Financial Wellness - Practical Money Strategies (Recording)

Personal Finances are one of the main causes of stress and family conflicts. Become aware of your relationship with money. Learn how to create a healthy financial plan to sustain your intentional lifestyle. Stop living paycheck to paycheck. It's time to get a fresh start & explore new ideas. Ready?

Transcript

Hello,

Everybody.

Welcome back to another session.

My name is Emilio José García and welcome to Your Thriving Lifestyle.

That's how I like to call this show,

These live sessions.

Today's topic is financial wellness.

And I would like to share with you some practical tips around money.

This was a request that I had from a member here.

But before doing that,

I think it's very important to really connect with how do you feel about money?

What is your relationship with money?

So before we get started,

Let's just do a little practice.

So I invite you to close your eyes.

I invite you to just breathe comfortably and deeply.

And now I want you to focus your attention in how do you feel with money?

How do you feel with your financial situation right now?

What kind of feelings and emotions come up for you when I mention the word money,

Finances?

What is it?

What do you feel?

What beliefs did you learn about money when you were little from your family,

From the people around you?

Maybe you always heard the sentence like money doesn't grow on trees.

It's really hard to make money.

You need to hold on to your money because you will need it in the future.

Or maybe you had a relationship where money flow in and out of your life very easily and your family never had problems with money.

So I think it's important to understand what's going on with you when it comes to your emotional state around money.

Because if we don't do this work,

If you don't take the time to really think about this,

It's very difficult to implement strategies.

It's very difficult to create strategies that you are going to be able to follow.

And deep inside,

If you,

For example,

Feel that you don't deserve to have money or that money is going to make you a bad person or anything like that,

Or that making money equals being a slave and not having free time to do things that you love.

If you have any of these kind of beliefs,

You are going to self-sabotage yourself when money comes into your life because you will not accept it.

So that's why it's important to really be honest with yourself about what is my relationship with money?

What's coming up for me when I hear the word money,

Finances?

And it's very important to accept what comes up,

Even if you don't like it.

And then once you can see what's in there and you can accept it,

Then I invite you to question everything.

Question the beliefs that you have.

Just ask,

Is this true?

Is this really true?

Or is this something that I learned that I can change?

And then by doing this work,

You're going to start becoming aware.

You're going to start shifting your mindset,

Shifting your beliefs,

And looking at your financial situation with different eyes.

And then you're going to be able to open your mind to new ideas,

New opportunities for you to change your situation around money.

Okay?

So guys,

What came up for you?

Feel free to open your eyes.

And I would like you to share what came up for you doing this practice.

What emotions?

What feelings?

What would you say is your relationship with money?

What are some of the beliefs behind how you feel?

So Amy says,

My chest clenched the second you said money.

Thank you so much for sharing and for noticing that.

Freedom and security,

Fear of not having enough.

I just want to let you guys know that anything that comes up for you,

Please don't judge it.

Don't criticize it.

Don't be hard on yourself.

Just create a little container where you are putting those emotions in there and just notice them.

Okay?

We don't have to do anything with them right now.

It's hard to earn money and keep money.

Thank you.

Thank you for sharing that.

Anything else guys that came up for you?

Good,

Bad,

Positive,

Negative,

Comfortable,

Uncomfortable.

So Crystal says,

Enough,

Comfort,

Debt-free,

Thanks for your money or your life.

My father is from Colombia and loaded trucks his whole life.

I made my living off the theater.

He's always worried about me.

Yeah,

Amy,

I feel you.

When I decided to go traveling around the world,

One of the first comments that my dad told me,

Was what's going to happen with your retirement if you leave now and you don't keep working?

Who is going to take care of you when you are older?

And that really struck me because it's like,

Wow,

Like that's fear-based,

Right?

Now I have to worry about what's going to happen in the future.

And it's important to think about your future.

But sometimes life gives you options and possibilities that you can accept and you don't know what's going to happen.

Sometimes you can come back from an experience like that and do something that is going to generate way more money than if you were to stay in the job that you used to do for the rest of your life.

So there is nothing guaranteed.

So it's important to be open and to really connect with yourself.

Another very important thing that I would like you guys to reflect about and maybe share in the comments is,

What would you like to have happen in your financial situation right now?

What is your desired outcome when it comes to finances and money?

And you can frame it in,

How do you want to feel?

How do you want your finances to look like?

And how do you want to feel about the finances?

Are you guys willing to share?

How do you want to feel around the finances?

