One of Many

Woman looking to create change

post

Sorting out your finances: 20 ways to start

By

Joanna Martin

Joanna Martin

Founder at One of many
Founder: One of many. Author. Ex-doctor. Entrepreneur. Sister. Sometime Actor. Baby Wrangler. Personal Chef. Mother.
Joanna Martin

Latest posts by Joanna Martin (see all)

Let's get real: When sorting out your finances looms on your to-do list, it can be easy to keep putting it off. There’s often a big scary task (getting honest about your pension situation, facing up to debt, or figuring out what your investments are doing, perhaps) that you’ve been avoiding.

But the truth is, there are countless ways to move into action around your money. And it’s often the smallest, simplest ones that will get you feeling empowered and confident enough to move onto the scarier items on your list.

By the time you get there, they might not even seem quite as daunting after all…

Our mission: To help women take control of their wealth

We’ve helped hundreds of women get control of their finances through our BeWealth retreat, one-day events and online programs, and the feedback we get is inspiring. Take Boryana's celebration after she attended our Wealth Insights workshop.

"The biggest impact of Wealth Insights for me was the realisation that wealth is achievable by ordinary people and that when you know how to appropriately manage your money, you can create predictable results. The second big aha moment was that you are not born with the knowledge of how to multiply money. It comes with education. I cannot thank you enough for these insights. They have started my ongoing journey to wealth in a sustainable way."

And every woman’s journey is different. So today I want to share just some of the ways we’ve seen women in our community make a start. My hope is that one of them might be the first step for you when it comes to sorting out your finances.

Let us know which one you’ll choose in the comments!

20 ways to start sorting out your finances

1. Get clarity

Don’t worry about changing anything, just find out where you arewhen it comes to one area: Maybe your pensions, savings or investments. Could you fire off a quick email at lunchtime and get access to the data you need?

2. Write down every penny you spend for a week

Perhaps the simplest and most effective way to start changing your financial habits. A spreadsheet is great for this. Not a tech fan? A little notebook works just as well!

3. Set up ‘jam jars’ or allocated pots for your money

This is a really powerful tool to use when it comes to taking control of your finances, and it can go well beyond spending and saving. We teach this and lots of other helpful tools around managing your money as part of our 10 Week Wealth Turnaround training. Give the office a call if you'd like to know more.

4. Explore your limiting beliefs around money

Is it the root of all evil? Goes as quickly as it comes? Causes stress and arguments?

What did you grow up believing about money, and how might that be holding you back? Taking time to journal about these feelings is free and easy -- and it’s often the biggest barrier to getting things on track.

5. Teach your kids the basics of saving, spending and investing

How do you manage issues like pocket money, and what do your children understand about money? Start having conversations with them and make finances feel fun!

6. Have an honest conversation with a friend about your finances

Many of us are happier confessing the deepest details of our sex lives than broaching the topic of money. Find a friend you trust and have a money chat. What do they earn? How do they spend, save, or invest? What are their challenges? You might find common ground.

7. Book an appointment with an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA)

Whether you’d like to be sure you’re investing ethically, want a financial MOT or need advice on handling an inheritance, separation or windfall, an IFA can give you qualified, impartial advice. And if you're imagining a stuffy old man in a suit, think again. We have several IFAs in our own One of many community, who love helping other women feel confident and empowered about their finances without patronising or making assumptions. Pop a post in the Facebook group if you'd like to find them!

8. Schedule a time to talk money with your partner

Hint: Not in the middle of an argument or when the joint bank statement’s revealed a nasty surprise. Find a time when you’re both ready to get honest -- and have a frank talk about where you’re at. Bonus points for making a date night out of it: win-win!

9. Print out your bank statements

Simple. Powerful. Grab a highlighter and see what's going in and out. Any surprises? Get familiar with the numbers. It’s the first step towards taking back control.

10. Update your CV

Make sure it accurately reflects your achievements, training and growth. Even if you're not actively job hunting, this can be a great way to identify the value you’re bringing to your organisation, company or clients. Might it be time to explore a promotion, pay rise or career move?

11. Write a list of your financial values

What’s more important to you: Freedom or security? Providing for your family or feeling independent? What would you like to be doing with your money? Spend some time exploring what matters most to you.

12. Find out about One of many’s wealth training

If you’d love to get control of your finances, book in a chat with one of the team to find out if our training can help. We have a few different options, and if there’s someone else we think would be a better fit, we’ll happily signpost you.

13. Listen to a podcast or read a book about money

This is a great one if you’re feeling overwhelmed or anxious about your own situation. Start by listening to what other people have experienced -- it might be just the inspiration you need.

14. Get clear on WHY

Feeling guilty or unclear is never the most positive motivation to get started on change. What’s your vision for your financial future? What would you do if you had zero financial worries? Draw a picture, write down some ideas, don’t be afraid to dream big.

15. Find an accountant/bookkeeper who can help you

If you’re self employed or an entrepreneur, having the right support in place will make all the difference.

16. Shop around

When it comes to renewing your insurance, the difference between quotes can be surprising. Or perhaps you'd prefer to be with a company that aligns better with your values? Spend an hour shopping around, and celebrate what you can achieve.

17. Commit to a regular money check-in

Like going to the gym, it’s little committments that can add up to big changes. Book in half an hour a week and commit to making that your money slot. How you use the time is up to you, but knowing it’s there will enable you to make a difference.

18 Up your self care to give you the energy you need

If you’re burned out and exhausted, looking at money stuff can feel like the last straw. Can you go to bed an hour earlier, book yourself in for a massage or have a long bath to recharge before you tackle the task?

19. Spend an hour journalling about your relationship with money, starting with your childhood

How have you felt about money, how much have you earned, what have you spent it on? Watch out for any patterns that recur, whether it’s online shopping binges when you’re feeling low or avoiding money conversations with those close to you.

20. Identify where you are on the Stages of Wealth - and what your priorities need to be

Knowing where you are on the stages of wealth means you can quickly identify what you need to focus on first. Read more about the different stages, and how they can help you focus your energy most effectively, here.

What's your first step?

As Boryana realised at Wealth Insights, nobody's born knowing how to manage their finances. Feeling confident and in control around money is something any of us can achieve, with the right support and education. So if you know you want to sort out your finances, take one small step today. Ask for help, share your journey, and celebrate every way you move forward. You've got this!

Our intention is simple. To support professional women to handle the day-to-day so they can unleash the bigger impact they feel called to make in the world.

We believe real leadership is less about skill, and more about having a well of physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual strength to draw on. Every week we support thousands of grassroots leaders globally with our free articles, videos and online trainings with powerful tools and methodologies created BY women FOR women.

Become One of many™ women creating strong, meaningful connections in our community.

post

The truth about manifestation: money, mindset and miracles

By

Joanna Martin

Joanna Martin

Founder at One of many
Founder: One of many. Author. Ex-doctor. Entrepreneur. Sister. Sometime Actor. Baby Wrangler. Personal Chef. Mother.
Joanna Martin

Latest posts by Joanna Martin (see all)

When it comes to money – making it, managing it and multiplying it – there are an awful lot of myths and misconceptions out there. From the “just roll up your sleeves and make more of it” school of thought to the “visualise and believe and miracles will happen” one, it can be hard to know what to do. Should you be learning about the stock market, or working on your chakras? Today I want to share the truth about manifestation as I see it, and bring a bit of sanity to the sometimes polarizing debate. Ready? Let’s go.

Why mindset matters

As a scientist and a businesswoman, I really understand a lot of the sceptical responses we get when the topic of “manifesting” comes up at the BeWealth retreat.

It can all sound a bit fluffy, a bit woo-woo, a bit “out there” for those of us who are committed to making results through our own intelligence, determination and hard work.

But it’s also true that it’s not only what you do that has an impact. It’s how you do it.

Approach a sales call, a client meeting or a strategy discussion when you’re feeling pissed off, resentful and fed up with the world and the outcome will be very different to what it might have been if you were feeling confident, positive and enthused.

This isn’t anything airy-fairy, it's just being in the right frame of mind to do the right job.

The truth about manifestation

From that perspective, the idea of manifesting, or creating, your reality isn’t something quite so outlandish. And the same thing also applies not only to practical situations you’re in, but things you’d like to see happen in the future.

Ever had a bad dream and woken up sweating, and shaking, and afraid? You're sweating and shaking because of something that's not real. It's in a dream, but your body responds as though it's real. It’s one example of the way your brain doesn’t actually distinguish between fantasy and reality.

Which is weird on one hand, and bloody great on the other. Because it means you can actually harness the power of imagination to create what you want. If you're focusing on the future, and imagining it, you can create results, because your brain goes, "Ah! I know what to do! I've done this before!".

It can work before a big presentation, when you get your energy flowing and your confidence boosted so that you can deliver exactly what your audience wants.

So it follows it can also work for income targets, salary raises and dream clients.

But is it really as simple as visualising what you want to create… and then watching it happen?

The limits of manifestation

Let’s come back to reality for a moment. Because whilst your brain might not be able to distinguish between something you’ve imagined and something that’s real, your bank account certainly can.

