Why I Have $100,000 On My Wall

Last week I wrote a post about lessons I had learned from the book “Get Rich, Lucky Bitch” which I devoured and thoroughly enjoyed. 

One of the glaring realizations was that I had this subconscious belief that I only deserved to make the bare minimum needed to survive. 

But what happens when your goals change, what you want changes? What if a house and a family doesn’t seem so distant? 

The answer: you’re going to need more money. 

I realized that I thought making more money than I “needed” was greedy. That I should only want what I need and nothing more. 

Why set big goals if you have enough now?

Well, I realized it wasn’t about being ungrateful for what I already have. It’s about growing, as a person, as a business, and it’s OK if you desires and goals change. 

It doesn’t take much money for me to support myself at this point in life. I’m pretty proud of that fact, but I also discovered that the idea of making “a lot” of money freaked me out, gave me these weird, cringey feelings that I didn’t like. 

In the book she talks about clients who had the goals of making six figures, seven figures, and each time I found myself a bit bug eyed thinking, “That’s sooo much money!” 

When I thought about what it would be like to make six figures I found myself really uncomfortable with the idea of that much money. 

I’m a far way off from that income goal, but how could I ever expect myself to seek out more money if I wasn’t even comfortable with the idea of making more money. 

Essentially, I was repelling money and opportunities that led to more money because I didn’t think I needed it nor deserved it. I was uncomfortable with it. 

So, I’ve started doing a few things to change my attitude towards making more money. 

One, slightly absurd, thing I’ve done is put “$100,000” on the bottom of my felt letter board that sits on my desk. 

And when I first put it up there I would hide it behind candles, embarrassed that it was even there. But slowly, as I sit down and look at it every day I’m becoming more and more comfortable with it. Slowly but surely it doesn’t seem so absurd, it doesn’t seem so greedy, it doesn’t seem so impossible. 

I’ve also started putting up little positive money affirmations on sticky notes above my desk. 

I’m slowly chipping away at my preconceived notions about income and self-worth. 

I want things in life, and I want them sooner rather than later. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Having goals doesn’t make me greedy. I’m not harming anyone to get there. 

I love learning about personal finance and money mindsets. Money will probably always be taboo, but it doesn’t mean I can’t change my own attitude towards the matter. 

What are some of the big money lessons you’ve learned so far in life?

Lessons From "Get Rich, Lucky Bitch"

I don’t know about you, but I love reading books about money. And I’m not talking about financial planning (that’s important too), I’m talking about unpacking our beliefs and mindsets surrounding money. 

Because I’m always so surprised with how many there are. And not only that but recognizing how they are inadvertently impacting my day to day decisions, and therefore my overall financial well-being. 

I recently tore through the book, Get Rich Lucky Bitch by Denise Duffield-Thomas, which digs into how our subconscious money mindsets can be sabotaging our financial possibilities. 

It’s chock full of inspiration, so I recommend picking it up if you're into that sort of stuff, but I wanted to go ahead and share some of those nuggets with you today. 

You’re going to have to dig into your money past if there’s any hope for your future. And that’s because how you’ve been raised to feel and think about money most definitely is impacting your relationship with money today. 

Start from your earliest memory about money and work your way up.

Give yourself time to do this exercise, it takes awhile and the more time you spend with it, the more memories come up. You’re going to have to deconstruct how those memories could be impacting you still today.  

Every day write down a list of all the money that comes into your life. Like attracts like, so the more money you realize you have the more money will start flowing to you. 

When you think you don’t have enough, when you don’t know how much you actually have you can be a bit more careless with your money. You might be twiddling away your money in tiny increments for things that you don’t even actually want or care about. 

And when I consistently do this exercise I am amazed with the abundance I actually have compared to what I thought I was making. I’m far from a millionaire, but there have been plenty of months where I make double or triple of what I think I’m making, all because I wasn’t keeping track of it. 

Put yourself in situations where you feel rich. Expect good things to happen to you. Lucky people are overwhelmingly grateful and take responsibility for their lives

She also suggest reprogramming yourself to say yes to money and opportunities to make money. I found three dollars on the floor of a bathroom at a campground. Gross? Probably. But you bet your sweet tushy I snatched that money up and said "YES! Thank you Universe!" Be grateful for what you have. 

Emotions live in our bodies. If you don’t try and feel wealthy now with what you have, you won’t feel wealthy with a million dollars.

Yeah really nice cars are cool, but I’m so grateful for owning my dream bike (a Bianchi), and know that it is more than enough when it comes to the realm of transportation. If you can’t find gratitude in what you have now, you’re never going to be satisfied because there will always be something bigger, something better, something newer to get. Don’t get trapped in that cycle. 

Money loves clarity. When you know exactly WHAT you’re working towards, you will start to act in more positive ways towards your goals. Write down numerical values next to each of the goals, so you know how much it is actually going to cost you to have it. Change the rules of how you think you have to get it. Like farts, goals are better out than in, so release them into the world and onto some paper today!

