Choose Your Energy: Change Your Life!

Almost everyone’s finances can use a little cleaning periodically. So whether yours just track a little dirt into the room or leave you wading hip deep in muck, below are 10 practices that will help them sparkle again in no time. 

1: Know your numbers. Your income and expenses, credit score, interest rates you pay and earn, etc. When it comes to money, knowledge truly is power. 

2: Keep it separate. If you run a business, don’t mix personal and business finances. 

3: Know your type. Recognizing whether, under stress, you tend to be a spender, hoarder or avoider will help you keep your wits about you and steer clear of dysfunctional default behaviors when things heat up. 

4: Don’t spend what you don’t have. Sound advice that many ignore—and regret. 

5: Save, no matter what. Even if you save only a few dollars at first, what counts is the habit. The accumulation power of regular, modest deposits and compound interest over time is remarkable.

6: Stay organized. Physical clutter can be both a sign of and contributor to mental clutter. A mental clutter is never your friend when it comes to finances. Keeping your living and work space clean and organized saves time and fosters clarity.  And clarity is always your financial friend. 

7: Create a monthly spending plan. Mindfulness is a great asset in all areas of life. In the financial arena, it keeps you aware of disparities between income and expenses so that you can repair your money ship before you start taking on water that you can’t possibly hope to bail fast enough to avoid sinking. 

8: Bank and pay bills online. The benefits of 24/7 access outweigh perceived security risks. Setting up automatic bill paying reduces your monthly investment of time and eliminates paying penalties (or having the electric turned off) due to forgotten payments.

9: Be card-conscious. Whenever possible, pay off credit cards in full every month to avoid astronomical interest rates and ever-growing debt. If you feel you absolutely must finance something over time, do your homework first and get the best rates. These days, many retailers offer 0% interest on multi-year payment plans for large purchases. 

10: Find a money tracking system—and stick to it! Consistent action is more important than the system you choose. Whether you use Quicken, an excel spreadsheet or a handwritten ledger, being detailed and consistent is the key.

Author’s content adapted under license, © 2008 Claire Communications

Money, the lack of it, the fear of losing it, the dread of not having enough—tops the list of concerns of many people these days. That’s because the economy is in bad shape, you may say. But money fears predate today’s bad news. Even when the economy is flourishing, we still tend to be a debt-ridden society. 

What’s up with that? 

Our ability to create sufficient money in our lives is anchored by our financial attitudes and behaviors—what we believe can be true for our lives. When these values remain unexamined and unchallenged, they interfere with our welfare. Here are a few of the more common beliefs that can rob your life of a sense of Flow and Joy: 

I Don’t Like or Care About Money
This one is held by people at all income levels. It can have its origin in religious conviction, political perspective or guilt over inherited privilege. Pam is a child of the 60’s who says she doesn’t really like money. She never allows herself to have what she truly wants and always buys the cheapest version. She’s a landscape designer, but regularly under-bills her clients. A classic under-earner, she sometimes relies on credit cards for basic expenses such as rent. 

I’m Clueless about Money
Doug rarely balances his bank statements, doesn’t know how much money he has or spends and, as a result, finds himself saddled with late fees and bounced check charges. People like Doug may believe that they’re not skilled enough to handle their money or may think that money is uncouth. Doug makes a good income, but his unwillingness to pay attention to it also makes him vulnerable to theft, fraud, debt he can’t afford and bankruptcy. 

I Don’t Have Enough Money
Sally worries about money often. Although her income is twice that of her friends, she constantly goes on about how hard it is to pay her bills. At the root of Sally’s fear may be a belief that she can’t take care of herself or that the world is a harsh place with scarce resources. People like Sally sometimes fear that they will lose everything and end up homeless. 

I’ll Never Have Enough
Mike also feels that he doesn’t have enough money, but rather than feeling that the world is a harsh place for everyone, he believes it is only hard for him. Other people will do just fine, but he’ll always be poor. If you try to encourage him, he’ll list the many strikes against him. People like Mike are often under-earners, blind to the opportunities that are available. 

If any of these attitudes resonate, you may want to explore them with Love, Respect, Curiosity, Compassion and Gratitude. As you become more aware of the roots of your self-limiting beliefs and adopt a more empowering perspective, your Life will automatically acquire an expanded sense of personal freedom. Healing your personal relationship with money helps build a solid foundation for minimizing and weathering any economic storms.

