After almost two decades of watching clients struggle with traditional budgeting advice, one pattern became impossible to ignore: the advice itself was creating the problem.

Track every dollar. Cut spending wherever possible. Follow this exact plan. The advice was restrictive, rigid, and built on the assumption that everyone should manage money the same way. No wonder people felt like failures when they couldn't stick with it.

For years, coaches and advisors have been teaching a different framework to clients who finally experienced their "this makes sense" moment. The Plan Ahead Method™ worked because it focused on understanding spending instead of judging it. Planning for it instead of reacting to it. Creating clarity without adding more rules to follow.

The system helped thousands of people stabilize the chaos in their financial lives. But the name never captured what made it different. It sounded like every other budgeting method out there.

That changes now. The Plan Ahead Method™ is officially SpendFirst®. And this represents more than new branding.

SpendFirst® means something specific: stabilize the chaos in your financial life first so you can focus on everything else. Most financial advice responds to chaos with restriction. 

SpendFirst® flips that. It helps people get their spending under control first, remove the overwhelm first, align their spending with their goals first. Then they watch how that transforms their entire relationship with money.

If you've been teaching the Plan Ahead Method™ with clients, this episode gives you clarity on what's evolving and how it positions your practice. If you're looking for a proven framework that clients actually stick with, this is your introduction to a system that's about to reach a much wider audience and create a category coaches can build their identity around.

This isn't about helping one client at a time anymore. This is about a movement that changes how people see, save, and spend their money.

Links & Resources:

• How to Create Buy-in: Designing Financial Experiences that Stick
• Join the Facebook group

Key Takeaways:

1. People don't struggle with money because they're bad at saving; they struggle because spending feels chaotic and overwhelming.
2. The SpendFirst® Method focuses on stabilizing the part of your financial life with the most movement: your spending. When you plan for spending instead of reacting to it, you create the mental space to focus on everything else.
3. SpendFirst® means putting a system in place for your spending first, not spending recklessly. It's about understanding spending patterns, not judging them, so clients can align their money with who they are and what they want.
4. The best tools are the ones that get used consistently. A method only works if people actually stick with it, which is why flexibility and humanity matter more than perfection.
5. When you're building something meaningful, there's an element of stubbornness that serves you well. What looks like stubbornness might actually be your commitment to creating something that aligns with your vision.
6. SpendFirst® isn't just a budgeting method. It's a mindset shift that helps people see money differently. The goal is to change how people see, save, and spend their money by giving them a clearer, kinder, and more human approach.
7. High standards take time, and that's okay. The pace at which something happens doesn't matter as much as staying true to your vision and refusing to settle for half-assed solutions.