Financial Wellness

My “Ambitious” Challenge for 2024. Want to Join Me?

I’ve taken on an Ambitious Challenge for 2024. Well, it’s actually not ‘ambitious’ in the conventional sense.

In fact, most would say it was the exact opposite. But if you feel spiritually adventurous, I invite you to join me.

I call it the No-Goals Challenge. Here’s why I’m doing it…

Anna, my youngest daughter, and I have a “God Box” ritual we do every January 1st. We write down our goals for the year on slips of paper. Then we read each one aloud as we drop them in our God Box, deliberately giving those goals up to the Divine.

What if Your Money Problems Aren’t Actually About Money?

She was smart, successful, making good money…yet was at her wits end.

“There are periods when I manage to save a lot,” she told me. “But then I start overspending and ignoring my money. It’s like I can’t help it.”

Even after years of taking financial workshops, reading money books, doing personal growth work, she felt stuck in a frustrating pattern that was taking a toll on her health and her happiness.

“It feels like a vicious cycle I can’t get off,” she moaned.

She couldn’t stop because she didn’t have a money problem. She had a Money Disorder. There’s a big difference.

A Money Disorder is a chronic, self-destructive pattern caused by unconscious beliefs that cause dysfunctional behaviors associated with money.

Money Disorders, left untreated, can ruin your quality of life, wreck your relationships, destroy your peace of mind, leaving you feeling hopeless and helpless.

The Question is: How do you know if your difficulties with money are actually a more serious disorder?

According to an online article titled: 15 Fascinating Signs You May Have a Money Disorder, these are the classic symptoms:

  1. You can’t define what having ‘enough’ money means.
  2. You keep credit cards and bank account info from your partner.
  3. You keep piling on.
  4. You avoid spending money at all costs.
  5. You use money as a way to fill a void.
  6. You’re living in extremes.
  7. Your life is in chaos as a result of your spending habits.
  8. You’re in denial about your debts.
  9. You’re a workaholic.
  10. You’re a pathological gambler.
  11. Having money makes you feel guilty.
  12. You find it hard to say no when people ask for money.
  13. You give people money even if you know you’re enabling their poor financial choices.
  14. You lie to your partner about how much you spend.
  15. You refuse to talk about money at all.

If you have even one of these signs, the culprit is not financial, but as the article explains, it’s an “emotional and spiritual imbalance” which requires deeper, emotional healing with a skillful therapist.

I recommend working with someone who specializes in trauma therapy or joining a support group like my online community, The Wealth Connection.

To read the full article, click HERE.

How would you rate your relationship with money— a problem or a money disorder? Tell me what you think in the comments below.

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A Master Class in Wealth Creation…Based on Kick-Ass Quotes

I love quotes. These tiny bits of timeless wisdom convey vast amounts of knowledge in a mere sentence or two.

This week, I’ve boiled down the secrets to successful investing into a series of pithy expert sayings. Consider it a Master Class in wealth creation.

Let’s start with economist Jeremy Siegel, “Fear incites human action far more urgently than does the impressive weight of historical evidence.” 

Financial decisions made from fear (vs knowledge) never turn out well. As history reveals, after every crash, the market eventually surges. Yet fear has us selling at a loss, missing future gains.

According to wealthy industrialist J. Paul Getty, fear can be a buy signal. “Buy when everyone else is selling and hold until everyone else is buying.”

That’s not just a catchy slogan. It’s the very essence of successful investing.

Baron Rothschild was even more succinct: “The time to buy is when there’s blood in the streets.”

Our biggest risk is not the market tanking, but our emotional reaction.

As acclaimed investor Benjamin Graham pointed out: “The investor’s chief problem — and even his worst enemy — is likely to be himself.”

Women Are Different Than Men

When it comes to women investing, I’m reminded of a quote attributed to Einstein: “If you ask a fish to climb a tree, she’ll always feel stupid.”

Same is true with money. If you try to approach finances like a man, you’ll always feel like a fish out of water.

So instead of trying to do it ‘their way,’ it’s time we value the feminine perspective. Let’s look at 5 ways the genders differ:

#1: Our Impetus for Investing

Men are very motivated by profit, perks, personal gain. No matter how much they have, amassing more is a powerful incentive.

