Sunday, February 28, 2010

PART I: SPIRITUALLY; PART II PRACTICALLY

March 1, 2010


PART I -SPIRITUALLY

My 1999 Gold Buick LeSabre is spacious and solid and provides everything I need. I drive over 300 to 400 miles per week and I just surpassed the 200,000 mile mark. Lately I've been feeling like it's a little shakier than normal. I check the tires and the oil constantly. Those are things I know how to do. I hesitate on taking it to a mechanic. Then riding home in a snow storm, suddenly the car powers down. The needle goes from 40 to 0 in an instant. I can no longer steer. I press the gas and nothing happens. I'm 45 minutes from home in the middle of no where. I put on my hazards. A few minutes later I turn the key. It starts up instantly, Practically speaking it was a smooth ride home. Spiritually, long and very shaky.

PART II - PRACTICALLY
Begin gathering your receipts so you can know specifically where you are spending your money. That will provide you with information you can see and trust. Only from there can you begin to make a plan. From what I have seen with my clients, in most cases they have more than they think they do. The item they have been holding off on, they have spent four times that amount on other things. In one case I had a client who wanted to get her own apartment. She was living with roommates and wanted to be on her own. When she began looking for an apartment, she looked for places that she didn't really love thinking that that was all she could afford. She hired me, expecting to be told why she needed to remain living with her roommates. After two sessions together, she discovered that she had been short changing herself. Once she completed her weekly assignments, she saw she had more than enough funds to go for the apartment that she REALLY wanted. Because she wasn't willing to face her finances, she kept herself in a habitual box depriving herself of what she wanted. Though financially, practically, she had all she needed. Spiritually, she was shaky, doing only what she knew to do; keep herself in lack.

PART I & II EMBRACE, LET GO, BE SPIRITUAL & PRACTICAL
Practically: Did you try any one of the Action Steps from February's blog? Spiritually, do you know why or why not?

Sometimes we're riding along smoothly. Other times we're riding along but we have a sense that there is something shaky underneath. Usually there are hints provided and eventually we're powered down. We can turn the key and as long as it keeps going, we pretend that everything is ok. We do what we've always done until we're stranded at the side of the road. Don't wait until then. Facing our finances provides the balance of the spiritual and practical. Reread February's blog. Complete the practical spectrum of this financial journey so your spirit can Embrace, Let Go & Be Free!


PLAN OF ACTION: See Above!








Friday, February 26, 2010

KNOWING

February 1, 2010


It's one month into the New Year. How are you doing on your New Year's Resolutions? Have you already forgotten what you said you wanted to accomplish this year?

New Year's day I found myself stranded in Erie Pennsylvania in two feet of snow. My financial plans wrecked, and my spirit in the toilet, I thought, "how can this be happening?" This was going to be the check where I was going to... But life as always had its own plans. We can make resolutions, we can set goals, but at the end of the day LIFE will do as it chooses. This is a given. However, when there is no system, plan or goals in place, all we find ourselves doing is reacting, reacting, and digging ourselves further in the hole.

We can not stop life from happening but we can help ourselves be more prepared. AVOIDANCE IS NOT PREPARATION. I know that is the system that most of us have in place to deal with our finances but it does not work. I know it is scary to face the bills that never seem to stop coming, but how much better will you feel knowing each month that on this date this amount will be due? How much better will you feel tallying up your credit card debt and seeing what the number is versus every month paying the minimum and never understanding why the balance just doesn't seem to move anywhere? The solution IS NOT to simply ignore it and charge something else. I was angry on New Year's because my "financial plan" was wrecked. But because I had had a system in place, for once I wasn't financially wrecked. I was just really angry and so sad because I was going to be ahead of the game - make an extra payment, put money in savings, get my sweetheart a gift...none of those plans were possible. But I also didn't spend to ease the pain. I knew based on the system that I had in place, to go on an emotional spending spree would only cause me pain for much longer than just the weekend. I didn't plan on being trapped in another town, but I was prepared for it.

