All posts by SeattleMoneyCoach

Work, Time, and Money: Does more money equal less personal time?

Practical Money Path

I’ve taught many classes on conquering underearning. And one common belief that comes up for women time and again is the assumption that if you made better money, you would have to work harder and have less personal time.

Our time is precious to us. I get it! We want time for our ourselves, time for our families, time for our lives. Work has to fit into our life and not lead to burnout. But is this assumption true that earning more money means we must work more hours? 

I was musing this question when the Sunday Seattle Times showed up in my inbox. In it was Parade Magazine, a newspaper magazine carried by many U.S. newspapers. They were doing their popular annual report called “What People Earn in 2020”, where they survey people across the United States, and ask them what they do and how much they make. 

The range is pretty astonishing, and fascinating. But what struck me when I was reading through it was the different amounts people earned for doing pretty much the same amount of work. For example, there was a 58-year-old school nurse who earned $44,000 a year, a 57-year-old social worker who earned $67,000 a year and a 57-year-old meteorologist who earned $83,840 a year. All worked full time. All women. All in the Midwest. 

Does the woman who is the school district nurse work hard? Absolutely! That is a difficult, and sometimes under appreciated job. What about the social worker or the meteorologist? They work hard too. All women spend their days working with people and are engaged in many different activities. All put in their hours. But one makes $43,840 more than the other. If you are going to work 40 hours a week, why not choose something you like that also makes great money? 

The dilemma is that many women assume that if they earn a higher salary, it would mean they had to work more and hence have less personal time.

Barbara Stanny, in her classic book Secrets of Six Figure Women, commented on this belief that more money equaled less personal time. She assumed that women who made really good money must all be workaholics. But what she found was quite different. In fact, a majority of women who earned over $100,000 a year worked forty hours a week or LESS. “It was the intensity of focus on their work, not the number of hours they spend doing it, that factored so heavily into these women’s financial success.” 

In other words, if you work hard during your “work” time, you will free yourself up during your non work time. I find this to be very true in my own work life. When I am working, I do nothing else. Being self-employed, this can be challenging. But I silence alerts on my phone, turn off my email, and focus intensely on my work for a certain period of time.  I believe this compartmentalizing of work and personal time is a key to maintaining balance and a sense of “having a life” outside of work. 

But the women in the Parade article were not self-employed. They were all salaried and they all worked full-time. 

I find that the answer to this riddle often goes all the way to college when most of us did not ask the question, “How much money could I make if I studied this?”  We often choose our career without thought of our future earning potential.

Again, if you are going to work 40 hours a week, why not pick a career that pays well? Also, how high- pressured of a career are you considering? Will the career you choose demand more than full time hours? All of these are important considerations for something as important as the career you choose.  The intersection of time and money is always worthy of deep reflection. 

For most of us, college was a long time ago. So now we need to examine our assumptions and see how they impact us.

When we assume something (more money will mean more work) it robs us of looking thoughtfully at many possibilities. Unexamined assumptions kill our creativity. 

Many years ago when I was married, my husband was offered a job that paid more with a different company. But after investigating the time demands and work culture of this other company, he turned it down. He decided the extra money was not worth the extra time they would demand of him. And he never regretted it.

Knowing how much he needed to earn, (and not earn) allowed him to make a thoughtful decision. And he did not assume more money always had to mean more hours. And in fact, the following month he asked for a raise at his current job and received it.

If we assume we can make good money and have enough personal time, we may look at career options with a different eye. We may negotiate for schedules that work better for us. We may think carefully about our next job change. (The average American changes jobs 12 times as an adult.) We may say no to intrusive demands. And we may negotiate with our domestic partners for more equitable sharing in household chores, to free up more time.

Examining our assumptions is key to earning more money in a way that leads to a balanced life.  So what do YOU believe?

Ready to earn more and step into greater freedom? Click here to be notified of the next time Mikelann offers her 8 week Unlock Your Earning Power course.

Love, Happiness, and Project Savings

Practical Money Path

Recently I was doing some money coaching with my boyfriend. It’s always luxurious to do coaching in front of a fire in a cozy living room, but besides that, it looked like many of my coaching sessions. Well, I did have a glass of wine in my hand.

