How to Manage Your Money Like a Pro with Automation

Have you heard of decision fatigue? The idea is pretty simple. According to this article from the AMA, decision fatigue refers to “the idea that after making many decisions, your ability to make more and more decisions over the course of a day becomes worse.” Thanks to this phenomenon, it pays to reduce the number of decisions you need to make in a day. That’s where automation comes in.

Automation = Better Financial Habits

Automation is your money’s best friend. By automating your finances, you reduce your opportunities for decision making and decision fatigue, thereby reducing your chances to change your mind about saving money or paying a bill in full. By reducing your decisions you set yourself up for success! Automation can build up your savings and pay off your bills, without any extra effort on your part. So, how can you use automation as a financial tool?

Automate Your Bill Payments

There are many different facets of your finances which can benefit from automation. Automating your bills is a good place to start. Many banks have online bill pay options available that help you pay your regular monthly bills on time. In particular, automation is a good way to ensure you always pay your credit card balance in full, so that you don’t accrue any interest fees. However, one important thing to be aware of when automating your bills is that you will need to stay aware of your bank balance, to avoid over-drafting your account. As long as you keep an eye on your balance, automating your bills is a good way to avoid late fees, build good credit, and stay on top of your finances.

Automate Your Savings

The other major arena of your finances that definitely deserves some automation-attention is your savings. I touched briefly on automating your savings in an earlier article, which you can read here. The most important thing about automating your savings is that if money automatically gets moved out of your spending account, you have no chance to spend it. That makes saving that much easier! We do this with our retirement savings, and it really helps us keep it up. A great resource for further information about automating your savings is The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach.

If you liked this article and want more tips on financial organization that will make your life a LOT easier, you’ll probably enjoy a free copy of my eBook, 9 Secrets of Financial Self Care. Click here or below to download it!

By |2023-04-27T08:04:53-07:00April 27th, 2023|Categories: Banking, Financial Clarity, Money Mindset, Personal Savings, Personal Spending|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments
Read More

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
Read More

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
Read More

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
Read More

Claim Your Power

Are we afraid of our own power? One of the things I absolutely love about Barbara Huson’s book, Secrets of Six Figure Women, is that it asks us to face this question. In a society where we are often trained to take lower pay and funneled into “helping” professions, our earning potentials are often restricted, and we participate in the repression of our own power unknowingly. Some would argue the drive to help and caretake is natural for us. Barbara pulls a quote from Fortune of Oct 2000 which reads, “Women feel powerful when they are making a difference and expanding their own capabilities.” Naturally, we gravitate towards improving the world, but we can do this while also pursuing personal power and security. 

Every time you leave the beaten path and aim for exceptional, every time you silence your fear and speak with your own voice, every time you stop acting small and start taking up space, you are owning your power and emancipating others to follow in your footsteps.

Financial Security Is Power

Power does not require money, and is not exclusive to it. However, if you have the financial freedom  to leave a job, leave a spouse, take time off, give money away, and allocate financial resources as you please, that can only add to your personal agency. Money gives you choices. Those choices can allow you to step into every part of your power.

When we claim our power in this way, we raise the stakes in our lives, and stop playing the small game.  Barbara writes,“It’s not what we have but what we do with what we have that gives us or denies us financial security.” Whatever we choose to do, we can do more easily and powerfully with financial security. 

Serious fear underlies female passivity around money. My post on wealth-building may have stirred up some of this fear for you – and it’s exactly why so many of us stall on our way to building our assets. This fear is understandable. We receive many negative messages about powerful or wealthy women. They are often the villains in animated films, and there are no positive words for powerful women. The ones that come to my mind are “bitch” and “ball breaker.” This desperately needs to change, and it starts with us as we choose to turn against it. 

Claiming your power and building financial security may be uncomfortable or cause conflict. It means rocking the boat, saying no, and not always being liked or welcomed. I believe that, in the long term, these things are a small price to pay in pursuit of your own freedom and power. 

Claim Power For Yourself and Others

Claiming our power is an act of self love. When we honor and value ourselves and have the bravery and financial security to live our desires – that is real self love. This love ripples outwards, and makes a positive difference in the lives of those around us. By striving for what we really deserve, we can inspire and pave the way for a new generation of people ready to do the same. When we have the resources to donate to causes we agree with, we can heal the planet and help others achieve their dreams. When we claim our power, we can also extend that power to others. 

I hope that this post inspires you to reach for your dreams – you truly deserve to have the financial security you need and the agency you want. If you’re interested in working with an accountability partner to help you get there, you know where to find me! Check out my Services page and schedule a call. This post is the fourth in a series I did on Secrets of Six Figure Women by Barbara Huson. You can read my other posts in the series on mindset, action, and wealth building at the links!