(Last time I checked, you couldn’t pay staff, mortgages or bar bills by visualisation alone… more’s the pity!)

Physical manifestation is a combination of the right action at the right time. You do the right things at the right time, having cultivated the right frame of mind, and you’re able to create the outcome. It’s a combination of both.

The truth about manifestation, then, is that its effectiveness lies in balance.

Some people spend a lot of time focusing on their energy. They might devote hours to manifesting, learning about the Law of Attraction and sitting there and just hoping and praying and thinking and visualizing, without actually putting in the work.

And then at the other end of the scale we have the women who are working, working, working really hard, struggling and fretting and stressing out about what they want to happen – and never acknowledging the difference their mindset or energy could be making.

At our BeWealth retreat we talk about “active creating”. One way to think of this concept is as a bridge.

A connection between the physical world - going out and doing your business, talking on the phone to clients, managing your spreadsheets, advertising, and Facebook pages, and all of the things that you need to do... but also having one foot in the energetic world. The area of the Sorceress PowerType, the area of just bringing your energy and your connection with all that is to your manifestation, to making manifest.

Creating and letting go

Women are gifted to be able to create from seed. Whether or not you're a mother of children, as this creator, as this receptive and creative principle, you are that creative aspect.

So, if you can bring that and then bring your intentionality to creation, there's a balance between putting your energy into it and then letting go.

Letting go of the timing and actually also letting go of the outcome.

You might think

"I would love to have my business make X amount of money per year or have this many clients or make this difference, be able to give 10,000 pounds a year to the Hunger Project."

But the approach I've found is the most effective is to say to myself

"Let this be in divine timing. Let it be as life wants it to be and let the outcome be what it's going to be. It's this or something better. "

By focusing your energy on "this or something better", you're not sitting there going, "I have to have this today. Otherwise, I'm going to be a failure." Or, "I have to have this tomorrow because otherwise, I'm going to feel like everyone's rejecting me."

It's harnessing the doing and also harnessing this "Sorceress" energy of manifestation.

Which, when it comes down to it, is simply the fact that we do create things through our emotions and our thoughts and our decisions.

We do it moment by moment, day by day. And if you can find that balance, you can do that in the big picture as well.

That's the place where miracles are made.

Curious about discovering the truth about manifestation for yourself?

There are so many layers to the way we create our individual realities. Your challenges, experiences and talents are unique, and navigating your way through them can be tough.

If you'd like help to find your path and change your financial situation, we have a whole host of trainings and programs that can help. Just click here to book a call with the office and we'll talk you through which one might work for you.

Our intention is simple. To support professional women to handle the day-to-day so they can unleash the bigger impact they feel called to make in the world.

We believe real leadership is less about skill, and more about having a well of physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual strength to draw on. Every week we support thousands of grassroots leaders globally with our free articles, videos and online trainings with powerful tools and methodologies created BY women FOR women.

Become One of many™ women creating strong, meaningful connections in our community.

post

How to achieve financial stability

By

Joanna Martin

Joanna Martin

Founder at One of many
Founder: One of many. Author. Ex-doctor. Entrepreneur. Sister. Sometime Actor. Baby Wrangler. Personal Chef. Mother.
Joanna Martin

Latest posts by Joanna Martin (see all)

Financial stability is the foundation for so much of life. When your income and outgoings are roughly equal, and you know exactly what your money situation is, you have choices: where to focus your energy; what your next career move is; what your priorities are based on your values. And yet most of us aren’t ever taught how to achieve financial stability.

So let’s go back to basics, and explore exactly what it looks like – and how you can get there.

How to achieve financial stability

If you’re feeling unstable financially it can be tempting to throw all sorts of tactics at the problem. We rush to trim our budgets, fret about how to earn “more” with only the vaguest idea of what our goals need to be, or find ourselves overwhelmed with complicated investment and asset management plans – when in reality, we’d find ourselves derailed by an unexpected gas bill.

Distracting yourself with that stuff keeps you from the real challenge: getting a clear, unbiased picture of where you are right now, and taking responsibility for changing it.

So if the mere thought of looking at your bank statement sends you into a cold sweat, or you’ve ever found yourself saying “I’m just hopeless with money”, I invite you to stop, and take a deep breath.

Getting to grips with this doesn’t have to be a struggle. It can actually be an easy, gentle process and today I’m going to walk you through exactly what it looks like.

The first thing you need to know is this simple principle:

The key to financial stability is ACCOUNTABILITY

That’s it. That’s what you need to embrace. And if that seems too simple, or too easy (Where’s the 25-step plan? The percentages and spreadsheets?), then let’s walk through exactly what’s involved.

Step one: Take responsibility

Becoming fully responsible in this context means acknowledging that you are the one who’s responsible for your thoughts, actions, and behaviours.

If your outgoings are more than you have coming in, it’s your responsibility to make the shifts you need to.

If you don’t know your financial situation, or it fluctuates so wildly you can’t keep track of it, you’re the one who needs to take action to address that.

It’s a principle that the richest women I know follow. But it’s also a mindset you can adopt today – no matter what your circumstances.

Taking responsibility means being fully committed to “owning” what’s happening in your life, instead of placing the cause outside of your control.

A simple way to track this is to begin to notice any time you find yourself doing any of the following:

  • Placing blame on others (If my boss wasn’t so stingy about pay rises… if my partner didn’t have such expensive hobbies…)
  • Justifying your circumstances (It’s the economy… it’s my lack of qualifications… it’s the competition)
  • Shaming yourself (I’m just no good with figures… As soon as I get money I spend it… I’m never going to be rich)

This week, become aware of any time you find yourself blaming, shaming or justifying your current financial situation. That might be in conversation with others, or just as part of your internal dialogue.

How can you reframe those thoughts, so that you can begin to be someone who takes responsibility for how things are?

2. Be accountable to others

When we look at financially successful women, we generally find they’re not only committed to taking personal responsibility. They have someone in their life who they report to when it comes to their finances. It might be a coach, business partner or accountant.

For you, it might be a close friend, your partner, sister or perhaps another woman in our community.

When we lead women through the 10 Week Wealth Turnaround, our comprehensive financial training for busy women, we invite them to be accountable within our online forum and to “buddy up” with someone else on the program. We know that this makes a huge difference in how effective the techniques and tools we teach are.

Showing up and being answerable for the promises you’re making can make the difference between setting good intentions (that quickly fall by the wayside) and starting to truly get honest about what’s going on.

Who could you be accountable to? Your partner, or someone else?

Reach out to them and ask them if they’d be willing to check in with you once a week on how things are going.

3. Get clear on your numbers

The final step when it comes to reaching financial stability is being accountable in the more familiar way we think of when it comes to money.

For most successful, capable women, the biggest challenge isn’t actually earning or budgeting. Those are important pieces, but they’ll come later.

First you need to know where you are: what’s coming in, what’s going out, and what needs to change in order for things to be different.

You’ll need to know:

  1. Your expenses – How much is going out each month. This will include your obvious monthly expenditure like housing, bills and groceries as well as less frequent expenses, from annual holidays to sporadic plumbing bills or house maintenance.
  2. Your income – Not just your salary, but other income like benefits, dividends, interest payments and income from things like rental properties.
  3. Your liabilities – A fancy word for any debts you have. This might be so called “good” debt, like your mortgage, or that high interest credit card you’re trying to forget. Having it all in one place means you can begin to get to grips with what’s going on.

This is an absolutely vital step, so don’t rush or skip it. I know it might sound counter-intuitive. When you’re slowly turning crimson as your card’s declined by the supermarket cashier, or guiltily trying to hide the evidence of that late-night online shopping spree when the credit card statement arrives, it can certainly feel like getting to financial stability just means finding more money – fast.

But without a clear picture of exactly where your money’s going, you won’t be able to make the empowered, intelligent decisions you need to.

A note on fear

For many of us, this third step is the hardest.

Why?

Often, especially if we’re capable and successful in other areas of our lives, we find ourselves paralysed by fear when it comes to looking at data which relates to our personal finances. This can be true even if handling budgets is something you breeze through as part of your business or job.  

If you’re feeling uncomfortable at the thought of gathering your financials in one place, take a moment now and gently ask yourself why.

You might be afraid of what you’re going to find, when it’s all laid out in black and white. You might be worried that you can’t work out a spreadsheet, or that the maths is too complicated, or even that you’re going to be far more successful than you think. (Remember, our fears aren’t always rational!)

If that fear is enough to stop you moving forward, here’s my simple suggestion: Find someone who can do this with you. There will be someone out there who can help you. A friend, neighbour, brother, mum, or your partner. If your fear is going to cloud your ability to do this, reach out and ask someone else to help you through it.

And keep it simple! You don’t have to use a spreadsheet or fancy app. A simple sheet of paper and a pen is all the technology you need to get the clarity that will make the difference. 

From awareness to action

When you’ve got clarity on where you are, you’re able to take action based on reality.

You might be pleasantly surprised, and find that you’re actually far more flush than you think. Your income is greater than your outgoings, and you’re ready to look at the next stage of wealth.

