What If Achieving Financial Fitness Was as Easy as Your Daily Workout?

Ralph
00:00:00

Are you constantly feeling overwhelmed by your finances? Do you wish there was a simple daily routine that could help you get your financial life in shape, just like a daily workout routine helps you stay physically fit? Imagine if managing your money was as straightforward as your daily exercise.

Well today, I'm going to uncover practical steps that can transform your financial well being, just like a workout transform your physical health. So if you're ready to turn your financial worries into financial strength, stay tuned.

Podcast Announcer
00:00:30

In a world where crushing debt keeps you trapped, where living paycheck to paycheck has become your new normal, and where the dream of retirement seems impossibly out of reach, there's hope. Join financial evangelist Ralph Estep Jr. A man who's walked through the fire of financial failure and emerged stronger on the other side.

Welcome to Ask Ralph, the show where real world experience meets biblical truth to break the bondage of financial despair.

Get ready to take control of your money, break free from the financial stress and align your resources with God's purpose for your life. This is Ask Ralph with Ralph Estep Jr.

Ralph
00:01:10

Welcome to the show where we talk about mastering your finances from a Christian perspective. I'm your financial evangelist, and today we're diving into a fascinating question. What if achieving financial fitness was as easy as your daily workout? We're going to explore the steps you can take to improve your finances daily just like a workout. Our main question today is what if achieving financial fitness was as easy as just getting in that daily workout? Well, thank you for joining me on today's show. I'm excited to help you find the answers you need to master your finances and grow in your faith. Now yesterday, we talked about being overwhelmed by your tax prep and how to decide between software and an accountant with confidence.

If you missed it, be sure to check it out. You can check out all of our episodes at askralph.com because yesterday was packed with helpful tips to help you get through and thrive during tax season.

Well now, let's get into today's topic. I received a message from Emily.
She's struggling with her finances and this is what she wrote. She said, "Dear Ralph, I feel like I'm always playing catch up with my bills and never saving enough for the future. It is so overwhelming. I exercise daily to stay physically fit, but I wish managing my money could be just as straightforward.
Do you have any tips on how I can improve my financial situation daily, just like a workout routine?"

Well Emily, I hear your pain and many of us deal with this same pain of managing finances and it can truly be overwhelming, but I've got great news for you. Today, I have hope for you. Today I'm going to share some concrete ways to help you overcome your financial struggles and more importantly, build a stronger financial future.

And remember, if you've got a question, just like Emily, and you'd like me to answer it on the show, go to justaskralph.com because I'm here to help you with your financial questions. That is the whole point of the Ask Ralph show.

And don't forget to join us every Tuesday at 1 PM Eastern time when I take the show live, that's right. You can get your questions answered in real time. You can take part in our community. It is a great time. We have every Tuesday at 1 PM Eastern time. And the easiest way to get to that is if you go to askralphpodcast.com/live, and it'll take you right there to it. Again, that's askralphpodcast.com/live.

Emily, let's transition into today's Bible verse, because I always like to ground ourselves in scripture. And I found a great one. This one comes to us from the book of Matthew, it's chapter 6, verse 21. And it says this. "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." So Emily, as I thought about your question, I thought about that treasure. You put a lot of treasure in your daily fitness. You're putting a lot of effort into that. You're putting your heart into that.

And this verse is a powerful reminder that our financial decisions are not just about money. They're so much bigger than that. They're about our values and they're really about what we treasure. And if we treasure God and His kingdom, then our financial decisions should reflect that. Let me say that again.

Think about that and think about that deeply. Reflect on that. If we treasure God and His kingdom, then our financial decisions should reflect that.

Well, today I'm grateful for the opportunity to help you align your financial decisions with your faith. Emily, I am excited about what I'm going to share today because when we truly focus on what matters, when we focus our efforts on that, we can achieve financial fitness and peace of mind.

So I thought today I'd share a personal story that illustrates how making small, consistent changes can transform your financial wellbeing. Now I've talked about this on the show, but I'm going to revisit it today. About 20 years ago, I found myself grossly overweight. Now I'm still a big guy. And I was at the doctor.

I don't remember why I was at the doctor at the time. He said, Ralph, how about getting on the scale? And I got on this scale. This was a thing I didn't like to do. It was very embarrassing for me because I was a big dude. Got on the scale and it's one of those doctor scales where they got the little weight you pull across and I'm watching the nurse or whoever she was, the tech, and she's moving it over and drops and she moves it over again.

It drops. She got it over the 400 pounds and it drops and I'm thinking, I can't believe this. I'm over 400 pounds. And that was the maximum that the little big, the big thing went on the scale. And she started to slide this other little one at the top over and slowly the scale started to tip up. Well, it got to 420 pounds. And it was at that moment I realized I had a problem.

And I walked into the doctor's room, they sat me down and said, the doctor will be right in to see you. And before she left the room, she took my blood pressure. And when the doctor came in, he said, Ralph, how are things going today? I said, well, doc, I gotta be honest with you. I don't feel great. I don't know if I was suffering some kind of sinus infection or whatever it is.