Because connecting with your desired outcome is going to help you move through the practicality and the steps to manage your money better,

To create strategies,

To have something to look forward.

So Kayla says,

Good morning.

I just retired and fear about money does come up.

If I get out of my own way,

Things come to me easily and better than I ever thought of.

Thank you so much for sharing that.

So someone says,

Be secure and comfortable and not worry about not having to worry about it.

When I got sick,

I went on disability.

I want to contribute much more now that I am with Matthew.

Tremendous guilt.

So Amy,

You feel tremendous guilt because you feel that you have to contribute more.

I want to feel financially secure and confident in how I manage my money.

Beautiful Pam,

I love it.

Crystal says,

I would like to be more generous with friends,

Family and charitable contributions.

Beautiful Crystal,

I love it.

So guys,

Connecting with these outcomes that are exciting to you and connecting with how you are going to feel when you make them a reality or when you are working towards making them a reality is going to be very inspiring and very motivating for you to keep going when things get difficult,

When you are changing your mindset,

Changing your belief systems,

Changing your habits around money.

Okay,

Aaron says,

It's good not to worry about money.

I have learned to let it just flow with being responsible.

Of course.

Aaron,

I love that balance that you mentioned,

Letting it flow but being responsible at the same time.

So you can do both,

Right?

You don't have to be very strict but having some guidelines is really helpful.

Joanna says,

I am an artist.

My father always said I will struggle.

I am happy sometimes.

I have cash sometimes and sometimes less.

I want to be comfortable and have a house.

I want to get a house for free.

I want to manifest that.

I manifested a lot so far.

This is my last goal.

I will make a lot of money with my art and help people through it.

Beautiful,

Joanna.

I really love your vision and I know you are going to make it happen because you have clarity about what you really want and you are giving a lot also.

You are not doing this just for yourself.

You are doing this for a bigger cause and that's normally a really great sign.

So thank you so much for sharing that.

So I made very good money off of my play for years but needed surgery and had no medical insurance.

It was traumatizing.

I ended up homeless and in New York City clinics.

I want to make money off of publishing my play but now I associate trauma with my art.

Thank you so much,

Amy,

For sharing that.

So there is an association of trauma with that art that you want to share.

So of course that's going to trigger you every time you are trying to do that and that's why it's important to work through those emotions and those triggers because if you don't do that work then it's going to be difficult to implement tactics and strategies for you to help you manage your money better and at the end of the day to be more intentional,

Whatever that means to you.

So now that we have talked about this emotional angle about finances and how important that is,

Now it's time for us to move into the practicality of it.

Would you guys like to move into the practical steps on how can we manage money better?

What are some ideas and some strategies to help us make the most out of our money,

To help us create a financial situation where we can feel more comfortable,

We can understand and at the same time we are working through those emotions when they show up,

Okay?

But I feel that every time I am helping someone manage their money better,

Create an organization system around money and finances,

I always start with the same step.

Like what do you want to have happen here,

Okay?

What is your desired outcome?

Once you have this money situation sorted out,

How does that look like and what are you going to be able to do?

And by me understanding that and helping that person connect with that vision,

That's what they need to get excited,

To get motivated,

Okay?

And then to push through,

I will do whatever it takes and I will try whatever it takes to make that a reality,

Okay?

Okay,

So let's get started,

Okay?

So the first thing is to set a goal,

Okay?

To really have an inspiring outcome.

That's the first step.

Then the second step is becoming aware of your current situation,

Okay?

What does that mean?

When it comes to money,

It's just understanding how money flows in and out of your life.

How much money do you make and how much money do you spend and what is the result of that,

Okay?

And this is something that it seems very simple because at the end of the day,

It's just math.

So if you make $3,

000 and you spend $2,

000,

You have $1,

000 left.

If you make $5,

000 and you spend $10,

000 every month,

Then you are on minus $5,

000 a month.

So at the end of the day,

That's just pure math.

So if we remove the emotions and what we believe about money,

Mindset and all that stuff,

At the end of the day,

Money,

Sometimes you can look at it as just simple math,

Okay?

So this is just one example,

Okay?

So you have income is the green arrow here.

That income,

You can have one source of income or maybe you have different sources of income.

And then that money is going to go into an account.

And then from that account,

You're going to have expenses.

You're going to pay for your living expenses.

You're going to pay for,

I don't know,

Rent or a mortgage,

Or maybe you're going to pay for a car.

You're going to pay for groceries.

You're going to pay to go to the gym if you go to the gym.