You might realize that things need to change if you’re going to “break-even” at the end of the month. Now you know by how much, and you can probably see whether your expenses have room to be trimmed or it’s time to think about raising your earnings.

Perhaps you’re almost there. Your incomings and outgoings are roughly the same. Getting this powerful habit of accountability in place will be the final piece when it comes to reaching stability. After a few tweaks, you’ll be ready to think about your next area of focus.

Need a helping hand with your money?

At One of many, we use a model called the 4 Stages of Wealth to map financial priorities. Financial stability is just the first stage – and we help busy, capable women navigate every step of the journey.

Whether you’re wondering how to set up a budget that works to starting to think bigger about your legacy once you’ve reached financial freedom, we’d love to have a chat about supporting you to take action.

Click here to book a call with the office and find out more.

Our intention is simple. To support professional women to handle the day-to-day so they can unleash the bigger impact they feel called to make in the world.

We believe real leadership is less about skill, and more about having a well of physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual strength to draw on. Every week we support thousands of grassroots leaders globally with our free articles, videos and online trainings with powerful tools and methodologies created BY women FOR women.

Become One of many™ women creating strong, meaningful connections in our community.

post

Are you a Jekyll and Hyde when it comes to managing money?

By

Joanna Martin

Joanna Martin

Founder at One of many
Founder: One of many. Author. Ex-doctor. Entrepreneur. Sister. Sometime Actor. Baby Wrangler. Personal Chef. Mother.
Joanna Martin

Latest posts by Joanna Martin (see all)

It’s a surprisingly common challenge among our community of smart, capable women: Managing budgets is part of your role at work and you’re competent – even talented – at doing it. But when it comes to your own finances, it’s a different story.

Why is it that we can be firing on all cylinders when it comes to our business finances, and yet stuck in a rut when the money’s our own? After all, it’s not as though your own cash is less important. Well, I have a theory – and I’d love to know if this resonates.

The power of boundaries

One of the reasons why we can be so successful in one realm, and yet feel like we’re floundering in another, is this: in our work, we tend to be constrained by clearly defined parameters within which we have to make our decisions.

You’re operating within a framework that leaves you in no doubt what you’re aiming to achieve, how you’ll monitor it happening, and when you’ll know if you’ve hit the mark or not.

At home, it’s a different story. Often we lack a basic structure to allow us to make informed decisions about what our goal should be.

  • Spend less?
  • Earn more?
  • Figure out investing?

And often we focus on the wrong thing. (That’s if you’re making the time to choose on a clear focus at all – when you don’t feel confident about your finances, it’s really easy to keep putting off the day when you’ll “have a proper look” at what’s going on.)

So let’s break down the 4 key areas that we can often find ourselves struggling with when it comes to personal wealth.

1. Data

Any business needs to have a grasp of the basic numbers: how much you’re spending versus how much cash your business is earning.

At work you likely have data on hand to explain why those numbers are what they are, and depending on the industry there will be varying levels of detail available to back up those numbers and give you further information.

But many of us have a very different story at home.

You might have an idea of what comes in, and perhaps certain fixed expenses, but what if things go up or down unexpectedly? What happens to spontaneous purchases or surprise expenses? And what’s the money you’re not earning or spending doing?

Cat Townsend is a graphic designer who started her journey towards financial freedom when she took a closer look at her own financial history… and was surprised, to say the least, to find her assumptions about her freelancer earnings proved wrong.

“I was amazed to discover that despite feeling like a financial failure, and not always having dependable income, that I had actually earned as much over the last decade as my partner had in his stable and steady job.

It turns out I was doing pretty well with the ‘making’ money, I was just lacking in follow through with the ‘manage’ and ‘multiply’ parts of wealth creation.”

When you have the data you need, you can make a better decision about what your focus is going to be – do you really need to be making more money, or is it more sensible to begin to look at what happens to that money when it comes in?

Getting a handle on where you currently are is an essential first step when it comes to taking back control.

2. Goals

In a business, you likely have a clear goal – a SMART one, hopefully, that guides your strategy when it comes to generating income.

Conversely, many of us haven’t been taught how to set our own financial goals. At One of many we use a simple structure called The 4 Stages of Wealth. These describe where you’re at and then use that to reveal what your current priority should be.

When Cat realised the stage she was at, it gave her another “aha!” moment.

“Jo also taught us about the four stages of wealth – Stability, Security, Independence and Affluence – and I realised another reason why previous financial education hadn’t worked for me. I was so far in the realm of instability that I hadn’t even reached the first stage of wealth yet! You can’t just jump straight to financial independence or affluence.

Each stage of wealth builds upon the next, so if I wanted to improve my wealth situation I needed to do the work to progress through each stage. Because as Jo explained, the strategy that gets you to one level is NOT the strategy that will get you to the next level.”

3. Accountability.

If you look after numbers in a business context, you might be called upon to report them at a team meeting, via email, or in a meeting with your accountant. What’s important is that there’s an element of accountability there.

At home, the opposite can be true. There might be no one who has a clear picture of what your money situation is. Meaning pushing financial stuff to the bottom of the to-do list is fatally easy to get away with – after all, no-one except you will know…“It fascinated me that stability is also about accountability” says Cat. “Scott and I never even spoke about our finances. I immediately knew this had to change.”

4. Emotion

One of the biggest differences when it comes to handling budgets at work compared to tackling your own financial situation is emotion.

Of course, as a responsible team member it’s going to be important to you that the business you’re in performs and gets results. But the level of personal attachment to those numbers is likely to be significantly less than the emotions you feel when you look at your own figures. You might feel worried, guilty or angry if the business isn’t doing well, but you’re less likely to feel personal shame.

This is a clue to one of the most commonly overlooked aspects of financial confidence: dealing with and recognising our own emotional “baggage” when it comes to money.

The good news

The great news is, if you’re on top of things at work the evidence is clear: you’re absolutely capable of nailing your personal finances too.

When you have the right framework in place you’ll discover the joy of making financial decisions from a place of empowerment – so that tending to your finances can feel fulfilling, exciting, and even joyful.

And even if you don’t handle budgets at work, you might be more talented with figures than you think. A 2017 survey by Fidelity insurance in the US found that in an analysis of more than eight million clients, women actually tended to save more and outperform men when it came to generating a return on their investments.

“The results of Fidelity’s latest analysis reinforces that women too often underestimate their strengths as savers and investors,” – Alexandra Taussig, senior vice president of women investors at Fidelity

Which is great news, right? When we have the right tools, women on average make sound decisions. So if you’re wondering why you can’t seem to manage your own finances like you do your business’s, it might simply be a case of creating the structure that will allow you to shine.

Want more?

If you’d like to find out about the training we offer to women around financial empowerment – both in-person and online – click here to get in touch. We’d love to find out what support you need to feel fully confident when it comes to your money.

Our intention is simple. To support professional women to handle the day-to-day so they can unleash the bigger impact they feel called to make in the world.

We believe real leadership is less about skill, and more about having a well of physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual strength to draw on. Every week we support thousands of grassroots leaders globally with our free articles, videos and online trainings with powerful tools and methodologies created BY women FOR women.

Become One of many™ women creating strong, meaningful connections in our community.

post

Personal finances – where to start

By

Joanna Martin

Joanna Martin

Founder at One of many
Founder: One of many. Author. Ex-doctor. Entrepreneur. Sister. Sometime Actor. Baby Wrangler. Personal Chef. Mother.
Joanna Martin

Latest posts by Joanna Martin (see all)

Did you know that in the UK, where I live currently, it’s estimated women are going to hold more than 60% of the country’s wealth by 2025 ?

We are a veritable army of change waiting to be tapped into. If we equip and empower ourselves around money and start making decisions which are in line with our values, then we could transform what the world looks like.

So it’s exciting times with regards women and wealth.

But these are also hugely stressful times for a lot of us, right?

Money can be stressful

To take the UK again, only 7% of the population in this country are on track for the retirement that we want. I’m a little bit concerned about our pensions, if I’m honest. And I’m not alone.

Research tells us that 4.5 million women in the UK are losing sleep over their money situation, and it’s not just that they don’t have enough in the bank right now.

57% are losing sleep because they don’t have enough savings – they’re worried about their future. And 28% are doing okay month by month but they’ve got a huge debt that they don’t know how to manage.

All together, that’s a hell of a lot of sleep we’re losing.

It’s impacting our quality of life. It’s impacting our well-being. And arguments about money are the number one top predictor of divorce.

So unless we do something about this money stuff, our very vitality, our health, our happiness and our relationships, will continue to suffer.

Our money confidence is often our lowest area of power

Here’s a quick challenge: think about your work confidence. Whatever you do, how confident do you feel that you’re the master of your own destiny there? That you can show up, that you can do something to make a difference?

Maybe it’s 100%, it might be 50%, or it might be 10%. Go with the first number that comes to mind.

Now, compare it to how confident you feel about your ability to manage and grow your money: your money confidence.

Interesting, right?

What I think we’re seeing at the moment is that over the last 100 years or so, as women have started to become empowered in the public sphere, we’re finally feeling confident in work.

We’ve fought our way through that glass ceiling and showed up, and we’re performing. Yes, there’s still a long way to go, but we’re doing great.

