Why Do Unexpected Expenses Always Destroy My Budget?

You ever notice how you can have the best intentions with your budget? I mean, everything is lined up, everything is clicking, it is just chugging right along and then out of nowhere, bam.The car breaks down, flat tire on the way to work. Hey, maybe you're at the dentist and they say, guess what, Ralph, you need a root canal. Or maybe you're doing that last load of washing.That washing machine just goes thud for the last time and suddenly those great plans you had, they just feel wrecked. But what if you could shield yourself from that? What if you could not have to get into that each time something happens out of nowhere?Well, join me for today's show because I'm going to talk about exactly how to do that.

This is Financially Confident Christian, your daily dose of gospel grounded insight and faith driven tips to help you break the cycle of financial shame with confidence.

Hello there. Welcome to Financially Confident Christian. I'm Ralph and we're continuing in our series Breaking Financial Chains.This is the show where we help you become a more financially confident Christian. And yesterday, if you missed the show, we talked about finding extra money when your budget's already.We talked about how to squeeze just a little bit more out of that budget. So if you miss it, I'm going to encourage you to check it out.You can see all of our shows at financiallyconfidentchristian.com but today we're going to talk about something completely different. We're going to talk about those unexpected expenses. They always seem to happen when you've planned.You've got everything clicking and all of a sudden, bama whammaho, unexpected expense. And see, the problem is you can be careful with your budgeting. You can be super intentional about your spending.You're starting to gain that momentum. I've had so many people say to me, Ralph, I was chugging right along. And then whamho, car repair pipe bursts. That doctor Bill arrives.The problem is you can't delay these. Now I'm gonna tell you right now, I'm gonna tell you a little story. I tried to delay one.One time I went to the dentist for a cleaning and she said, Ralph, got a cavity in the back here. Just a little bit of a cavity. We should go and fix that. And I said, oh, you know, it's, that's a little extra time.I don't really have the time right now. She told me it's going to be a couple hundred dollars. Oh, you know, I'll just put it off. Well, fast forward five years, I kept putting it off.Guess what? I went into the dentist the next time after five years, guess what? I needed a root canal.So that 150, $200 repair all of a sudden was a 3, 4, $5,000 root canal. But sometimes you can't delay these things. Your car's sitting on the side of the road. Guess what? You got to get it fixed if you want to get to work.So what's the result? For most of us, we dip into our savings and we swipe that credit card, go back in debt, something we work so hard to get out.And we'll talk more about that on tomorrow's show. And I even had a listener send me an email. He said, Ralph, why do I bother budgeting if light keeps breaking stuff? And I feel for that person.That is so true. But I want to say something that's going to sound a little bit snarky today. The truth is, unexpected expenses aren't really unexpected.They're going to happen. The question is when they're going to happen. That's the surprise part.But the big problem, if we're going to be honest with ourselves, the big problem is you've got no cushion. And see, God calls us to be prepared. Let's get right into a word today and talk about the Bible feeling on this preparation.Let's go right to the book of Proverbs. This is from chapter 22, verse 3. And it says this. And I've used this on the show many times. The prudence. See danger and take refuge.But the simple keep going and suffer for. I guess you could say I was pretty simple when the dentist said to me, Ralph, get this tooth fixed now. But that's what scripture's talking about.If you see that danger, take refuge, make plans. Let's get to another Bible verse. And this is from the book of Ecclesiastes. This is chapter 11, verse 2.And I think this is a great, great scripture to use to talk about today. It says, invest in seven ventures. Yes. In eight. You do not know what disaster may come upon the land. Hey, we can apply that to our finances, can't we?We know things are going to happen. But if we're prepared, if we have that prudence and we work to be good stewards of God is giving us, we can avoid those things.And see, that's what we'll talk about. Emergency funds. Today you probably say, oh, Ralph, here he goes with emergency funds again.And a lot of people say, Ralph, you just have to have faith. And I'm going to argue a little bit about that because, see, an emergency fund isn't a lack of faith.You can have