to get you to do is, is to gather your income information.You know, list all of your sources of income, write down their exact amounts. Now I'm going to encourage you to do that in after tax dollars because that's your actual take home pay.But get your monthly income on a piece of paper and start there. So that's the first step. Gather your monthly income. Second step, list your recurring expenses.Just jot down all of your fixed recurring monthly bills.For example, that would be your rent, your mortgage, maybe you've got some loan payments or car payments, insurance premiums, any essential subscription. Just write all of those recurring routine fixed costs down. That's your second step.Now your third step is to estimate some realistic amounts for your flexible spending categories. These are things.Now listen, it may not feel too flexible sometimes, especially with the cost of groceries right now, but examples of these are groceries, maybe gas or transportation cost, hey, dining out, personal care. But this is the time where you've got to be honest. You don't want to aim for perfection, but just get a good estimate. So that's the third step.Estimate your variable expenses. And then finally, here's the big takeaway.This is the no Judgment zone, by the way, I want you to calculate the gap or what I've called on the show, the margin, and then briefly compare your total monthly income that's at the top to your total estimated expenses and ask yourself a real simple question. Is there a surplus? Hey, that's good. You're not spending as much as you're bringing in. But if there's a deficit, that's a problem.But at this point, I just want you to see the numbers. I don't want you to judge yourself. Just have some data for awareness. That's where we're going to start today.And you might be saying, ralph, okay, I get it. But why does this help? Well, see, I truly believe that this single action will directly fight that struggle of money.Now you might be saying, ralph, how does this even help? I truly believe that this single action is going to directly fight that struggle of money vanishing and that struggle of you feeling powerless.It's going to replace that confusion with concrete understanding. And that's the first step towards creating a purposeful budget. Hey, when we do a budget, we want to be purposeful about it.And it empowers intentional spending which will in the end reduce your financial stress. How about we pray together now? Father God, we just thank you for the resources you provide us and calling us to be wise stewards.And we confess that our money often feels like it disappears, Lord, leaving us confused and leaving us stressed and leaving us with a high level anxiety. So we just ask that you would grant us clarity, Lord, and wisdom to truly understand our financial flow.Help us to be diligent in planning and managing our resources, Lord, and may our finances be ordered for your glory and and bring us greater peace. And we ask this in confidence. In Jesus name, Amen. Listen, understanding where your money goes is the first step to taking control of your money.So I'm going to encourage you right now, take that step today to create your simple financial snapshot. This is not a full blown budget, it's just a simple financial snapshot. Because I got news for you. You're moving towards true freedom.And right now I'm going to ask you if this episode has resonated with you or if you're getting value from the show. I would really appreciate it if you would consider sharing it with someone who might need to hear it.There are so many people out there who are struggling with their finances who feel the same as you do.And you may be able to share this show with them and that'll give them a benefit to understanding how to finally break that cycle of financial shame and work to a place of confidence. The easiest thing to do is you can send them a link to our show.It's@financiallyconfidentchristian.com Again, that's financiallyconfidentchristian.com and listen, hey, I've got a special gift for you today as well. I want to give you a free copy of my latest book. Now, my latest book is called how to Become a Financially Confident Christian.I want to give you a copy of that just by going to financiallyconfidentchristian.com/becoming. I want you to break that cycle of financial shame and step into confidence. Now here's a little sneak peek of tomorrow.Tomorrow we're going to be tackling a big perception. We talked about budgeting today. Tomorrow we're really going to address this. Is budgeting really just about restriction and deprivation?So many people, as soon as I use the word budget, they go, oh boy, Ralph's talking about restriction. Or here's what we're going to talk about tomorrow. Or can it be a powerful tool for your financial freedom? That's a show you don't want to miss.So make sure you join me tomorrow. Now here's my charge for you today. Let's all go out there and be Financially Confident Christians. You can do this. I have confidence in you.Have confidence in yourself. Stay financially savvy. God bless you. And you have a great day today.