However, our money confidence is often lagging behind.

(Perhaps it’s still being informed by the last few millennia where we have not been involved in commerce at all.)

We still have a tendency to give our power away – to our partners, financial advisers, or even our parents. And where we are giving our power away, then we are not fully stepping up to the responsibility, or the opportunity that’s there for us.

Because let’s face it – the world needs changing.

And we can change it with our economic power. We can change it with our empowerment. But if you’re giving your power away around money, then you’re giving your power away full stop.

Personal finances: where to start

At Be Wealth, our brilliant retreat all about women and their relationship to money, we use a simple model called the 4 Stages of Wealth to identify our financial priorities and challenges, regardless of how much money we do or don’t have. At the retreat I take a spot survey in the room, asking the women there to put up their hands to say which stage of wealth they’re at.

It’s always a fascinating exercise to me, and not for the reason you might think.

What I see first of all is that an overwhelming majority of women in the room who are at the first stage of wealth – stability, where whatever they have coming in the amount they have left over at the end of each month is zero – feel shame.

They’re like, “Oh, god, I don’t want to admit to this! I’m so embarrassed”

And then, those who are at the next stage: security – where their expenses are a little less than their income, so their savings are increasing gradually to make a rainy day fund – are also thinking ”Oh my god, I don’t want to admit to this. I’m so embarrassed…”

But then those at the next stage, who you might think have got it sorted – because their passive income is making them more than their expenses – also say “Oh, I don’t want to admit to this in public! I’m so embarrassed”.

It doesn’t matter how much money we make, we have money shame

And I believe this is the root of so much of the problem.

We’re embarrassed.

We’re embarrassed because we’re making more than the person we’re sitting next to.

We’re embarrassed because we’re making less than the person we’re sitting next to.

We’re embarrassed because we’re not further along than we “should” be based on what our parents, or our society, tells us.

I would go so far as to say 99% of the women I have spoken to around money have some kind of money shame.

And when you have embarrassment around talking about money, you cannot transform it. Because if you can’t talk about it, you can’t learn about it, and education is the thing that can turn a situation around.

If your financial situation at the moment is not what you want it to be, it’s probably because at some level, you’re embarrassed to have conversations around money.

But if you were never taught how to manage money, if you were never taught to understand how it accumulates and how it grows and how it works, how could you possibly ever do anything about that?

We need to talk about money

I believe if we really wanted to change the way that power is arranged around the world we could do so, purely by changing whether or not money is talked about.

If everybody started talking about money: how much we have, how much we don’t have, what we know about it, what we don’t know about it – if we took it out of the closet, so to speak, I think things would shake up hugely.

But we will not be able educate ourselves until we overcome this first step of speaking about it.

And it’s absolutely time to do something about this, because we have an opportunity right now to transform the world. Not just our own personal financial world, so we can have the retirement that we want, and make the kind of impact for our kids that we want, or have the lifestyle that we want. Of course we know we can change that world if we sort our money stuff out.

But I believe we can change the world for even more people if we actually transform our relationship to money. If we let go of our money shame, and actually get educated on how the damn thing works.

What do you think? Can you relate to a feeling of embarrassment or even shame when it comes to talking about your finances? Let me know what your relationship to money is in the comments.

If you’d like to explore a new way of thinking about money that takes away the shame and gives you practical, powerful actions to take at whatever stage you’re at, come along to Wealth Insights. It’s our focused money workshop that gives you the chance to talk about your finances in a safe and friendly environment – and leave with a map of how to change your financial situation for good.  Read the full details and book your place here.

Our intention is simple. To support professional women to handle the day-to-day so they can unleash the bigger impact they feel called to make in the world.

We believe real leadership is less about skill, and more about having a well of physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual strength to draw on. Every week we support thousands of grassroots leaders globally with our free articles, videos and online trainings with powerful tools and methodologies created BY women FOR women.

Become One of many™ women creating strong, meaningful connections in our community.

post

Can wealth make you happy?

By

Joanna Martin

Joanna Martin

Founder at One of many
Founder: One of many. Author. Ex-doctor. Entrepreneur. Sister. Sometime Actor. Baby Wrangler. Personal Chef. Mother.
Joanna Martin

Latest posts by Joanna Martin (see all)

Can wealth make you happy? If you don’t have much money it’s tempting to think that it can; if you know you have plenty, you’re probably wondering why it doesn’t.

The fact is, wealth alone is the wrong measure to be looking at when it comes to our happiness, and here’s why: In every area of our lives, our ultimate fulfillment comes down to one thing.

Our values.

The real question we need to be asking

Before you know whether money will make you happy, you first need to be clear on your values.

Your values in relation to your wealth is something we look at in depth at our BeWealth retreat, but in a nutshell, values are those things which are most important to us. They provide all of our upfront motivation in life – you can pretty much guarantee you won’t spend time or money on something if it’s not of value to you.

Values are usually single words or short word phrases like love, achievement, pleasure, joy or freedom, and while they’re nouns, they’re usually things that you can’t put in a wheelbarrow. It’s not books that you value, for example, it’s education.

Using the wheelbarrow test, is money a value? Probably not, because money you could put in a wheelbarrow. It’s what money provides you that’s actually important to you.

That tells us that money in itself can’t be one of our values.

How can you know what is? Take a look at what you choose to spend your time, energy and money on.

If you’re always squirrelling funds towards your next holiday, it might be that you value travel, or adventure, or sunshine. If your amazon wishlist is longer than your arm, it’s a fair bet that reading, learning, or escape is one of your values.

And the books on your shelf are another great clue. Maybe you’re obsessed with spirituality, interiors, or rich imaginative worlds.

Your values are what bring you joy, fulfillment, and happiness.

When you know your values, your relationship to money changes

If money is an area of your life that’s currently causing you stress, looking at it through the lens of your values can give you fresh clarity into what action you need to take.

Say you’re fretting about money because there just never seems to be enough left over at the end of the month. When you think about your values, perhaps you find that security is something that’s really important to you. You want to know that if something unexpected happened, you’d have the funds you needed to fall back on.

If security’s important to you, you probably want to spend some time and energy learning about budgeting, money management and insurances. Perhaps you want to have a chunk of cash earmarked as a “rainy day” fund – like 6 month’s worth of living expenses – so you know the mortgage will be paid no matter what.

Or perhaps helping the environment is a really strong value of yours. Setting up a regular donation to an amazing organization helping preserve ecosystems, plant trees, or support indigenous communities might be a way to feel incredibly fulfilled about where your money is going. Volunteering a few hours a week to clear up a local beauty spot would cost nothing, and yet be a big investment in your happiness.

Whether you’re donating five dollars a month or investing tens of thousands, the fact that your money is aligning with what matters to you is what will ultimately lead you to happiness.

Can wealth make you happy? It’s what you do with it that counts

When we feel stuck, small or uncomfortable around money it’s often because we’ve been taught to use it in a paradigm that doesn’t line up with what really matters to us.

What we’ve learned about money is often outdated, and not particularly useful for us. That is, if we were taught anything about money at all! It’s not uncommon for women to be very successful at work but not understand anything about how money actually works.

After all, it’s only relatively recently that women have actually been allowed, from a societal perspective, to be involved with money. In the UK, it wasn’t until 1975 that a woman was allowed to open a bank account without her husband’s permission. To say nothing of the fact that for millennia, commerce was a strictly masculine domain – one in which we simply didn’t have a say.

When you consider that our grandmothers and great-grandmothers, going back for hundreds of generations, were not allowed to learn about or handle money, it makes sense that historically we don’t have power around it.

But things have changed dramatically for women in the last hundred years. It’s time for that shift to start to take root in the realm of our finances.

Build the future you want to see

If you’d like to explore a new way of thinking about money that empowers you to have the impact you’d like in the world, click here to request a brochure on our money training. We’ve helped hundreds of women around the world get their money stuff sorted so they can focus on the difference they want to make.

Our intention is simple. To support professional women to handle the day-to-day so they can unleash the bigger impact they feel called to make in the world.

We believe real leadership is less about skill, and more about having a well of physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual strength to draw on. Every week we support thousands of grassroots leaders globally with our free articles, videos and online trainings with powerful tools and methodologies created BY women FOR women.

Become One of many™ women creating strong, meaningful connections in our community.

 

post

What are good money habits?

By

Joanna Martin

Joanna Martin

Founder at One of many
Founder: One of many. Author. Ex-doctor. Entrepreneur. Sister. Sometime Actor. Baby Wrangler. Personal Chef. Mother.
Joanna Martin

Latest posts by Joanna Martin (see all)

In my work I’ve met many women who have made and grown wealth for themselves and their families. And as I’ve talked to them about how they created and sustained that wealth, I’ve noticed certain patterns. So many of us many of us didn’t grow up with strong role models of how to create wealth. Maybe you’d like to make more money, but you’re unsure: What are good money habits?

Very few of the wealthy women I spend time with didn’t wake up one morning with a huge number in their bank accounts, and then learn how to manage that money. Instead, they developed strong financial skills which led to the wealth they enjoy. Financial skills spring out of good money habits. As part of our 10-Week Wealth Turnaround we focus on 10 good money habits. I’ve picked off 5 of these that can implement no matter what the balance in your account right now. So, as you read this today, think: which of these will you implement first? Let us know how you go in the comments!

