Always Base your Financial Goals on Your Values: Here’s Why

I’m not a big fan of making money for no reason. When we have an abstract number in our head about how much we want to make, this can be distracting and counterproductive at best, and leave us feeling empty at worst. Financial goals shouldn’t be based on round, nice-sounding numbers that carry an air of success. They should be based on what we actually want to get out of life!

Your Values = Your Satisfaction

The way I see it, your values are pretty simple. The more you incorporate the things you value into your life, the more satisfied you are. In other blog posts, I’ve written about Vicki Robin’s concept of enough, and Lynn Twist’s ideas of sufficiency. Having enough, feeling sufficient and satisfied – isn’t that what most of us really want out of life? Your business, your finances, and your goals should enable you to have enough of the things you value in your life to feel satisfied.

For more thoughts on identifying your values, I suggest reading “What’s Your Money Why?”

Stay the Course

This is much easier said than done! We live in a world where we are met with many different distractions that make us feel insufficient. This can be especially difficult for business owners, because we can get caught up comparing our incomes and lifestyles to others, instead of staying focused on what we want for ourselves.

Creating goals that are based on your values helps you maintain your focus on your own ideas of success. It can help you avoid anxious behaviors like overworking and over-saving.

Assign a Number

Rather than falling for some number that “sounds like success,” it’s important to assign a number to your goals and dreams.

For example, you take time to really analyze your values and your dreams. You decide that what you want is more fun in your life, specifically through taking an aerial silks class (or whatever intentional choice you might make to increase your value of fun). You would then assign a number to that dream by calculating how much a class and any necessary supplies would cost, plus any other associated expenses you might want to be aware of. That gives you a dollar value that can help inform your financial goals.

Happy goal setting! If you enjoyed this post, you’ll probably like my free e-Book, Reach Your Life Goals: A Business Owner’s Guide. Click there or below to download your free copy.

This post was first published in 2021. 

By |2023-01-27T09:48:00-08:00January 27th, 2023|Categories: Financial Clarity|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments
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How to Set Doable Financial Goals: 4 Tips

If you set financial goals that are way out of your reach, you’re setting yourself up for defeat and disappointment. Rather than curtail your progress with emotional roadblocks, try simplifying your financial goal-setting for this year. These four strategies can help you create goals that are meaningful, motivating, and realistically achievable.

Check in With Your Values

Check in with your values before setting goals. Your business, your finances, and your goals should enable you to have enough of the things you value in your life to feel satisfied. Basing your goals on your values will also give you a clear way to connect with your “money why” and stay motivated when you’re working towards them. 

Set One Goal

Set one goal, not a dozen. This will make it easier to manage and complete the goal. James Clear is a great thinker around goal setting, and brings up the psychological concept of goal competition. “…Your goals are competing with one another for your time and attention. Whenever you chase a new goal, you have to pull focus and energy from your other pursuits….What often looks like a problem of goal setting is actually a problem of goal selection.”

When you cull your goals down to one, you’re able to direct all your focus and effort towards this one goal. Of course, I’m speaking about the general realm of your finances. In reality you’ll of course still have a full and complex life – all the more reason to simplify things and pick one financial goal to focus on! Which brings me to the next point:

Identify Your “One Thing”

Identify the thing to do in your finances that would make everything else easier or irrelevant. This is from Gary Keller’s book, The One Thing. This book carries a similar message to what I wrote above: multi-tasking is actually holding you back from making progress on your goals. Using the question “What is the one thing, such that by doing it, everything else would become easier or irrelevant?” can help you further cull your goals and make space in your finances to get focused. 

Turn Your Goal Into a System

How will you stay on track with your goal? When setting your financial goal, consider how you’ll turn it into action items, and how you’ll complete those action items. Will you set up a time to make progress each week? Will you find a money buddy to work in tandem with? Will you create a special routine for yourself around checking in with your finances daily? 

Carving out regular time to devote effort and attention to your goal is one fo the best ways to actually achieve it. So when setting a goal, keep in mind how likely you are to be able to do this, and how you’ll set up a system for success. If you’d like to work on a financial goal with my guidance, set up a free Financial Self Care Consultation. Click here or below to schedule:

 

This post was originally published in 2022. 

By |2023-01-18T13:42:48-08:00January 18th, 2023|Categories: Financial Clarity, Money Mindset|Tags: , , , , , |0 Comments
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A 3-Step Reflection Process for Financial Goal-Setting

To see the best way forward, sometimes it’s important to look backward. Reflecting on your financial history thus far can yield some interesting insights into how to set your financial goals for the year. Let’s talk a little more about why this is an important practice, and then get into the process!