If one of your New Year's resolutions involved you getting your financial picture together, I invite you to take action NOW. If it wasn't on your list but you have a pile of "avoided" mail, I invite you to add it to your resolutions list. NOW is the perfect beginning, You're at the beginning of the month very close to the start of the new year. One of my clients followed through on her New Year's resolution to continue her work with me. I won't ever forget the smile on her face this week when after we opened the "avoided" mail she discovered out of 6 envelopes, 4 were reminders or statements and two were bills but both less than $50. One was going to be due the next day and had she not opened it, it would have been late so by time she faced it, there would have been late fees. After the "avoided" pile was off of her shoulders she was freed up and ready to place her monthly bills on a one month calendar. In an instant she found herself automatically making a financial plan. The habitual anxiety she faced each month "not knowing" was immediately replaced with peace of mind. She could now "see" that she was in control of her finances, something that she had never in over 50 years of her life had ever experienced. There has not been one client in three in a half years that faced their finances who did not end up with a smile on their face. Not one, no matter their financial earnings and positions. The physical money is not the point. YOU ARE. Turn and face it.

KNOWING what you have will help you have some control instead of simply being the victim to your bills and having to react over and over, robbing Peter to pay Paul.

If you have no idea where to begin, choose any one of the below items to get you started:
1. Gather your bills and write the company and amount due on a month to month calendar.
2. Keep your receipts, don't throw them away. (Ask for it, if its not given to you.) At the end of each day/week/month separate them into categories i.e. groceries, eating out, entertainment, etc. and get a monthly total for each category. At the end of the year you don't have to scramble to get your records together for the tax person. You don't have to wonder where your money went.
3. I have attached a modified version of my actual spreadsheet. Begin by using my categories: plug your numbers in and adjust/add/delete the categories that pertain to you.

4. If you try any of the 3 items listed above and you find yourself in tears and/or hyperventilating. Stop. Give me a call and I will help you take the first step (free of charge).

If I had known then what I know now, my financial situation would be so much better. But since I started facing it, I KNOW 3 years from now, as long as I keep facing it, it WILL be better. The sooner you start the better. Tomorrow is not guaranteed for any of us. So commit to taking the action right now. Try it for one month and you will have a smile on your face. The greatest thing that can help our economy in the long run will be each of us individually taking responsibility and facing our financial situations truthfully and consistently.

We can't predict the future; life has its own plans, but we CAN know where we stand in the present. When we don't know where we stand now and we simply wait to react, we have no solid foundation on which to build our future.

Don't waste more time "thinking" about it. Just pick one of the four items above and begin taking action on it TODAY.
I'd love to hear your insights, questions and/or comments on what occurred for you one day, one week, one month after following one of these action items.


“Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice.

It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.”

William Jennings Bryan, American Politician



HAPPY NEW YEAR

January 8, 2010
Thank you to all of you that have joined Core Conversations In Action. There haven't been many conversations amongst us, but I hope that at some point throughout the year, there was a word, phrase or quote here that provided you with what you may have needed.
New Year's Day I was stuck with a broken down vehicle in Erie, PA with two feet of snow. I was heading to Columbus, Ohio to retrieve the last of my grandmother's things. We never made it. Three days later, money and time lost, and we only made it ten minutes outside of the New York state line. Life is funny, that is for sure. We just never know. I know I am late writing and I apologize for the delay.
This blog was created to share and have conversations about approaching life from a place of inspiration and hope even when it seems that fear, lack and pain are all there is. Life is a cycle.
I wish everyone, peace, love and may you find within yourself and from your loved ones all that will inspire you to the next minute, the next hour, the next day, month, season and year!

Remember "time doesn't heal, truth heals." (The 6 Secrets of a Lasting Relationship by Mark Goulston, M.D.) May you find the courage to be and act from your core; upon what is TRUE.
Happy New Year!