How do you build a budget?

[00:00:00] Hey Brian, let me ask you a question. What's up? In the HR and payroll world that's filled with so many different systems, what advice would you give to someone who's looking to simplify things? That is a great question. And it makes me think of this time I was working for a consultant and it was crazy because all the clients had different systems. A lot of times like you can use one system for your clients, but no. So I was terrified. And the one system that really stood out to me was Bamboo HR. Made my life so much easier.

[00:00:29] Do what we did and get a free demo of BambooHR.com slash free demo. Get back to doing what you actually love in HR. Go to BambooHR.com slash free demo. That's BambooHR.com slash free demo. That's the human condition, right? Something's not going right for us. Most times we want to blame something. Yes. Welcome back, folks. This is episode 50.

[00:00:58] 50. It's about your paycheck. We are talking about how to build a budget in the new year. But before the details in the nitty gritty, what is going on, Walt? It's cool. I'm good. How about you? I'm good, man. Getting ready for the new year as we record this episode is not quite the new year yet. You'll hear it in the year, but we have it last year. You'll hear it next year. Oh, boom.

[00:01:28] But yeah, man, just getting ready and feeling good. And yeah, I haven't really been listening to a lot of news either. That's another change in my... I'm a news junkie. Not crappy news. Like I just... I listen to a lot like a different pop business news, pop news and hip hop news and all that stuff. But I just... I don't know. I've just been in a really different place very recently and just going through that, man. Yeah. I get it.

[00:01:56] Look, sometimes you got to tune out the noise. Yeah. Oh, that's a good way of putting it. There's a lot of noise out there. Oh, that's a good way of putting it. Thank you. I had this app on my phone called Newsbrick. So I'm always getting news from around the world. So by the way, I can't see those articles when you send me... Oh, that's why. Because you don't have the app, right? I don't have that. A lot of the stuff I send you is around like employee stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No doubt. But I get so many different articles and it's all the news in the world.

[00:02:24] Number four, earlier when I was a kid, we didn't have getting all that information. Nope. Something could happen over in North Korea. We didn't know anything about it. And we didn't know. Yep. When I had a friend of mine that put me onto BBC World News years ago, and that opened up the whole world for me because I didn't know anything about BBC World News. And they report on the news differently. It's not Western US America the way we report on the news. But now, yeah, forget about it with a smartphone and computers, television.

[00:02:54] Forget it. There's so many news outlets. I was just listening to an article because I do still consume stuff. But I was saying something about the new generation. They get their news more from social media than they do traditional news outlets. So think about that. Like, we are the, us right now, we are the source of somebody's news in payroll world because we're feeding them news with this segment that we're about to roll into, payroll news and pay news as we do paycheck stuff.

[00:03:23] They get some of their news from listening to the show. So it's interesting, man. But yeah, it is a, you're right. It is a quieting time for me. And yeah. Yeah. Thanks. So let's get into it. Speaking of current events and news, what you got for us today? So I have an article by financialimpact.com. And it's a case study on the three success stories. Employers that are offering financial literacy to their 20s.

[00:03:52] We've been talking about that more. Yep. Yep. So I'm going to give you the three employers and let you know what their challenges were, the solution that they had in the hour. So this is one that you're familiar with, Staples, right? Mm-hmm. The company. Yeah. Yeah. Staples. And so the challenge was that many other employees were not engaged in the company's benefits program due to financial struggles. Oh, mm-hmm. And that's a common occurrence, right?

[00:04:20] There's a lot of people who said, hey, I can't, I can't afford benefits because I don't make enough money. That's right. And so the solution was, is that Staples implemented a financial education through online games. There's that gamification, right? Ooh. Covering topics like managing spending, reducing debt and saving for retirement. So the outcome of this, of Staples doing this was that the program led to a 32% improvement

[00:04:47] in employee retention, increased confidence and higher for the. I love it. Just from them implementing this program. It sounds really interesting too. Sorry to cut you off, but because if you think about it, everybody lives on their phone and their apps and if we're doing more and engaging through that and they gamify saving and doing, forget about it. That's yeah. Yeah. The next one is Slumberger, which I don't know what company it is, but it looks like,

[00:05:16] oh, it looks like they're in the oil and gas market. The challenge that they face is that employees in this market face financial instability due to the market fluctuations. Hey, this is William Tencup, Work to Fun. Hey, listen, I'd like to talk to you a little bit about Inside the C-Suite, the podcast. It's a look into the journey of how one goes from high school, college, whatever, all the way to the C-Suite, all the ups and downs, failures, successes, all that stuff. Give it a listen.