We were talking about his multiple accounts- and how they were not quite working for him. He kept a lot of money in one checking account and transferred money as he needed it into a second checking account that he spent out of it.  He liked seeing a large balance in the first checking account, but it wasn’t particularly organized. And he often hesitated, unsure if he should pull the trigger on a larger project. Lucky for him, he was dating a money coach.

One of the things I (strongly) suggested was that he use only ONE checking account, not two. Nothing crazy about that idea, though it would streamline his finances a bit and cut down on transferring money around to cover things.

Having two or more checking accounts generally causes havoc and money fog for most people, regardless of how many credit cards or savings accounts one has.

(Your savings and credit cards should be connected to this ONE checking account.)

But what I want to share with you was our savings conversation.

I explained to him that part of why he wasn’t feeling particularly secure was that the large chunk of money in his checking account was functioning partly as his safety net (if he left his job and had no money coming in) and partly for large projects (like rebuilding his beloved motorcycle and replacing his wood stove) and partly for boring bills and monthly spending. It was all mixed.

I recommend he have ONE checking account and TWO savings accounts.

I had him name one savings account “Safety Net”. He loved the sound of “Safety Net”- it made good sense to him. He put three months of expenses in there and LEFT IT ALONE. (Many of my clients like to call it “Freedom Fund”.) Done. Don’t touch it. Stop transferring money in and out of it.  If anything happened to his job, he was covered for a few months.

He already felt better.

Then he named his other savings account “Project Savings”. This is a name we brainstormed together. Many of my clients know I use the term “Periodic Savings” for periodic expenses, but my guy liked the term “project savings” better. Words are powerful and you have to resonate with what you name things. So great by me! This savings account is for both the unexpected (like car repair and leaky pipes) and for the expected, like vacations and Christmas. Some finance people call this your emergency savings. I never like this because some of these “emergencies” are fun- like going to Hawaii for a week. They are simply non-monthly.

But good or bad, these kinds of expenses are the bigger financial “hits” that stress him, and everyone else. He didn’t want to carry a balance on his credit card for these things, but he always felt bad when he pulled money out of his large checking account to pay them off. It felt like the “safety net” part of his money went up and down, and this didn’t feel good.

So, we got into his online banking interface and named his second savings account, “Project Savings”. I had him set up an auto transfer from his now single primary checking account to this account each month, of approximately $1,000. We debated the amount and changed it several times, as his list of “projects” grew. He knew he could pull the money out of this account whenever a “project” appeared.

My guy makes good money. He can always cover normal monthly expenses. But when he has a big project, he likes knowing now there is dedicated money for it that he can pull from—and this does not affect his safety net, which is now totally separate. He loves knowing he is saving up for these projects. His project list:

  • Attending the national tango competition in California (with me!)
  • Doing a mini-kitchen refresh and replacing some of his appliances
  • Dental work beyond just maintenance work
  • New wood stove in his living room

Here are examples of projects that my clients have on their own lists:

  • New living room furniture project
  • The breast reduction project
  • Kids summer camp project
  • Build a chicken coop in the backyard project
  • Landscaping project
  • European vacation project

What about you? What is your own list of “projects”? Consider a dedicated savings account for these periodic expenses, that is separate from your safety net and retirement accounts.

Saving money every month into a savings account such as this makes a HUGE difference in how you feel about money.  It also keeps you out of credit card debt.

Less stress and anxiety mean more time and space to enjoy life.

Here’s to a cozy fire, another glass of wine and a few grateful hugs from my boyfriend.

Ready to earn more and step into greater freedom? Click here to be notified of the next time Mikelann offers her 8 week Unlock Your Earning Power course.

follow your bliss

The Naked Truth About Following Your Bliss

Emotional Money Path

We’ve all heard: “Follow your bliss.”  

 And how about the famous saying, “Do what you love, and the money will follow.” 

Does it? If you do what you love, will the money follow?

Maybe.

I do love the idea of following my bliss. Who doesn’t?!

The dilemma with these beliefs is that they can abdicate responsibility about money. It says “don’t you worry about that money stuff. Just focus on what makes you happy.” And of course, we want to believe that, because who wants to think about money? Isn’t it comforting that we don’t have to think about all this money stuff?