Why Reflect?

Reflecting on your financial journey throughout life can yield several important results. First, it can give you a chance to simply notice what’s changed, and how. The last  few years have been economically tumultuous for most of us. Consider where your finances were at in the beginning of the year, as opposed to where they are now.

Aside from noting change over time, this can also be a chance for you to learn from your past money moves. Perhaps this past year you tried some new strategies or made a big purchase. Reflecting on how different events in your financial life this past year have worked out can give you insights into what to do next, and what you’d rather not do again.

Finally, I personally believe that just giving your money the gift of your attention is a positive thing by itself. Simply making it a habit to check in with your money and what it’s doing right now can be enough to start you off. Reflecting and looking at your money history is one way of doing that!

Step One: Try Out Some Prompts

To spur your reflective time, I have a couple different questions you can try asking yourself. These prompts are about your values and your goals, rather than the nitty-gritty details. If you’re more interested in that, scroll down to the review section. You might like to try answering these questions either as journal prompts, or use them as discussion questions with a money buddy:

  • How has my financial situation changed over the course of this year? Where am I now compared to December 2020?
  • Do I feel fulfilled by how I used my money this year? Why/why not?
  • How do I feel about they way I showed up with my money this year?
  • What are my financial lessons this year? What did I do with my money that worked so well, I’m going to do it again next year? What would I like to improve on?

Step Two: Review Your Records

Whether you’re reflecting on personal or business finances, you likely have records of your past money moves. Take some time to reflect on these!

If it’s business finances you’re looking at, I highly suggest doing a year-end bookkeeping review. Even if you do it yourself and then get it checked by a pro, this is a great step in the right direction. Done right, this can give you clarity about what aspects of your business are bringing in the most revenue, and what to focus on.

If you’re reflecting on personal finances, or even your financial picture as a whole, it’s good to get clear on your income and expenses at this stage. For more directions on how to do this, I suggest reading my article “How to Create a Spending and Income Plan, Part One” which goes into detail.

Step Three: Do a Full Check-In

If you’re interested in a more lengthy reflection process, I recommend doing a full check-in. My article How to Do a Business Check-In  goes into detail on a process you can use to do this. I can also recommend my article Three Steps to Financial Clarity for a process that’s less business-focused.

If you enjoyed this article, you’d probably like my free e-Book, Reach Your Life Goals: A Business Owner’s Guide. Click here or below to get your copy!

By |2023-01-11T16:16:45-08:00January 11th, 2023|Categories: Financial Clarity, Money Mindset|Tags: , , , , , , , , |0 Comments
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3 Ways to Prep Your Finances for the Holidays

The holiday season is a time of meaning, gathering, and giving. There are a couple key money moves you can make early on to make sure that’s the focus, instead of financial stress. Let’s talk about a couple different financial situations many of us face at this time of year, and how to navigate them peacefully!

What Do You Love Most About the Holidays?

When getting ready to make any financial decision, it’s important to check in with your values. Setting up your holiday spending plan is no exception. Take a moment and ask yourself these questions:

  • What do I love most about the holidays?
  • What are my needs and wants for this holiday season?
  • What do I want to make sure I do to enjoy this time of year?

These questions will help you get clear on your financial priorities for holiday spending. Pick a few special things, like donating to a cause you care about, taking your family for a sleigh ride, or getting a perfect gift for someone you love.

Then orient your spending plan so that those things happen, and don’t worry about missing out on the rest. As long as you get to do what’s meaningful to you, you’ve spent your money wisely, right? Going through this process will lead to more life satisfaction and less financial stress when you find it easy to pay your credit card bill come January.

Intentional Giving

Speaking of donating, at this time of year all of us are getting requests to donate to various causes. Keep in mind that you get to be intentional about how you donate. You don’t have to respond to every single request.

Again, this is a great moment to check in with your values and ask, what causes matter most to me? Where would I like to focus my donations to make an impact?

Then, identify how much money you have available to donate, and divvy it up according to your priorities. You might choose to make one large gift to a single organization, or spread your money around between several.

Use Money Tools

Both of the processes I have outlined above can be streamlined by using money tools and systems. If you haven’t yet, I highly recommend going through a process of figuring out what you value most in life and discerning your needs from your wants. I also recommend checking out my series on creating a spending plan and my article, “How to Make Donating Money Way Easier On Your Finances.”All of these money tools can be a huge help to navigate any financial situation, any time of the year!

If you enjoyed this article and want to go through this process with a guide, I offer personal financial coaching sessions for just this purpose. Click here or below to book a free 15-minute Financial Self Care Consultation to see if we can work together to address your needs.

