Gidday CC members, avid readers and those beings wanting to get their finances nailed! Everyone is talking about times getting tougher. So what do we do, we make CC even better.
We have made some improvements on the site around the look and feel, goal setting and a few other things. But the biggest benefits for you come from adding dates to Big Ticket spend. You guys told Coach you needed a little help here. And Coach Pedro has come back with both barrels. Now you can see what's coming up month by month and make sure the funds are there to cover it.
Let's look through an example with Coach Pedro.
Will Pedro’s Big Ticket bucket have enough every month through the year?
By putting dates against all of my Big Ticket spend I can plan my cash flow better. I will know that month by month my Big Ticket Bucket will have enough to cover the outgoings. In an instant I can see a nice chart that shows where my Big Ticket balance will be.
Crikey, that caught Pedro off guard! December is looking like trouble, a real cash flow squeeze. The forecast shows that in December my Big Ticket bucket balance will be at -$1,000 and it sinks lower in January. Not what I want over New Year! I click on the December bar and see that insurance, Christmas presents and registration are all coming out in December. The biggest one though is that $2,000 trip I was planning.
Ok ok. So I might not have done quite as much tracking as I should have through the year. And yes I might have gone a wee bit overboard on the Big Ticket spend. Otherwise I would have enough $$ for my trip as originally planned. But at least now I have the true picture and can react accordingly. If I booked that trip it would knock me for a financial six. I will scale the trip back and stay in the black!
Moral of the story – It only took a second to see this potential cash flow squeeze with the new CC features. I should have been tracking my Big Ticket so I did not spend my trip money!
Pedro keeping his Big Ticket forecast current – One minute account balance
You bet I don’t want to overspend again! And I want to get a bit more Control of my Big Ticket. Well that’s easy now. At the end of each month I just put my Big Ticket account balance into the tracking section. Then the forecast is updated and I can confirm that my current bank balance will be enough to cover the remaining Big Ticket spend for the year.
If I start to overspend on Big Ticket again then it will become pretty clear. That little red dotted line will start heading south and I can take preventative action early and pull in the Big Ticket reins.
The BEST part is that it only takes one minute to drop in my bank balance. So if I am feeling lazy and don’t track all my Big Ticket expenses (Bad Pedro!) I can get a good picture of how things will work out. I will not run that bucket dry!
Reminding Pedro so he stays on the game – Monthly Coach Report
Now I am pretty excited about this. I don’t want to be forgetting when things like WOF, insurance, presents and the like are coming up. I might go out and buy a new pair of shoes and then when this stuff hits, ouch, cash flow squeeze. Let’s stay away from that. As long as I put all the dates in for each area of my Big Ticket spend it will be fine.
See the new Monthly Coach Report takes care of the rest. Each month through the year I will get a reminder letting me know which Big Ticket items are coming up and how much I need to have in my account to cover them. So even if I have not been online for a while, Coach has got my back.
That should help you all with your Big Ticket. Just get cracking and put in your dates and account balances (log in and see member help section for details). If you are not yet a member and thinking of signing up, stop thinking and do it. This one is a no brainer and it’s only going to get better at CC.
Over and out,
Pedro Taylor
CASH COACH
Automate your money, free up your life