[00:05:46] Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. The solution is that Slumberger provided financial education to help employees set personal financial goals and improve financial decision-making. The outcome was, is that it enhanced employee loyalty and motivation. And with financial education, starting even before engineers graduate. Oh, you started this previous stuff before their engineers graduated from school.

[00:06:15] And I think that wanted to give them more confidence, right? Helped them out a lot. Then the last one I had, the city group. The challenge was that there was a need for comprehensive financial literacy among their global employees. What city group did was they offered an in-person and online financial literacy training, focusing on credit and money management. So what the outcome was, is that it increased employee contributions to the 401k plan with

[00:06:41] 93% participants reporting that the training enabled them to make better financial decisions. That's a huge impact. Yeah. I'm trying to read what they do again. They offer an in-person online financial literacy training, focused on credit and money. Okay. No doubt. So look, obviously these are three successful, successful, success stories about how financial literacy training impacts the business. Yep. Yes.

[00:07:11] Yes. Because that's a, it's, we don't think about it often, but it is very front of mind and really obvious that if we're not happy about our money and if we're about our money and our financial wellness, then we're going to, even if it's subconscious, we're going to link it to like our job and all our money sucks. My job sucks. Yeah. I think, and it could not be related. It could be totally your fault that you suck at money and then you just blame it.

[00:07:38] You just, we're just blaming it on the job for no reason. That's, that's the human condition. Right. Something's not going right for us. Most times we want to blame something. Yes. Or something to blame. Yes. Yep. And a lot of times it's not. That saying, when you point your finger, there's four pointing back at you. Check yourself. I should listen to my finger. Unless you, yeah. Unless you're missing a finger. What's that Bible verse or Bible quote that says, don't talk about the split, the splinter

[00:08:04] in my eye, the speck in my eye when there's a two by four in yours or something like that or mine. You got a plank in yours. Yeah. You got a plank in mine. I'm talking about the speck in your eye. Exactly. I love it. I think that it's, I would love to, again, me and Wifey were just talking about as we are in a midlife, not a crisis. We're just midlife reevaluation. We're talking about, okay, do we have the right tools to take us to the next 20 years

[00:08:34] and set up for retirement? And what do we want to be in retirement? We don't want to live with our kids in retirement. You know what I mean? My youngest is very sweet and she's like, oh, you guys are going to live with us. And that's like, oh, that's very sweet. But I don't want to live with Joe. I don't want to live with Joe. Like I'm trying not to live with any Mike. I lived a lot. I lived long enough with y'all. You know what I'm saying? The point is that it would be great to be able to go to, to have a benefit, to learn more about it. Cause that's what was the plan that me and Wifey made. We were like, look, let's start learning about things.

[00:09:03] Let's get comfortable about what we want and try to make a plan. Because like I told, I was like, look, I know so much stuff now. I don't even know anything. You know what I mean? Because there is no one right way for you and your couple and your household and your family, right? Your methods and strategy could be wildly different from mine and they can both work. You know what I mean? And comfort level and risk level and all this stuff.

[00:09:28] But my point is it would be great if we could just go have some type of unbiased resource to learn about it. Because a lot of the resources that we have in our lives, they ultimately want to sell you something, right? Oh yeah. You could talk to a retirement specialist at work, but he's going to just drive you to the 401k plan and what you can do in the 401k plan. Oh, I could go to my bank, but they're going to just gear you toward what they're selling that month and what they're making the highest commissions on that month. You know what I mean?

[00:09:59] So it's how do you really get unbiased education about it? And there's a ton of stuff out there. You just kind of, you got to spread where you get your info from. And if some of these companies are doing this unbiased, that would be dope. Finding a great career has always been a challenge. But today, with the massive changes underway in just about every sector of the economy,

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[00:11:26] Thanks for sharing that. My article is from Forbes Magazine. And the article is titled, Why Organizations Should Prioritize Employee Empowerment. Right? And they say the term employee empowerment is often considered a buzzword. However, implemented effectively, the concept is powerful enough to transform organizations. Employee empowerment refers to companies giving their workforce a voice and greater autonomy.