And I admit, it does sound lovely, and I wish it were true. The premise is good—it says focus on using your talents. But a lot of times it doesn’t work because people don’t realize that just because you are talented at something doesn’t mean you will make money. There must be a demand for what you do. Ouch.

Over the years, I’ve noticed that women fall prey to these beliefs more than men. Yes, men want meaningful work and work they enjoy. But they rarely divorce their work aspirations from money. They often believe they need to earn enough to support themselves as well as a family. Women often grow up still believing that we only need to earn enough to support ourselves. I rarely talk to a woman who grew up thinking she had to earn enough someday to support herself, her husband and two possible children.

Women often believe that meaning is everything, and focusing on money may somehow degrade the deeper meaning we seek.  We may also believe that bringing money into the picture makes us appear greedy or more self-centered. This is perpetuated by our common belief that one can have meaningful work OR make good money.

But what if it wasn’t either/or?

I always tell people that instead of saying, “follow your bliss and the money will follow”, say “How can I make money following one of my blisses?” The difference between these two questions is huge.  Or perhaps a better way to say it is:

“How can I make money doing something I like?”  This opens the field to many possibilities. It is about trying to balance both money and doing what you enjoy.

There are many things I like. However, some of these ideas will earn me more money than others.  Not all hobbies or passions can be turned into lucrative careers. And sometimes trying to monetize a hobby or passion takes the joy out if it. Passions are the spice of life. It may be better to create a career that gives you good work life balance, so you have time for your passions and interests.

When you think about work and career, look for the intersection of these three things: Work you enjoy, work you are good at and work that pays well (other people value financially). What type of work sits at the intersection of these three things? 

When we say, “follow your bliss”, and disregard money, we are not living in balance.

A life lived in balance means we balance what we like to do with the money we need to earn to live a healthy and happy life.

Ready to earn more and step into greater freedom? Click here to be notified of the next time Mikelann offers her 8 week Unlock Your Earning Power course.

Healing the disconnect between work and money—Ask this one question

Emotional Money Path

Recently, I went to a large chain bookstore and stood in front of several shelves of business and career development books. From how to write your resume to how to decide what you want to do with your life, it was all there. Everything, that is, except money. 

I grabbed a pile of the most promising career/ professional development books and sat down to study their indexes, looking for the chapter in each book where they talked about money. You know—how much money you wanted to make and how much various careers paid etc. I found nothing. The closest thing was the perfunctory chapter on salary negotiation. There was nothing on deciding how much you wanted and needed to make, and nothing on how to match your income desires to different careers. There was nothing on the financial pros and cons of various fields and no talk of the incredible wide discrepancy in pay between fields.

What did I find?

Personality profiles. All the career development books were devoted to helping you analyze your personality and then find a good match with a satisfying career. Now mind you, I am not saying that a good match is not important. It is incredibly important. You spend far too many hours working to not enjoy what you do. But money is incredibly important as well. It is one of the main reasons people work in the first place! And yet it is hardly even mentioned in the many books designed to help you find the right “match”!

One of the better books out there on job change is the annual updated What Color is Your Parachute series. This series is about how to do a “life-changing job hunt”, and is full of useful and practical information on how to job hunt in real life, using what Richard Nelson Boyles and Katharine Brooks describe as non-traditional techniques. (For example, they think that resumes do very little to help us land the next job.) 

In their annual edition, they list out the most common reasons that people pursue a major change in their career. I was fascinated to see that only one had anything to do with money and compensation. It seems as though work is rarely related to money, and I believe this “disconnect” has far reaching repercussions for everyone, but especially women. As you’ve seen, a life time of not earning at one’s potential, of not really taking one’s earnings seriously or trying to maximize what one can earn in a given position, wreaks havoc on your future financial stability. And I can virtually guarantee you that the person you will be in thirty years is going to wish you had paid more attention to this whole “money” thing, in the present.

The disconnect in our schooling

As I mentioned, the disconnect between work and money starts even earlier then when we enter the job force. It starts in school, where money is rarely acknowledged or discussed.