☮

Angela

 

By |2019-06-10T16:21:34-07:00June 5th, 2019|Categories: Financial Clarity, Money Mindset, solopreneurs|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments
Read More

Pick One of These 5 Ideas To Automate Your Wealth

Pick Pick One of These 5 Ideas To Automate Your Wealth: At Peace with Money

Last week we talked about loving our future selves, and dove into the world of IRAs. Today, I’d like to share a way you can love yourself and share the wealth with both future and present you – automation! I’ve written about automation before, and why it is so beneficial to our financial lives. The idea is simple: by automating your finances, you reduce your decision making, thereby reducing your chances to change your mind  or forget about saving money or paying a bill in full. Automating your finances make saving money easier and less of a mental effort. This principle is what Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg employ in their wardrobe choices. They’d wear the same thing every day so that they could conserve their brainpower for other more important decisions!

Here are my five ideas you can use to dip your toes into the world of financial automation. Start off slow – just pick one and try it out. If you like your results, you can come back for more!

Automate a Savings Goal

Set up an amount to automatically be sent to a particular savings account for a goal you’re pursuing. Don’t worry about the amount, any amount is great! Simply trying this is the most important step. 

Automate a Bill Payment

Automating a bill payment insures you will not pay late fees. In the long run, this could save you a lot of money. 

Set an Alert

Many banks offer to send alerts when your account hits a minimum balance. Set this up so you don’t overdraw your account. This way, you can avoid those pesky overdraft fees. 

Connect Your Accounts

Connect your accounts to a money management system or app so you can  really see where your money is actually going. I use Mint and I love it! Personal Capital is another I’ve heard of, and many people also swear by YNAB, or You Need a Budget. 

Set Up Direct Deposit

Have your paycheck automatically deposited into your checking account! This is so much more simple than Pick One of These 5 Ideas to Automate Your Wealth: At Peace With Moneyhaving to take all that time and effort to take your paycheck to the bank. Even if you have your own business and have varying income, you can create a solopreneur paycheck using the Profit First system. If you’re interested in reading more about this, I recommend my posts Create Your Own Paycheck  and How to Pay Yourself First.

If you enjoy these tips and want more resources on automation, I’ll happily recommend The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach. This book emphasizes how savings habits and automation can help you build up savings for retirement. He also has a variety of free resources available for download on his website, so go ahead and take a look at those too! And of course, if any of this has piqued your interest, I’m happy to talk to you about setting up money systems for your business. Take a look at my service packages and schedule a curiosity call!

☮

Angela

Image Source: Rodion Kutsaev

By |2019-02-27T02:51:57-08:00February 27th, 2019|Categories: Banking, Cash Flow, Personal Savings|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments
Read More

Love Your Future Self

Love Your Future Self: At Peace With Money

One of the best forms of self love is this: put some money away for 65 year old you! Starting an IRA is the perfect way to do this. 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

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. 

LOVE YOUR FUTURE SELF: At Peace With MoneyPlay 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!

For more  specific info on types of IRAs, here’s the IRS’s info page, plus a helpful article from NerdWallet. I love to talk to people about IRA’s and how setting up Profit First can make saving for retirement more possible, so if you’d like to chat, check out my services page and schedule a curiosity call!

☮

Angela

Image Source:  Ivan Jevtic

By |2019-02-21T02:09:06-08:00February 21st, 2019|Categories: Financial Clarity, Money Mindset, Personal Savings|Tags: , , , , , , , , |0 Comments
Read More

What’s Your Money Why?

Your money “why” is like your business’s compass, because it’s hard to get where you’re going if you don’t know exactly where you’re going or why you’re going there! Everyone talks about finding your “why” – your motivation or purpose – in business. Doing so is absolutely important, but today I want to talk about your money “why” because I think that is equally important to the direction of your business. Knowing exactly what your goals are for the money your business generates will  guide you in your financial decision making process and ultimately to the realization of said goals.  

My Money Why

When I started my first business, I wanted to make some “extra money.” The problem was, I really wasn’t clear on what that money was for. Without direction that extra money seemed to  simply come and go.  When I started my bookkeeping business, I had a specific goal for the money I was making: I was paying college tuition for our oldest daughter. She has since graduated and I am now in the process of putting our second daughter through college (three years to go!). After my goal for my money is to supplement our retirement, so that my husband can leave his demanding career. Because I know specifically what these things cost, I have an exact number to set as my revenue goal.