And he goes, Ralph, he says, I gotta be honest with you. Your blood pressure right now is 200 over a 100. He said, I should have you go right to the hospital and he said, I just got your lab work back. He says, you've got type 2 diabetes. Your A1C is almost 12. He said, listen to me, Ralph, you need to change the dynamic or you are going to pop.

I remember him using that word. I said, that's rough. And I remember just looking at my two boys when I got home that day from the doctor's office and I said, these kids are young. I think at the time, maybe 7 and maybe 4 years old. And here I am, I'm having a hard time walking from one end of the living room to the other.

I'm out of breath. None of my clothes fit. I am just this big guy. But it was in that tough time that I realized that I had lost complete control of my health. And I could have just stayed there in that state and just continued down that path of what was going to come next. But it was that day. I remember that day very candidly, very vividly that afternoon.

I said, I need to do something. I need to make a change. And I remember that day we were living in a, like a townhouse type house and we had a pretty long driveway. And I said, you know, one of the things I could do, so I remember somebody had mentioned this on something I had watched and said, Hey, start by just walking to the end of the driveway.

Just walk to that mailbox. So the next morning I got up, I said, I can do this. I'm gonna, I'm gonna walk to the end of the driveway. Now, if you're a fitness person, if you're somebody that exercises every day, you're like, Ralph, big deal. You walk to the end of the driveway. But see, I started small. Just started walking to that drive, that end of that mailbox.

And I did that for a couple of days. And then I would walk to the end of the driveway. I got to the mailbox. So I feel pretty good. So then we had a little cul de sac we live on. I'd start walking around the cul de sac. And after a few days that got to feel better. Then after I started doing that, I started going down the street and around the block a little bit.

And it was a simple routine. But it made a huge difference because over time I was able to walk more. I was able to start doing strength exercises. I was able to build up my endurance. And I could walk across the room. I could walk up steps without getting out of breath and I noticed that my blood pressure was coming down.

I noticed that my weight was coming down. And I'll never forget it. I saw this ad for a local shelter that my wife and I support. It's an animal shelter and they were having a 5k. And I said, you know what? It would be really cool to be able to "run a 5k". Now, when I do is not running, it's maybe fast walking.

And I said, you know what? I'm going to sign up for this 5k. So I signed up for this 5k and I got there the day of the, and I had been practicing. I had been jogging here and there, you know, I'd run for a minute or what I call jog for a minute. I'd walk for a minute. Then I jog for two minutes, walk for two minutes.

And I said, you know what? I think I can do this and I'll never forget that day. I started off on that 5k and I said, you know what? I'm going to finish this. I don't care if it takes me an hour to do it. And I'm looking at the brochure. There's a prize for the fastest runner male and a prize for the fastest runner female and a prize for the fastest family or couple.

I can't remember what it was, but that day my goal was pretty simple. I just wanted to finish. I wanted to come across that finish line. So I started off and I'm jogging and man, I can just feel it. I'm getting gassed out. And I had been jogging a little bit. So I knew about this point where you get to a point where, and if you, if you've ever jogged or run, you get to this point where you're just about ready to stop.

And then all of a sudden you feel this push and you're able to go farther. And yeah, it took me 45 minutes to run that first 5k. But I finished. I finished and see, that was such a success point to me. And I'm going to fast forward a little bit because I don't want to bore you with the rest of the story.

But today I'm just under 300 pounds. Yes, I've lost over 120 pounds. My blood pressure is under control. My diabetes is under control. And I say all that because that physical fitness that I took. It saved my life. And yes, it took daily effort. It's still a daily effort. Every morning when I get up, the first thing I do once my feet hit the floor, I start thinking about what is going to be my exercise.

That's the first thing I do. Cause I can't, I don't want to make any excuses for it. I get out there and I walk, or I do the elliptical or I get on the treadmill. I do some kind of exercise. And I overcame that struggle by exercising that physical area in my life daily. And you might be thinking, Ralph, why are you talking about physical health?

Because here's the thing. And Emily, this is the beautiful connection. You've got to treat your financial health the same way I decided to treat my physical health. It's gotta be that daily effort and it's going to start with small steps. And I'm going to talk about that on today's show. I'm going to talk about the things that you can do to start small, but start to build that momentum.

But it all started with that walk to the mailbox. Your financial physical fitness. And I think Emily, this is a great thing you've tied together. I think this is going to be one of our best shows because I've got some concrete ways today, Emily, that you and anyone else can listen.

Anyone else listening can get to that daily routine of financial fitness. So let's get right to it. I put these into categories and these are just small, daily saving strategies to help you get there. Just like I would do. I'd walk to the end of the driveway and walk to the mailbox. And like I said, I'm putting these into categories because I want to break them down for you.

And not all of these going to apply to everybody, but just bear with me. I'm going to talk about how much you can save on a weekly or a monthly basis by just making some small changes. Let's talk about the area of food and drinks. Pack your lunch. And this might seem very simple, but instead of buying lunch every day, pack your own lunch from home. And hear me on this.