Why does no one ask us when we are in school how much money we would like to make? It seems almost a crass question, so it is rarely, if ever, brought up. And since it is not brought up in the schools, people generally do not bring it up themselves. A school’s silence on making money somehow sanctions ones continued reticence in asking the question ourselves. 

Even when we are growing up, most girls dream of doing many things, but very few of them envision how much money is attached to these fantasy occupations. There is still an ingrained sense of reliance on something outside themselves. Women do not have the basic assumption that it will be up to them to take care of both themselves and a family. Therefore, they have the luxury of not thinking about this whole money thing. 

But what if we did think about it?

What questions would we ask ourselves? Perhaps we could start by asking how much money we would like to earn someday. Then when we are in school we could ask questions like,

“How much money could I expect to make if I study this”? 

This single question is so important, yet it is almost never asked. Women pay a high price for not asking questions like these. Years later, after decades of low earnings, they may wish they had asked themselves more questions. 

Ready to earn more and step into greater freedom? Click here to be notified of the next time Mikelann offers her 8 week Unlock Your Earning Power course.

Earn More: The Power of Hanging Out with Successful Women

Uncategorized

How does it feel when a successful woman looks you in the eye and tells you that she believes you are worth more? Magical!

Sitting in the coffee shop, sipping my non-fat latte, I was sharing my business ups and downs with two other women. Wonderful, powerful women who were, in fact, more successful than me.

When I moaned over my financial frustrations, one of them locked eyes with me and said slowly and clearly, “Mikelann, you are worth a lot of money.” Then she told me just how much she thought I was worth.

I felt my eyes widening. I knew better than to say, “Yeah, but—” so I just squirmed in the chair while letting her words sink in.

The encounter taught me a powerful lesson. We need to purposely spend time with people who are more successful than we are. We need to be inspired!

Do you spend most of your time with people who make about the same amount of money as you do?

If you go to a dinner party with people who make a lot more money than you, it can feel strange. If everyone at the party makes a lot less than you, it also feels strange!

We instinctively seek our “financial comfort zone.” But the dilemma is this: if everyone in your life is doing exactly what you are doing, it is very difficult to change, and making more money often requires changes.

Do you draw toward you people who inspire you? Do you deliberately seek out their company?

I had become friends with the women who sat with me at the coffee shop. They were ordinary women who dealt with everyday challenges. We all tried hard to make time for our families as well as for ourselves, struggling to find that elusive work/life balance. They were good women who wanted good things for their loved ones, for themselves, for the world, and for me.

As women, we crave relationship, and this brings up two important points for you to think about:

  • One: we need relationships to be truly happy. If you believe that being wealthy will mean being alone, you will not seek wealth. So what do you believe?
  • Second: women can be deeply affected by what people say to them. We take in feedback more profoundly than men do. Imagine the impact of surrounding yourself with positive, abundant women who believe in you! The effect is amazing and life-changing!

So who do you surround yourself with?

Ready to earn more and step into greater freedom? Click here to be notified of the next time Mikelann offers her 8 week Unlock Your Earning Power course.

The Dream Catcher Podcast

Podcast: Creating a mindset of abundance

Uncategorized

Want some joyful inspiration for your money life? Here is an amazing 40 minute podcast on:

  • How to live your financial life in alignment with your core values- so you can spend on what truly gives you JOY, while also protecting your future.
  • How to unhook your self-worth from your net worth.
  • What the role of the Law of Attraction is, in creating financial abundance.

The lovely woman who interviewed me was Seline Shenoy — a blogger, podcast host and journalist on topics related to psychology & personal growth, wellness, social & global issues. She is the founder of The Dream Catcher – a blog and podcast community that connects and encourages people to live their dream life and make a difference in the world.

Listen here

 

How to live fully from divine abundance — A book recommendation

Uncategorized

I love this book: It’s Not Your Money- how to live fully from Divine Abundance, by Tosha Silver

Occasionally a money book comes along that I adore so much, I not only read it twice, but must share it with my readers. Tosha Silver’s latest is one such book. What makes it sweeter is that I consider Tosha Silver one of my spiritual teachers. Five years ago, my friend Kathy handed me her first book, “Outrageous Openness” and I have been hooked ever since. 