By |2022-12-06T11:55:26-08:00December 6th, 2022|Categories: Financial Clarity, Personal Spending|Tags: , , , , , , , , |0 Comments
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Retirement Planning for Solopreneurs: How to Find a Trusted Financial Adviser

It’s very helpful to have a trusted adviser take a look at your financial situation. Particularly when you don’t have the support or typical options offered by a corporate job, it can be helpful to get outside recommendations. But how do you find the resources you need from someone who is trustworthy?

What is Good Financial Advice? My Thoughts

One of my big goals with At Peace With Money is to help solopreneurs who don’t manage enormous accounts feel like they too can take steps down a helpful financial path. I strongly believe that no matter what amount of money you make, there are steps you can take to improve your situation and take care of yourself in the long term. I also believe you can do this without hugely sacrificing your quality of life. It doesn’t feel good to be chastised for your income level or your lifestyle, especially when class structure in the U.S. effects us in a way that means we are often not fully responsible for our financial standing. I don’t think that’s the role of financial advice anyway! Instead, good advice meets you where you’re at, and helps you get where you want to go.

 

Know What You Need

Once you’ve decided to find financial advice resources that are relevant to your lifestyle, it’s important to know where you’re at personally. So, be sure to check in with your own finances. If you need a simple process to get clear, check out my Three Steps to Financial Clarity exercise.

Once you’ve done that, you should have a clear idea of your current income level and your hopes for your financial future. Both of these things will help you determine what financial resources are best for you. At the beginning of your journey, you might not be interested in people who talk about managing large investments. That can always come later! Instead, you might be interested in resources that cater specifically to people who’ve just opened an IRA.

My Recommendations

  • Especially for younger people or people who don’t have big portfolios, I recommend working with XY Planning Network. They will work on a project-basis, which makes their advising services more accessible.
  • Many people also like working with Vanguard. They have a lower fee and have people on staff to help advise you.

If you enjoyed this article, you’ll probably appreciate a copy of my free e-Book, Reach Your Life Goals: A Business Owner’s Guide. Click here or below to get your free download!

By |2022-10-27T11:10:30-07:00October 27th, 2022|Categories: Financial Clarity, Money Mindset, Personal Savings, solopreneurs|Tags: , , , , , , |0 Comments
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Why Retirement Planning is Important for Solpreneurs

Solopreneurs and small business owners alike face a particular challenge when it comes to retirement planning: nobody else is planning it for you. While an employer is likely to offer retirement benefits, small business owners must go the DIY route. This is why retirement planning is so key for financial success! Let’s talk more about why this is a crucial move for solopreneurs:

Get Informed

When you’re not offered a typical company retirement plan, it’s important to get informed about your options by doing your own research. This is the first step to building out any retirement plan, so take it seriously and set aside some time for yourself. I recommend my article “My Top Resources to Learn About Money Around the Internet” as a good place to get started.

Make a Plan

Once you’ve researched some options, it’s time to make a plan. What’s your next step towards creating your ideal financial future? This plan will change over time, just as your life does. Nevertheless, it’s good to have a scaffold in place.

Set Aside Some Money

Perhaps the most important part of this process! It might seem like a no-brainer, but it can be easy to do all the prep work and then forget to put money away. So, set aside some money for your future self. I am a proponent of IRAs for this purpose, but there are many other ways you can do this step too.

Find a Trusted Adviser

In my next blog post, I’ll recommend a couple different resources for finding helpful financial advice surrounding retirement. It’s very helpful to have a trusted adviser take a look at your financial situation. Particularly when you don’t have the support or typical options offered by a corporate job, it can be helpful to get outside recommendations.

If you enjoyed this article, you’ll probably like the At Peace With Money newsletter! This is a great resource for solopreneurs looking to level up their personal and business finances. Subscribers receive a monthly newsletter full of tips and insights, plus access to weekly blog posts!

Click here to join us, it’s a great place to be.

By |2022-10-20T11:22:23-07:00October 20th, 2022|Categories: Financial Clarity, Personal Savings, solopreneurs|Tags: , , , |0 Comments
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Love Your Future Self With an IRA

One of the best forms of self love is this: put some money away for 65 year old you with an IRA! Beginning to put money away now so that you can take care of yourself in retirement will vastly improve your life as a whole. It’s important to remember your future self, and make sure you aren’t only treating yourself today. What better way to care for yourself?

Give Yourself a Gift

First, if you don’t have an IRA, open one. For more  specific info on types of IRAs here’s the IRS’s info page, plus a helpful article from NerdWallet. Do a little bit of research to decide which works best for you. 