Statistics show that you can save around $50 a week. That's $200 a month you can save just by packing your lunch. Here's one. Now I don't drink coffee, but brew your own coffee. Now you know, if you've listened to this show, I'm not a big fan of these places that people go out and spend $8, $10, $12 on a cup of coffee, but brew your own coffee at home instead of buying it from a cafe.

And this could save you anywhere from $3 to $5, maybe $7 a day. And that adds up. That could be $90 to $150 a month. And here's one, a lot of people don't think about, but it's meal prep. Plan your meals for the week and do your grocery shopping accordingly. And trust me, my wife and I do this. My wife is great at putting this together.

She makes great plans for what she's going to cook for the meals because to be honest with you, I got so much going on, I don't have time and my wife is such a great support system for that. But if you plan your meals, if you do that meal prep, this can help you avoid those impulse buys. And it's going to ensure that you're using all the food you purchase, because in this country, we waste so much food.

It's also going to cut down on the DoorDash and the Grubhub. And let's go out to eat. And the final one in this area, and this one I thought was kind of interesting when I did some research. And it's refill water bottles. And I didn't think about this one. So easy to pick up that case of water, but instead of buying those cases of water, use a reusable water bottle and refill it throughout the day instead of buying that bottled water.

And listen to this one. This one can save you anywhere from $20 to $50 a month. You might be saying, Ralph, those are small things. Yes, they're small things, but think about this. Each one of those, pack your own lunch, that's $200 a month. Brew your own coffee, let's say that's $100 a month, that's $300 a month.

Meal prep, I don't even put a number for that. Refill water bottles, you could save up to $300 to $400 a month just in that first category. Let's talk about transportation. Now, depending upon where you live, this might not be possible, but consider walking or biking to work. You've got that physical fitness and you've got that financial fitness because you're going to save money on gas.

You're going to save money on car maintenance. I can save you between $50 and a $100 a month. You can use public transportation. Again, this depends on where you live. If you live out in the country like me, there's no bus services or trolley cars out here. But that could save you money on gas, it could save you money on parking, it could save you money on car maintenance, that could be one to two hundred dollars a month.

Let's focus our efforts now on shopping and purchases. One of the things my mom used to do, you know, we, like I've said on the show before, we grew up, it was tough around our place, but my mom was the coupon queen, so use coupons and discounts. You can get available coupons for all kinds of things. You're going online and there's all kinds of coupon codes.

There's all kinds of things you can download. It can save you anywhere from $20 to $50, even a $100 a month. Another thing I'm going to highly recommend you do is buy in bulk. Again, these are small steps. Go buy in bulk, purchase non perishable items in bulk when they're on sale. I'm not saying to go buy a hundred pounds of rice.

You're probably never going to use that in a year. So be wise in that, but you can buy things in bulk. Now here's one of Ralph's pet peeves. And it just annoys me how many people pay for subscriptions that they don't use. So cancel those unused subscriptions, review your subscriptions and cancel any that you don't use regularly.

It could save you a ton of money depending upon what you're subscribed to. It could be $20, $30, $40, $50, a $100 a month. Look over your bank statement. Look over your credit card statement, look over everything, your PayPal accounts, whatever those are and look at those subscriptions. So many people just set it and forget it.

One of the big culprits of this are those ones that renew annually. So take a look at those. You can go into your Apple subscriptions and cancel those things out. Another great idea in the shopping area is using cashback apps. There's Rakuten, Ibotta, and there's all these other ones that you can use when you shop.

They can save you any from $10 to $30 a month. Again, these are small things. Another thing you can do, and I have a lot of clients who do this, is shop secondhand. Look at thrift stores or secondhand shops for clothing or furniture and other items. You don't need to buy stuff that's brand new. It may serve its purpose in that secondhand store, that thrift store.

You may even find something you can't find in the normal things. And this was a big one. I talk about this on the show frequently. Avoid those impulse buys. Maybe you set that number that if it's going to be more than X number of dollars, you wait at least 24 or 36 or 48 hours. And here's an idea that you can use instead of buying at all, maybe you can borrow it. Let's say you need something temporarily. Maybe you have a branch down in your backyard and you need to cut one branch. Well, maybe you ask your neighbor, can I borrow your chainsaw? Or maybe you've got to do some do it yourself projects around the house and you don't have the particular tool that you need.

Ask around. A lot of the home improvement centers you can actually rent tools. Why buy them? Let's talk about entertainment. This is what I see a lot of people spending money on, and that's those streaming accounts. Now the streaming companies have gotten wise to this, but you can consider sharing those accounts with families or friends.

If you're not the only one that can use it, share it with other people and they pitch in and kind of, you know, pick up the cost of that. Use your libraries resources instead of buying books and magazines or movies that you can go to your local library. Yes, there are still local libraries where you can go get stuff for free.

Make sure you turn it back on time or they're going to send you a fine. So don't do that. Here's another one. Home workouts. Instead of paying for that gym membership, consider doing home workouts. And a lot of people say, Ralph, if I tried to do it at home, I don't get it done. That's fine. That's an individual decision, but you could save $30 to $50 a month there.

