Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild, and precious life? – Mary Oliver, American Poet

How I love this quote! It captures why I love the art of planning my spending. Because the art of planning your spending is really the art of planning your life. And I suspect you want a wonderful life full of less stress, more peace, and more fun.

Learning how to plan your spending literally gives you the ability to create a life full of magic. Really!

As we all know, nothing happens without a plan. Or things happen, but haphazardly. Maybe you get what you wanted, and maybe you don’t. I am personally not willing to leave my one wild and precious life to chance. Granted, there are enough curve balls (A pandemic!?) but planning my spending means I can literally create a life that gives me what I desire.

And yet so often people are resistant to planning their spending. Even though we all know that it’s difficult to take a wonderful trip without planning. And I consider my entire life a wonderful trip that is worthy of some planning. I want to dance, I want to travel, I want some lovely clothing, I want a nice retirement account. I want time to enjoy it all. This all takes planning. 

I was talking to my good friend about why she broke up with her boyfriend recently. And of course, as women do, it was a long juicy conversation over a bottle of wine. But one of the frustrations she brought up was his inability to plan.  There were so many fun things she wanted to do. And yet he literally seemed allergic to planning. This meant they either wandered around aimlessly in their free time together, or she planned something fun for them to do.

None of this bode well for their future.

She knows that with planning, all things are possible, from going to Paris to creating a life with someone full of joy and love.

Planning and Creativity

Planning. It is as simple a question as “What do I need and want this month?” Then creativity comes into play as we balance this with our incomes and larger goals.  The truth is that creativity responds to articulated needs. When we list out what we need, our creative brain takes on the job of figuring out how to make it happen.

Planning is FULL of creativity. Sometimes, if my resources are going towards a larger financial goal (from paying off debt to building up savings) there may not be a lot of discretionary money left over. Then I ask myself, “how do I creatively get my needs met this month on less money?” My current needs don’t disappear just because I am also focused on larger financial goals. Too often we do not bring creativity into our money lives. We assume that either things work, or they don’t. And if we suspect things “don’t work” then we don’t want to plan. What is the point, we ask?

But planning your spending means you sit down and find a way to make it work. You find a way to get your needs met. You find a way to have what you truly want.

If my need is to spend time with my friends, I may need to find creative ways to see them for less money. Maybe it is over drinks, instead of dinner. Maybe they come to my house for dinner. Planning my spending helped me figure this out.

If I want to go back to school and need more time, maybe I rent out my spare room so I can work less. Planning helps me creatively think through financial possibilities. 

All things are possible with planning. It is true that Rome was not built in a day. But a little planning goes a long way. 

With enough planning, I was able to find the time to take art classes, as well as the money to pay for an art program. Planning enables me to travel for tango. With planning I was even able to build a second home that I rent out. 

Planning your spending IS magic. 

It is a blueprint that you can follow to create a life you have dared not dream about.

The art of planning your spending IS the art of planning your life. 

So tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild, and precious life? 

The idea of change can be overwhelming, especially when it comes to money. We love the idea of goals, but at the same time, feel overwhelmed by them. We may love the idea of having more money and less debt, but then are immediately distressed by the thought of how to get there. The key lies in beginning to make some shifts inside ourselves, like planting small seeds, since most of us know that true change comes from within. But how to do this?

Recently, I was reading Loyalty to Your Soul: The Heart of Spiritual Psychology (one of my favorite subjects). The authors talk about how to use what happens in our daily life to grow spiritually. And one exercise they shared is four steps to shift things in your life that you wish were different. I immediately thought of money and all the changes that people long to make in their financial life. So, while the authors (Ron and Mary Hulnick) don’t talk about finance, their steps definitely apply, and I want to share them. 

First, let’s stop for a moment and think about why making a change can feel so overwhelming. What is going on inside of us?

Part of the dilemma of making a shift is that when we contemplate making a change, we are assailed by pangs of remorse over how we have handled, or not handled, some financial matter.  So, when we debate taking more personal ownership for our actions, we immediately feel guilt. We get caught up in the self-blame game and beat ourselves up. However, as the Hulnicks write, “if it is your intention to live from within a Soul-Centered context, what you want to do is accept what IS without judgement, take 100 percent responsibility for your choices, and begin making more positive choices”. 

The key is to not judge yourself for what is. We are all enrolled in the school of life, and we are all learning from what we’ve gone through. All of us! Everyone’s money story is full of twists and turns.  The question is how to make a shift—if what you are experiencing is no longer working. And how do you make a shift in a gentle way that leads to real change?