What are good money habits? 5 starting points to get your money working for you

1. Millionaire women know why

The really wealthy women I know are always clear on one key thing: the answer to the question WHY?

And the answer has a couple of parts.

First they understand WHY they are in the financial position they are in. They take ownership of the good decisions and bad decisions they have made. They bring consciousness to every spending, saving and investing decision.

The second part of the answer to “Why?” is the WHY they’re BUILDING that wealth. When it comes to earning, managing and multiplying their money, they have a clear vision for their money. They know what’s important to them, perhaps their family, their business or their desire to give to the causes that really matter to them. No matter what they have something fuelling and driving their desire to grow wealth, beyond “I just want more money.”

Action: Set aside twenty minutes to journal your WHY when it comes to money. Answer the following questions:

  1. Why are you in the financial position you are in. What good choices have you made, and what not good choices have you made?
  2. What do you want money for?
  3. What would life be like if you were receiving the kind of income you want?
  4. Why is money important to you – does it represent approval, stability, security, power or freedom, for example?
2. Millionaire women are accountable

We’re talking about money habits, but accountability starts with taking responsibility for our own power. The millionaire women I know are really clear about where they put their energy. They don’t lay blame, justify, or make excuses when it comes to their results. If they want things to be different, they take responsibility for making the changes that are needed.

They’re also accountable to others around them, answerable to any promises they’re making.

Finally, they’re accountable in the more usual sense of their financial accounts. They know what’s going in and what’s coming out when it comes to their money.

When we look at the stages of wealth, accountability is one of the key ways we move from financial instability to a place of financial stability. So if right now you’re not sure whether you’ll be up or down financially from month to month- the first and most important habit you need to implement is the habit of accountability.

Action: It can take a few hours to get a clear picture of your finances, so make time for it. Schedule a coffee date with yourself to get really clear on where things are: your debts, savings, and what’s coming in and out for the month. Getting a clear picture of where you are is essential if you’re to start steering your financial ship in the direction you want to be going.

3. Millionaire women manage their money effectively

This habit probably doesn’t come as a surprise – after all, we’re talking about women who are millionaires. They know how to manage their money effectively to make sure that they’re creating the financial future they want.

You might have read things like this before and thought: “Fine, I need to be ‘effective’ – but what does that actually MEAN?”. Well, at the very least, it’s about allocating something towards your financial future every single month – making that a part of the work your money does however much you earn right now.

In the great book The Millionaire Woman Next Door Thomas Stanley shares that 68% of millionaire women know exactly how much they spend every month on living: mortgage, fuel, food etc. They are brilliant budgeters. Of the other 32%, the “non-budgeters”, they make a commitment to INVEST money first each month and then only spend what is left over.

Either way millionaire women organise the money they have, and routinely put some aside to invest (not save) for the future.

One of the biggest mistakes I see women making is thinking that they’ll start to invest their money when they’re making “enough”. Most of us will never grow the kind of wealth we want without a commitment to investment right from the start. Just telling ourselves we’ll invest what’s left over isn’t sufficient. We must start the investing habit first. Creating your financial future means becoming conscious of the flow of money through your accounts. When we start to plan for the future immediately, we open up the amount of focus we give our financial future. So even if its $1 a month, starting the habit of investing in the future is the crucial step.

This is how we start to become truly conscious of our finances.

Action: Are you confident you understand the flow of money in your life? If you’re not really clear on how much you’re earning or spending, go back to the previous step – getting a clear picture of your finances is essential before you move into actively managing your money. Once you understand what’s coming in and out, you can start looking at what you want to invest in your future. Even if it’s only a small amount at first, this habit is one that will pay off in the long term. How much will you commit to investing monthly?

4. Millionaire women get their money working for them

In a culture which encourages us to continually spend, spend, spend, the millionaire women I know don’t only play the role of consumers in the marketplace. They’re in the habit of seeing themselves as creators of opportunity.

That means thinking of money as a way that we can make things happen for ourselves and for others, not just through our spending but through our investments. Investors see their money as a way of creating opportunities, whether that’s through property, the stock market, becoming a partner in a business, or something else.

Action: What would you like your money to do if it was working for you, instead of the other way round? Brainstorm a few priorities to investigate further, if this isn’t a part of your current finances.

Not sure where to start? Move on to habit 5 – it might be time to make some financial education your first investment.

5. Millionaire women educate themselves

If we start early enough in life, and have the right level of income, simply saving part of what we earn could possibly lead to wealth. But for most of us, creating the wealth we want to requires a little more. Usually our money needs to work a little harder than your average savings plan allows, to really provide for a financial future.

Most of us aren’t born knowing this stuff, so the first step is education to learn how to get our money working harder than a 0.5% annual interest rate in a bank!

Action: When it comes to finances, what do you wish you knew more about? Real estate investing? Stocks? Precious metals? What interests you to learn more about? Do a quick bit of reading today. Great authors on the subject are:

Rebecca Robertson of Evolution Financial Planning.

Gill Fielding of Fielding Financial.

Barbara Huson of Barbara-Huson.com, Author of one of my favourite books on financial power for women “Sacred Success”

Wealth Insights is our own half-day foray into reclaiming your power when it comes to money, and really increasing your wealth. Click here for upcoming events.

The bottom line when it comes to creating good money habits

At One of many we believe wealth is one of the most important areas of women’s power, and we’re on a mission to empower every woman in our community to create and manage the wealth she wants.

Do you recognise these habits in yourself? Is one of them a particular challenge for you, or an area where you have a tip to share for someone else? Let us know in the comments – your experience might be just what another woman needs to read today.

Our intention is simple. To support professional women to handle the day-to-day so they can unleash the bigger impact they feel called to make in the world.

We believe real leadership is less about skill, and more about having a well of physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual strength to draw on. Every week we support thousands of grassroots leaders globally with our free articles, videos and online trainings with powerful tools and methodologies created BY women FOR women.

Become One of many™ women creating strong, meaningful connections in our community.

post

What is true financial freedom?

By

Joanna Martin

Joanna Martin

Founder at One of many
Founder: One of many. Author. Ex-doctor. Entrepreneur. Sister. Sometime Actor. Baby Wrangler. Personal Chef. Mother.
Joanna Martin

Latest posts by Joanna Martin (see all)

What is true financial freedom? The phrase has a delicious ring to it – but for an awful lot of us the actual definition isn’t clear. The reality is, unless you know what you’re aiming for, it’s impossible for you to create strategies that will get you there.

When it comes to financial empowerment, too many of us get confused about the basics – like what is true financial freedom – meaning we don’t focus our energy where it’s most effective.

And this stuff matters. According to CNN, the largest growing economic force in the world isn’t China or India – it’s women. We account for 85% of all consumer purchases. If we were all able to make conscious, empowered choices around what we spend, rather than making those decisions unconsciously, we really could change the world.

Financial empowerment is a really important strand of our work here at One of many, because our finances are one area where a lot of us experience a great sense of disempowerment. To be clear, I’m not just talking about how much money you have.

When I talk about financial empowerment, I mean being really clear on what your financial situation is, taking responsibility for it, and understanding the strategies you need to move forward to the next level of growth. Without that level of understanding of wealth, you won’t be truly empowered.

What is true financial freedom?

So what is true financial freedom? The first thing a lot of us think of is an emotional state.

“When I’m no longer stressed about money” or “Never having to think twice about buying what’s best for my family.”

Sound familiar? But these kinds of woolly definitions can actually hold us back, because they don’t give us a clear sense of what we need to do in our lives right now to change things.

(After all, it’s perfectly possible to have millions in the bank and still think twice about buying things – or to be earning very little, but feel great clarity about how you’re moving forward.)

At One of many, financial freedom has a very specific meaning, and that’s what I want to share with you today. It’s one of the 4 stages in our “pyramid of wealth” – a really simple model we use to help us understand where we are financially.

The 4 stages of wealth

1. Stability

Let’s say you work for a salary of $30,00 per year, and your living expenses come to $30,000 – you’re at stability. Your earnings equal your outgoings. At the end of each month, you’ve got nothing left over in the bank account, but your expenses and your income is steady.

2. Security

If you’re earning $50,000 and your expenses are $40,000 per year, you’re probably at stability. Your expenses are covered by your earned income, with a little bit left over. At this stage, your family has a “rainy day” fund that means you’ve got the money in the bank to cover your expenses for the next 3–12 months. You’ve also got relevant wills and insurances in place to make sure you’re covered in the event of an unexpected emergency.

3. Independence

This is the “financial freedom” which a lot of us find hard to define. We describe it very simply: At this stage, whatever your living expenses are, they’re covered by the money generated by your assets – like income from property or stocks and shares.

Any amount of money you earn is a bonus because at this level, your living expenses are covered by your asset income. In other words, once you reach financial freedom, you don’t have to work any more to maintain your standard of living: your investments will cover your day to day costs.