Well, now let's talk about some things you can do. This small things you can do in the area of financial management. Again, We're trying to build that daily financial fitness routine. So I talked to you about some ways to save money, some ways to keep yourself from spending a lot of money. Well, let's talk about ways to automate your savings.

One of the big tips I talk about on the show all the time is set up automatic transfers from your checking account to your savings account. Even if it's $5 or $10, do $5 a day, $5 a week, $10 a day, whatever you can afford. And you'll be shocked at how you can transform that into a bigger number by the end of the month.

Hey, listen at $5 a day, that's $150 a month, that can help you build that emergency fund. Now here's another novel idea. And I came up with this one. Somebody shared this with the show the other day, have no spend days. Maybe you designate one or two days a week as no spend days. You don't spend anything. You do nothing.

You pack your lunch, you brew your own coffee. You don't do any spending at all. Let's talk about some do it yourself and home projects. If you're like me, you're not very mechanically inclined, but a lot of times you can get through it. You can watch a YouTube video or something along those lines. So instead of buying new items and maybe you've got some furniture that's not looking so great.

Well, maybe you can rehab it. I got a client that does it. She goes to these places. She buys stuff and then she resells them because maybe she puts a new coat of stain on it or she fixes the handles on the front, whatever those things are. That can save you a ton of money and it can give you furniture and things for your house that are eclectic or the things that are important to you because you see the amount of effort that you put in.

Now here's a pet peeve. I don't hear a lot of people talking about this one. I remember when I was a kid, this was a big thing. I was, you know, a seventies kid. I was born in the early seventies and we had this whole thing about when you leave the room, turn the lights out. Well, guess what? You can do the same thing.

It floors me when I go past rooms and the lights on, there's not a person in there. So make a habit of turning off your lights and turn off your electronics when you leave the room, reduce that electric bill. If you've got old light system, it's one of the things that I've done around my office and the farm here, replace them with LED technology. Man, those things use almost no electricity.

And yes, it's not going to be a huge savings, but every little dollar adds up. And if you can embrace just a couple of these things, I mean, just a few of them, you're going to save a ton of money and it's just going to be like you're starting that walk. Just like I did, you know, I'm this big guy. I'm walking to the end of the driveway.

I'm getting to the mailbox. Well, maybe you start by packing that lunch every day. You start by putting $5 a day into your savings account. I have a client that anytime he gets a $5 bill, it automatically goes into his savings account. I think that's a novel idea, but again, it creates that momentum. It creates that habit.

And if you think about it, just like my weight loss journey was. These small daily saving strategies can help you overcome those financial struggles. If you've got that habit of paying attention to where your money's going, if you've got that habit of saving, well, in the end, that's going to build a stronger future.

Just like my weight loss and me getting healthy. It makes it more likely that I'm going to have longevity, that I'm going to grow to see my grandchildren. I'm not going to die early. And just like me with the financial or with the physical thing, you know, by making small and they don't have to be huge.

You know, for me, it's like I cut out any eating after dinner. Do I like pies and cakes? Absolutely. But I saw the impact that had on my health. I saw the impact that I had on my sugar. Well, you can do the same thing with your finances, making small, consistent changes can build financial strength and it can build that endurance.

When I ran that 5k, I had to have endurance and I walk some of it. I jog some of it. There were times when I just wanted to walk away and be done, but I had that endurance. I built up that endurance because I looked back at that walk to the mailbox. And then I looked at the walk to the end of the road.

And I looked at that walk around the cul de sac and that walk around the block. So Emily, if you think about it, just like my journey to better health, your journey to financial fitness is achievable. It requires intentionality. See that's the thing about if you put intention into things, it's not going to happen by itself.

You know, no one was going to take me and scoop me off the couch as a couch potato and get me walking or get me paying attention to my health. The same thing goes along with your financial fitness. You got to be intentional about it. You got to be disciplined about it. And the big thing you've got to do is you've got to make a commitment to making wise financial choices.

And that's not easy sometimes. We're bombarded with this needs versus wants. It's such a struggle. So I'm going to talk about some tips to assist you in your financial journey and talk about some simple ways to save money. But let me tell you about some tips that you can implement right now to start building that momentum and that endurance.

I always believe the best place to start is with prayer. And you hear me, I say this all the time because it's so powerful. So begin your day by seeking God's guidance in your financial decision. You might say, Ralph, wait a minute. You're talking about faith and finances.
And yes, I put stuff on YouTube. I put stuff out on Twitter and on TikTok and man, you should see the comments. Oh, you can't talk about faith and finance. You know, those two things don't go hand in hand. But they do because the Lord wants us to be prosperous. The Lord wants us to steward our resources.

So pray for that wisdom every day, pray for that discernment, pray for Him to give you that discipline in managing your resources. So you might say, Ralph, how do I do that? Well, Emily, here's the first thing I want to tell you to do. You got to monitor your finances. It starts by making an assessment of where you are and what's going on.

So start your day by reviewing your budget. Maybe you have a weekly budget. Like I'm going to spend this much on groceries. I'm going to spend this much on utilities. Track your spending. If you're not tracking it, you're not going to know where your money is going and then identify where you can cut back and ensure you're allocating your resources according to your priorities.