Tosha is not a money guru. And she herself definitely never saw a money book in her future. She is an American spiritual teacher. Tosha Silver graduated from Yale with a degree in English Literature but along the way fell madly in love with the deep path of Raja Yoga and the spiritual philosophies of East India. For the past 30 years she has taught people around the world ways to align with Inner Love.

One of her core teachings is about “offering”. When we offer our lives– our thoughts, decisions, and actions– over to the Divine Source, everything flows easier. This could be about romance, careers, what car to buy, or… money.  

Tosha’s deep personal spiritual practice is married with her irreverent sense of humor and a boatload of wonderful stories. She writes about her own relationship with the Divine and money, and how the Divine can be everyone’s intimate life companion as they navigate financial waters with greater ease. 

While not against the “law of attraction”, she has noticed over the years that we often pervert this law into forcing it to deliver what we want, as if the universe were a cosmic Amazon wish fulfillment service. Then we think we did something wrong when the Amazon truck does not disgorge our fulfilled wishes. If one aligns oneself with flow and knows that it is not really your money to begin with, but the Divines, everything becomes easier. 

A word on language, which she herself addresses in the opening: you can use God or whatever word suits you. Some will prefer “Universal Source”, or Shakti, Lord, Love, Flow, Lakshmi (Indian Goddess of abundance), Divine Intelligence, or whatever works for you. 

At the center of her work is the idea that we are here to serve the Divine and have the Divine flow through us, not the other way around–where the divine is at our beck and call.  Tosha’s work is dedicated to the idea of “offering”. This is a beautiful concept. We can offer up our burdens and let go of being the “doer”. The divine will show the way. And with practice, offering gets easier.

She interweaves the idea of “Prarabdha Karma”– “the idea that in each lifetime, a soul is born for a distinct curriculum. Every desire might not be meant to occur, no matter how many vision boards you make.” (The emphasis is Tosha’s.)  The truth is that everyone may have a different set of abundance lessons they are learning in any given lifetime.  But you can learn how to invite and embody the universal Source, and as you open to it, abundance flows in all sorts of wonderful ways.  

Her book is about how to become a conduit for Divine Flow. She teaches us how to become open to how God wants to “deliver”, often in ways we never imagined. 

In short, when we align with the Divine Source, true abundance can flow through us unimpeded.  Chasing abundance does not work. “Being” abundance, and letting it flow through us, does.

With all this in mind, Tosha guides the reader through five steps that will align you with greater abundance. This allows prosperity, in all its many forms, to flow easier into your life. You are lifted from financial worries and come to a place of knowing that you are always taken care of and there is always enough money.

As one of her chapters opens, it says, “You can’t water the roses if you are standing on the garden hose.” Yes! She teaches the reader how to shift from demanding and chasing to offering and opening. In this way, abundance begins to truly flow through you.  Trust replaces fear. 

One of her steps will be familiar to readers: clearing out clutter. When people release clutter, they create room for something new to come into their life. I have seen this again and again with clients. As they clean out a purse or an old file cabinet, money comes in unexpected ways.  (I wrote a post inspired by Marie Kondo’s book, called “The life changing magic of tidying up your finances” and how it relates to prosperity.

Opening up to receiving is also key. When we say, “I am open to receiving” we allow the flow to come. So many people, women more than men, tend to give too much and not allow their “receiving” value to function two-way. Sometimes we feel guilty about receiving. But to become truly abundant, we need to allow the flow to come to us in sometimes unexpected ways. You can not pray for greater abundance, and then dictate to the Divine how the flow arrives. (You can certainly state your preference, however.)

Through story after story, Tosha shares how offering and clearing, praying, and releasing, bring us abundance in the way that is perfect for us. Along the way she helps us cleanse old childhood wounds that keep us stuck. So many of us have wounds that say we do not deserve abundance, and this staunches the divine flow. 

One core of her book is her abundance prayer. She asks readers to say it daily. It is beautiful and powerful. I will only quote the beginning of it here, as it is truly Tosha’s. But I urge you to get the book just for it, and even better, buy a copy of the abundance prayer. Frame it and say it daily. I bought two copies- one I framed for me and one I gave to my love to keep by his bed as he transitions to his next career calling. He loves it too.