Know Your Money Why: At Peace With Money

Whether you have started your business to fully support yourself or your household, or you’re doing a side hustle to pay for “extras,” if you know your money goals and can get some exact numbers you need to meet in order to reach these goals, you will be so much more clear on how to get there. This added clarity will simplify your decisions, and make your objective more clear. You will also be more likely to make better decisions to maintain your business’s profitability. They always say, “keep your eye on the prize.” Doing so is a lot easier when you know what the prize is!

So, ask yourself a few questions: Why did you go into business? What are some life goals you have that cost money? What are some specific financial goals you need or want to meet with your income? Come up with specific numbers and stay focused on those – now you know your money why! If you need some assistance getting to the bottom of your money why, perhaps you’d like to check out my Business Beginnings or Turning Points packages. 

☮

Angela

Image Sources: James Chou, Casey Horner

By |2018-11-08T20:34:03-08:00July 23rd, 2018|Categories: Financial Clarity, Money Mindset, Small Business, solopreneurs|Tags: , , , , , , , , |0 Comments
Read More

How To Pay Yourself First

How To Pay Yourself First: At Peace With MoneyI use the hashtag #PayYourselfFirst all the time, but what does it really mean to pay yourself first? It’s a core aspect of Profit First philosophy. It’s also an important part of how I organize my own personal finances. I want to make sure all my readers know how to pay themselves first, in their business and personal finances, so let’s dive in.

Keep What You Earn

“Paying yourself first” is about having a system in place to make sure that you get to keep a portion of your earnings. In my last post on automation, I talked about David Bach’s book, The Automatic Millionaire. Bach includes the concept of paying yourself first in this book and applies it to personal finances. He suggests setting aside savings right off the top of every paycheck, even before breaking it down for living expenses. Users of this system do quite literally pay themselves first! In his system, the money goes to retirement savings accounts, but the system can be adjusted in both business and personal finances to fit your own needs.  Taking a cut for yourself from each paycheck is and important but easily forgotten practice.

Beyond Corporate

So, how does this apply to solopreneurs? If you’re working outside the corporate world, you’re probably working without health and retirement benefits. This is all the more reason to set up a system to take care of these needs. Setting aside money to address health and retirement costs is important for many people, but especially so if your main source of funding for both is your own business. 

How to Pay Yourself First: At Peace With Money

I always say I want to help my clients work with the Profit First system to align their business profits with their life goals, and I assume one of those goals is to support yourself in your health and retirement! Every financial aspect of your business can be set up with this in mind. Your products should be priced appropriately so that you earn something for yourself, rather than just simply covering costs. A part of that money should be invested into your future and your healthcare fund. This is the Profit First system at its core. This is what I want to help solopreneurs work towards with their businesses.

Take a look at your personal and business money systems and ask yourself, do you pay yourself first? Are you setting aside money to support and reward yourself? If you’re interested in more on this topic, I highly suggest downloading the first 5 chapters of the Profit First book through my website.

 

☮

Angela

Image Sources:  Alisa Anton, zixuan Fu

By |2018-06-25T20:39:19-07:00June 18th, 2018|Categories: Financial Clarity, Money Mindset, Profit First, Small Business, solopreneurs|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments
Read More

Why Automation Is Your Money’s BFF

Why Automation is Your Money's BFF: At Peace With MoneyAutomation is your money’s best friend. By automating your finances, you reduce your opportunities for decision making, thereby reducing your chances to change your mind about saving money or paying a bill in full. By reducing your decisions you set yourself up for success! Automation can build up your savings and pay off your bills, without any extra effort on your part. So, how can you use automation as a financial tool?

Automate Everything!

There are many different facets of your finances which can benefit from automation. Automating your bills is a good place to start. Many banks have online bill pay options available that help you pay your regular monthly bills on time. In particular, automation is a good way to ensure you always pay your credit card balance in full, so that you don’t accrue any interest fees. However, one important thing to be aware of when automating your bills is that you will need to stay aware of your bank balance, to avoid over-drafting your account. As long as you keep an eye on your balance, automating your bills is a good way to avoid late fees, build good credit, and stay on top of your finances.

The other major arena of your finances that definitely deserves some automation-attention is your savings. I touched briefly on automating your savings in an earlier article, which you can read here. The most important thing about automating your savings is that if money automatically gets moved out of your spending account, you have no chance to spend it. That makes saving that much easier! We do this with our retirement savings, and it really helps us keep it up. A great resource for further information about automating your savings is The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach.

I hope this motivates you to try out automation with your finances!

☮

Angela

Image Sources: Mitch Lensink, Lucas Silva Pinheiro Santos

By |2018-06-11T19:43:23-07:00June 11th, 2018|Categories: Banking, Financial Clarity, Money Mindset, Personal Savings, Personal Spending|Tags: , , , , , , , , |0 Comments
Read More
Go to Top