faith and still have an emergency fund. What an emergency fund is, is wise management of what God provides. So I'm going to give you one action step today. One thing above all else.You've got to go build that emergency fund. This is not optional anymore. This is very important. It's got to be your first line of defense.And listen, it doesn't have to be this huge monthly thing where you've got three, four, five, six months of emergency funds. I hear people online, these financial gurus, if you will, say, oh, you got to get 3, 6, 5, 7 months of savings of your.Of your monthly income to put into an emergency fund. Guess what? That's a great thing to do. But you can start small because that's going to be your shield against your panic.When that happens, you don't want to have to rely on those credit cards. So here's your one action step for today. I want you to pick a small goal.Listen, it doesn't have to be a big number for you, maybe $500, maybe if you got the means, make it a thousand dollars, just something to start. And then I want you to start to build momentum to getting towards that goal. Hey, maybe $10 this week.You don't go through the drive through that day on the way home from work. Or maybe you sell something, you got something sitting right. Man, I got a ton. I got barns here on the farm full, all kinds of stuff.I'm actually playing in sort of a fall farm sale because my wife says to me all the time, she goes, rob, you know, you got so much stuff sitting around here, you got to get rid of some of this stuff. Or maybe you delay a purchase, anything to get started, to start, build that momentum.And then the second piece to this, and this is crucial, you've got to separate those monies. I'm a big believer in setting up a separate bank account. That's called emergency fund. Call it what it is.And then here's the last thing I'm going to encourage you to do is automate this. Make it happen automatically. Maybe every time you get your paycheck, just put 20 bucks into that emergency fund.Because here's the thing, things are going to happen. Inconvenience is going to happen in your life. I wasn't expecting that dental repair. But here's the thing.When you're prepared, when you've got that emergency fund, when you don't have to rely on debt and credit cards, that panic can disappear. How about we pray together now? Heavenly Father, we just thank you for the provision and everything you give us in our lives, Lord.And we just ask today for wisdom, Lord. We ask for discipline and we ask for your peace in our finances, Lord.We surrender all of our financial stress to you, Lord, knowing that you can handle this, Lord, we just have to give it to you. Help us to be good stewards of the resources you've given us, Lord, and as your word says, help us to be prudent, help us to plan.Help us to fund that emergency fund so we don't have to stress and have anxiety when things happen in life. And we know, Lord, you're going to take care of us, but help us to be wise in that. Help us to find peace and help us to find it in your name.We ask this in the precious name of Jesus. Amen. Your emergency fund is your peace of mind. So start building that today, no matter how small. I want to encourage you to do something for me.If you know someone else that could benefit from the show, if you know somebody else that needs to build that emergency fund, you know somebody that's always struggling with their finances, do me a favor. Just send them a link to the show. You can send them right to financially confidentchristian.com hey, share the wealth.A lot of people out there struggling, a lot of people are facing those unexpected financial challenges. Hey, we all are. But if they've got some tools, if they've got the tools that you just heard about make a huge impact on their life.And I want to do one other thing for you. I want to help you on your journey. I just finished writing my third book. It's called Becoming a Financially Confident Christian.I want to give you a copy absolutely free, no questions asked. Just go to my website. That's financially confidentchristian.com becoming you. Just put your email in there. You can get a free download of my book.It's called how to Become a Financially Confident Christian. And it's your roadmap to really get started, to break that cycle of financial shame and do it with confidence.Now I'm encourage you to join me tomorrow. We're going to talk about the debt cycle. I alluded to this a little while ago. We're going to talk about why you fall back into debt.But more importantly, here's the thing I want you to hear tomorrow. I'm going to tell you how to stop going back into debt. It's a show you don't want to miss. So I encourage you. Check it out. Tomorrow.Remember this here can do this. I believe in you. Now go be a financially confident Christian. God bless you. You have a great day today.