“Divine Beloved, allow me to give with complete ease and abundance,

Know that You are the unlimited Source of all.

Let me be an easy, open conduit for Your prosperity.

Let me trust that all my own needs are always met in amazing ways

And that it’s safe to give freely as my heart guides….

(The entire prayer is here on Tosha’s site in her store. https://toshasilver.com/)

I’ll end this review by quoting what is on the back of the dustcover to Tosha’s book. Writes Tosha, “Very often people find my work because chasing and grasping has crashed and burned like a meteor. But that painful destruction is a moment of tremendous grace as well. Because when the ego finally sees the utter madness of trying to lead, you come to a sacred crossroads in your own evolution… You’re finally ready to let something greater than the ego take over your finances, and everything else. True intimacy with the Divine can begin. This is the road to abundance and freedom.”

Coming Home Magazine

‘Tis the season to save

Practical Money Path

 

 

Recently I was interviewed by Coming Home Magazine on how to make smart spending choices for gift giving. I really love the article they published with “six pro tips” and wanted to share it with you. ‘Tis the season! I hope this helps you save money and enjoy holiday shopping with less stress.

How to make smart spending choices for gift giving.

The average person spends about $1,000 a year on holiday gifts and will take until July to pay it off. We asked money coach Mikelann R. Valterra, MA, AFC®, to share her top tips so you won’t fall victim to the holiday spending hangover come January

Create a spending plan. Most people overspend during the holidays because they don’t do any planning or preparation. It may sound simple, but creating a holiday spending plan is one of the most important things you can do to stick to your budget. To start, make a list of everyone you’re going to shop for, gift ideas, and the amount you want to spend. Then, add it all up, make sure you’re comfortable with the dollar amount, and adjust as needed. A plan will help you get your shopping done faster and cut down on impulse buying. 

Pro Tip: Don’t carelessly create a plan on the back of an envelope and never look at it again. Keep your list with you, and when you buy a gift, update the list. With a plan in place, you’ll know when to stop shopping—if you don’t have a finish line, you’ll keep going. 

Buy group gifts. If you can, avoid giving individual gifts. If you’re shopping for a whole family, consider purchasing one all-encompassing present, like a game or an experience, instead of one for each family member. Buying for a group will save you time, money, and stress. 

Pro Tip: Another way to avoid buying individual gifts is by doing a name drawing. Decide on a price limit, put everyone’s name in a hat, take turns picking, and only shop for the person you choose. 

Have a single source of spending money. Ideally, it’s best to use cash when buying gifts; people can spend up to 20% more when using a credit card. However, if a credit card is your only option, you should use the same card for all your holiday shopping. Multiple cards can quickly lead to overspending. 

Pro Tip: If you’re putting gifts on a credit card, don’t buy more than you can pay off in two months. Also, stick to using a basic, low-interest credit card, not a store-specific one. 

Don’t worry about finding the perfect gift. It isn’t up to you to find the perfect gift that’ll fulfill all desires. You aren’t expected to be a mind reader; gifting should serve as an opportunity to express your fondness for the recipient. Nobody wants you to go into debt on your search for the perfect gift. 

Pro Tip: Some gifts should be considered “token gifts” that are small enough that the recipient doesn’t feel the need to reciprocate. You shouldn’t give just to get! 

Communicate expectations. Going overboard and over-gifting is a common problem this time of year. Being transparent and setting limits, both in terms of money and quantity, is crucial—especially when it comes to kids. You don’t have to feel guilty about spending too little. Help things go smoothly by communicating expectations early on. 

Pro Tip: Parents: ask your kids to share the top three things they loved about the holidays from the previous year. Often, their answers will include things like making cookies or looking at lights—not gifts. Make sure to schedule these activities into your holiday plans. Doing so will take the focus off gifts and keep everyone happy. 

Limit your shopping time. When you’re shopping, it’s easy to get into a trance and mindlessly spend money. If you’re shopping online, set a timer for 60 minutes. When the timer goes off, step away from your computer for a bit. If you’re at the mall, make it a priority to take a break every 90 minutes or so. Doing this will make you more thoughtful about your gifting and your spending. 