Not women. Once we’re financially stable, we’re rarely motivated by money. Sure, we want to profit. But what really inspires us is helping others.

How Much Risk Can You Tolerate?

Risk tolerance. You’ve probably heard those words bandied about when talk turns to investing. But do you know what they mean?

Risk tolerance is generally defined as the ability to stomach large swings in the value of your investment portfolio. Because the market, by nature, is very volatile, understanding your risk tolerance is vital for making prudent decisions.

There are 3 factors to help you figure it out.

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Who’s Got Your Back?

Have you noticed, in gyms, when guys are lifting really heavy weights, they often ask someone, usually a perfect stranger, to spot them?

It’s known as The Law of Heavy Lifting. I also call it The Law of Higher Earnings.

How many times have you seen a woman, while working out, tap someone to spot them? I never have.

We’ll hire trainers, but ask another to spot us, especially if we think they’re ‘busy’? Doesn’t happen! Why?

For one thing, we rarely lift very heavy weights. But more likely, it’s because we don’t want to bother anyone. And too often, we’re determined to do it alone.

Financial success, however, requires lifting heavier weights in order to build up our confidence, strengthen our resolve and climb to greater heights.

For this, we need our spotters, people we trust to have our backs, push us further, give us feedback.

Inflation Protection

If you can fog a mirror, you’ve probably heard. Inflation is the highest it’s been in decades.

Inflation is a ravenous creature that devours our dollars like a caterpillar on a leaf–slowly, methodically, little bits at a time. But this recent bout seems more like a famished elephant.

The only way to counter the ravages of rising prices is to make sure at least some of your savings is working harder than it would in a bank, where it earns next to nothing.

In normal times that means the stock market. But with markets in turmoil, many of us are looking for safer alternatives. That’s why I got so excited when I read Jason Zweig’s column in this week’s Wall Street Journal.

“Fortunately, raising the return on your cash is easier than ever,” he declared. “The two best choices are money market funds and U.S. Treasury securities.”

Financial Success as a Spiritual Practice

Are you having trouble making more money or managing it wisely? Is financial lack a constant source of stress and pain? Consider this.

What if you stopped approaching finance as a purely practical process and started treating it as a spiritual practice?

What if, along with learning the practical facts, you focused on developing a deep sense of trust in the inexplicable forces of the Universe, along with learning the practical facts?

In my experience, the moment you inject faith into finances, the instant you invite the Divine into your relationship with the ‘almighty dollar,’ your experience with money grows deeper, richer, and more meaningful. Everything changes.

Financial success becomes a transformational journey, a personal healing, a sacred initiation, empowering you to become all you’re meant to be and to do what you’re put on this planet to do.

Inflation: A Reason to Worry….Or A Call to Action?

Even the wealthiest worry about money. Their biggest fear: Inflation.

Inflation is, indeed, a ravenous creature that devours our cash like a caterpillar on a leafslowly, methodically, little bits at a time.

For years, however, inflation has stayed quite low. But that’s rapidly changing. Inflation has hit its highest rate in more than 40 years. And it’s expected to keep escalating.

Is it time to start worrying? Heavens NO! The worst response to climbing costs (or most anything else for that matter) is to go into fear, which tends to have a paralyzing effect.

Instead, look at rising inflation as a resounding call to action…no matter how much or how little money you have.

Is Money Your Drug of Choice?

How often do we use money like Novocain, spending freely to numb the pain in our lives or the pressures at work? But instead of making things better, it just gets us deeper into trouble.

Yet we justify our shopping sprees with thoughts like, “I’m going through a divorce. I deserve this,” or “I hate my job. At least I can enjoy my life.”

What gets us into trouble isn’t the spending, but our self-deception. It’s called denial. And denial can generate considerable debt.

Getting out of denial is a prerequisite for prosperity. Credit card debt is insidious, but not insurmountable.

Making minimum payments can take 30 years or more to pay off (because 75 percent of what you pay goes toward the accumulating interest).

Meet Barbara Huson

When a devastating financial crisis rocked her world, Barbara Huson knew she had to get smart about money… and she did. Now, she wants to empower every women to take charge of their money and take charge of their lives! She’s doing just that with her best-selling books, life changing retreats and private financial coaching.

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