So you're going to pay to go to restaurants,

Whatever expenses you have.

At the end of the day,

If you made this kind of money,

And then you have these expenses,

You are going to end up having leftover.

So your lifestyle can be sustainable or it can be unsustainable.

Meaning sustainable means that you are on the positives.

So expenses are less than what you make,

Okay?

If you don't have a sustainable lifestyle,

That means that you are spending more money than what you make every month,

Okay?

So understanding that and becoming aware of how is my money flowing throughout my life,

That's important because that's the first step to make sure that the lifestyle that you have is a little bit sustainable.

So how do you become aware?

Because sometimes this is not simple for some people and it's normal.

Sometimes people don't even know how much they make and how much they spend.

And sometimes this happens because the system has become so complicated that sometimes having one place where you understand this is my expenses and this is how much I made and the sum of this is this much,

It's very complicated because maybe you have three credit cards and maybe you have three different accounts and maybe bills are going from different places and then you don't have the clarity about how much do I really have and how much did I spend every month,

Okay?

So that takes me to the other exercise that is very helpful to do.

So the first exercise was to become aware of your current situation.

The best way to do that is to go back to your statements,

To your credit card statements,

Checking statements,

Bill statements,

And really look and make an inventory,

Okay?

This is how much I made and this is how much I spent.

And then I will invite you to start creating categories.

So if you go back one month,

For example,

You will see maybe grocery store bills,

You will see hydro,

You will see rent,

You will see a car payment,

You will see whatever it is in there.

Start thinking in your mind about categories.

Okay,

This is groceries.

Okay,

This is car.

Okay,

This is utilities.

This is insurance.

This is fun.

This is restaurants.

This is gym.

So come up with the categories that make sense to you and start categorizing those movements,

Those transactions,

Okay?

How can you do that?

You can do that pen to paper if you want and a calculator,

But I will recommend that you use a spreadsheet,

Okay?

You can use Google Spreadsheets.

That's free.

You can use Excel.

You can use LibreOffice.

It's a free software similar to Office and it gives you a spreadsheet option.

Why a spreadsheet?

Because you can type the numbers in there and all the sums,

They happen automatically and it's very,

Very helpful and way faster,

Okay?

Once you become aware of those transactions,

Okay?

And I will invite you to go back maybe two months,

Three months,

Sometimes even one year if you can.

The more you go back,

The better picture of your reality you are going to have.

Yeah,

Lisa,

It's LibreOffice.

That's the name of the software that I mentioned.

If you type that on Google,

That's a suite.

It's like Microsoft Office but it's open source.

That means that it's free to use,

Okay?

And you can have access to a spreadsheet in there.

But Google Docs,

Google Sheets is also free and you can just go if you have a Google account and I'm pretty sure app has a similar solution,

Okay?

But when doing this exercise,

You are going to start becoming aware of what is my money situation?

What are my money habits?

And where am I spending my money?

And you're going to be looking at the emotional side of it.

You're also going to be looking at the mathematical side of it.

So understanding how much am I spending in groceries?

How much am I spending in restaurants?

And that's going to help you make an average,

Okay?

So the last person I helped,

She went back the whole year.

And I know that that may sound a little bit overwhelming for some of you.

That's why I will invite you to at least go back one month.

If you can do two or three months,

That's even better.

If you want to take it to the next level and you want to be really intentional,

Go back one full year,

Month by month,

And then create what you really spent and in what.

Once you have that,

You can start making average.

And then you can say,

On average,

I spend $200,

$300 in groceries,

This much in rent,

This much in my car payment,

Whatever that is.

And then at the end,

You can do the sum and then you can create a budget that is realistic,

Okay?

So hopefully,

If you make $5,

000,

Just to say a number,

$5,

000 and you spend $4,

000,

You know that you have $1,

000 left.

If you overspend,

Then you can be intentional and then adjust moving forward from now,

How much money do I want to allow myself to spend in these categories?

What feels good to me?

And then doing the math in that spreadsheet,

You can tweak the numbers until what you make and what you spend is at least equal,

So it's zero.

So that way,

Your lifestyle becomes sustainable,

Meaning that from now on,

You are not overspending,

Okay?

Once you get to that point,

Hopefully,

You can take it to the next level and then save some money too.

So spend less than what you make.

When you get to that point,

Then you can be intentional about what am I doing with the money that I have left over?

And this is where things become fun,

Okay?

So if you make $4,

000 a month,

For example,

And you spend $3,

000 a month,

And then you have $1,

000 that you are not spending,

Now you have the ability to say,

What am I doing with this $1,

000?

