Failing is good!
I’m so glad we failed when we did! No joke. The fact of life is that we are not going to be perfect at most things. Especially not the first time we give them a go.
Here’s the thing, I am a huge believer that there is something to be gained, a positive, an upside, however you want to word it, there is always something to learn from every experience. No matter what!
You get to choose. Do you want to continue down the Debbie Downer road, or are you going to learn from you mistake and make sure that you do better next time?
Take it up a notch, not only are you going to do better next time, but you are going to rock it out of the park!
Are You Failing?
You’re not going to be perfect with your finances. There is always going to be room to grow. SO GROW!
One of my favorite quotes from “Girl Stop Apologizing” by Rachel Hollis is, “Failure means that you’re living. Failure means you’re trying.”
Keep trying! Don’t you give up because it got a little uncomfortable!
The only way for you to truly fail is if you let the struggle paralyze you from moving forward. The only way you will fail is if you don’t keep going!
How do you keep going? What do you do? When those mistakes do come along, here are 5 ways to be sure that you avoid a failure and transform into a success.
In my online course I go into greater detail step-by-step on how you can troubleshoot your budget to make sure that you can stick with! These steps in this article are going to help you identify what you can learn from the mistake and how to keep pushing forward.
1. Keep Going
Step one is to keep going! The only way you fail is if you give up. Just because something didn’t work in your budget this go around, doesn’t mean that you can’t figure it out! We touched on it before. Failing is a part of life. If you aren’t failing, then you aren’t trying.
You failed? So what! Keep going! There is always something to learn and something to do better next time! Keep shooting higher each time and even if you don’t hit your goal, you will most definitely get higher than if you kept shooting for the easy target.
2. Identify the warning Signs
You gotta get ready so you know if it’s coming again! So what are some of the signs that you can look back on and identify that led to your misstep?
Are there any spending triggers that led to your overspending? Stress, poor time management, or maybe a lack of planning. Were there any specific situations
Spending triggers
You can also look for situations that might have caused you to go off budget. Was a specific holiday or birthday what caused the chaos? Or maybe you find that being around a certain group of friends brings on the pressure to overspend. Look back and look for the warning signs.
3. Prepare for next time
Unplanned expenses can wreak havoc on a perfectly planned budget. So what can you do when you don’t know it’s coming? My first piece of advice that we have learned from our own experience, is that when you do have an unplanned expense come up, plan for it to happen again.
Chances are that this won’t be the only time this is going to happen. Start saving up the cash now to cover the costs next time. The more you pay attention to your current unplanned expenses, the less they will surprise you in the future.
The second thing to do is to make sure that you have a minimum of a $1,000-$2,000 emergency fund. Once you are debt free, work towards 3-6 months of expenses in an emergency savings.
It’s a bummer to have to dip into that savings to cover an emergency, but man-o-man it keeps your family safe and away from going deeper into debt!
4. What did you do that IS working?
You’re doing something right! You are smart and YOU know what’s best for your family! So what’s currently working? What are you currently doing that is getting you closer to your goals?
Write it down! That way you don’t forget or maybe next time this same situation comes up, you can reference back to your notes as a cheat sheet for what to do next.
5. Crush the insecurity and come out stronger
Now that you have highlighted what you are doing correct, you know how to avoid and overcome past mistakes, there is no need to feel insecure or fearful any longer!
When you come out the other side of your hurtle, your confidence is going to build your strength to overcome whatever comes next. Your capacity for what you can handle is going to grow!
“We just paid off $20,000 in debt. Let’s save $80,000 to pay cash for a house remodel!”
Your courage to work towards bigger dreams is going to get you further every time! If you can just keep going, even if it’s one breath at a time, keep pushing forward and crush your insecurity of challenges to come.
Our Current Failure and What We are Learning
If you watch any of our family budget updates, you might have noticed that we haven’t put any significant amount of money in savings since last October.
This stresses me out. Big time!
Here’s where we keep getting caught up. We are still trying to adjust to two things. One being first time home owners with a very high mortgage payment. Are we house poor? I think so. Our payment is close to 50% of our current income.
The second challenge we have been facing is trying to figure out how to manage my income from my business. Up to this point this is how we have been paying ourselves… I figure out our expenses for the upcoming budget then pull a paycheck to cover the costs. Not the best planned out scenario I would say.
We could keep going on as “normal” and continue to live in a state of high stress OR we can learn from our experiences, figure out what needs to change, make an action plan, and move forward. Let’s go with the second option!
I’ll talk more about this in upcoming blog posts and videos but here’s the plan. We are giving ourselves two years to increase our income. There is a lot more behind the goal to increase our cash. Some major goals would be to pay cash for a house remodel and pay off our house in 15 years.
We have a lot of work to do!
To help with a new life being self employed, the plan is to meet with a financial planner to get a more solid look at what needs to happen in order to plan for retirement. I also have plans to listen to the book “Profit First” to give myself a better idea on how to manage my income.
The point of me sharing these failures isn’t to embarrass myself. It’s to show you that there is a lot of growth that can come from failing!
Related Articles:
- Our Budgeting Basics
- 5 Money Questions for Debt Free Living
- When You Suffer from Budget Burnout
Need Help?
If you are still feeling a lost, not knowing where to start. Wondering how to finally end living paycheck to paycheck and start making your money work towards achieving your dreams for your family…
You need my super successful online course, 30 Day Family Finance Rescue!
There is a lot of information online. There is even a lot of free content right here on Pennies Into Pearls. But it can be hard to navigate where to start and what to do next.
That is exactly why I put together 30 Day Family Finance Rescue. A four week course that will take you by the hand and show you what needs to be done first BUT customized for our own family finances.
That’s vital to creating a financial action plan for reaching the goals you have for your life together with your family. It has to be customized!
When you sign up for 30 Day Family Finance Rescue you will overcome your specific negative attitudes and habits you have with your money. Figure out what has been keeping you in the paycheck to paycheck life cycle and how to escape! You will understand how to dream big and realistically convert those dreams into a financial action plan. Transforming your dreams into your reality!
If you have questions about whether or not investing in my course is right for you, send me an email and I am here to help answer any questions you have!
Take Action!
Today I want you to start evaluating your budget by using these 5 action steps to be sure that your budget stays on track! Don’t wait!
Talk to you soon! Xoxo
Brittany
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