Pro Tip: These breaks don’t need to be long. If you’re at home, spend a few minutes unloading the dishwasher or updating your list. If you’re out and about, take five and grab a coffee or tea.

Mikelann Valterra is a money coach and accredited financial counselor with over 20 years’ experience. She specializes in working with women—coaching them on how to escape the money fog, feel more in control of their finances, and love their financial life. If you are ready to leave money stress behind and design a life you love, please visit www.seattlemoneycoach.com and read about this life-changing work. Once there, grab her free eBook on how to stop worrying about money. 

This article is republished with permission. It was originally published in Coming Home Magazine.

Your money personality has this question for you

Practical Money Path, Uncategorized

Whenever I teach a seminar on money, invariably I ask the audience, “What is the point of having money?” Answers start flying and I throw them on a whiteboard. “Retirement, vacations, money for my kid’s college, pay my mortgage, to have fun, to not be stressed about money, charitable giving, to pay the bills, new car….”

The list goes on. From the specific to the general, there are as many answers as there are people. How would you personally answer the question– what is the point of having money?

Said another way: Why is money important to you? 

Most responses boil down to one of two answers:

  • Money is important so I can do what I want to do

or

  • Money is important so I can feel secure.

If you could only pick one answer, which would it be? Your choice reflects your “core money drive”, or your core motivation when it comes to money.  And this is part of what makes up your money personality. 

It all comes down to this: for most of us, the point of money is either freedom or security. So–if you picked number one, your core money motivation is FREEDOM. If you picked number two, your core money motivation is SECURITY.

EXPLORING FREEDOM

If what motivates you is freedom, you want money so you can feel… free! You crave to feel independent, and you would likely trade many things in life for the ability to feel free and be free. 

The downside can be that freedom-oriented people often don’t like managing money, and sometimes can get in trouble with debt. (Sometimes their answer is “I’ll make so much money that it will all be fine. Done.”) 

Freedom oriented people are generally generous people, who love enjoying life. And they tend to gravitate towards self-employment or contract work so they can set their own schedules.  

EXPLORING SECURITY

If what motivates you is security, you want money so you can feel… secure! You think of money as the means to feel protected and safe. A stable home is often important to you. Your friends likely see you as a grounded person.  It’s also likely that you enjoy managing your money, since it gives you peace of mind to see it. 

Security oriented people, however, do not relish a lot of risk taking. It’s highly possible that you enjoy jobs that have a steady schedule and a steady paycheck.

Needless to say, there is no right or wrong way to be. The key is understanding yourself and knowing why you do what you do with money. As Socrates said, “know they self”. 

When we become clear about who we are, what truly motivates us, and how that translates to our money life, many things become easier. There are a lot of good things associated with both freedom and security. And each of these can have a shadow side. Knowing your shadow-side– your blind spot– can help you steer clear of it.

Seven tips to access your money intuition

Metaphysical Money Path

We’ve all had that “feeling” arise–a hunch or a sudden sense guides us on what to do next or gently stops us from proceeding. We hear the whisper that directs us down a new road and leads us to explore a new topic or to avoid a bad situation. 

Intuition. We all have intuition, whether we claim it or not. It is part of how we make decisions and it is honored not only by spiritual traditions, but also by scientists that “suddenly” make a new discovery. And the truth is, we make better decisions when we allow intuition a seat at the table.

Making money decisions is no different. When we tune into our inner voice, the voice of wise counsel, we can make better decisions about money: how to spend it, earn it, save or invest it. 

Now, let me be clear that using our analytic reasoning to make decisions is obviously important. We gather information, analyze it, weigh pros and cons, and decide. This logical aspect of our brain is a potent key to our success in the world. It is simply not the only key!

Ideally, we use both our intuition and our rational intellect to make money decisions. Together they make a powerful combo.  Think of it this way: intuition operates from the right side of the brain and rational intellect operates from the left side. Why would we only use half our brain??

Or said another way, when we use both the head and the heart, we make better money decisions.