A Professional Life Coach can be a great partner in helping you shift to more constructive money beliefs and behaviors. I encourage you to schedule a completely FREE complimentary coaching session with me to explore your possibilities for money stress reduction.

If someone offered you a precious gift for an hour of your time, would you be interested? That’s what I offer with a complimentary coaching session. A comp session isn’t a brief demo or sample. It’s a full 45-minute coaching session focused on current real life challenges of your choosing plus 15 minutes to discuss your experience and any questions you may have about my approach to coaching. Those who have experienced comp sessions will tell you, when you come to your comp session open to the possibilities for transformation and fully committed to your own growth, big breakthroughs happen!

Actually coaching together is one of the best ways to appreciate the potential for life transformation, understand my approach, decide whether it’s a modality that works for you and determine whether you and I have the right chemistry as a team.

The value of a comp session? PRICELESS!

It’s FREE and life enhancing. What have you got to lose, other than the fears and limiting beliefs that are keeping you from reducing stress and living the life of your dreams?

Click here to sign up now.

Author’s content adapted under license, © 2008 Claire Communications

We live in a culture that encourages debt and denies the lost art of delaying gratification. And, like color that fades on a cheap paint job, the repercussions of this lifestyle are beginning to show. 

For example, researchers at Ohio State University in Columbus have found that high levels of income-eating debt, especially big credit-card bills, may be related to high blood pressure, insomnia and even problems with physical mobility, vision and hearing. Additionally, a recent survey shows that the overall, number one, greatest source of stress is personal finances. And, what do couples and business partners report that they fight about most often? Money. 

Money is a hot-button issue for the majority of people these days. Everybody, it seems, has money issues, whether it is concern about the lack of resources or the fear of losing it. Many men and women experience a debilitating lack of confidence about supporting themselves, their children and their parents, while also trying to provide for their own secure retirement. 

Meanwhile, we are showered with seductive messages to “Buy Now, Pay Later.” Which many of us do. Then we have to work harder to keep up with payments, which causes even more stress. For everyone involved. 

Because the language of money is complex it is also subject to misinterpretation. Often it is the earliest messages we received about money that influence our current beliefs. So, one of the first steps in dealing with money issues is to check out old ideas that continue to shape our attitudes and behavior. 

Personal and professional partners, who may have grown up with different values about money, need to talk about their beliefs. Not who is right and who is wrong, but what their basic beliefs are. According to the Institute of Certified Financial Planners, by better understanding our attitudes and values toward money, we may be more able to regain control of our money instead of letting it continue to control us. 

Many books on how to deal with financial issues are available, and seeking wise counsel from professionals such as banks, consumer financial agencies, financial planners and advisors, and accountants, is always a good idea. 

Meanwhile, here’s a Baby Step you can take to begin identifying and shifting any self-destructive attitudes you may have about money.  Explore replacing a few of your counterproductive money beliefs with this simple four-fold commitment:

1: I am grateful for all the good in my Life.
2: I am a responsible steward of my time, talent and money.
3: I live within my means.
4: I plan and save for my future.

Author’s content adapted under license, © 2008 Claire Communications

“When our money life aligns with our heart and soul, that’s financial wellness, that’s prosperity,” says Lynne Twist, author of The Soul of Money: Transforming Your Relationship With Money and Life. For most of us, this alignment is lacking. We work in jobs we dislike, just for the money. We’re more debt-ridden than any generation. We hogtie ourselves with such notions as “Having money and leading a spiritual life are contradictions.” We let our feelings of scarcity color every decision.

Because improving any relationship starts with understanding the current state of affairs, accepting responsibility for your role in what is and embracing the opportunities for improvement, this week we’ll begin with a baseline quiz to reveal your relationship with money. Better understanding your values toward and attitudes about money is the first step to improving your relationship with it.

1: I have no idea where my money goes every month. I just don’t think about money. True/False

2: I act as if I have plenty of money, but inside, I’m always worried that I don’t have enough, even to meet my monthly bills. True/False

3: I have no idea where I got my attitudes about money. True/False

4: I feel ashamed about having more money than my friends (or less than); if they found out, I’m afraid they wouldn’t like me. True/False

5: It seems like I’m always comparing my financial situation with others’; no matter how much I actually have, I always feel like I come up short.