Am I going to create an emergency fund?

Am I going to save for a vacation?

Am I going to put it in investments?

Am I going to pay my debt if I have credit card debt or my mortgage or my student loan?

You can start becoming intentional.

And this is the secret,

Guys.

You start becoming intentional.

You start becoming aware of your reality,

And then you start becoming more intentional about your actions in a way that feels good to you,

Okay?

So once you have that,

Then you can also brainstorm ideas,

Okay?

So how can I improve my situation?

And there are different ideas that you can look at.

You can look at how can I save more money every month?

Maybe you can look at your living situation.

Maybe you can look at what is my money going?

Can I tweak that?

Can I change that?

Can I make that more in a different way so that I save money?

Maybe you live in a flat by yourself.

Can you do Airbnb?

Can you sublet a room?

Can you move in back with your parents if you are really struggling?

Like start questioning and thinking about all the ideas that are in front of you that maybe you didn't think of,

All of them.

So one is spending less money.

The other one is making more money,

Okay?

Is there any way for me to make more money,

Okay?

You can do both.

You can spend less and make more.

But again,

You need to come up with a plan that is exciting for you,

Okay?

Because making money just to make money or saving money just to save money with no intention is not fun.

No one wants to do that.

So that's why it's important for you to really connect with that outcome,

Connect with that thing that serves you,

Connect with the reality that you are trying to create for yourself.

In my case,

Something that excites me is every year I want to save enough money to be able to travel for two months.

So my financial plan is designed on 10 months.

So I try to make enough money in 10 months to sustain my lifestyle so that the other two months I can just travel and I don't have to worry.

I also have created an income that is online.

So basically I can keep working where I go because I also enjoy my work.

But sometimes you can create,

I know a lot of seasonal people here that they work during the season,

Maybe summer season,

Maybe it's the winter season,

And then they have a few months off.

And their lifestyle is sustainable just working those months during the season.

They work really hard,

Long hours,

Whatever they need,

But they have a number,

They have an intention,

They have a budget.

And then they work around that budget to sustain themselves for the following months.

And sometimes they go travel,

Sometimes they stay here,

But they do activities they enjoy.

They learn something new,

They go and visit family.

Sometimes they don't even have their own home and they don't have to pay rent.

So there are a lot of different ideas that you can explore.

So far guys,

What's coming up for you with all these ideas?

Is this something that you feel that you can start exploring?

Is this something that is it helpful?

What have you learned so far that you didn't think of?

Yeah,

Arnold says,

Use nature for recreation,

Don't buy expensive coffees,

Limit eating out,

Return items within the month if you don't use them.

Yeah,

So all these are great strategies to be more intentional with your expenses so that you don't end up spending money that you don't want to spend.

At the end of the day,

As I say,

It's all about having a plan that feels good to you,

A plan that you can maintain.

Okay.

So Amy says the power of intention,

Attaching exciting outcomes,

Awareness and not judgment.

Yeah.

Thank you,

Amy.

That's great.

And that's necessary because if you create a plan that is not exciting for you,

How likely are you to follow it?

Are you going to follow it or is it going to be boring for you?

So that's why you have to connect with why am I doing this?

Like if we do what Arnold suggested,

Like if you stop drinking coffees outside and you stop wasting money in things that are not necessary,

Okay,

What are you going to do with the money that you save?

And how is this situation going to be better for you?

And how is this going to be more exciting to you?

Okay.

Nothing feels better than having money over at the end of the month.

Yeah,

Arnold,

Absolutely.

Pam says,

I like the idea of being more intentional with how I want to spend it versus guilt whenever I am spending.

Yeah,

Absolutely.

So,

So far guys,

The strategies were very simple,

But sometimes people have a hard time implementing them.

And I have to say,

For example,

Credit cards are designed,

I believe they are designed to make things confusing because credit cards allow you to spend money that you don't have.

It doesn't show on your check-ins account.

So you have to connect to a different,

To a different like screen to see how much you spend there.

So coming up with how much you have spent and how much you have,

It becomes more complicated.

Okay.

It becomes more complicated.

So that's why doing a diagram to understand how your money flows in and out,

Having clarity about how many accounts do you have?

What is your money going when you get paid?

What kind of credit cards do you have?

How do you reconcile them every month?

Having a diagram that you can follow and it's,

It's,

You understand the system,

It's important to make your money flow and to create a system that,

That works for you.