So you got to set those priorities. You got to be intentional, set that intentional spending plan. But you can have the best plan, but if you're not tracking it, you're never going to know where you are. So you've got to keep a detailed record of your expenses. People think I'm a broken record when I say this, but what gets measured gets done.

Keep track of every single dollar that you spend, because once you start to do that, that habits going to start, you're going to be able to look at that and say, okay, here's where my money's going. Oh, I didn't realize this was costing me this much. I don't know how many times I've had aha moments with clients when they come in at the end of the year.

And we've been keeping track of their financials throughout the whole year. And I said, did you realize you spent X and I'm not judging them. That's not about judgment. It's about recognizing a trend. It's like recognizing where their money is going. So maybe you look at using a budgeting app, maybe a spreadsheet, maybe a simple notebook.

I had a client in yesterday, he's got a little small business where he sells collectibles and he's not a computer guy and that's okay. He's got a notebook. And he said, Ralph, what am I supposed to be keeping for my business? I said, what's in your notebook? He says, well, I got this. Perfect. It doesn't have to be elaborate, but categorize your spending and identify areas for improvement.

So that's where it starts. It starts by monitoring your finances. Second step to this. You've got to build your savings. Part of that daily physical was to build that endurance was to build that gas tank. Well, you've got to do the same thing with your finances. And one of the best ways to do that is to build that savings.

Make a savings deposit, make a small deposit in your savings account each day. You're like, Ralph, wait a minute. Did you just say once every day? Yes. Here's one of the things I'm going to challenge you to do. As you notice that you're spending less, as you're making better financial decisions, instead of just leaving that money in that checking account, where it's so you can go spend it, make a habit of every day, push it out to your savings account.

Hey, you might be saying, Ralph, but yeah, even if it's a dollar, even if it's $2, I don't care. Start to build momentum in that because then as that builds, you're going to start to feel, Oh, you know what? I could throw $10 today. I could throw $8 today. I can throw $20 today. And those little bits at a time, that's small, that extra step that I took past the mailbox, that extra step that I took in the cul de sac, just like your savings account, that can build that momentum.

One of the best ways to do that is to automate that, set up automatic transfers from your checking account to your savings account. Just set it and forget it. And that can allow you to consistently save without having to think about it. Because if you think about it, you're probably not going to do it.

Even if it's small. Like I said, it could be something as 10 bucks a week. Over time, that builds up $10 a week is $520 a year, $520 a year is a decent amount to start for an emergency fund. That can cover a little odds and ends. So the first thing, track where your finances are second, save, third thing.

And this is the thing you've got to tackle. You know, as I started to get more into my physical fitness, I had to start thinking about what I was putting into my body. Well, just like we do that for our physical health, one of the things you've got to look at is starting to manage and eliminating debt.

Debt can be a major obstacle to your financial freedom. It just is. The Bible talks about the borrower being a slave to the lender. Well, if you've got debt, you are a slave to that debt. So prioritize paying off the high interest debt, such as those credit card balance. Maybe you want to talk to somebody about debt management.

I've done a ton of shows about this. You can use the avalanche or the snowball method, but pay attention, manage and eliminate that debt. That's got to be part of your fitness routine. Number four. And I think this one is crucial as well. You got to set some financial goals. So you measured where you are, you started that saving, you started looking at reducing that debt.

Well now, set some goals. Put that goal, like my goal was I wanted to get my blood pressure down to a manageable number. I wanted to get my blood glucose, my A1C. That's a big number. I actually wear a thing right now. It's a constant glucose monitor. I can look down on my watch right now and see what my sugar is and it helps me make better decisions.

Because I've got to go, I've got to go I want to be at this point. I wanted to finish that 5k. I didn't care how long it took me. It wasn't about the destination. It was about that journey. It was about being able to do it. Well, you've got to do the same thing with your finances. You've got to build that

those goals. Put those, and everybody's goals are different. Your goals could be something like I want to build that three to six months of emergency fund. Maybe you've got a goal to pay off your debts. You want to be debt free. I had a client in yesterday, they said Ralph we're in our mid 40s, and we just paid off our mortgage because we don't want to have that debt. Maybe you're just starting out and you want to save money to buy a house or maybe you want to put more into your investments for retirement. But having those specific goals can provide you with direction and it can provide you with motivation for your financial journey.

Because if you don't know where you're going, I use this analogy all the time. If you want to take a trip, you got to start by understanding where you are, and then you got to see where that destination is. And you got to figure out how to get to there. Well, that's what this is all about. Put those goals together.

One of the things I talked about there is building an emergency fund. Yes, it's like a broken record, but this is the thing I see that derails people. It absolutely derails them in their financial fitness routine. Because life is full of surprises and there are unexpected expenses that can happen at any time.

Listen, people go through car issues. I had a client in yesterday. He just bought a brand new house. He had a brand new roof put on it. We had a big windstorm come through here. And he said, Ralph, the top of my house that's called a ridge vent started to come off. Well, he's going to have some money to fix that.

