Money – and the conversation surrounding it – has both an emotional and an action side. Emotions and patterns fuel our views about money, while our actions regarding money physically affect our bank account.
It can be easy to throw our hands up in the air and give up when we find ourselves in undesirable circumstances. We can succumb to always making the same amount, always being in debt and never seeming to create wealth. We can get anxious, freak out and have a complete melt down. We can ignore our credit card bills when they come in the mail. We can pretend we don’t care.
Or…
We can reclaim our relationship with money. We can break our old patterns. We can tackle our financial issues with patience, perseverance and positivity.
How do we do this?
Well first we have to clean house. We have to get our emotional stuff sorted out before we can even think about taking any action.
Below you’ll find my approach to conquering my finances. Note how I really emphasize coming from a place of openness and abundance first so that you can later take the right necessary action.
The Emotion Side
Step One: Know that you are valuable.
Regardless of whether you’re in debt up to your eyeballs, living in your parents’ basement or working a measly hourly job you have to be very clear on one thing: you have to know that you are valuable. You have to believe in abundance. You have to get in a mind set where you are confident about your finances regardless of what is going on right now.
Without this sense of knowing it will be very hard to get a handle on your finances. You won’t be able to forgive yourself for getting into debt. You’ll become anxious, manipulative and controlling instead of coming from a place where you can witness the money issue for what it is and then come up with solutions
I know I’m beating a dead horse here, but we cannot allow our outside circumstances dictate what we think. Instead, we need to change the internal conversation so we can truly have better outward experiences. It’s no different when it comes to money.
Step Two: Understand your relationship with money.
Money is a lot romantic relationships. It’s great, it’s wonderful and it can really enrich your life – if you treat it with respect and understanding. It also comes with a lot of old patterns, hang ups and attachments.
The good news is, that, just like in romantic relationships you can change your views and patterns about money. It may take some work, but Terri Cole has an awesome resource you can use to figure out your financial blueprint. Once you have figured this out you can start seeing where some of your patterns come from.
Maybe you have a lot of consumer debt because you saw your parents putting things on shiny plastic. Maybe you grew up with less money than your classmates so you always have an underlying sense of lack. Whatever the case, as soon as we find our blueprint we can start changing it.
Step Three: Cultivate patience.
After you’ve changed your mindset you have to cultivate some patience. Money problems don’t get fixed from one day to the next – it just doesn’t happen. In fact, it could be a while before you truly have financial independence. So what do you do?
Well, we’ve already learned that we need to change our internal conversation. We also learned that once we figure out our financial blue print so we can notice our patterns around money and begin to change them.
Now you just need a heaping dose of patience.
There’s an awesome line from A Course in Miracles that really pulls all three of these steps together:
”Those who are certain of the outcome can afford to wait and wait without anxiety.” ~ A Course in Miracles
If you come from a place of positivity and knowing that you are abundant, you can come at your money problems as a witness to find solutions. Once you start putting those solutions into place you have to be patient to reap the rewards.
Is it tough? Absolutely.
Just remember to bring your mind back to the positive whenever you find yourself freaking out about your finances. It makes a world of difference when you’re sorting stuff out.
The Action Side
Okay, so you’ve done some work to clean house in regard to your funky emotional money stuff. Now we can get down to the practical nitty gritty stuff. You know – the bills and the budgeting.
Step Four: Figure out how much money you’ve actually got coming in.
How much do you make on a monthly basis? How about weekly? No, seriously, how much? Is it just a base salary or do you get commissions, bonuses or tips? How much do you roughly get in commissions?
You’d be surprised how many people I interview can’t tell me how much they make. It’s not good people! How are you supposed to know where you’re money is running off to without first knowing what’s coming in!?!?
Sit down, figure out what you’re actually bringing home (let’s not forget about gross and net income) and write it down somewhere.
Step Five: Figure out where your money is going.
Pull out your bank statements, get out the credit cards, whip out those bills and find out what you are roughly spending each month.
How much are you spending on groceries? Are you eating out a lot? What’s your regular cell phone bill? How much do you owe on the credit cards? What are you paying in interest? Car payments? Your car insurance? (If you don’t have a car see how much you’re spending on public transit) What do you spend on miscellaneous items?
Figure it out. Write down. Compare it to how much is coming in.
What do you see? Are you in the red month after month? Where is your money going?
Once you figure this out you can move on to step three.
Step Six: Where can you make some cuts?
Chances are you’re spending too much money somewhere. How do I know? Because we all do this.
First check your bills to see where you can make some spending cuts. Maybe you can start cooking at home more rather than buying lunch. Maybe you can buy less clothes on a monthly bases. Maybe you aren’t really using your Netflix account so you can cancel it. Remember, even little things make a big difference.
Step Seven: Check in on your fees.
How many of you have fallen victim to some random fee you didn’t know about or ask for? I’m guessing about 90% of you have your hands raised.
Check your bills on a regular basis to see if you’re being charged for things you are unaware of (this used to happen to me all the time with a big bank and a large phone service provicder). Once you have identified these fees start calling billing departments to remove the stuff. Ramit Sethi of I Will Teach You To Be Rich has some great scripts for this stuff. You’d be surprised at how much money you’re wasting on these useless fees.
Step Eight: Side Hustle
Sorting your finances isn’t just about paying down debt and covering your bills, it’s also about building wealth. One of the best ways to pay down debt faster or start giving yourself a financial cushion is by side hustling. After all, who said you had to depend on a regular paycheck from your day job?
There are a lot of really great ways you can make extra money. From freelancing to selling old stuff on Craig’s list, it’s really never been easier to make some extra cash. If you need some ideas check out this amazing list from The Simple Dollar, 50 Side Businesses You Can Start on Your Own.
Try a Money Meditation
Financial problems don’t have to keep us from living our best lives. By changing our mind set and taking practical action steps we can begin to solve our money issues immediately. If you need a little boost feel free to check out this free Money Meditation from Tenderlogic. It’ll help you get clear on your feelings surrounding money. Danielle LaPorte also has excellent advice about feelings and money in her book The Fire Starter Sessions.
Here’s to a beautiful and abundant financial future for all of us!
