As we continue into the holiday season and get prepared to transition into the New Year, it's time to think about setting our goals. We chatted with best selling financial author Grant Sabatier about how we can assess where we are financially in based on our happiness and our goals. He shares his tips, how we can stay on budget during the holidays and setting ourselves up for success.
ATHLEISURE MAG: How important is it for you to have a plan for your budget?
GRANT SABATIER: It’s very hard in life to get to where you want to go if you don’t know where you are starting out from and you don’t have a roadmap. A budget is a roadmap and it helps you figure out where you are today, how much money you owe, how much you have saved and even more importantly, it helps you outline the steps that you need to take to get you towards your goals. So a budget is essential for any financial plan. But there is a lot of different ways to budget. A lot of people think that there’s just kind of one way that you have got to track everything on a spreadsheet and that it has to be super boring. But there are a lot of ways you can save and build a budget.
AM: How do you focus on staying within your budget when navigating a pandemic?
GS: Yeah, I think it’s actually a great opportunity to look at where you’re spending your money and to ask yourself 2 questions. #1 How happy did this purchase make me and #2 is it worth it? As we’re all in our homes during this time and we have a little bit of extra time, it’s actually the perfect time to be more mindful about your money. So getting out those credit card statements or those bank statements and just go line by line. Pour a cup of coffee or pour that glass of wine and just look at what you have spent over the past year and I know that that can be a little anxiety-producing, but looking at it through the lens of did this make my life better and is it worth it, is often an approach that people don't take. They tend to just look at the dollars and the cents. Then they get upset when they have over-spent or in some cases get excited when they have underspent. But when you’re looking through that different lens, I find that it makes it a lot easier to evaluate purchased because you should be spending money on those things that make you happy and bring you joy and cutting back on all of those things that don’t.
AM: Do you have tips for the holidays?
GS: Thankfully, we live during a time where it’s never been easier in history to comparison shop and to find a deal. We’ve all become sort of master Google search-ers and researchers and so it’s very easy to spend 15 – 20 minutes just looking for lower cost alternatives whether you’re looking for a present for the holidays or even more importantly, you’re looking to reduce your recurring expenses. Those recurring expenses those things that we spend on every month, that’s 12 times a year. So things like, your cable bill, your subscriptions and your streaming bill and even your cell phone. This gets me a lot. Americans pay thousands of dollars more than they need to for their cell phones. We often sign up for a plan and stay with the same carrier for a very long time and the fees continue to go up and we don’t evaluaten the other options. Just like it's easy to comparison shop there are incredible, affordable, no contract wireless providers like Total Wireless that can help you save if you have a family over $1,200 per year. That's something where the quality of the service is super high and it's very easy to find lower rates and at Total Wireless you can get unlimited talk and text on the best network in the country over a lot of the best carriers in this country.
AM: As the bestselling author of Financial Freedom: A Proven Path to All of the Money That You Would Ever Need, what can you tell us about this book?
GS: So the book follows my journey and the steps that I took from going from 24years old, broke and living with my parents after being unemployed after college to financial independence in 5 years at the age of 30. When I say Financially independent, I saved over $1 million and had really a lot more time and space in my life. So through that journey, I learned that a lot of the things that I had been taught about money, a lot of the things that are shared in the personal finance world were not only outdated – a lot of them were just in-correct. So just the simple idea that time is money and money is time, we hear that all the time but that’s the biggest myth of them all. Money is actually infinite and you can make more money, you can start a side hustle, pick up an extra job, change careers etc but you can’t get back the time. So whenever we’re working for money, we’re trading something that’s finite – our time, for something that’s infinite – money. So being more mindful about that is essential. The book is a step by step strategy that I took to be more mindful about money. Anyone can use this no matter where they’re at in their own financial life to have to help make, save and invest more money to have more freedom in their life.
AM: What are things that couples can do to be comfortable talking about finances?
GS: I love this question. Often in couples, one of them is interested in money and the other isn’t or maybe both of them aren’t interested in money. One of the biggest mistakes that couple make is that they focus on the numbers first and so they often have to come to a money conversation with a lot of stress because their debt has gone up or they have over-spent or something wasn’t clear. There was a job loss or they’re paying for taxes. So there’s often this stress when couples talk about money and it’s actually the #1reason today in America for a divorce. So there's a lot of stress around money conversations. What I encourage couples todo and instead of starting with the money, think about the life piece - what are our dreams over the next 5 - 10 years together. What do we want to accomplish and then using that vision of the future as a way to look at your money as the lens to look at your money through. Because money really is a pathway to freedom for the life that you love and you can use it as a couple to get to where you want to go. So think about what life you want to be able to live, come together on that vision and then work together to make that happen through your finances. So talk about the life piece first and use the money to support it as opposed to the other way around where we often talk about the money first and then try to pack our life into it. Over time, money is almost like a friend, you need to build a relationship with it and this is no different than with a couple. Coming at it through that lens, It end to find is a lot more effective.
AM: What tips do you have to optimize financial goals in the New Year?
GS: Start planning now! As uncomfortable as it is, take 30 mins a week over the next couple of weeks to look at what you spent the past year. Ask yourself did these purchases make me happy and then think about the 4 big expense categories and how you can reduce them. #1Housing – the average American spends over 40% of their income on housing. Interest rates are low and even though the housing market is competitive and rents are going a bit higher, think about your housing situation. Maybe you're still in a lease or a mortgage, do you want to move somewhere where there is a lower cost? Look at your transportation expenses. Do you really need that new car? Can you buy a used car? Look at your food expenses. How much money have you been spending on all of these food delivery apps during this time? Finally, your recurring expenses. Look at if you have a cable subscription or a magazine subscription or even a gym membership something that is compounding every month and is adding to your bill.
PHOTO CREDITS | Grant Sabatier
Read the Dec Issue #60 of Athleisure Mag and see The Financial Experience with Grant Sabatier in mag.