And that emergency fund can help you provide. It provides you with that financial safety net. And it prevents you from going into debt. It prevents you from hitting that credit card. And that is so very crucial. Now I'm going to park here for a minute, because I think this is important too, because this is where a lot of people get stuck.

You've got to learn to prioritize needs over wants. You got to differentiate between those things you need and the things that you want, because that's all part of this financial decision journey. It's all part of that daily fitness routine. Real simple, needs are essential for your wellbeing, food, clothing, shelter.

Wants are things you desire, but you can live without it. You've got to learn to prioritize these needs to ensure that you're allocating your resources to what truly matters. You might be saying, Ralph, that sounds good, but Hey, how do I do that? Well, I'm glad you asked because I've got some great things to share with you right now about how to prioritize these needs and these wants, because this is where a lot of people struggle.

So let's get to some practical steps for prioritizing needs versus wants. The first thing you've got to do, it all starts here. You've got to identify your essential needs. And when I say identify them, I want you to make a list of those essential needs.

You got to have a place to live, housing. You got to have utilities. You got to have water. You got to have light. You got to have heat. Groceries, you got to eat. And those necessary transportation costs. These got to be your non negotiables. These are at the very top of your intentional spending plan or your budget.

These are your absolute essentials. You can't survive without them. It's like, we can't survive without water. We can survive without food for a little bit longer, but water is something that is essential to us. So that's the first thing. Identify your essential needs. It's going to help you understand that needs versus wants balance.

The second thing you're going to do is set those financial goals. And I've talked about this a couple of times, but if you set clear financial goals, and like I said, maybe that's building that emergency fund, that's paying off those debts, that's saving for a major purchase. Then all of a sudden these goals need to align with your needs and your long term financial wellbeing.

Like for example, when I started my physical fitness routine, my need was to get up off the couch. My need was to put on some shoes and go out and walk. That's what the need. Now, did I want to have the best music to listen to while I was walking? Sure. That would have been great. I wanted to have the best clothes and the newest sneakers and all that kind of stuff, but those were wants not needs.

I needed to get up and do something. So the third thing, once you've done those two things, create that budget. Yes. Ralph's going to talk about budgeting again, but what gets measured gets done. So develop a budget that allocates your income to covering your essential needs first. Like I said, that's going to be the top.

You're going to start with that food, clothing, shelter. That's where you're going to start because what you might find is even getting to your wants right now in the financial situation you're in is doggone near impossible. Then you got to think about some other things. We could talk about that on another show. But start with that budget in mind, start with that end in mind.

Because you're going to have to fund these needs before you can even consider any kind of discretionary or want spending. And then once you figure out your needs, you're not going to like what I'm going to say, but the next step is to allocate your funds for savings and debt repayment. You didn't hear me mention wants yet.

I started off with needs. Now I'm into savings and debt repayment. So after you cover those essential needs, then you got to allocate funds for savings and for debt repayments. That's part of building that emergency fund, paying off those high interest debts. Those have got to be your priorities. And then once you get to that, then we can finally talk about some discretionary or that want spending.

And these could be things that you've got to really think about. You know, you got to think about things like entertainment, dining out, luxury purchases. Now, maybe the way you can fund those is you can identify areas where you can reduce or eliminate spending to free up some more money so that you can now have that need.

Those needs are met because you found some ways to save money. And if you're still meeting your financial goals, and I say, great, then go to it. Do some money for discretionary spending. Now, one of the things that a lot of people recommend is what's called the 50:30 rule. And it basically works like this.

50 percent of your income goes into those essential needs, that food, clothing, shelter, all those things. 30 percent goes into discretionary spending. That's those wants. That's those things that, yeah, I'd like to do this. And then 20 percent goes into savings and debt repayment. It depends on your situation.

You might not be able to get to that 50 percent of your income handling all your needs. Maybe you're struggling. Emily, that may be where you are. You said you're having a hard time getting, making ends meet. Well, maybe your number is like 90:10 or 95:5. But this can help you maintain that balance. It can help you maintain that.

Another thing you've got to do is you've got to evaluate your purchases. I talked about this a few minutes ago with that decision, that impulse buy, but before you make any purchase, I'm talking about anything. Have a real test, have a little test and say, okay, is this a need or a want? When you're at the coffee shop and you're thinking, well, I'd really like to have a mocha.

I don't drink coffee. So I apologize. Whatever those things are called. Ask yourself, is this a need or a want? I suspect that cup of coffee is a want. Because your body doesn't need coffee. Now, some people would argue with me and say, Ralph, if I don't have my coffee, I'm a bear. You don't want to see me around that.

Fine. Whatever. But what I'm saying to you is, is it a need or is it a want? And then the second step to that is consider whether this purchase aligns with your financial goals and whether it helps build that longterm value. Because if it's a want, evaluate if it's worth the trade off in terms of your financial well being.

Like, I, this is where the rubber met the road for me. Cause like I said, I love donuts. I love snacks. I love all that kind of stuff. And when I finally said, okay, Ralph, I'm sitting at the doughnut shop, I'm walking, one of the best places to get doughnuts around here is the local farmer's market. And I'll tell you what, it's like, it's like a crack dealer, man.

