We all get off track once in a while.

August 2023- Welcome curious people.......I have been lucky to be able to work with so many different clients. People from EVERY income range need help. If you have a system that works, that's good. But if you were like me, I had lots of ambition and little traction. Everyone needs a team in their corner, people you can count on to be straight with you.  If you could walk in my debt free shoes for just 1 day, you would never want to go back!

May 2023-Assumptions-  Having them is natural, not knowing when you do can cause real problems. I tried very hard to use fact when making decisions about money. I knew how much our checks were. I had every debt listed on my spreadsheet. I am definitely the geek of the family when it comes to that.

And yet, we struggled to make meaningful financial progress. My assumption, those that stuck their head in the sand were never going to get ahead. People like me, that looked at everything were destined to succeed.

I feel bad now because at the end of the day I was in the same boat as those that hadn’t bothered. My assumption kept me doing it my way. I lead classes now, and when everyone introduces themselves and what brought them to the class, I can sometimes hear it in the voice of the people that were intentional….it’s confusion.

If something in your life just seems to not be working out, repeatedly, take the time to separate facts from assumptions. Learn to poke holes in your own thinking and be open too setting some long held believes aside. At the risk of quoting a daytime T.V. Dr……I now ask myself “ How’s that working for you?” 

August 2022-  I recently had a phone call from a friend. He was really having a string of unfortunate life events. As is so often the case it went from bad to worse as his car was totaled.  It was not insured at that time(that's a whole other conversation), so he was getting some advice to finance another car. He called because that just didn't seem like a good idea but he wasn't sure what to do though. 

 It is at those moments that I wish more than anything that everyone would just pause..........

Just take a minute to understand what your long term goal is, and he did. He messaged me that he was able to cash flow another car for under $2,000.  He has no payments, and is able to get back on track to his real goals.  His current plan was not to drive a really nice car, it is to get out of debt, pay off the student loans that just hang around people's neck. 

 His well used car is just temporary, if he stays on this path he will be able to afford a much nicer one and not have debt taking a bite out of every paycheck. 

My hope for everyone that asks me, is to get them to reframe what debt really is. You are borrowing from every future paycheck.  It is a cash advance, that ONLY makes the lenders money.

June 2022-  When I heard my husbands voice, I knew it already. That intermittent sound from his car wasn’t good. His car has about 234,000 miles on it. It just needed to make it 6 more months. “The garage said he was pretty sure it’s the transmission “ Then out of my mouth came the laugh, full on as I walked through the parking lot. I took a breath, then wiped the tears from laughing.

I laughed in part because sometimes that all you can do. Had this happened 6 years ago, I would have been completely overwhelmed and panicked, because we were paycheck to paycheck.

I had no panic at all. We have spent the last 6 years cleaning up our financial mess, building our nest egg and growing our emergency fund. The days of panicking are over. Also in this week of unexpected expenses, rental car for 3 days and emergency surgery for our poor goat who almost became a tasty snack.

Not saying this was an emotionally easy week, but one that we were ready for. The money was already set aside. We cash flowed every penny.

If I could bottle up the calm and peace that I have inside and give it to those that face agonizing financial choices, I would.

When I am trying to reassure clients about what could be theirs to have, it’s really hard. How do I describe what was once a completely foreign concept for us?

I stay at the ready, never to miss a chance to assure someone living where I once was(and will never go back to) that they can have it to. I want to always encourage them to be willing to try something they have never done so that they can have something they have never had…..Financial Peace  

March 2022-  “How do you eat an elephant?” I hear that phrase a lot now, but the first time I heard it was over 20 years ago. It seemed pretty funny and yet instantly clicked.

It’s now on auto replay in my head. When it feels like an uncertain and open ended task, it plays. Having the capacity to breakdown what can just feel insurmountable has gotten me through some really hard stuff. I wish that professor could know the impact of what he taught me that day.

When it was time to tackle our money issues, I had to take the first important bite. It had been avoided for long enough. I took the first step, the hardest because it was so counter to everything I had been led to believe. The credit cards had to go. I burned them actually, in a glorious bon fire.

