Overcoming Psychological Barriers to Successful Budgeting | Guiding You Forward

Effective budgeting isn’t always as easy as just making the decision to do it. There are a lot of things—many unforeseen—that can get in the way of your success.

Cassandra Fuentes, financial education manager at Mountain America Credit Union, visits our podcast lounge to identify some of those barriers and what we can do to overcome them.

Tune in to this episode of the Guiding You Forward podcast to learn:  

• Strategies to rewrite your money scripts.  

• Ways to use the “How, What, Why” model to get your budget on track.

• How to reclassify possible emergencies to limit budget disruption.

• The benefits of setting realistic habits and habit stacking.

Cass Fuentes joins our host, Krystalina Brown, to discuss some of the challenges around sticking to a budget. As she says in the full video, many people feel like committing to a budget is similar to starting a new diet—they often start off strong, but then negative self-talk and unrealistic expectations get in the way. Before they know it, they’ve given up, convinced they are just no good at managing money.

Mountain America is convinced that, if you understand the barriers and prepare, you’ll have a great chance of achieving success.

Cass starts off by explaining the meaning of a money script and how it can rule everything! She explains how negative emotions and beliefs about money can sabotage the financial plans we put into play. But don’t worry! Cass also offers four questions to ask ourselves to help us rewrite our money scripts.

What’s the best way to get our budget back on track? Cass offers the benefits of using the “How, What, Why” model to align our goals with our strategy. Watch the full podcast episode to see how it works.

Many people run into emergencies that throw their budget off track—something like a leaky roof or unplanned medical expense. Cass says one way to avoid this is by reclassifying some “emergency” expenses as upcoming expenses. This way they end up being incorporated into our budgets ahead of time instead of throwing them off track.

Ever heard of habit stacking? This strategy can help to build up our money management skills and lead to amazing results. Find out how to incorporate it into your plan to achieve your financial goals.

This episode is jam-packed with tips to develop and stick to a budget. Click the video link above to learn more about how money perceptions may be standing in the way of financial success.