So this is one example,

For example,

Maybe you have one or two sources of income,

And then that goes into a check-ins account.

Before it goes there,

You can pay yourself first.

And this is a,

I read something in the chat.

I think it was Anon,

But this is a concept that means that when you get paid,

Part of that money,

Part of that money goes away.

So you don't see that money.

So for example,

If you make $4,

000 a month,

Just to say a number,

Maybe you decide that 1000 is going to go away and you only get paid 3000.

So that means that that thousand dollars,

You can choose what to do with it.

Maybe you are saving for a home.

Maybe you are putting in investments.

Maybe you are saving for a vacation.

Okay.

So you decide how you make that money flow.

You decide the percentage.

Okay.

And then you decide what,

How many accounts do you need to have?

Okay.

What is your money going to be moved into?

And when you create this diagram,

For some people,

This is very difficult to create because their financial life is very chaotic and they don't really understand it either.

That's why this is a very nice awareness piece.

This is kind of like a mind map about your finances.

And it's you thinking about,

Okay,

I get paid.

Where does that money go?

Okay.

It goes to this account of this bank.

Okay.

How do I pay my bills?

Okay.

From this account,

How many credit cards do I have?

Three,

Two,

One,

Five.

Okay.

You put them in there and then you start understanding how your money works.

Okay.

Paying yourself first,

It's really important because if you make your money and the money goes to one account,

And then at the end of the month,

You spend all that money,

You will never be ahead of the game.

You will never be able to save anything.

But if you pay yourself first,

If you move some of that money when you get paid and move it into a separate account that you don't have cash connected to it,

That's when you can start building up whatever you want.

I would recommend having an emergency fund that maybe covers your lifestyle for maybe three to six months,

Maybe up to a year if you want.

And then you can create a savings account to buy a home,

To buy a new car,

To go on vacation.

Okay.

You can create different savings accounts.

For example,

In my own situation with my wife,

What we do,

We have our business account and we have our personal account.

Okay.

Business gets invoices,

We get paid through our courses,

Insight Timer pays us.

So we have different sources of income and all that income goes into our RBC account.

RBC is Royal Bank.

That's the bank that we use here.

That's our business account.

And we have a debit and a credit card associated with that.

So every time we go outside and we buy something for the business,

We will use the business card to pay for that.

And then at the end of the month,

We close the month and we know how much money we spent and how much money we made.

And then we do the sum.

Okay.

For personal,

We have our personal account.

We have a check-ins account that is shared with Samantha and with myself.

And then the business account will pay us enough money to sustain our lifestyle to our personal account.

And in that personal account,

We have,

I think,

Four or five savings account right now.

We use Tangerine.

And Tangerine here in Canada allows you to have different savings account and you can even rename them.

So we have an account that is called Vacation.

And every month we put some money in Vacation.

And we made an average.

How much money do we want to save on a monthly basis to be able to go to Spain,

To go to travel?

So every month we put X amount of money in there.

That makes sense for us.

We have a car account.

Right now we don't have a car,

But we still pay for car rental and stuff.

So we have a car account.

We have an investments account.

So we just put some money there for the future.

And we don't touch that money.

And then we have an EVA account for our daughter.

And then we put money aside every month for her.

So those are the different savings accounts that we have.

And then the check-in account is the one that pays all the monthly bills.

So as you see,

It is very clear for us to go to that check-in account and to understand how much money we have left.

Okay.

And also we guarantee that everything else is taken care of because we have done those movements prior to us spending that money.

So that's a system that we have and we feel comfortable using.

In your case,

You need to create a system that makes sense to you.

Okay.

So Erin says,

I know someone who squirrels away all of their $5 bills in stacks of 100 in a hiding spot in their house.

They use it for unexpected expenses that come up.

Amazing.

That's a nice way to create an emergency fund.

An emergency fund is a fund that you have for when an unexpected expense comes up.

For example,

Your car break down and you have a $3,

000 repair that you didn't account for.

Or maybe you have an accident and all of a sudden you need an operation and that costs you X.

Or you have to go to the dentist and that's not covered by your insurance and then you have to pay $3,

000 or $1,

000.

Those are unexpected expenses that sometimes is necessary to pay and you didn't account for.

So Cecilia says,

I got a credit card after 34 years.

I paid off every month.

I went through bankruptcy so I spent only what I had.

Cecilia,

Amazing.

Thank you for sharing that.

Aaron says,

I usually use debit card used as a credit card and then I cannot spend more than I have.

That's an amazing strategy that I was going to talk about.

