February is well-known for being the month in which we celebrate LOVE all around the world.
Although many people idealize the notion of couples commemorating their mutual love and appreciation with fun, creative, and/or romantic gestures, I believe that this month should also be a reminder of FINANCIAL Self-Love!
Financial self-love is about focusing and prioritizing your financial well-being. It is about aligning your mindset, attitudes, and behaviors with your personal & financial goals.
How do we do this?
We START by reframing our relationship with MONEY by forming a positive relationship with it.
In fact, as a financial educator & wealth coach, I like to say that we need to start seeing money as OUR FRIEND!
This is the thing…
For any relationship to flourish we must nurture it and dedicate time, respect, and commitment towards making it grow.
The same goes for our relationship with money!
Below are 3 Key Steps for Improving our relationship with money:
STEP ONE: COMMIT THE TIME
We must dedicate time to increase our money knowledge & organize our finances. This includes activities, such as reading personal finance books and/or listening to financial podcasts, chunking our calendar to allocate specific days and times for money dates (either with yourself and/or your partner).
It’s all about getting into healthy financial habits that will help support your financial health!
For instance, when was the last time that you sat down to examine your personal expenses? How about your business expenses? When did you last request your credit report or analyze your credit score?
STEP TWO: RESPECT
We respect our money by controlling our Needs & Wants and living below our means. As such, respecting our money requires us to examine if our lifestyle is truly in alignment with what we desire and what we can afford.
Another way to respect our money is by recognizing our OWN WORTH. This can be accomplished not only by ensuring that you are being paid what you deserve in your job, but by ensuring that you are also VALUED as an individual.
A couple of years ago, I was working with one of my financial coaching clients, who had been in the corporate world and decided to become a full-time stay-at-home mother after the birth of her children.
My client was going through a difficult situation with her husband because she felt that he didn’t appreciate anymore the VALUE she brought to the household. You see, he was looking at it in a monetary form (and that missing paycheck).
So, I had her list all the activities & time she put into running the household. We then listed the economic value it would cost to hire someone to do what she did.
The result?
All the work she did was worth over $45,000 (approximately £36,000) AND we were being conservative with the figures!
STEP THREE: COMMTIMENT
We can commit to our relationship with money by managing our cash flow (income & expenses) wisely. An easy way to do this is by budgeting our money and setting aside monthly savings that can be invested through tax-efficient vehicles (think SIPPs and ISAs in the UK and 401(k)/IRAs in the USA).
When we BUDGET, we are telling our money where to go instead of wondering where it went!
And by committing to set aside regular sums to be invested, we are allowing our money to work for us and giving it the space to grow (thanks to time & compound interest).
Remember friends, financial self-care is an ongoing commitment. And the biggest commitment we can make is to ourselves.
As Jean-Paul Sartre wisely said:
“Commitment is an act, not a word.”
So, are you ready to commit to some financial self-love this month?
Anna Orenstein-Cardona is a Financial Coach and NFEC-Certified Financial Educator (CFEI) who empowers businesses and individuals to grow their money knowledge in fun and creative ways. She worked on Wall Street and in the City of London for over two-decades, before launching her financial education business, Wear Your Money Crown®.
Find out more about Anna by visiting https://www.careeringintomotherhood.com/coach/anna-orenstein-cardona/
February 13, 2023
