You know what you want your money to do. Maybe it's $500 set aside for emergencies, or the card paid off by summer. Then payday comes, and the car, the groceries, a friend's birthday and maybe a school trip all get paid first. Your goal gets whatever is left, and most months that's nothing.

So why do women struggle to prioritise their financial goals, even when we know exactly what we want? I think most of the answer is in the order things get paid on payday. I'd love to show you why your goal keeps ending up last, and three small ways to give it a turn first, starting with $10.

Why your financial goals end up last on the list

Think about everything that gets paid on payday. The rent has a due date, and the phone company sends a reminder. The school trip comes home with a form and a date at the bottom. Each one has a date on it, and often a person waiting for it.

Now think about your goal. It has no due date, no reminder and nobody waiting by the phone for it. If you skip it for a month, nobody else will notice. So it gets moved to next month, and then to the month after that. Does that sound familiar?

It gets harder again if you're the person everyone leans on. The list of other people's things is longer, and those things are right in front of you, while your goal is a number in your head. I'd put most of the struggle down to that order, and very little of it down to you.

What it feels like

"I know exactly what I want. So why do I keep not doing it? Maybe I'm just not a money person."

What is happening

Everything else on payday has a due date or a person waiting. Your goal has neither, so it gets paid last, from whatever is left.

Do you know what's left for your goal this payday?

The free Overspending Recovery Kit starts with one page for your balance and the bills due before your next payday, and it takes about ten minutes.

Get the free kit

Is it selfish to put your own goal first?

For some women, this is the harder part. Moving money to your own goal before the school shoes are bought can feel a bit selfish, even when the shoes will still get bought that week. Have you ever felt that?

I'd look at it another way. Say the car breaks down next month and there's $50 set aside. With that $50, the car gets fixed and everyone gets where they need to go, and that includes you!

If putting yourself last feels like something you learned growing up, breaking the money patterns you inherited from your parents looks at where that can start.

Pin on a white background: the words Why your goal keeps getting paid last in large navy type, the line and 3 small steps to put it first, an illustrated woman writing in a notebook at a small desk, and a teal button reading see the 3 steps.
Pin this to your money board

How to prioritise your financial goals when everyone needs you

Here are three small steps. Each one gives your goal what the bills already have: a name, a date, an amount, and a plan for the payday you dip into the money.

1. Give your goal a name and a date

Write your goal down like a bill, with a name, an amount and a date. "Emergency money, $10, every payday" is plenty. Then put it in your calendar on payday, right next to the rent.

I like giving it a real name, because "savings" is easy to skip and "car repairs" is something you can picture. Which name would you pick for yours?

Your goal gets a name, a date and an amount, the same as the bills.

2. Move it first, and keep it small

On payday morning, before the groceries or anything else, move $10 into a separate account with your goal's name on it. Because it goes first, it can't end up as whatever is left.

Does $10 sound too small to bother with? It's small on purpose, so there's still enough in your pay for everything else and you hardly miss it. After five paydays, it looks like this.

$10every payday
5paydays
$50for your goal

If your goal is emergency money, building an emergency fund one small step at a time walks through what comes after the first $50.

3. Plan for the payday you dip into your goal money

Some months you'll need the money, because the dentist sends a bill or the washing machine stops working. That's what it's there for, so that's ok.

When it happens, write down what you used it for. Then move $10 again on the next payday and carry on from there.

Of the three steps, this is the one I'd keep if you could only keep one. Hard months come along for everyone, and somehow never in a week with money to spare! Having a plan for them makes it much easier to come back to your goal afterwards.

If you'd like a regular time to check on your goal (fifteen minutes and a cup of tea is enough), I'd try a monthly money date.

So, to sum up

  1. Give it a name and a dateWrite your goal down like a bill, with a name, an amount and payday as its date.
  2. Move it firstMove $10 on payday morning, before anything else gets paid.
  3. Plan for the payday you dip inIf you use the money, write down what for, and move $10 again on the next payday.

Action steps

1. In the next ten minutes, write your goal's name and $10 in your calendar on your next payday.

2. This week, open a separate savings account, or a savings space in your banking app if it has one, and give it your goal's name.

3. On payday morning, move the first $10 before anything else gets paid.

Want to find room for your goal's $10 before payday?

The free Overspending Recovery Kit starts with one page for your balance, the bills due before your next payday and one thing to do about it, and it takes about ten minutes. Your goal's $10 could be that one thing.

Get the free Overspending Recovery KitFree. Eight pages, on screen or printed.

Tell me how you go

What would you name your goal, and what usually gets paid before it? Tell me in the comments, because I really love hearing how you went.

Beth x

This is general education, not legal, tax or financial advice.