Get clear with what you want because how are you expected to get something if you don’t know what it is? We all wish for more money, but why do we want more money? What is it that we want to have or do? And how realistic is that goal? Take travel for example, it’s something almost everyone wants to do, but don’t think they can afford. I’ll let you in on a secret, it’s so much more attainable than you think. 

Worse Case Scenario exercise. Voicing those little fears, even if they’re completely irrational, releases their hold on you and you can feel good about becoming rich. You can’t create an amazing life and receive outrageous abundance with an underlying fear that you’re a bad person. 

This was a fun exercise. So, you’ve written out your goals, what you want. Now it’s time to write down all the bad things that could possibly happen if you achieved those goals. 

“My partner will feel inadequate."

“I’ll spend it all."

“I’ll turn into a bad, greedy person.” 

As you look back over the list you’ll start to see how crazy those beliefs are, but it doesn’t change the fact that they’re there, and could be stopping you from reaching for more. 

You might find yourself thinking, “I shouldn’t want that”. It’s like at some point we’ve been told you shouldn’t want to have the best. It’s so common for women to put unconscious limits on how much they are “allowed” to earn. 

Isn’t this the truth? I’ve realized that I’ve been conditioned to think it’s greedy to want more than what you need to survive. How silly is that? And I’ve also recognized that continuing with this belief is going to limit me from reaching big goals I want in the near future: Buying a house, starting a family. Those things take money, and it’s not a “bad” thing to want those things. 

It’s so important to surround yourself with success; we are so influenced by the people around us. Connect with women who are going where you want to go. Everyone you are with on a day-to-day level, your friends, your success team, your partner, needs to be lifting you up not dragging you down with obligation, negativity and poverty mindset.

This is true in all areas in life. Do you and your friends spend your time together complaining about one thing or another? We’re all guilty of it. But you need to start living the life you’re trying to achieve. Whether it’s putting yourself into situations to expand and grow, reaching out to someone who inspires you or meeting up with women you find inspirational. Surround yourself with what you want to be in the world. 

Your income is unlimited. Your potential is unlimited. 

I just want to end with this today. We are constantly limiting ourselves to what we think we can achieve. But if you head out into the world telling yourself you are limitless you start to notice things, people, opportunities, ideas. And you go for it because you’re not limiting yourself to where you’re currently at in the world. 

Having a Money Minute

Repeat after me: Money is not the enemy.

I’ve talked a few times before about the importance of learning about, and paying attention to your money.

People think that by ignoring it they won’t have to deal with it. But choosing not to do anything is still an action. 

And no matter how much or how little money you feel like you have, paying attention to it is important. 

So, today I wanted to talk about taking a money minute. 

Some people do this once a day, a week, a month or less than that. 

Right now I’m in-between once a week and once a month, and I want to get back to once a week. 

And this is what a money minute means to me:

Pulling up my bank account and my credit card online. 

Going through both and writing down every dollar spent and made in my bullet journal. 

I have a number of payments automated, but the bigger ones I still do manually:

+ student loan payment

+ rent

+ credit card

By going through my bank and credit card statement I can keep an eye on where I’m spending money, maybe a subscription I don’t use that I need to cancel, things like that. 

It’s also a great time to see where you’re at in your budget, whether what you’re making is enough to support how much you’re spending. 

And if it isn’t adding up it’s a great motivator to cut back spending and amp up your income. 

Don’t ignore your finances. 

And if you don’t feel comfortable with them, you need to force yourself look at them, make yourself learn about personal finance. 

Ignorance is not bliss when it comes to money. 

I truly believe that the more attention you pay to your finances the better you will do financially. 

No Eat Out November

Yesterday marked the beginning of the third annual No-Eat-Out November.

It’s a concept I came up with as a fun way to challenge Michael and I to reset our habits on eating out vs. making meals at home, which is a great way to save some money. 

November works well for us because we normally go on our big trip sometime during October. When we get back we’re always in the mood to sharpen up on our money saving skills. 

For whatever reason this month long challenge seems to work better than just saying to one another “oh, we should try and do a better job of eating at home” (we’ll say this every now and then throughout the year if we’ve fallen into an eating out rut). 

And while we technically spend time together if we go out to eat, it’s not like the date nights you see in the movie. Going out to eat loses it’s luster if you do it pretty often. 

Now, eating at home on the other hand can be pretty exciting if done with a little bit of planning. If you know you’re going to be doing it, you can take the time to plan out more exciting meals than normal. 

We can all admit that we are guilty of getting stuck in meal ruts, eating the same thing day after day. And sometimes it just takes a little challenge to spice up dinnertime. 

It was during this challenge two years ago that we first made Polish periogi, and were shocked to realize how easy it was. It’s a great time to try out different soup recipes and make big batches to eat over the course of a few days. 

We did our grocery shopping for the week quickly last night, trying to get fresh fruits and vegetables as well as a few ingredients we could combine with things we already have at home. 

But starting next week I will take the time to take stock of what we still have in the fridge and cupboards, and plan out a few new meals for the week before doing my grocery shopping. 

So, if you’ve been looking for a little financial challenge, join me this year for No-Eat-Out November.