I go past this doughnut thing and I don't know if you've ever been past one of these with like all these doughnuts look fantastic. And I'm standing there and drools running down my face. I'm thinking about how good that glaze doughnut is going to taste. And I realized the first question I asked myself, okay, is this a need or a want?

Well, I've already had breakfast. I don't need this doughnut. So it's a want. Okay, great. It's a want. And then I have to ask myself the most complicated question of us all is like, okay, what is this going to be? What is the trade off? Is it worth seeing my sugar spike to 300? Is it worth knowing that I'm going to not do good on my diet today?

Is it worth trading off maybe a couple more days on the end of my life? And I know I'm being dramatic, but you've got to think about your spending in the same way. If it's going to be a physical fitness routine or a financial health routine, every single spending decision has to be that decision of need versus want.

And then what is the trade off here? If you're going to buy that new big screen TV for your living room, are you taking that money out of your emergency savings? Are you running up a credit card? What are you doing? Are you taking out of retirement? You got to understand those things. And what I'm really talking about here is the big term. And people in this society don't like this term.

It's called delayed gratification. We don't do a very good job of this. We teach kids at a very young age to get it now and get it right now. But you, if you're going to build that physical fitness routine, you're going to have to practice delayed gratification. You're going to have to make some time and just wait for those non essential purchases.

Those wants are going to have to wait. Maybe I should trademark that. I like that. Wait for the wants. But if you have that mentality, if you have that predisposition, this can help you avoid those impulse buys and ensure that you're making intentional choices with your money because in the end, that's really what I'm getting at here.

The rear, the real decision between needs and wants is intention. It's that intentionality of your spending. Another thing you must do to get past this needs versus wants cycle is track your spending because you've got to go back and look at it and say, Hey, Ralph, you know what? Get that understanding of where your money is going.

I've seen somebody do this and I thought this was a great idea. Every 30 days, they write down all their expenses and they put it in the two columns. Here's what I spend on needs and here's what I spend on wants. And I go back to that 50, 30, 20 rule. Are you out of balance? Are your needs at 20 percent and your wants are at 70%?

You got a problem. And then once you make that decision, once you track that spending, then you got to review and adjust it. It's not a set it and forget a thing. This is going to take time. This is going to take effort. Just like me walking to the end of the drive. I keep going back to that, but it's that endurance.

If I had decided when I left the doctor's office that day that tomorrow I'm going to run a 5k, guess what? I would have never been able to do it. I probably would have dropped out of a heart attack because my body wasn't ready for the shock of that. But over time, those little small, consistent walks, all of those things that I did built up this endurance.
And then I was able to go back and make better decisions because I could review where I was. I knew what my goals were. I didn't want my kids to be, you know, orphans. I wanted to see my children graduate from college. I wanted to see my children have children of their own. Now we're still in the, mine are 23 and 27.

So I haven't even got to that point yet, but that's what motivates me. And so your financials can be a motivator for you. Do you want to struggle in retirement? Do you want to be one of these people who is trying to figure out how they're going to make ends meet? Listen, I deal with these people every day in my practice.

I was talking with a client yesterday. We were talking about, I have clients in their 70s that have 30 year fixed rate mortgages that they just started. Do you want that to be you? And I'm not judging them. Don't misunderstand me because I don't know what they went through in their life, but do you really want to be there?

And so Emily and everyone else, listen, remember this. You do have the power to overcome your financial struggles. I had the power to overcome my health struggles. I had the power to make those changes. I think I made those before it was too late. Now, do I still suffer ill effects? So yes, I'm still a type 2 diabetic.

I probably will be the rest of my life. I'm always going to have to pay attention to those things that I eat. I'm going to pay attention. You may be a person that is a compulsive overspender. You may be a person that says like a lot of people say, Ralph, I'm not good with managing money. Well, that's your choice.

That's a decision you're making. You're making a decision to say, I'm not good at doing something. Before I even fathom running a 5k and I'm no marathon runner. Don't misunderstand me. But for me, that was life changing. I could have had a defeatist attitude. I could have said, you know what, Ralph, don't even bother.

Don't even try. You're never going to finish. But you do have the power. Emily, listen to me. You've got the power to overcome your financial struggles and yes, you can get to that daily financial fitness routine, just like your daily physical fitness routine. And if you take just a few of the steps I've talked about today, you can build a stronger financial future and you can achieve what we're all trying to achieve
and that's that financial peace of mind. And listen, just by doing one or two things today and one or two things this week and one or two things this month, you're going to start to see real progress. I remember when I first started my fitness routine, it was really cool to be able to walk across the room and not feel like I was out of breath and walk up steps.

And my kids would look around like, wait, dad just ran around the backyard and never seen that in me when I was, I mean, my kids were young. I was this big dude. Like I'm always a big guy. Like I'm not trying to say I'm, I've reached the destination. You know, it's for me, it's all about the journey. But embracing this, taking those daily routines and taking that endurance is going to reduce financial stress.