Aaron,

Thank you for sharing.

For those of you who are having a hard time or maybe you are working through changing your money habit or maybe you want to become aware of how you spend your money,

A great way to do it at the beginning for maybe a month or two months or whatever time frame you feel is comfortable for you,

I will stop using credit card and I will start using cash.

Yeah,

It sounds crazy,

But guys,

If you don't know where your money is going,

You can go to the bank,

You can get some cash and then you can use the envelope system and you can start setting the intention.

Okay,

This envelope is going to be for groceries and I think $200 or $300 is going to be enough.

This envelope is going to be for restaurants.

This envelope is going to be for,

It sounds a little bit like a lot of work,

But when you are touching cash,

When you are counting what you have and when you are spending physical money that you understand how much is left,

It's going to help you become aware.

It's going to help you set boundaries and it's going to help you avoid overspending because a credit card is very convenient.

You tap,

Tap,

Tap and then at the end of the month,

You may encounter like,

Wow,

I spent like way more than I anticipated and I didn't even know I did that.

So those are some strategies that,

Again,

Take the ones that you feel comfortable,

Give them a try with an open mind.

Sometimes only using checking and debit cards can be a really good solution.

You could create a checking account that is just a fun checking account and you have a debit card associated with that account.

That's only for you to use for fun stuff.

Okay?

So everything else is taken care of.

You are paying for your mortgage,

For your bills,

For your car,

Everything is happening.

But then that's the account that you use for fun and you don't even have to look at it.

But every time you use your checking,

Your debit card,

You will see how much money is left.

And when you run out of money,

That's it.

You cannot spend anything else,

But everything else is covered.

So you have groceries,

You are paying your bills and your life is sustainable.

Okay?

So that's another approach that I have seen that works really well for some people.

Okay?

Anon says,

It feels very secure to know what your money is being used for and not feeling like you just want to ignore.

I learned the hard way.

I never used to be this way.

So Anon,

Thank you so much for sharing and congratulations on being able to change.

Amy says,

I use envelopes,

Cash,

A notebook and pen to climb my way out of homelessness.

Yeah,

Guys.

Thank you,

Amy.

Using a journal is also a great way to keep track of how you use your money.

If you have a journal,

You can get a little money notebook that fits in your pocket with a little pen.

And then every time you spend money,

You will write it there.

And again,

I know it sounds like a lot of work,

But guys,

If you are trying to become intentional,

You will do this work for maybe one week,

Two weeks,

Maybe one month.

Once you become aware,

Once you create a budget,

Once you have a little bit of a process going that you understand,

You will not need to do this every single day.

Like in our case,

For example,

Samantha and I,

We created that system.

We track our expenses for every month we track them.

So we have a really good idea of our money expenses,

Our money habits.

We set some healthy boundaries in this is how much we want to spend in restaurant.

This is how much we are aiming to spend in groceries.

And sometimes it's a little bit more,

A little bit less,

But there is a clear guideline and we know how much that is.

So now we don't have to be counting every single thing that we use.

We know already and we can see,

Okay,

This month we are here.

So maybe we should slow down on going to restaurants or you know what,

This month we can go more.

So you know what I mean?

You start becoming aware of your situation and then you start being more mindful about how you spend your money.

So a therapist helped me for free,

20 minutes,

Three times a week.

She said,

I know you will pay it forward,

Amy,

When you have a $500 saved for medical emergencies.

That was very kind of her,

Amy.

So I don't say the system in two US and lack of money education in US school is shocking.

Yeah.

So something else I want to talk about is the tools that we have available when it comes to managing our money.

So you can do it with a spreadsheet.

You can do it pen to paper.

You can also use apps.

There are some apps that allow you to connect all your credit cards and bank accounts into one place.

And those apps will help you have the clarity of how much money do I have and how much money have I spent.

Those apps are really good if you are a tech person and you enjoy using your device and your computer and you want to start setting boundaries.

Those applications are really great because you can set budgets.

You can set categories and you can set a boundary.

For example,

You can categorize all your expenses and you can create a restaurants category,

Activities category,

A groceries category.

And then as you spend money,

You start categorizing those transactions into the categories that you have set.

Once the program detects,

If you say,

I want to spend maximum $300 in groceries a month,

For example,

Or $100 a week,

You will set that and then when the application sees that you are spending more,

It will send you a notification.

So that's a great way for you to become aware of like,

Oh,

Wow,

I reached my budget.

So I have to be mindful for the rest of this week or for the rest of this month.