6: I’m embarrassed about the amount of debt I owe; I would never talk about it with any of my friends or acquaintances. True/False

7: No matter how much money I actually have, I’m secretly afraid I will lose everything and become a homeless person. True/False

8: I’m too busy at work to deal with my money. I just don’t have the time. True/False

9: I’m clueless about money; I don’t even know the right questions to ask. My financial advisor just tells me what to do with my money. True/False

10: I keep having to use a credit card to cover my monthly bills. True/False

11: I worry that I will never be able to make it financially if my spouse leaves me or dies. True/False

12: I’ll always have to do without, so I might as well get used to it. I can never really have what I want. True/False

13: My body gets tense when monthly bill-paying time rolls around or when contemplating a large purchase. True/False

14: It’s hard to face, or even think about, people to whom I owe money. True/False

15: I use money to punish or reward myself. True/False

16: As a rule, I always buy the most inexpensive item. For example, though I think Ben & Jerry’s ice cream tastes the best, I buy the cheapest brand at the drug store. It’s frivolous to spend extra money for good taste. True/False

17: Having money means having control. True/False

If you answered true to even five of the above questions, I have good news: relief is available. Schedule a completely FREE complimentary coaching session with me to explore your possibilities for money stress reduction.

If someone offered you a precious gift for an hour of your time, would you be interested? That’s what I offer with a complimentary coaching session. A comp session isn’t a brief demo or sample. It’s a full 45-minute coaching session focused on current real life challenges of your choosing plus 15 minutes to discuss your experience and any questions you may have about my approach to coaching. Those who have experienced comp sessions will tell you, when you come to your comp session open to the possibilities for transformation and fully committed to your own growth, big breakthroughs happen!

Actually coaching together is one of the best ways to appreciate the potential for life transformation, understand my approach, decide whether it’s a modality that works for you and determine whether you and I have the right chemistry as a team.

The value of a comp session? PRICELESS!

It’s FREE and life enhancing. What have you got to lose, other than the fears and limiting beliefs that are keeping you from reducing your stress and living the life of your dreams?

Click here to sign up now.

Author’s content adapted under license, © 2008 Claire Communications

Here’s a quick, three-part survey about one of the most powerful and pervasive stressors of our time:

a: What are the most frequent subjects of recurring relationship disagreements?
b: What’s the biggest fear men and women have about their future?
c: What secret do most people hold dearest? (Hint: It’s not sexual preferences.) 

The most common answers?

a: Communication, sex and MONEY.
b: Losing control of their physical or mental facilities or being on the street because they don’t have any MONEY.
c: The amount of MONEY we owe. 

According to a recent survey conducted by the American Psychological Association, concern about money is the prime source of stress for 73 percent of Americans. Everybody, it seems, has money issues, but, sadly, hardly anybody really talks about it. Money is our secret, both in private and in public. Sometimes we don’t even admit our worries to ourselves.

Well, Friends, with Thanksgiving just around the corner and more than 30 blogs on reducing stress published over the past four months, I’ve decided it’s time to “talk turkey” by bringing our money fears out into the open. My holiday gift for your New Year is to focus my remaining 2012 blogs on helping you declare your independence from worrying over this particular Über Stressor.

Like most secret fears, anxieties about money spread like the common cold until they’ve infected our attitudes and behaviors, robbing us of serenity and peace of mind. Compounding the felony, because we don’t admit or talk about them, we are blocked from getting release and relief.  

Ready to reclaim your personal power and zest for living? Begin by taking this Baby Step: start talking. As with any fear, once we name it, we immediately reduce its power to hold us prisoner while increasing our own power to take constructive action. 

Suze Orman, author of The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom, believes that the sooner we deal with our fears, the more money we’ll be able to create. She says, “When you heal your heart, you help your pocketbook.” 

Often it is the early messages we received about money that influence our current beliefs. That relentless, looping tape recorder in our minds picks up and continues to play old ideas that are sometimes so subtle we don’t even realize their presence. 

So, one of the first steps in dealing with current money issues is to explore early beliefs that still have a grip on our attitudes and choices. Make notes about these old messages. Try writing a “money biography”—the history of your relationship with money from childhood to present. List your fears about money, no matter how ridiculous or far-fetched they might sound. 

Our unspoken attitudes and ideas about money are stripping us of our sense of well-being and security. One of the best ways to find our way through a darkened room when things go bump in the night is to turn on all the lights. 

Author’s content adapted under license, © 2008 Claire Communications