Here is how, in four steps:

1. What would you like to be different?

Allow yourself to get very quiet, breathe deeply for a while, and try to enter into a state of calmness. Light a candle perhaps or get your journal out. Then allow yourself to identify a current situation that you would like to be different for you, regarding money.

For example, perhaps you are stressed that you do not have any money in savings. You fear that if something happened to your job or income stream, you would be in a difficult situation. You would like to have at least a couple months of savings in the bank to cover you. But you don’t, and you feel frustrated and stressed by this.

2. Are you aware of any choices (inner or outer) you are making that are helping to maintain the current situation?

Perhaps you think that you don’t deserve to have savings, and that you don’t really like thinking about the future. And perhaps in the outer world, you name the fact that you have not opened a savings account dedicated to this kind of savings. Or perhaps you have this savings account set up, but you have not set up an automatic transfer of money each month from your checking to your savings account. You are also aware that you are maintaining the current situation of not having money in savings because you are going out to eat four night a week, and this is draining your account.

Remember, you are not judging yourself. You are simply naming the various choices you are currently making that may be keeping the current situation going. If you are stuck, try finishing these statements: “Inwardly I am aware that… Outwardly I seem to be choosing to do…. Outwardly, I seem to not be taking any action on…”

3. Brainstorm other possibilities

Now brainstorm the possibility of other choices that could give you different results. As the Hulnicks write, “It’s not that you have to do anything differently; can you simply see any alternatives?”

In our example, you could choose to tell yourself that you do deserve to have savings. And that the future is a positive thing, and you welcome it. (Though you may not currently believe these things, you can say them.) You see that it is possible to set up a new savings account online with your bank. Or you imagine that it’s possible to set up a monthly transfer of a small amount of money from your checking to a dedicated savings account. It may also be possible to eat out twice a week instead of four. 

These are all simply possibilities. That is all—just possibilities. This is not about taking action. Simply allow yourself to brainstorm. 

4. Visualize  

This last step is about visualization and planting a new seed. Think back to your brainstorming. You want to pick some of these ideas to visualize. Which ones draw you, or strike you as having possibilities? 

Visualize yourself in the process of making these new choices, and visualize this in the present moment, present tense. This is not about committing to actually doing anything different right now! This step is about visualizing yourself making different choices. See yourself taking different actions. Imagine what it would feel like to take these actions.

You may see yourself getting online with a cup of coffee and setting up a new account. You may see yourself setting up automatic transfers. You visualize talking with your close friends about going out to eat at less expensive restaurants, or only two days a week. You see yourself sharing your money goals with your close girlfriends. You tell yourself, “I am worthy of having savings.” You visualize all of this in detail, including the feelings.

Remember, this step is not about action. It is about visualization.

And here is the key with this last step. I want you to imagine doing this visualization every day for a month. Yes, that’s right—a month! Whether it is first thing in the morning or when you go to bed at night, run through this visualization. Our outward behavior shifts when our inner thoughts and feelings shift. So commit to visualizing this every day. 

How will you do this? Can you put a reminder on your phone? Can you put a card on your pillow that you see when you go to bed each night? How will you go through this visualization every day for 30 days? 

True change

True change comes when we first see it internally. Don’t force change on yourself without trying to gently give your mind and emotions a new possibility. Behavior follows thoughts and feelings, not the other way around. So now is the time to begin to write a new internal program. 

The daily repetition of this visualization will lay down new potent seeds in your mind and spirit.  Then taking actions becomes easier and easier. In time, new actions bloom in the outer realm of your life, grounded in the fertile soil of your inner shifts.

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.

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.)

2. 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? 

3. 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?

4. 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?

5. 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?”

6. 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. 

7. 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. 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.

Last week as I was doing some yoga postures and preparing to meditate, it struck me that yoga has some deep similarities to how I handle my money life. Let me share why I think this.

Yoga has come to mean, in the West, the physical postures done in yoga classes—from yoga studios to health clubs. It is a beautiful and healthy way to exercise the body, giving one both strength and flexibility, as well as helping to reduce one’s stress level. 

However, this was not always the definition of Yoga. Yoga is actually a spiritual path and a philosophy that is thousands of years old. What we now know as “yoga”, are just the physical postures, (called “asanas”), which were originally designed to prepare the body for deep meditation. We can call this “postural” yoga, and many know it as Hatha yoga. And indeed, when one’s body feels good and is free of aches and pains, it is far easier to sit in deep contemplation and enter the various mystical states that an internal spiritual practice leads to.

(Hang in there! I promise this will relate to money.)