Author Aletheia Luna writes in the book, The Spiritual Awakening Process, “Our unconscious minds are oceans of wisdom, understanding, and insight. Intuition, that mysterious inner guide we all have, is a manifestation of this vast untapped world within us. Learning to trust your intuition will help you live a life true to yourself and your deepest needs….”

The question is: how do we access our intuition?

And sometimes we fear that if we “listen to intuition” or our gut, we will be led astray. People sometimes ask me, “How do I know if it’s intuition as opposed to just my fears that are talking?” Or “How do I know this is not just wishful thinking?”

One of the biggest keys to accessing intuition is to be in a calm space when you tune into it. Fear is anything but calm. When we make decisions from a fear-based place, we feel anxiety, stress, and sometimes a feeling that “we’d better do this or else…”  

I believe intuition is soul guidance. It comes from a higher place within us.  

Recently I was reading the spiritual classic “Autobiography of a yogi”, and while not on money, I was struck by how Yogananda spoke to using intuition to make better decisions. He writes, “Intuition is soul guidance, appearing naturally in people during those instants when their mind is calm. Nearly everyone has had the experience of an inexplicitly correct “hunch”… The goal of yoga science is to calm the mind, that without distortion it may hear the infallible counsel of the inner voice.”

The tips I’m about to share will help you find this calm space to better access your money intuition. 

You don’t have to practice meditation to access this voice when you are debating if you should buy that car, raise your fees, make an offer on the house, or attend the Nordstrom’s half yearly sale. The question is, can you allow yourself to tune inside to that inner quiet voice that has guidance for you, in addition to using your wonderful rational brain?

With all this in mind, here are seven tips on how to access your money intuition:

  1. Give yourself a quiet calm space to reflect on what you are deciding. Intuition can only operate when you are in a calm space. It is literally very quiet, for one thing. You generally can’t hear it in a loud environment. Intuition itself comes from our subconscious- or more accurately- beyond the conscious mind. Its source is in our higher consciousness. So it may take a while to calm oneself and tune inward to this space. If you are debating a money decision, can you take the time to take a walk? Can you listen to some favorite calming music? Can you light a candle and do some journaling with your morning coffee? This is something I do. (You can use the questions in tip number 7.)
  1. Intuition often speaks in feelings and images–not necessarily words. So ask yourself, “How will I feel if I do this?” Be aware of the first feeling that arises: Happy? Excited? Scared? Worried? 
  1. If you have more time to make a decision, such as buying a house or changing a job, pay close attention to your dreams. Remember that intuition speaks in images. What might the dream be telling you?
  1. Some people are very “body aware”. If you often get information through your body, or through sensing (called clairsentience) than pay attention to what your body or senses are telling you.  What does your “gut” tell you? Do you get a little queasy when you think of buying a brand-new car vs one that is two years old? Or does your stomach soar with a warm feeling?
  1. Pretend you hear it, until you feel more confident. As strange as it sounds, if it feels weird to you to try to listen to an internal voice, or if you simply don’t hear anything, then simply imagine that you do. Say to yourself, “if I was my intuition and I was speaking from my higher self, what might I whisper to myself about this decision?”
  1. Remember, intuition is inherently gentle and never threatening. It is from the highest part of ourselves. This means that if you feel “pressured” to do something, or a feeling comes up that says, “I’d better do this or else”, that is the voice of fear talking–not intuition. 
  1. Intuition does not exist in normal time.  Since it is from our highest self, it has full access to our past as well as our future. (Apologies if this is too metaphysical for some.)  If you prefer, it has access to the collective unconscious that is talked about in Jungian psychology. This means its wisdom extends beyond the here and now. It knows what is in your best interest in the future as well. Therefore, you can ask it very big questions like:
    1. What decision is ultimately in my highest good?
    2. What does my future self advise me?
    3. What decision will bring me the greatest peace?

Ultimately, when we bring both our minds and our hearts to money decisions, we make better decisions. Once you are done rationally analyzing something and “running the numbers”, allow yourself some time to simply quietly reflect on the decision you are debating. When you tune inward, what does your inner guidance whisper? Pay attention to this quiet voice. Reflect upon it. Let it provide wise counsel. Listen thoughtfully, then decide and act, without second thoughts.