Then, make contributing to your IRA a fun and regular occasion. Consider it a gift to both your present and future self! Perhaps you could give yourself the gift of a deposit to your IRA for Valentine’s Day. My sister does this for herself on her birthday every year, to celebrate her present and future self! 

Invest!

It’s very important that when you do contribute to your IRA, that you remember to invest it. Don’t simply let it sit in the account in cash.  If you let it sit, it’s not actually accruing any more value, and therefore will not expand beyond the amount you put in. The longer you let it sit, the more time that could be used to expand your investment goes by. 

Play the Long Game

Remember, this is long term money. You won’t touch it for years, so don’t worry about how much your investment increases or decreases in value today.  You are in it for the long haul!

If you enjoyed this post, you’ll love my free e-Book, 9 Secrets to Financial Self Care. Click to get yours!

By |2022-10-14T14:15:27-07:00October 14th, 2022|Categories: Financial Clarity, Money Mindset, Personal Savings|Tags: , , , , , |0 Comments
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Why Organizing Your Banking Passwords is Key to Financial Success

Quick win alert: Organizing your passwords for your banking websites and other financial institutions can take you less than an hour, but revolutionize the way you interact with your finances.

Why is Organizing Your Passwords Important?

Because when we don’t know a password to check our bank balance, that can often create enough resistance for us to just not look at our money. As I’ve written about before, many of us live in a state of perpetual vagueness around our finances. The more challenging it is to break out of that fog, the more likely we are to stay there.

Conversely, when you know what your passwords are, it’s way easier to maintain a financial self care routine like a weekly money check-in.

How to Get Organized

First, take stock of all the different websites and digital portals that hold your financial information. Remember to consider both personal and business finances.

This list will obviously include any banks you use, but this also includes sites whose services you use to collect or send money (PayPal, Venmo, Stripe, etc.). Also remember to include any other sites where you manage your money, like investing services or tax filing platforms.

Once you’ve got a list, go and get those passwords! Centralize them in one place. You can do this using the old-fashioned paper and pen, or use a password-management app. There are quite a few out there, here’s a list.

Once you’re all done, you’ll see why this little tip is well-worth the time! If you enjoyed this article, you’ll probably like my e-Book, 9 Secrets to Financial Self Care. Get your free copy by clicking here.

By |2022-09-21T11:07:04-07:00September 21st, 2022|Categories: Banking, Financial Clarity|Tags: , , , , , , |0 Comments
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How to Use Money Tracking Software to Get Rid of Financial Anxiety

Many of us resist looking at our finances on a regular basis. We ignore looking at our bank accounts and just “hope for the best.” This strategy leads to financial anxiety, even though that’s often what we’re trying to avoid when we do this!

Using a money management software is often the secret ingredient in transforming this anxious-avoidant cycle so many of us engage in. Money management software provides us with an easy way to keep track of our money, where it’s coming from, and where it’s going.

Getting a glimpse at this on a regular basis can simplify financial decision-making. In the long-term it can help us significantly reduce our money stress. If you think I’m being hyperbolic with the title – I’m not. I’ve seen serious transformation happen when people start tracking their spending. 

So, what are some money tracking software options? If you read my last blog post, you’ll know that I have a few tried and true options I recommend to my clients. Here, I compare and contrast these:

  • Good old-fashioned manual tracking. You can do this with paper and pencil or in a spreadsheet. Some people who have a lot of cash transactions in their business or personal finances might prefer this one. Especially in your personal life, it can be nice to keep a notepad or a note on your phone to record cash transactions so you don’t forget about them. However, this is definitely the most laborious way to track your money, and the amount of time you need to put in to do it effectively can prevent people from keeping up the habit. For this reason, I generally don’t recommend it, unless you know you’re someone who will keep up with this system at least once a week.
  • I have personally been using Mint for the last five years. It’s free, it connects to all your accounts and automatically imports your spending information, and it’s very easy to use. It has an app, which is really convenient. However, what I don’t like is that in order to get all the info that’s really valuable, I need to download the data into a spreadsheet. I personally do this at the end of every month to wrap-up my finances. It’s also important to note that as a free program, they are keeping (and likely monetizing in some way) data on your spending habits, and they are constantly advertising to you on this platform. It’s important to be wary of the barrage of credit card offers, banking deals, etc. It’s very basic, but it’s a great tool to get started with tracking your spending. 

