Case Study – Personal Budgeting
In an earlier post, we profiled Steve & Mary whom we worked with closely 12 months ago. A young married couple who were earning a good income but struggling to get their day to day finances in order.
Click here to view the case study
They went through our personal budgeting process working with the Rothgard team setting up systems to manage their day to day cash flow.
We thought it would be interesting to revisit this 12 months on to see how they were going.
After all, the true measure of change is “stickiness”. Has the systems we put in place stuck?
This was done in a Q&A style format with some candidate responses from the client.
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GINO > Steve & Mary, it’s been 12 months since we cast you off into the world! How are the finances looking?
STEVE > Yeah good Gino! I got be honest, I was initially hesitant at the start having someone tell me how to manage my money. There is a little bit of guilt that comes with not feeling as though you are in charge of your day to day finances. But I need to say this is one of the best things that I have done not only for the bank balance, but my relationship with my wife.
GINO > Why is that, how has this process affected your relationship?
MARY > Since Steve and I got married, we had never really been on the same page from a financial perspective. This caused tremendous friction in our relationship. When I stopped working to look after our kids, I used to feel guilt around every dollar that was spent on nonessential items. Steve was always very supportive but I still felt guilty when I was buying new clothes or nice things just for me.
Since going through the process we both have a really clear set of rules and a system to follow. There is no confusion in terms of allocation of money and funds. We know exactly what we need to do. The whole issue about money and arguing about money has been taken off the table. We don’t fight about this any more which is wonderful!
GINO > So where are you guys at now?
STEVE > Looking very tidy Gino! Our credit card debt has all been paid off. The credit card is only used in case of emergencies and if it does get used, we are very conscious that there needs to be sacrifice to get the balance back to zero as soon as possible. The biggest thing has the shift in mindset for us. In addition to this we are saving excess cash which is going towards next year’s family holiday to Fiji!
MARY > I think Steve is right. I am happy the guilt of money has disappeared. I can go shopping and buy nice things for myself and feel rewarded for all the hard work we both put in.
GINO > What is next for you both?
MARY > We are currently investigating the feasibility of an investment property at the Gold Coast. We have built up equity in our house and want to put this back into another house which we can use to build our assets. I am very excited about this.
STEVE > I really want to buy a caravan which is the goal for the next 12 months. We have a saving plan in place and the kids are getting to the perfect age for this. Fun times!
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