[00:11:56] When managers lead through empowerment, it doesn't mean leaving employees alone. Instead, it requires leaders to inspire, motivate, and coach their employees. So they said the five benefits that you get from it are, number one, increases employee engagement and productivity. Nice. Number two, it strengthens trust in leadership. Nice. Enhances employee creativity. Four, it boosts employee loyalty.

[00:12:24] And number five, it leads to a better customer experience. You're right. Right? Because that's another buzz phrase word is the customer experience. Right? Yes. Some leaders believe that the only way to take care of your customers is by taking care of your employees. Yes, sir. So, yeah. And I think one of the other things, I don't know if you said it, but it can probably improve the work environment. Yeah. As well.

[00:12:52] I mean, I'll probably help people make better decisions. Yep. Yep. And you get those skills. What is that term? What were we saying? Upskill. Upskill. Those fancy phrases that we come across. Um, yeah. Yeah. I love it. Look, I'm excited, man. All these things important to keep in mind. And what I think about, unfortunately, is that not every company can and will do these things.

[00:13:20] Hopefully your company is. And look, be the, what do you say all the time? Be the agent of change. Be the, right? You might be that first domino. There you go. That falls to start that cycle of change. And that's what this, and the reason why this article caught my eye is because we talk about empowerment. This show, we based, we created this show. We do this show to empower employees. And what's said is it all the time, right? Be that dom, that first domino.

[00:13:49] Maybe your company doesn't do this stuff, but you can start planting the seed and talking to people and doing things. And maybe you just have a team. Maybe you could just implement some of these things for your team. And maybe you just implement it for yourself and your, yourself is you invest in yourself for that growth piece. So before we get into our main topic for today, as we talk about budgeting, let's pay some bills. Shout out to TimeTrackGo.

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[00:15:34] That's T-I-M-E-T-R-A-K-Go.com. And start your 14-day free trial today. Today. Let's go. Let's go. What you got for us, man. We'll get on the topic of budgeting. So what do I have? So just a few tips. As you think about the new year, right?

[00:16:03] The first one is, and I don't, do I have it here? Track spending. You want to track your spending and now is a great time to look back at what you spent for the year so that you could set goals for the new year. Set clear goals and to guide your financial decisions for the new year. Track spending meticulously to identify areas for improvement. I always think about a friend of mine back in the day, they'd be like, oh, I know where my money goes. It comes in and goes out. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:16:29] So you're definitely not going to find an area where you can save because that's the mentality you have, right? Yeah. Distinguish between needs and wants to focus on priorities. Build an emergency fund to safeguard against financial setbacks. We talk about that all the time because the stats that we found is like most Americans do not have an emergency fund. automate savings to make consistent progress toward your goals. Yes. Automated. Yes.

[00:16:58] Especially for young folks, build this into your plan early on and then you'll, you won't even know because a lot of folks are like, well, I got too many bills. I'm broke. Well, I can't do these things. Tackle high interest debt to free up more money and review and adjust your budget as life changes. And life is always changing. Life is always changing. That's right. So look, I have some different ways that you may want to consider building a budget.

[00:17:25] And one of them we mentioned earlier in the article that I talked about and that's gamifying budgeting. Make it fun. You know what I'm saying? It doesn't have to be some drumming up process that's boring because some people, a lot of people have ADHD or they can't concentrate, they can't focus and maybe doing something fun will help you budget better. So that's a way to maybe build some better money management habits in a fun way.

[00:17:52] But you might want to consider attending some peer budgeting workshops. Make sure that it's something that where people are certified and the people that are giving that information that they have actual success stories that you can read about and find out about. You just don't want to go. So just some, yeah. So they're going to make it up on their own. And just everything that you say with dollar and bury dollar in the dirt is going to grow up on one street.

[00:18:20] If you rub it two times and bury it in the corner. Comes back more. Yes. You want to, so you want to find out where those organized workshops are. Most people can share their budget new strategies and successes. And so that will help foster a sense of community and also allows people to learn from real life experiences. Right. So you want to be mindful about your money as well. Right.

[00:18:46] So you, this is a, this is might be something that's uncommon is incorporating mindfulness techniques into your financial planning. So teaching you to be present. Yeah. Thoughtful. I mean, yeah, that could be part of make you more conscious. Some people emotionally spend because they're happy or they spend because they're not happy. That's, that's what you're saying, right? Be mindful. Yep. Okay. Yep. Be mindful and present. Yep. Virtual reality financial simulations.

