Episode 1240: Setting Yourself Up for Financial Failure

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 1,240 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

[00:00:06] Cassidy Cash: Hey there, I'm Cassidy Cash, the host of that Shakespeare Life. If you'd like to impact the world one day like Shakespeare, one way to do that is listening to this it's inspired stewardship podcast with my friend Scott Maderer

[00:00:20] Scott Maderer: we also sometimes have a mindset. That kind of logics ourselves into continuing our behavior even when it's not working. Even when we're frustrated by the fact that we have too much month at the end of the money or. We make too much money to feel this broke all the time. We still go through these sort of mental gymnastics to justify our behavior.

[00:00:45] Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true. [00:01:00] In the Inspired Stewardship podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others, and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

[00:01:11] In today's episode about investing in yourself through stewarding your treasures, I talk with you about six ways you may be setting yourself up for financial. I also talk about some of the ways we logic ourselves into continuing this behavior, even when it's not working for us. And I share what you can do about it.

[00:01:30] When it comes to our money, we often set ourselves up to fail. We do behaviors over and over again that keep us from really achieving what we want to achieve with our. It's often not about knowledge either. It's not about not knowing what we need or what we want to do or even how to do it. Instead, it's actually underlying mindsets and thoughts that we have.

[00:01:57] It's the ideas we have [00:02:00] around our money that can set us up for financial failure. Here's a few of the big ways, and there's literally hundreds of these, but let's cover a few that I've seen a lot. Number one, you're constantly waiting to do it, whether that's payoff debt, or save money or change your habits or adjust your budget, whatever it is, you're constantly waiting to do it until you make more income.

[00:02:26] It's never just about the income. You could start from where you're at. Similarly, this idea that it, the little things don't matter. It's. only about the big factors. It's not just about what your mortgage payment is or your rent payment is. It's sometimes even the smaller behaviors that you do that add up over time and can set you up for failure.

[00:02:53] So forgetting that it really is not just about the big pieces, but the small pieces. It's about [00:03:00] both to get where you want to go. A third. You're never have a sense of contentment or satisfaction with whatever you have, whether it's your income, whether it's the stuff in your life, whether it's the activities that you get to do, no matter what it is, you're never satisfied with what you have.

[00:03:19] You're always focusing on what's the next great thing that you can have A fourth. You either don't budget, or if you do budget, you do it in a way that you're resentful of. You're angry about your budget. You feel that it's restricting, that it has handcuffs. Instead of looking at it as a tool that you have for success, you look at it as a restrictive way of impeding what you wanna do.

[00:03:52] It mentally makes you set it up where you'll never actually follow through. The fifth reason you [00:04:00] buy without thinking, you don't actually have a plan and try to stick to it. Instead, you're constantly reacting. You're simply doing what happens and then trying to deal with it. You wanna go on vacation next week?

[00:04:14] Sure, let's go. Where are we gonna get the money? We'll figure it. That kind of seat of the pants living sets you up for failure. And as part of that, the last reason, the sixth, if you don't acknowledge and plan for emergencies I, I always laugh when people say things like know, my car broke and I just had to fix it because and I had to put it on the credit card because I didn't have any money for it because it surprised me that my car broke.

[00:04:41] It is unexpected in that you don't know the timing of when your car is going to. But it's actually not something that you can't plan for, because guess what? If you own a car, it's going to break. You don't know when you don't know what, but I do know it will happen. So it's the difference between [00:05:00] unexpected events and not planning for the fact that unexpected events are going to happen.

[00:05:07] We also sometimes have a mindset. That kind of logics ourselves into continuing our behavior even when it's not working. Even when we're frustrated by the fact that we have too much month at the end of the money, or we make too much money to feel this broke all the time, we still go through these sort of mental gymnastics to justify our behavior.

[00:05:31] We think things to ourselves like, I've been good, so I deserve this. I deserve to get that. I deserve to spend this money. It's not really about what you do or don't deserve. You also have the tomorrow loophole. This is the idea of I'm going to start budgeting tomorrow. I'm gonna start planning and saving tomorrow.

[00:05:57] I'm going to start whatever [00:06:00] activity it is tomorrow. Guess what? Tomorrow is not on any calendar. You'll never actually start tomorrow. You need to start today. And then the last one is related to a lot of what we've been talking about is this idea of not having a plan and not thinking through your choices and the consequences of those choices in advance.

[00:06:25] It's a, it's about not living proactively, but instead living re. . So what can you do about it? The first step is to acknowledge the fact that what you've been doing isn't working to acknowledge the fact that it's not an income problem or an expense problem. It's a you problem. It's not just the numbers.

[00:06:47] It's also about our behavior and our thoughts behind those numbers. And then digging into what is your real reason for wanting change? What is a big enough [00:07:00] reason to actually have you follow through and do what you need to do and actually make a budget and stick to it and actually be held accountable?

[00:07:08] This is where working with a coach, working with someone else could be really helpful, both because we have other tools and techniques that maybe you haven't thought of, but also because there's an accountability factor. It's. Our intrinsic motivation, the why that we have to, the extrinsic motivation of, I've gotta go talk to Scott about this next week.

[00:07:31] Therefore, I need to actually be following through. It's working on both sides of that equation to actually have us follow through and make changes. Not because we have to, but because we actually want to. Thanks for listen.

[00:07:48] Thanks so much for listening to the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act [00:08:00] on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you like this episode on the stewardship of Treasure. You can sign up for our treasures tips by going to inspired stewardship.com/treasures or text in the US 4 4 2 2 2 treasures tips, and we'll send you five weeks of our best tips on stewarding your treasures.

[00:08:31] Until next time, invest your. Your talent and your treasures. Develop your influence and impact the world.