  • MoneyGrit.(R) is a new software from Karen McCall who runs the Financial Recovery Institute, and I’m loving working with it so far. The interface provides a more intentional and hands-on experience when it comes to planning your spending. They actually lead you through a process of reviewing your intentions when setting up your spending plan! This emotional dimension can be really helpful in creating a connection between you and the decisions you make with your money.  The program also includes extras like worksheets to set goals and plan out financial self care action items. Lastly, this software factors periodic expenses into your spending plan, which is something a lot of money tracking softwares miss completely. 
  • Your Need a Budget, or YNAB, does a great job of emphasizing putting your money to work for you. While I’ve personally never used this tool, a lot of people love it for that reason.
  • Quickbooks Online is the standard when I’m working with clients on their business finances. This is less tailored to personal financial self care, but worth mentioning here because business and personal finances are interrelated! 

 

The main takeaway here is that there are many different tools you can use to track your spending and make financial clarity more accessible. I definitely recommend using an automated software over manual tracking, because most people are more likely to actually use an automated program.

Tracking your finances is truly life-changing. You can see the effects of the financial decisions you’re making in real time. When you choose to save money, pay down debt, or spend on something you really value, a tracking program reflects that back to you. Using a tool helps you keep track of your financial growth and provide transformative motivation.

If you enjoyed this article, you’ll probably really like my free e-Book, 9 Secrets to Financial Self Care. Click to get your free copy! 

This article has been updated and re-published. It was originally published in 2021. 

By |2022-09-14T11:00:42-07:00September 14th, 2022|Categories: Financial Clarity, Money Mindset, Personal Spending|Tags: , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments
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How to Get Organized and Reduce Money Stress in Your Business

As a business owner, you are responsible for the finances of your business. That responsibility can come with a lot of stress. However, with proper management, the financial side of a business can become a seamless system that sustains you and your passion. The key here? Get organized.

What does getting organized look like when it comes to your business finances? It looks like solid record-keeping and the ability to look back at financial data easily. It looks like a good awareness of the money coming in and out of your business. It looks like knowing you have enough to pay yourself, pay your taxes, and run your business.

All of this can be done without the chaos, by implementing a few changes to how you do your business finances. What you need will vary depending on the type of business you run and its current financial conditions. Today, I’d like to share a couple tips on getting your business finances organized that seem to come up most often in my work with clients.

Create a Supportive Money System

Last year, I wrote a full series devoted to money-mapping, a practice you can use to visualize the flow of money in your business. Creating a money system, and a visual way to understand it, can help you recognize where the income you receive through your business is needed most, and how your personal and business finances integrate. By creating a money system that tracks every dollar (including cash) of income that you receive, you set yourself up for success. A good money system gives you an idea of the profitability of your business, so that you’re not guessing at how much you’re really making.

My work around money mapping integrates the Profit First system’s allocations idea, to help business owners set aside money for various uses in their business. These include the important things, like paying your operating expenses, getting paid, paying taxes, and saving a portion of that money in a profit account. You can read the series on money mapping here: Part I, Part II, Part III, and a follow-up article on keeping your money systems simple.

Get Prepped for Taxes

One of the big themes in my guide to getting prepped for tax time is just simply keeping your documents organized in one place. Keeping all your paper documents in one physical spot, and saving all your digital documents to a designated folder, can save you from a lot of digging and stress when March rolls around. Creating a simple organizational system for tracking these things is a great preparation step for tax season, and a definite stress-reducer.

Show Up

They say that 90% of success is showing up, and this rings true when it comes to keeping your business organized and stress-free. If you’ve been reading this blog for a bit, you’ll know I’m a proponent of having weekly “money time,” which is for you to review your financial situation and do any financial admin work that needs to get done. This time is extremely important for financial self care. Perhaps even more important than what you do during this time, is simply scheduling it in and doing it. When you make a regular habit of revisiting your finances, you will naturally start to shape them to be more organized.

Use Helpful Tools

These days, we are lucky to have many tools available that can help us stay organized in our businesses. Here are a couple that I frequently help clients integrate into their finances:

  • MoneyGrit.(R) is a great tool for either personal or business use.
  • Mint has fewer features, but can be really helpful for solopreneurs with few transactions, or personal use.
  • QuickBooks Online is a classic and excellent for business use.
  • YNAB is a tool I personally have less experience with, but a few other coaches I know use it often and recommend it.

If you enjoyed this article, you’ll probably appreciate a copy of my free e-Book, the Cash Flow Reboot Guide. Click here or below to get your free download!

By |2022-09-06T10:57:21-07:00September 6th, 2022|Categories: Bookkeeping Business, Financial Clarity, Profit First, Small Business, solopreneurs|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments
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