[00:19:16] So look, use virtual, uh, virtual reality to simulate financial scenarios. So this immersive experience can help employees understand the long-term impact of their financial choices and the control to run it. So think about it. Yeah. Think about it. If you're playing a Sims or you're playing one of these different type of games and you only have an amount of money to spend, you're going to try to budget that and say, okay, I need to do this and save this money so I can get what I need. Yes.

[00:19:46] Some people are able to do that in a game environment, but if you actually learn from that, you'd be like, oh, let me just apply that same logic to my money. And then if I save a lot of money, then put enough money to the side, I'll be able to do this and save for that or invest in this or whatever. And then this one I'm not so sure about is future proofing your budget, right?

[00:20:08] So you might want to consider things, consider future trends like cryptocurrency or digital wallets. And you might want to be prepared for how those changes and how people are paid impact you. And you want to develop budgeting strategies for that accordingly. Yeah. Right? Because the way we get paid may change. We don't know. It's already changed. Earn wage access.

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[00:21:06] It's already changed. Gig economy. Yeah, that's a really good call out because if you could pay yourself daily or weekly, then it changes how your budget is if you, right? And if that's new to your company, if you go from bi-weekly or semi-monthly and then now all of a sudden earned wage access is a thing, then it changes the way you budget. So that's a really good call out. I love it. I love it. That's all I have. What are you talking?

[00:21:36] Okay. For our question of the day, is budgeting better than investing? Is budgeting better than investing? I feel like you got to do, but what made you put it? Look, because sometimes I think that you can invest, but I think you have to budget first before you invest. Yes. Agreed.

[00:22:02] So I would say that budgeting is better. Will allow you to invest. Because it will allow you to, because if I'm just, I get punched and I'm just like, oh, someone's telling me to put all my money in, on my rent money, on this. Mm-hmm. And invest in all my extra little money, my savings, my kids' college fund, put it on this and you lose. Yep. Take that risk and lose. And then because you took that chance and then invested.

[00:22:32] Yep. It's something that failed. Yep. Yeah. You got to be able to afford to invest. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And that's why I was, yeah, I do agree. Yeah. And that's what I was saying with my wife, when we were talking about planning, we're going to have different risk tolerances. We're going to have, we think good are good ideas for investing. We're saving or investing. At one time I was like, oh, what are we going to save for? We broke. We got to pay. We got to pay. And things change in your thoughts.

[00:23:01] So like, that's the part where we got to, you got to consume the information so that you can properly like have a, be able to contribute to a plan. Yeah. Good stuff, man. Definitely making us think and getting us in the right vein. There's different strategies out there. You have to find out what works for you as an individual or a collective. If you're single or you have a partner or family, whatever it is, whatever your setup is, find out what works best for you in your situation.

[00:23:31] Something I will stay in mind. Hopefully it makes sense. If you have, say you have three pitchers, you have four pitchers right there. Pictures or pitchers? The whole, yeah. The whole liquid in, right? You have those pitchers and you have enough water to fill three, right? But the fourth one, you won't be able to fill all the way. Right? And so you could be lacking in that area.

[00:23:59] Why not just put one of those pitchers away or just put the extra water away and just save it until you have, if you keep doing that and keep doing the math, you're eventually, when you pour that extra into that fourth pitcher, instead of just throwing it away, that'd be like you dumping out the water and saying, I got four pitchers. Because since I can't fill up this fourth one, I'm just going to toss the water. Yeah. No, just put that little bit extra to the side and that fourth one. And then eventually if you keep doing that, you'll end up having a full pitcher there.

[00:24:27] And then you keep doing that, you're going to have to get a new pitcher for you. Yeah. Yeah. No doubt. That's exactly right. No, that's exactly right. That's what Damien Johns talks about that. He's like, you know, you want to fill this one up because it's going to eventually overflow and fill the other ones up. So I forget the logic, what his buckets are. But yeah, exactly. Good stuff, man. Hiya, bros. Yes, sir. Thank you, man. Thank you, folks. We love you. Till next time.

[00:24:57] Before we sign off, here are a couple quick things. Don't forget to follow It's About Payroll on LinkedIn. And it's about your paycheck on Facebook and TikTok. Thank you for being part of our payroll community. And thank you for being a part of this journey with us. Until the next time, keep learning, keep growing, and most importantly, keep going.