So then you will start becoming more resourceful.

Is there anything I have in the fridge,

In the freezer?

Can I make do until next month?

Or maybe I need to increase my budget because it's not realistic.

And then you start learning and tweaking and creating a system that when you repeat that a few months,

It's going to become a really good and intentional way of managing money for you.

So that's a great way.

Some apps that come to mind like Mint,

M-I-N-T is one that I used in the past and I liked it.

There are many other ones that you can explore.

But the idea here is that you have an app that everything connects to it.

So all your bank accounts,

All your credit cards connect to that app and then you can see everything in one place.

And that's the secret,

To be able to see all your expenses from different sources in one place so that you understand where you are standing this month.

When you are trying to be mindful and become aware,

Being able to check that,

For example,

If I am on the day 12 of the month,

Being able to know how much money have I spent in the different categories so far is really helpful to know where you are standing.

So these are some of the strategies that I wanted to share with you today.

Again,

The three main steps that I want you to remember is they are the first one is to really become aware.

Awareness.

How do you feel about money?

What kind of money beliefs do you have?

Question them.

Are they true?

Do you need to change them?

Do you need to change the meaning that you have about money?

And then after that,

Understand the desired outcome that you have with your finances and create a plan that makes sense to you,

That is exciting to you,

Motivating to you.

Once you have worked on that awareness piece,

Then the action piece,

Taking action means start implementing these ideas,

Start tracking your expenses,

Start creating a budget,

Start closing the month at least once a month.

You close the month so that you know how much money you made,

How much money you spent,

And then you tweak whatever you need to tweak to make your lifestyle sustainable and hopefully start paying out debt and start saving money for things that are meaningful to you.

And the step three is maintaining.

Once you have a good process and a good system,

You have to make sure that you maintain that at least once a month you check in with all the finances.

Okay?

So Emilio,

Do these apps work for Samantha?

I think I'm more like her,

Notebook and colored pens.

Yeah,

Amy,

As I was saying,

Samantha,

She didn't like having to go to the phone and do that every week,

But we did do this together for one month.

Okay?

We both did try this system together for one month,

But then she discovered like,

I don't like doing this.

I don't like having to categorize my expenses.

So how we do it,

We have a receipt for every transaction that we have,

And we pin that receipt in a board that we have here in the kitchen,

In the kitchen closet.

So we open that,

We have a big board with pins,

And then we have the different categories,

And then we pin the receipt in there.

So,

And at the end of the month,

We will get all those receipts and we will type them into the spreadsheet.

And we probably spend like an hour doing that once a month.

And then we have the clarity about how much money we made,

How much money we spent,

And then do we need to change our behavior for next month?

Is there anything we need to tweak?

Maybe we can spend more,

Maybe we have to spend less.

And then we become aware of our situation,

And then we move forward with whatever intention makes sense for us.

Okay?

But yeah,

Absolutely.

You can use notebook and pen if that's more easier for you,

And if that's what you resonate with.

Okay?

So Erin says,

I have a finance section in my journal binder and the math helps keep my mind sharp.

Yeah.

Erin says that she has a section in her journal,

And then she actually does the math sometimes by hand,

Or maybe you use a calculator,

But that's going to help you be aware of your expenses.

So guys,

These are some of the strategies that I wanted to share.

I hope that they were helpful.

I hope that you can take some of these and start creating more intention in your financial life.

And as always,

Don't forget the emotional side of things.

Okay?

Sometimes doing the math is not just doing the math.

Doing the math is doing the math plus coping with everything that's coming up for you when you are doing that math.

Maybe you are feeling guilty.

Maybe you are excited.

Maybe you feel that you have to do more.

You know what I mean?

Lots of stuff are coming up when you are doing this process.

So just be gentle with yourself and remember that this is not just a numbers game.

This is also an emotional game.

And you just have to allow for time and space to change your beliefs,

To tweet them,

To notice them.

And slowly you start changing your habits.

You start changing the relationship that you have with money,

The meaning that you place on money,

What money means to you.

And hopefully that will change how money flows in and out of your life.

Okay?

Anon says,

Apps and spreadsheets don't work for me.

I keep it simple,

Pen,

Paper,

And know my budget.

Yeah,

Anon.

Again,

Like sometimes you know what the best way for you is.

You know what the best way that you learn.

And sometimes that's not technology and that's not a spreadsheet.

And that's okay.

You can just use pen and paper and calculator like my parents used to do it.

And that's fine.

That works.

And you can do that anywhere.