I think a lot about yoga and all of its facets. I personally practice yoga, though in the more classical definition. In fact I could call it classic yoga, Raja yoga, or even yoga of the ancient sages (especially if I want to get funny looks). Sometimes I simply say I practice “yoga meditation” to avoid all of the modern confusion.  I find so much depth and richness in the contemplative life and the path of meditation. Spiritual practice is a foundation of my life.

But there is great truth that asana practice (Hatha Yoga)—the physical practice of strengthening and stretching the body—helps my mediation practice a great deal. Simply put, when my back hurts, it is harder to focus inward on the spiritual realm. I find myself focusing on my sore knee, my hip that aches, my mid back that throbs, and or my neck that seems to have slept in someone else’s bed.

In my practice as a money coach, I find a similar relationship between tracking one’s money and the larger vision that unfolds around money. Tracking is like doing the yoga poses, and an annual spending plan is like the deeper levels of spiritual practice. 

Like spiritual practice, annual plans are about visioning and finding both inner and outer balance in life.  It is about the road to living a fully actualized life. It is about self-realization. 

But if one starts there, at the big picture they want for their lives, and they do not have a clean and clear money foundation under them, they find themselves chasing their tail in circles. It’s like striving for the promise of meditation without doing the foundational practices which include asana. You may end up suffering from a sore back which distracts you from actually meditating. 

I’ve had many amazing clients come in over the years who are great at envisioning the big picture, or they simply long to vision their life. However, they are in such deep money fog (too many accounts, they don’t know where their money is going, or they are not consciously directing their spending) that the vision never fully takes shape. And they become deeply frustrated with their money life. They suffer from a sense of unfulfillment. They know they are capable of more, but can’t seem to get there. 

It is true that it does take time to build the foundation and step into our vision. And the vision we ultimately create for our lives is not a onetime event—it is an unfolding, like spiritual practice.

I have worked with my own annual spending plan process for years at a very deep level, and it has allowed me to build a life and a lifestyle I could only dream of—step by step—including a life that gives me time to pursue my own personal interests.

Here is an important key. It is tracking my money each week and looking at my monthly plan, which powers this larger vision and continual unfoldment. 

Simply put, tracking one’s money is like doing a daily physical yoga practice. Getting clear about one’s daily, weekly and monthly finances creates a very healthy relationship to money, just like Hatha yoga creates a very healthy body. And once one has a healthier “money body” it is easier and more natural to go to the next level.

And as practitioners of all modern yoga styles know, their physical practice flows out to other parts of their lives. They are more grounded, centered, and full of a sweet, gentle energy. They will often try to share this yoga benefit with their non-yoga friends, but it can be hard to describe, can’t it. Outsiders see only the physical poses, not the personal energetic benefit. 

This daily or weekly practice of postural (Hatha) yoga is of great benefit to one’s spiritual life, too. And even if someone does not maintain a daily meditation practice, the deeper benefits are assuredly felt. Yoga practitioners move through life with greater ease. This is the ease that I want people to feel around money. With a strong foundation under them, people can easily move to the higher levels of money and create and fulfill visions of their life they never dreamed was possible.

It is possible to create the life you love.

My favorite definition of consciousness is very simple, yet profound: it is the state of being awake and aware of one’s surroundings.

So, this begs the question: how does one stay conscious about money, a potent form of life energy, while using technology to your advantage?

And more to the point- what is the best use of technology when it comes to thinking about your finances?

As the cofounder of MoneyMinderOnline (spending plan software that is used to track and plan your spending and income) I have spent a lot of time pondering this question. And because I have a Master’s in Consciousness Studies and Psychology, I feel literally compelled to ask these questions!

Disclaimer: first and foremost, I am a money coach (not a technologist). And as such, my goal is to help people feel better about their relationship to money. My clients want to feel more in control (like they are in the driver’s seat of their life). It is way too easy to feel out of control—like someone else is driving our money car and we are along for a scary joy ride… I became a money coach to help fix that problem.

We are all busy, and sometimes attending to our money feels like it falls between the cracks of our overscheduled lives. We would love to work on to our relationship to money if we knew how (that’s where we money coaches come in) but we want to be mindful of our time and spend it on what matters.

I’ll let you in on the big secret.

What matters is being conscious about what you spend. What matters is knowing what you need to earn. What matters is having a plan each month that takes care of you, helps you meet your financial goals, and makes you feel great about your lifestyle choices and your life.

So, you need a way to track your spending that is efficient and uses technology, but helps keep you awake and aware.

Recently, our spending plan software went through a major upgrade (hooray!). Users can now download their spending from checking and credit card accounts. And – even more exciting—MoneyMinderOnline “learns” your spending.  Your Safeway transaction will now to default to groceries. Oh happy, happy!