4. Affluence

The final stage of wealth is affluence. As with independence, your living expenses (say $100,000 per year) are completely paid by the income from your assets.

This is the point at which you begin to diversify – to invest in lots of different assets, and to begin to understand how you can make a difference with the money you invest. At this stage, we start to become interested in what we can invest in, and begin to understand entire markets and the part we can play in them.

When we don’t have stable finances

You might be reading this thinking “Jo, that’s all well and good – but I’m not sure I’m on the pyramid at all!”. Maybe you’re a self-employed person experiencing “feast and famine”, your expenses seem to vary wildly, or you’re just not sure what your finances really look like.

First of all, you’re not alone! Instability is the step most of us are at before we get onto the pyramid, and it’s worryingly common among women. (After all, for a long time, women weren’t permitted to have any access to money, or educated about how to manage it – and these old patterns often persist.)

How do I change the stage I’m at?

Step one: Instability to stability

The key to making this first transition is accountability. This means tracking exactly what all of your incomings and outgoings are and being accountable for earning income. (At this stage, sometimes the simplest thing to do is to get a job.)

Step two: Stability to security

Accountability isn’t enough here, because reaching security means increasing your income or reducing your expenses. Now, the key is finding your flow. That might look like doing something you’re passionate about so your ability to earn income is greater, or tapping into a bigger flow of money by aligning yourself with a business or organization where the money is flowing.

This is something we explore at a much deeper level at BeWealth, where we use the Energy Outcome Matrix to get clear on the different elements to wealth creation and tell us where we need to be focused.

Step three: Security to freedom

Achieving financial freedom requires learning about investment: investing in oneself; investing in assets; or perhaps investing in teams to run your business for you. Just earning more won’t make that change. Now, the focus is on investing in assets which can generate money. And for many of us, the first step to that is investing in our own education so we can feel confident about making those decisions wisely for us and our families.

Step four: Freedom to affluence

The final stage of the pyramid is all about balance. We learn how to balance different kinds of assets, and to understand the balance sheets which tell us what’s going on in our finances. We also learn to balance our own energy, so that we’re paying attention evenly to every area where we spend energy.

Take action today

Finances can bring up all kinds of emotions and triggers for a lot of us, and it’s not surprising to find that there’s a temptation to “stick our heads in the sand” and ignore what’s going on. Looking at wealth in stages like this helps us understand where we’re at without judgement or emotion, but simply asa stage on a journey. So today, get honest with yourself: where are you right now?

Wherever you are, take a few minutes to notice the habits and the thinking that have got you to that level and be grateful for that. But notice that the same habits and thinking could keep you stuck here. What is it you need to get to the next level? In the next twelve months, what’s the big thing you know you need to do to change your financial circumstances and be in a place where you’re ready to move to the next stage?

The more we talk about these things, the more we can support each other to get empowered when it comes to money, relationships and health. If this is helpful to you, let us know in the comments below!

Our intention is simple. To support professional women to handle the day-to-day so they can unleash the bigger impact they feel called to make in the world.

We believe real leadership is less about skill, and more about having a well of physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual strength to draw on . Every week we support thousands of grassroots leaders globally with our free articles, videos and online trainings such as binary options with powerful tools and methodologies created BY women FOR women.

Become One of many women creating strong, meaningful connections in our community.

post

Grass Roots Women Who Inspire – Cat’s Story

By

Joanna Martin

Joanna Martin

Founder at One of many
Founder: One of many. Author. Ex-doctor. Entrepreneur. Sister. Sometime Actor. Baby Wrangler. Personal Chef. Mother.
Joanna Martin

Latest posts by Joanna Martin (see all)

Cat’s Story

For as long as I can remember I wanted to make a positive difference in the world. I even started out in my career as a biomedical engineer in Australia, designing aortic stent grafts and literally saving lives! But the problem was… it was boring. I wanted to do something that was exciting and fun.

In looking around at what else I could do I met a graphic designer. Now that was a job that looked like fun. I’d get to make stuff pretty all day and make a living out of it.

It was time to for a change in career

I found a graphic design course that I could take in only 12 months, and broached the idea with my partner Scot. He wasn’t entirely thrilled at the idea of me throwing in my high paid job to become a student again, but we agreed that I’d make up for the disparity in earnings in the future.

So, with no time to waste, I quit my engineering career and signed up for the course – thinking that surely this would be all I needed to make it big in the world of graphic design. Huh!

Twelve months later I made a list of top London design agencies I wanted to work for, and with a flimsy qualification in hand, Scot and I sold all our belongings and bought a one-way ticket to the UK.

Excitement. Fame. Fortune. Here I come!

Only thing is that tens of thousands of design graduates turn up in London every year looking for a design job – and most of those have Bachelors degrees. It was a shock to the system, but the situation forced me to get creative with my application process. I carefully targeted the creative directors at my top 10 agencies and sent them postcards of myself outside their door, explaining exactly why I was determined to work for them. Three months after arriving in London, I secured a foot-in-the-door at the agency which had been top of my list.

The cold hard reality

I quickly discovered that graduate designers typically work for minimum wage or ‘gulp’ for free!

The excitement kept me moving forward, but I had a sinking feeling that it was going to be a LONG time before I could ever make things up financially to Scot. And with the cost of living in London far higher than my income, I moved further and into a feeling of being indebted.

Working at an agency was fun and fast paced. I learnt a lot and got to work with some very prestigious clients. But after a number of years of doing it tight financially, I realised that I was never going to make up the financial gap with a regular agency job.

I turned to freelancing!

With a much higher daily rate, and the freedom to get experience from a range of clients, and change my focus to brand strategy and customer experience, I thought that I was set. But there’s nothing that messes with your mind quite like running your own business.

When I was busy things were fine. When I wasn’t things weren’t so fine. I quickly descended into a desperate cycle of taking whatever work was on offer and working my butt off for several months, and then spending the next few months stressing that I didn’t have enough work.

The freelance gig gave me the freedom to travel and make it back to see my family in Australia semi-regularly. But Scot (now my husband) could rarely travel with me because he was working in a full time employed position. He was the one who was being responsible and providing the stability for us. He was being a grown up. Whereas I felt broke all the time. I felt like a fraud, pretending I had my own business, when I my cash flow was so erratic I couldn’t be relied upon to pay the rent. It didn’t feel great but I had no idea how to change anything.

Money became a taboo subject

Best avoided if you didn’t fancy an argument.

In despair, I threw tens of thousands of dollars at personal development and wealth creation seminars. I learnt about property investment, passive income, multi-level-marketing. Basically, anything that might change my situation for me!

I’d leave each event hopeful, but after a few weeks the enthusiasm would fade and all that I was left with was a growing credit card bill.

I decided that the only solution was to work harder.

Work harder and I’ll make more money, I rationalised. But as I doggedly pursued more clients, and increase my earnings something else started to nag at me.

The work I was doing was now ENTIRELY about the money!

I wasn’t making the sort of positive difference in the world I had always wanted to make. In fact, some would go so far as to stay that my work was actually harming the world – selling people more stuff they don’t need, in order to make even more money for the 1%.

I started to make up for my growing sense of guilt, by doing the odd side-project for a cause that I could believe in. Doing good with my work felt so good that I started giving my time away to friends and family for free, afraid to charge for my services.

After all…

You can’t do good AND make money.

Or so the voice in my head would tell me.

But there are only so many hours in the day, and when you start spending more of your time working for free, the logical result is that you spend less time doing the work that makes you money.

There had to be another way of doing things?

Faced (yet again) with the same financial frustrations, I found myself registered for the Be Wealth retreat – not really expecting anything to change, but there was something in the idea of a ‘Soft Power’ approach to wealth that intrigued me.

All those other wealth seminars I’d attended, they’d pump you and challenge you to go out and fight for what you wanted.

I could see that they worked for other people, but that approach just never felt quite right for me. Jo Martin and One of many had made me start to question if maybe the difference was that they were geared around a masculine way of doing things.

What if I could approach things from a more feminine perspective AND still achieve the same results?

I decided to attend with an open mind.

Be Wealth started with an honest and objective look at the facts

Instead of teaching some ‘get rich quick’ strategy, Jo made us take an honest and objective look at ourselves.

We started by facing the real numbers in our individual money situations. I was amazed to discover that despite feeling like a financial failure, and not always having dependable income, that I had actually earned as much over the last decade as Scot had in his stable and steady job.

It turns out I was doing pretty well with the ‘making’ money, I was just lacking in follow through with the ‘manage’ and ‘multiply’ parts of wealth creation.

Jo also taught us about the four stages of wealth – Stability, Security, Independence and Affluence – and I realised another reason why all those wealth seminars, hadn’t worked for me. I was so far in the realm of instability that I hadn’t even reached the first stage of wealth yet! You can’t just jump straight to financial independence or affluence.

Each stage of wealth builds upon the next, so if I wanted to improve my wealth situation I needed to do the work to progress through each stage. Because as Jo explained, the strategy that gets you to one level is NOT the strategy that will get you to the next level.

It fascinated me that stability is also about accountability – something I was definitely lacking. Scott and I never even spoke about our finances. I immediately knew this had to change.