It's going to build a financial safety net, and it's going to help you achieve your financial goals. The same way that your daily workout helps you achieve your fun, your fitness goals.

Now I went pretty deep today, but if you want to go even deeper, you can check out my blog post.
I write a blog article for every show. You can get that at askralphpodcast.com/blog. That's where I post the great resources. I talk about the references I used in the show. So again, you can get that at askralphpodcast.com/blog.

Well, now let's get to our reflection questions because I always like to spend a few minutes meditating at the end on what we've covered today.
So let's get right to it. Number one of my reflection questions today, what is one small financial change you can make today, not tomorrow, not next week, one small financial change you can make today that will have a big impact over time? What's that one thing? Is it packing your lunch?

Is it planning your meals? Is it starting to save even a dollar, $2, $3, whatever those things are? What is that one financial change today, small, that you can start that momentum. Another thing I'm going to encourage you to do is my second question. How can you incorporate gratitude into your daily financial routine?

You might be saying, Ralph, what do you mean by that? Here's the thing I'm going to tell you. I said this to my son on Sunday. My youngest son lives here in town where we're at. My oldest son actually lives, he's in the coast guard. He lives away from us. But I said to my son, I said, you know, son, he was bellyaching about something was bothering him.

I said, have you ever considered how grateful you should be for what you already have? And he goes, well, what do you mean by that dad? I said, think about it, son. You're not worrying about where your next meal is coming from. You've got a food, you've got clothing, you've got shelter. There are people in this world that don't have running water.

There are people in this world that are ducking bullets. They're living in war zones. Have some gratitude. You can do the same thing with your finances. Thank God every day and be grateful for what He's given you. He's already given you so much. If you live right now in the culture we're in, especially in the United States, if you're listening somewhere else, I can't speak to that, but in the United States, most people are living a place where they're really in pretty good shape financially.

So incorporate that gratitude, start by starting the day with that prayer and being thankful for what you have. And the third thing I want to answer my reflection questions. What financial goals are you most excited about achieving and what steps will you take to get there? After listening to this or watching this, what is the thing you're like, Ralph? Oh yes. Right. I'm going to start that savings plan or I'm going to start keeping track of my expenses. I'm going to write that budget. I'm going to write that intentional spending plan. I'm going to pay down debt. What is that one thing that you can do that you're excited about?

So start doing it. For me, it was getting in shape. It was running that 5k. What is that thing for you? It will motivate you. And if you're feeling overwhelmed by your finances, you might be saying, Ralph, I hear what you're saying, but man, I need some help. I need some guidance. I can't do this on my own. I'm going to encourage you to book a call with me just go to askralph.com. You can click on book a call with me and I'll work with you. I'll sit down with you one on one. Doesn't matter where you are. We can do it in person, we can do a Zoom call. We can do a phone call, whatever works for you. Let me come alongside you. Let me help you start that journey. Let me help you start making that walk to the mailbox.

Let me help you start making that walk around the block or around the cul de sac. And then we'll work to get to that 5k for you, whatever that looks like. I'll help you create a tailored plan that can take can meet your unique situation, your goals, your dreams, your aspirations. Let me help you achieve that financial success.
And it all starts with you booking that call at askralph.com

And if you find value in the Ask Ralph show, I want to ask you to consider supporting it by buying us a virtual cup of coffee. Now, like I've said before, no one's going to show up in here with a tray of coffee.

Like I said, a few times in the show, I don't drink coffee, but it's a virtual way to support the show. And you might be saying, Ralph, why do I do that? Well, here's why. Because those people who are supporting the show are part of our community and they help us reach more people. They help us reach more people with a message of hope, with a message of, you know, not despair of there's ways to get past this, that Christian faith, that Christian hope.

And you can play a part in that. You can be a member of the team by going to askralphpodcast.com/support. And consider that. Do you want to be a member of the team? Do you want to help us reach more people? Do you want to help us change lives? Consider that support. It can be a one time support. It can be a recurring support, whatever you feel compelled to do.

Again, you do that by going to askralphpodcast.com/support. And remember this, if you don't take away anything else from today. This is not a sprint. Achieving financial fitness is a journey. Just like my physical fitness and your physical fitness is a journey. It's not a destination. There isn't some finish line.

There was a finish line on that 5k, but listen, now I was just getting started. And if you can incorporate daily financial, we'll call them workouts into your routine and apply those biblical principles, you can make significant progress towards your goals. You can, and you will. You just have to take that first step.

You got to get off the couch. You got to make that first step. You got to take that, start that momentum. Now tomorrow, we're going to talk about something a little bit similar to today. We're going to be discussing a fantastic topic that I got a question from a listener and that is this. Should you always pay cash when you buy something or is there a better way?

I'm not going to give you any spoilers, but tomorrow I'm going to break it down when you should pay cash, when you shouldn't pay cash. So make sure you tune in. And remember this as I close today. My passion is to help you achieve financial success. I want to see you live out your dreams and I want to see you grow in your faith.

And I know together, working together, we can master your finances from that Christian perspective. So as I always end the show, stay financially savvy out there and may God bless you abundantly.

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