There was a definite feeling of exposer and vulnerability, but slowly I began to feel free. What is promoted as being a tool, we realized was really a mask for 99% of our crappy money habits. They actually just kept us tied down and unaccountable. Are you avoiding something also? What is your first “bite” going to be? 

February 2022-  By nature I am a highly skeptical person. Late night infomercials just reeked of absurdity, but not going to lie a small part of me wished they worked. They had the “easy” to follow steps. You just couldn’t go wrong. Who doesn’t want more money?

For so long every waking moment I would be working, doing what I could to bring more money into the house. I was never sure what that amount was but if I just worked harder……

Even when we would make more, we were not ahead. It was such a depressing cycle. I would feel so defeated, I constantly felt like I was letting the family down. My husband slaved away and counted on me to make the money decisions. I had the degree in business so it seemed natural.

I carried so much guilt, I was convinced if I did a better job, we would stop being so strapped.

When I heard of a different approach I was so doubtful. It was unlike anything I had heard before. I spent over a year researching it, trying to poke holes in it. I just could not find the down side. I could follow the program free if I wanted. FREE is my best friend. There was no singular moment of clarity but rather a culmination leading to a tipping point. My poor husbands introduction was “ honey, we’re burning the credit cards!” and I have never looked back.  

January 2022-  Money confession: Last night my husband and I looked at how long it took us to pay off our student loans. 19 years, yes you read that correctly 19 stupid years!! I still get mad when I think about it. I am going to be honest, we could have easily done in less than 4. We carried that over our heads for way too long. I read this proverb yesterday- “ the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago”

My strong desire to coach people is purely based on the possibility of helping anyone who is interested to avoid the same mistakes as us. Could you or your clients benefit from coaching? Let me help you “plant your tree” today.

December 2021- Small confession….I love reading advice columns. Both to see what others are dealing with and to also catch nuggets of wisdom. For financial columns the answers are 99% of the time answered in math. I get it, finances are numbers right? But what if they are so much more?

Recently I read about a man whose sister offered to lend him money to pay off his credit card debt, interest free. And as expected, the first answer was about how it was an interest free loan and of course he should do it. He tries to owns his bad habits and seems to have a lot of concern about not being able to pay it back. I can feel the weight of his shame and lack control over his own habits. I wanted to yell “His problems are not the interest rate he is paying!” To the columnist credit, they do try to address making hard changes later on.

As a financial coach, my job to help him understand why he got there in the first place. I imagine a different choice for him. No more trying to borrow our way out of debt. It is time for him to stop running and make the changes so he never ever feels the shame that comes with taking a handout from family. His sister seems generous, but there is a much bigger gift to give him.

October 2021-   I am have been thinking a lot about how to connect with people who are where I once was. The challenge is being able to lift the veil of finance and credit. I used to worship at the alter of our credit score. 

   When I first started out, naturally I didn’t have much money or common sense. I really needed tires for my car, but everywhere I went I was denied credit. How was I supposed to get credit with no credit? I couldn’t afford 4 new tires. Feeling very overwhelmed and without options, I decided I didn’t want to feel that powerless again. I can’t even remember how I handled the tire issue. But I definitely learned the credit game and spent the next 20+ years thinking I had mastered it. 

    My husband and I had the best score, we could have signed for anything we wanted…..Does this sound familiar? But then something started to shift…..

September 2021- I can remember when I took my oldest child to the orthodontist, her teeth were by all appearances awesome but of course we left with a solid recommendation for braces. I was a little surprised, but I am not trained to see everything. I did wonder how many people they turn away. A few years later, my granny was complaining that every time she went to the Dr’s she left with another prescription and a scheduled follow up appointment. These instances would pop up time and again and it made my start thinking….

Sometimes it’s really clear when we are being offered a product or service at which time we can say yes or no based what we want. Sometimes though it’s really hard, are we ignoring prudent advise?

Now think about your financial life, credit cards, car loans and mortgages. What are you being told you need? What is the real cost? 

August 2021- I am grateful for the ability to be a sounding board for those who are having struggles with money. I just assumed we could get ahead on our own, but finally figured it out.....