We explored our beliefs and values

I don’t know quite how Jo, Annie and Susie do it but they get right underneath all your programming.

I unpacked the story I had been telling myself about how I didn’t care about money. How I believed that it was more important to be making a difference than making money, and that you can’t do good AND make money at the same time.

A huge shift for me was when I realised that not caring about money was actually preventing me from making a bigger difference in the world!

I realised that working for free on projects that I believe in was actually harming those projects. I wasn’t able to dedicate the time and resources to the projects that they deserved. I wasn’t able to help them make the impact that they possibly could have – all because I was afraid to charge money for something that was doing good.

To say this changed everything is an understatement!

I immediately went back home and created a real, bonafide, creative business out of helping solopreneurs with a social mission, build a brand and make a bigger impact.

Within 12 weeks that business had billed £32k… which was more than I had billed in the rest of the year combined. And I was on holiday for one of those months!

I made the decision to take control of my finances, once and for all.

I realised that I had been behaving like a child when it came to finances. I was abdicating responsibility to Scot and that had to stop. We could be a team, but I had to contribute in more than just the ‘making’ phase.

Importantly if we wanted to create financial stability… and then financial independence, I needed to take responsibility and we needed to start communicating.

Rather than simply wanting to come back and make vague promises, I decided to let my actions speak louder than my words. I started to pay myself a regular wage from my business, and I implemented Jo’s jar system.

The massive surge in my regular income, and the carefully implemented money management system, definitely attracted interest from Scot, and paved the way for a very frank conversation about desires, needs and values.

This time something was different. We didn’t argue or get emotional. He could hear what I was trying to say. He could see that I was really taking action. He could trust that I was serious.

Less than a week after that conversation, Scot gave notice at the job that had been getting more and more stressful for him. A month later I became the sole breadwinner in our family whilst Scot concentrated on learning to trade the financial markets.

Suddenly I was the strong and stable financial person in our relationship

As Scot focused on learning his new trade, I grew my business – hiring team members and taking on more and more clients who were doing amazing things in the world.

I revelled in the fact that I was really making a positive difference in the world, and supporting my husband to pursue something he enjoyed.

After six months of working side-by-side in our 1 bedroom apartment Scot and I made the decision to take an even bigger leap. We packed up all our belongings, and set off with laptops and backpacks to travel and work as digital nomads. After more than a decade living in the UK far away from our families, it was a joy to spend a summer in Australia with no rush of moving on.

As I write this we are both sitting by a pool in Bali…

Scot watching the markets, as I exchange emails and the occasional skype call with team members plotting how we can better serve our clients and help them make an even bigger difference in the world. It’s a joy to empower others to share their messages in a bigger, bolder, brighter way.

There are still real challenges. I’m still only finding my feet in financial stability. And I have a lot to learn as I endeavour to progress on to the next stages of my wealth journey.

But the changes in my life have been so dramatic and phenomenal, and I still need to pinch myself to check that it is real.

It feels cheesy to say that this all wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t attended Be Wealth. But for once it feels great not to have had to battle through and learn all my lessons the hard way.

I’m so incredibly grateful to Jo for helping me get unstuck and showing me that there really is a different way.

Cat is an amazing designer and helped us create all our branding. She’s niched herself to help solopreneurs with a social conscience stand out from the crowd. Well done Cat!

Let me know in the comments if any of Cat’s story resonates with you.

And if you’d love to transform your relationship with money like Cat did then take a look at our upcoming Wealth Insights event in London.

It is a 3.5-hour tour-de-force live seminar into what keeps some of us women stuck around money, what millionaire women do differently, and how you can finally set you and your family free. And the best part is a ticket is only £27, and all ticket sale profits support an awesome not-for-profit.

Our intention is simple. To support professional women to handle the day-to-day so they can unleash the bigger impact they feel called to make in the world.

We believe real leadership is less about skill, and more about having a well of physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual strength to draw on. Every week we support thousands of grassroots leaders globally with our free articles, videos and online trainings with powerful tools and methodologies created BY women FOR women.

Become One of many™ women creating strong, meaningful connections in our community.

post

The Missing Piece to Manifesting Money

By

Lara Waldman
Follow Me

Lara Waldman

The Abundance Activator | Inspirational Speaker | Healer | Abundance Coach | Author
Lara Waldman
Follow Me

Latest posts by Lara Waldman (see all)

Lara Waldman – The Abundance Activator

For many years we have been hearing about The Law of Attraction and Manifestation; how it’s possible to create the life that you desire by thinking and believing that it’s possible. But there has been a very important missing piece.

In this article I’d like to share exactly what that missing piece is and give you a simple 5 step strategy to money manifestation mastery.

Let’s start at the beginning and consider…

The Deeper Purpose of Money

Money is a vehicle to realising your dreams in the physical world. Money helps to ground the calling of your Soul and anchor it here on the planet. Money is not the source of your happiness but a vehicle to express your full essence and Purpose in the world.

Money is an amplifier. Money exposes your deepest emotions, thoughts and beliefs that keep you small, stuck and limited. Your relationship with money can trigger and expose some of your deepest fears, frustrations and challenges.

Used consciously, money can also expose your greatest purpose, your true essence and the gifts of your Soul that you have come to this planet to share with the world.

The energy of Money is neutral. It does not judge good or bad. It simply wants to create and grow. Money can support you to create and grow your dreams into physical reality if you choose to use it in this way.

When you use money consciously in this way, it can be your greatest support to help you realise your purpose and make the impact that you were born to make.

This leads me nicely to the missing piece.

It’s all about where your desires are coming from.

You can create the life that you want lead by the desires of your Ego and many people do create from this place. The problem is that creating your life from your Ego desires can also create pain and suffering along with it, not only for you, but for others as well.

But there is another place to create from. When you create your life in alignment with your Soul’s Purpose, you will be making choices that serve not only yourself, but also the lives of others and all life on this planet. Your Soul, your Higher Self, will always lead you to greatness.

When you consciously create your life in alignment with your Soul’s Purpose, then your life flows with greater ease. Don’t get me wrong, life will still present its challenges, but generally speaking life will be flowing with you, rather than against you.

So the missing piece is a simple question to ask yourself…

‘Is what I am asking for in alignment with my Soul’s Purpose?’

If it’s not, then you have yourself a problem.

Your Soul, or Higher Self, has come here for a reason. Your Purpose is far greater than what you are aware of on an Ego or personality level. If you create your life out of alignment with you Soul’s Purpose, then you will soon find out about it.

When you fall too far out of alignment with your Soul’s Purpose, you will get what I lovingly call ‘A Slap from The Universe’. For many people this can look like a difficult life changing crisis.

I have been ‘slapped’ by The Universe many times in my life. I have also supported hundreds of women through many of these turbulent life changing moments. What I have learned is that if you create your life out of flow with your Soul’s Purpose, life will force you to stop and listen.

It is my passion to empower women with The Law of Attraction and Money Manifestation to consciously fulfil their great purpose while living life to the fullest. By saying yes to receiving money in alignment with your Purpose, you are saying Yes to creating a life of greater Ease, Joy and Fulfilment.

It’s time to say good bye to unnecessary pain and suffering when it comes to money and start enjoying your life to the fullest by making the difference that you were born to make.

Take Your Power Back

You are the creator of your life. There are areas in your life where you unconsciously create a life you don’t want, rather than consciously creating a life that you do want. It’s time to let go of victim consciousness, of life happening to you and get into the drivers’ seat of your life.

Money Manifestation Mastery is about remembering just how powerful you truly are. Most people have not been taught this. Most people have been trained in victim consciousness. You have been trained that there are limited options for you and your life.

The truth is that you are a master creator. It’s time to reclaim this power and start using it consciously. This will not only create an awesome life for yourself but for everyone whose life you touch. By transforming your world, you transform the world of others. As within so without.

5 Essential Steps to Manifesting Money in Alignment With Your Purpose.

Step 1: Put In Your Order To The Universe– get clear on what you want

Most of us are very good at focusing on what we don’t want. When I ask women ‘What would you ask for if I had a magic wand?’ the majority of them will start talking about what is not working, what happened in the past and why. Most people are programmed to focus on the negative, to focus on what is not working.

The key to creating the life that you desire is to focus on what you do want.

I will ask you now, if I had a magic wand and you could have anything you like, what would you ask for?

Let’s start with money. How much money would you LOVE to bring into your life and business, with ease (not with hard work and struggle)? What would that figure be for you? It can be monthly amount, an annual amount or a lump sum. This is your Money Goal.

The great thing about Money in relation to your purpose is that larger amounts of money are more in alignment with your Soul than smaller amounts. This is because your Soul is infinite! You do not need to confine yourself by lack or limitation when it comes to money and your purpose. Allow yourself to dream big!

Money Goal

How much money would give you the feeling of financial freedom? What would make you feel really relaxed and happy when it comes to money? This can be an annual amount of money or a monthly sum of money.

Daily Action:

Ask to The Universe and Your Higher Self (aka Soul)

What would it take to bring in X amount each month/year?

