How do you know if you need a Budget Counselor?

If you make money, but you’re down to zero before each payday…

You may feel that making more money would solve this problem, but it has been determined that is not the case. The more money we make, the more money we tend to spend. And if you haven’t created a system that allows you to become more aware of where your money is going, this pattern won’t change. Budget Counseling helps you create that system. And if there is truly no extra money before the next payday, you can see where adjustments to your spending may help.

If you have no idea that you’ve been paying for auto subscriptions…

In today’s world it is too easy to forget to cancel that 14-day free trial, or cancel that streaming service we no longer watch. The easy solution to this problem is to review our bank and credit card statements each month. But sadly, many of us do not take this simple step.

Budget Counseling helps you make a list of every transaction that comes out of your bank account or hits your credit card statement every month, helping you bring more awareness to your Money Life.

If looking at your bank or credit card statements is scary…

Most of us log into our bank’s website, look at our balance, or total amount due, and if it seems to be an amount we’re willing to accept, we don’t look any further. Reviewing your bank and credit card statements can take just a few minutes a month. Not only does it help you become more aware of your day-to-day spending, you can find errors!

Budget Counseling provides a tool where you regularly compare what your Money Life should look like, to what is actually happening at the bank. So, if anything happens that is unexpected, you can immediately address the issue.

If you pay overdraft fees too often…

Mistakes happen all the time…but if you’re paying overdraft fees frequently, you could be giving your bank hundreds of dollars every month. You may feel that if you had more money this wouldn’t happen. However, overdrafts is not a money issue, its an organization and awareness issue. Overdrafts happen when you’re not keeping track of what’s happening in your bank account. This can be due to mindless spending, not remembering auto-pays, or timing issues with payments. All of these issues can be resolved with more organization and awareness – exactly what Budget Counseling provides.

If you forget to pay bills, even though money is in the bank…

Once again, mistakes happen all the time, but if you consistently forget to pay bills, especially if there’s money in the bank, you may not have an organizational system around your money. You may be living your busy life, not prioritizing the ‘horrible’ task of sitting down and making sure the money was sent to the bill company.

Paying bills may also be more of an emotional issue for you. This may be due to how you saw money being handled in your family when you were younger, or you may feel like you don’t want to give your ‘hard earned’ money away.

If making a list of your bills is scary.

Many people say they know all the bills they have to pay, and they try to keep that list in their head. Or they may have reminders set on their phone regarding due dates. They may have a general sense of how much debt they’re in, or they may believe that if they looked at all their bills they won’t be able to pay them all.

Budget Counseling helps us work together to make that list of bills, and put them in a spreadsheet based on the amount owed and date due. Once you have a realistic picture of your financial situation, usually the picture is not so scary.