If you can track faster using technology, that is great. But only if you then spend the saved time thinking about what you are doing and planning where you want to spend your money this month.

Sometimes automation can lead to being unconscious. When all our bills are on autopay, for example, they often go unexamined and unquestioned.

Yes, technology makes it easier to track your finances. However, the key is to use technology correctly. It is there to give you the ability to spend your valuable time on what really matters—not to drift off into an automated money fog.

What is the point of tracking, even with the help of technology, if you don’t really look?

(I mean, just because software thinks Safeway should be categorized as groceries, doesn’t always mean it is. I ran in to Safeway last week and bought a massive bouquet of flowers as a gift for a friend. And sure, that visit to Target was for clothes last time, but that doesn’t mean your Target transactions should be categorized as clothing every time. You need to look at what your automation is assuming. You have the final say and should review all transactions to make sure they are categorized the way YOU want.)

Bottom line: technology is wonderful because it saves us time on tedious repetitive tasks. But the key is to make sure that we then use some of the reclaimed time to think, feel, and notice what we notice.

When you analyze where you spend your money, you may see where you spent differently than you intended, and why. This is where emotional money issues come up. This is where different ways to handle cash flow can be debated. This is where you think about how to create more satisfaction within your lifestyle – and contemplate how to create the life of your dreams while attending to all your financial goals.

This is the true power of technology: to save us time so we can use our precious minutes on the things that matter most.

It’s about staying conscious.

Mikelann is a money coach with over 20 years’ experience, helping women 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 see www.seattlemoneycoach.com and read about this life changing work.  Once there, grab her free eBook on how to stop worrying about money.

Can you attract more money?

We’ve all heard about the “Law of Attraction”—that what you focus on, you attract.  (This was popularized in the book and movie, The Secret.) Said another way—many believe that your thinking creates and brings to you what you think about. While this may sound a bit overstated, I do believe that what you focus on tends to expand. Therefore, it is very important to be aware of what you focus your thoughts on.  Yes – the Law of Attraction can be very powerful.

So why does it not always seem to work?

Just last week I was talking to a new money coaching client who said, “I’ve read all that stuff on the Law of Attraction and I really try to practice it, but it’s not working. What am I doing wrong?!”

Well, this new client was in a lot of pain. She really wanted to attract more money and was frustrated that it wasn’t working. (As many of us know, people commonly use the Law of Attraction to attract more financial security to themselves. Of course this is what gives the Law a bad rap sometimes. Some people see it as a New Age angle on materialism. But that’s a whole different article…)

I suspected I knew why it wasn’t working. Want to know the secret to the Secret? The Law of Attraction can be a very powerful, metaphysical law. However, if it is not grounded, it will not work. What do I mean by “grounded”? In terms of money—you must be clear on exactly what you are asking for.

Think of it this way: The Law of Attraction tells us to focus on what we want. That is often the first problem. Often, we don’t know exactly what we want.  If you don’t know exactly how much money you need to bring in, for example, how are you going to practice the Law of Attraction? It won’t work if you are uncertain of what you want to attract.

You would never call a catalog company and say, “Please send me a shirt.” They need more details. What shirt? What size, color, style…?

In the same way, exactly how much money do you need to cover your lifestyle? Exactly what does your life cost you?

If you want the Law of Attraction to work, you will want more financial clarity by practicing healthy financial behaviors. I think that sometimes we wish all we had to do was visualize what we want to attract. Just affirm that you want more money, and it will come. But that is not enough. We must do the work it takes to get financially grounded and clear. And we must maintain this clarity. When you maintain financial clarity, magic can truly happen. Week after week and month after month, you stay grounded in what you spend and what you need. You are crystal clear on what you want to attract. This creates grounded magic.

I have my clients start out by looking at the reality of their money. We look at where it is going. I teach people how to gain control over their money so they can then decide where they want their money to go. That is where it begins to get exciting – people learn how to direct their spending and consciously create a lifestyle that is in balance. We start with the small picture and progressively move to the bigger one.

Once someone is clear about the lifestyle they want, and the money needed to maintain this lifestyle, then the Law of Attraction can be a huge help. You know what you are focusing on. (Send me a short sleeved silk red blouse, size medium please.)

When you look at where your money goes, you become more financially conscious and aware. And when you take the time to plan where you want to spend your money, you unleash a powerful force of intention in your life.

The Law of Attraction can work. By getting grounded in the world of money and practicing healthy financial behaviors, you can more easily attract what you want and need.  And that is magic – grounded magic.

Mikelann is a money coach with over 20 years’ experience, helping women 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 see www.seattlemoneycoach.com and read about this life changing work.  Once there, grab her free eBook on how to stop worrying about money.