Money Fuel

Next you want to get clear on what I call your Money WHY. This is your money fuel. Your money fuel is the reason behind your Money Goal. Your Money Fuel highlights what is really important to you and what you are truly asking for through the vehicle of money. Your Money Fuel will be the thing that motivates you to create your Money Goal.

Human beings are ultimately motivated by feelings. Make sure to include the feelings that would come with your money goal being realised. The feeling that you want to feel is ultimately what you are asking for!

For this next section, please get a pen and your journal or piece of paper.

Money Fuel Exercise

Take your Money Goal and ask:

Why is this amount of money important to you?
What would be the impact of this amount of money?
What does it do for your life and the lives of others?

Now take the answers to those last questions and ask the 3 questions again of the first round of answers.

Why is this amount of money important to you?
What would be the impact of this amount of money?
What does it do for your life and the lives of others?

Now take the answers to the second round of questions and ask the 3 questions one more time.

Why is that amount of money important to you?
What would be the impact of that amount of money?
What does it do for your life and the lives of others?

With each round of questions, you are unlocking your deepest desires behind your money goal. The answers to these questions will highlight your true Purpose.

Your Purpose

Your Purpose is not just what you do in the world, it’s how you are BEING in the world. Part of your purpose is to BE the truth of who you are.

Your purpose is to fully embody and express your truth in the world. There are different vehicles for your purpose to be expressed, ie: business, but ultimately it’s about sharing the gift of who you truly are with the world.

When you are deeply connected to your Purpose and your Truth, you will then be divinely guided through your life.

Step 2 Release Your Money Blocks – get out of your own way

Your money blocks are the negative thoughts, beliefs and emotions that often come up the moment after you connect to your dreams. When you opened up to what you wanted, did you notice any negative, limiting thoughts or beliefs come directly after? These are your money blocks.

Your money blocks seem very real, but they are not. They are simply negative thoughts, beliefs and emotions that you absorbed and picked up on from the world around you. You learned these patterns from your family, your ancestors, the culture that you were raised in, as well as the society that you grew up in.

Your Money Blocks hide the truth of who you are. They cover up the light of your Soul. They are designed to keep you small, limited, stuck and hidden.

Your Money Blocks stop you from stepping into the unknown. Ultimately, they are designed to keep you safe in your comfort zone.

Having these blocks is a part of your human experience. Your money blocks are part of the journey called Life, but you can also consciously release them over time. This is where you have the power of choice and the ability to consciously create your life for the better.

We could spend a long time analysing all of your money blocks, which would be interesting, but it won’t necessarily release them. Would you be willing to simply let them go?

It’s super simple to release your money blocks but you need to release them on a regular, consistent basis. Your money blocks are sneaky and feel so real! The trick is to recognise your money blocks, see them for what they are and be willing to let them go.

Your money blocks want to keep you exactly where you are in the safety of your comfort zone. Your money blocks would rather keep you in the pain of what you know, rather than the potential risks of the unknown.

Your Money Blocks, although with good intentions of keeping you safe, are actually holding you back from creating positive change in your life. It’s time to let them go if you wish to move forward with your life.

Exercise

After you ask for your Money Goal:

What would it take to bring in X amount each month/year?

You then say:

‘Anything and everything that is stopping or blocking me from welcoming that amount of money into my life with ease, I let it go now.’

The key here is not in the words that you say but rather in your intention behind the words. You need to really let go or at least be willing to begin the process of letting go of your Money Blocks.

You are so powerful, more powerful than you realise. When you make the choice to let go of your money blocks, they will begin to dissolve away.

Some money blocks like to grip on for dear life, so you need to do this practice every day to chip away at them. Eventually your money blocks will dissolve with time, patience and love. Releasing your money blocks is a daily practice.

Step 3 Make the choice to have your Dreams Now – bring them into the present

Money manifestation works when you get 100% behind what you are asking for. You have to make a choice that you are going to do this and have this, even though you don’t know how. You need to decide that what you are asking for is going to be your reality, because you choose it to be so.

You do not need to know how you are going to make it happen. The how is up to The Universe and your Soul. All you need to do is decide and be willing to take the next steps forward towards your dreams.

You are the creator of your life. You create your life by getting clear on what you want and where you want to go. It’s time to get into the drivers’ seat of your life.

Bring Your Dreams Into The Present

When you think about your money goal, where is it? Is it in the future somewhere? Do you see or imagine your dream outside of you? Most people do.
The trick with money manifestation is to bring what you are asking for into the present, as if it’s real now. You become it now.

Most people say…

“I will be happy, peaceful when I have X, I will feel free when I have Y”.

The trick with manifesting what you desire is to start feeling what you want to feel NOW. So if you are asking to feel Joy, Freedom or Peace, start connecting to those feelings every day NOW.

As you become what you want NOW, you become a magnet to more of the same. This is how The Law of Attraction Works.

On a deeper level what you are doing with money manifestation is connecting to the truth of you. When you are aligned with your Soul and your purpose, you will feel Joyful, Free, Peaceful, Connected, Expansive and fulfilled. When you are feeling any negative emotions, it simply means that you have fallen out of alignment with yourself. It’s a sign something within needs your attention.

Exercise

Become The Vibrational Frequency of That Which You Desire

How would a person with X amount of money (your money goal) walk, talk, be? Become the energy of someone with that amount of money now. Your body knows how to do this. Sit, close your eyes and ask your body to become the vibrational frequency of a person with X amount of money. Then see what you feel!

Do this every day.

Step 4 Listen To Your Intuition

As soon as you ask for what you want, the answers come. The Universe will give you energetic breadcrumbs to guide you towards your dreams, but you have to listen. Your Soul, or Higher Self, will guide you forward.

The Universe and Your Higher Self speak to you in many subtle ways. You will get messages that lead you towards your dreams if you are listening and paying attention to those messages.

One of the main ways that The Universe speaks to you is through your intuition. You will get ideas, insights or awareness that are guiding you to the next step towards your dreams. But so often you will reject those ideas or insights as soon as they come it.

The key is to listen to the subtle messages from the world around you. The answers are there, but are you listening?

To help yourself listen to your intuition it helps to get still and quiet. Sit, breathe and tap into your inner knowing. I personally recommend a daily meditation practice.

Step 5 Take Guided Action

The very important step to realising your money goals is taking guided action. You need to take action on your intuitive ideas, or at least be willing to explore them more.

The key to guided action is taking action towards your dreams lead by your Higher Self and not from your Money Blocks aka your Ego.

Your Money Blocks will keep sneaking up to stop you in your tracks. They will feel very real. You must keep releasing them as they come up and not let them run your life anymore. Keep releasing your money blocks every day.

Your intuition will never speak to you in a fear based way. If your thoughts, feelings or emotions are fear based or negative in any way this is not your intuition speaking. Your intuition will be calm, clear and free from emotional drama.

You will realise your dreams one step at a time. Sometimes you will move forward with great leaps and bounds and sometimes you will move forward with many little (sometimes wobbly!) baby steps.

Please remember patience, trust, compassion and perseverance on your money manifestation journey.

Money Manifestation Daily Actions

1) Meditate:

To help you connect with your intuition I recommend meditating daily. To do this, sit quietly with your eyes shut and breathe. When your mind wanders, come back to your breath. Sit for a minimum of 10 minutes or until you feel your mind slow down. I personally recommend a minimum of 20 minutes a day. Your mind will wander! That’s normal. Just keep coming back to the breath, back into the present moment, when you notice your mind wandering.

When your mind has settled connect to your Money Goal and Your Money Fuel.

2) Ask The Universe and Your Soul:

What would it take to bring in X amount each month/year?

What would it take to feel, have, experience….?
(fill in the blank with your money fuel)

3) Money Block Release:

Anything and everything that is stopping or blocking me from welcoming my money goal and my money fuel into my life with ease, I let it go now.

4) Bring your dreams into the present.

Become the vibrational frequency of that which you desire. Imagine what it would feel like to have that amount of money. Bring up the feelings of your money fuel. Become it now.

5) Ask your intuition:

What action can I take now that will create the greatest result?

6) Take Guided Action

Listen to your intuition. Write down any ideas and take action on the next best step for you at this time on your journey.

Do this practice every day.

Your dreams are on the other side of your comfort zone. Moving beyond your comfort zone is not always comfortable, but so very worth it. I promise!

Never give up on your dreams. You are here to make a very important contribution to this world. Make the most out of what life has to offer you.

Much Love and Abundance,
Lara Waldman
The Horse Woman without a Horse

To master your money manifestation and discover more powerful exercises, tips and mind-shifts to increase your abundance check out Lara’s new book
‘Money Manifestation Mastery’ via this link:
http://larawaldman.com/book/

About Lara

Lara Waldman is The Abundance Activator. Lara is an Inspirational Speaker, Healer, Abundance Coach and Author of the book “Money Manifestation Mastery – 5 Steps To Abundance Activation”.
Lara empowers Female Entrepreneurs and Business Owners to attract more money into their life and business. She teaches women how to use Money Manifestation as a vehicle to fulfilling their Life’s Purpose and making the change they were born to make.

Connect with Lara:

Web: www.larawaldman.com
Social: Instagram | Facebook | YouTube