There are many different ways to budget. From pen and paper to spreadsheets and apps, everyone has a preferred method to capture their financial habits. As a financial coach or counselor, you have likely discussed budgeting with your clients to reach their larger goals. There is even an entire subcategory of financial coaching: budget coaching.

Why Traditional Budgeting Fails

Imagine you are a financial counseling client who has just left your regular session. You are feeling great about the budget your counselor helped you to create. This time will be different! The two of you sat down and crunched the numbers from previous spending, and decided on a realistic amount to spend for things like groceries, dining out, and fun. You may have a nice spreadsheet or fancy printout of these numbers, but that’s it.

Fast forward to the next session, and you have no idea how the budget was blown. You thought you had set a realistic dining out budget, but that number was almost doubled. When did groceries get so expensive? That surprise trip to urgent care caught you off guard as well. All of this is revealed when you again revisit past spending. You feel defeated, and wonder if budgeting is something you can stick to.

Believe it or not, you are not budgeting in this scenario. You are simply reviewing spending, with loose goals around what you should put towards different needs and wants. This method leaves people feeling helpless and out of control with their money. Your coach or counselor will also feel frustrated that they can’t offer more help beyond your session. Many clients get stuck in this reflection stage and have trouble moving past it without using a different method.

Zero Based Budgeting: A Tried and True Method

Zero based budgeting is an effective way to address these issues. Here are some key points with this method:

1 – The client only budgets with the dollars they have today: Instead of forecasting and planning for income that they haven’t earned yet, this method forces them to see what they can really afford before payday.

2 – Money is assigned to digital envelopes: This takes the large number in a checking account and gives each dollar a purpose. Rather than seeing $1,000 in an account, the client will know that $200 is for the cell phone, $500 is for rent, and only $300 is left to spend on other things until payday. This scarcity drives behavior change in discretionary spending.

3 – Every expense is tracked: Tracking expenses ensures that the client has a true idea of what they are spending in real time. They can see if they are getting close to their spending limit for certain categories, and change their behavior before more spending happens.

How MyBudgetCoach is Different 

Zero based budgeting is not new, and there are several apps that offer that method. MyBudgetCoach is the first of its kind to offer these premium features and a built-in coach. With any tool there is a learning curve. Clients may get stuck with technical or practical questions and wonder who to turn to. With MyBudgetCoach, clients select a coach to begin their free trial. Each coach has written their custom digital avatar to walk the client through setting up their budget and explaining the method. This is not an AI-driven experience; there is a real person behind the text boxes. When the client has a question or wants to bring topics to their coach, they can utilize the secure messaging feature. They can also pay an additional hourly fee to their chosen coach to meet with them via video call.

There are perks for the coach as well. Rather than losing the client between sessions, coaches are able to offer support between sessions via messaging. They can also check on the client’s budget and spending in this time to offer guidance and motivation. Coaches who are on the MyBudgetCoach directory earn passive and active income. For every paying user that a coach has on MyBudgetCoach, a percentage is paid back to the coach. Even if the user never meets with that coach, the coach will be earning passive income from their subscription. One-on-one calls are billed separately at the coach’s set rate, providing active income.

Imagine a world where you can create a custom budget for your clients, offer support between sessions, and provide a premium app to track spending. Your client feels more in control of their spending, and you have the ability to see their budget in a secure way. Say goodbye to emailing spreadsheets and hello to new possibilities for expanding your business!