So Amy says,

Emilio,

My two cents.

I think getting clear on my spiritual belief system around finances is the main reason I could make good money off of my art and still do a lot of service work.

Giving back to the universe freely.

Yeah.

That's beautiful,

Amy.

And again,

That's the meaning that you place for you,

That spiritual meaning,

That giving back,

That knowing that you are helping a lot of people through your art.

That's what inspires you maybe to like take care of your finances and make sure that your financial life is in order.

Whatever it takes you to do that is just beautiful and perfect.

So that's going to be different for each of you.

And that's why there needs to be some reflection that you do.

There has to be some time for you to really get clear about why am I doing this in the first place?

What am I looking for to get out of this system and process?

What are the benefits that I'm looking for after investing this time with my finances?

And really get clear on what that is for you because that's going to help you stay motivated and be more intentional with what you want.

Okay.

Pam says,

Thank you,

Emilio.

I feel more motivated and inspired to take action on these steps to manage my finances better.

Amy says,

Absolutely.

It helps me receive right now too.

Very hard for me while I focus on my health.

Yeah.

I like the phrase I learned,

God is in the numbers even though I am not religious.

Yeah.

Sometimes God doesn't have to be God.

It's just something bigger than you.

It's the universe.

It's the energy.

It's the source.

It's something that is bigger than you and your emotions and your belief systems.

That's what sometimes is more important.

Anon says,

It's very emotional now.

I love dealing with money in a good way.

I feel supported now since I learned to respect money as an energy.

Yeah.

Anon,

I love that.

Money is energy.

It comes in,

It goes out,

And it just flows in and out of your life.

And sometimes we don't let it flow the way it's supposed to because we are fearful,

Because we believe we don't deserve it,

Because maybe someone told us that money is evil.

And if you have too much,

You're going to become this person that you won't like.

There are a lot of belief systems that can be associated to money.

And that's why I think it's important to look at that side before you create a practical system to follow.

Yeah.

Okay,

Guys.

Thank you so much for being here.

Let's finish the session with another little practice before you guys go.

I invite you to just get comfortable.

Close your eyes.

Just take a couple of deep breaths with me.

And just think about after this session,

After what I shared,

After the things that you learned,

What do you feel inspired to do next?

What step feels right to you next?

Just check in with yourself.

See what comes up for you.

And once you kind of feel what that is for you,

I will invite you to start taking action.

Okay?

If that step is to maybe get a notebook and a pen,

Put it in your paper,

And maybe set a reminder in your phone daily so that you start noticing and keeping track of where your money is going,

I invite you to start doing that.

If you feel inspired to maybe get your computer and go to a coffee place and then log into your bank statement and maybe do an inventory of where your money went in the past month and then create a budget around that,

Then do that.

If you feel inspired to leave your credit cards behind for a week and just use checking or maybe just cash,

Then just do that.

Okay?

Just trust your instinct.

You don't have to do everything all at once.

Just get started with the next step that feels good to you.

Okay?

Whatever that is for you.

So guys,

Thank you so much for being here.

As always,

I love your presence.

I love your energy.

And I really like just being in this space twice a week with you guys.

It really lights my day up and makes me feel really,

Really well because I feel that I am sharing and I am creating energy,

All of us together.

And hopefully there is a ripple effect coming out of all of this that will benefit all of us.

So thank you so much for being here.

I hope that you guys have an amazing rest of the day.

And I will see you on Thursday,

Where we are going to be talking about social media and your digital life.

And we're going to be talking about strategies and tips to be more intentional in that area of your life.

Okay?

Until then,

You know where to find me.

You know I have courses available.

And you know that I have tracks that you can listen to.

So get going,

Doing what you feel well doing.

And just take action on your next step,

Whatever that is for you.

Okay?

Adios,

Guys.

Reviews

As someone with ADHD money has always been a nightmare for me. I did run a monthly budget spreadsheet for years but went through great tragedy in 2021 and gave up caring. I've recently been learning about dopamine and impulsive spending which I have a huge problem with and have developed my own tools to help me. I've just set up a folder to keep track of bills and my spreadsheet is ready to go.
My takeaway from this talk was the missing ingredient, the intention and focusing on why I need to take control, what it means to me and what I will be able to do or not do once I get on top of it so this has been very important. I now have motivation and determination to act upon my preparations to get back on track and it helped just hearing everything even though we all know it is simple maths it helped to hear in this way and also to acknowledge the emotion attached and to add some to help keep find a greater reason to push forward.
Thank you.