Love Your Money Workshop

Okay, well, welcome. I'm so excited to, to hold this Love Your Money, uh, workshop today. And we're— we waited a few minutes for a few people to get in. I'm recording it. I will send it to those who have registered. And, um, beyond that, I hope that, you know, it's probably a bit quick one, but an opportunity for you to get some, you know, takeaways about some of the emotional parts Penny Kidd and kind of where, where we go next. So I am going to just kick us off by starting to share my PowerPoint. Let's see. Let's go back to the beginning. That'd be helpful. Great. Okay, so I'm Penny Kidd. I am a financial coach. I work with people specifically around behavior of money and action steps and, and some mindset stuff. And so I know that money has an emotional component, and I thought with Valentine's being right here that we would talk more about the emotional components around money. So, um, that's what I mean by love your money, is really to be intentional, and we're going to talk a little bit more about that. So I think, you know, let's start with the heart, right? And part of that, what I mean by that is like, what do you desire with your money? I think that we have a relationship with money just like we do people and pets and things like that. And some of it's kind of tainted and, and potentially has some baggage that we've carried from childhood on. And if we don't think about what do we want it to feel like or look like, then it's really hard to make any changes. So I want you to think about what do you desire your relationship to— with money to be like, and why do you want it? It's easy to say, well, I want a lot of money, or I want no debt, but why? I think if you keep saying why, why, why, why, like a little 2-year-old, then you start digging in a little bit more to what's, what's your intention with that money and what are you going to do with it. And starting with where are you now is huge, right? And if you don't look at where you're at, it's really hard to get to where you want to go. So sometimes you have to rip the Band-Aid off and gather all the information and look at it so that you know what the picture is today, and then we work towards changing that. And when are you ready to implement? Sometimes now is not a good time. If your life is really in upheaval and you're not going to do the work, don't fake yourself out. I think when we, we put our time and effort towards something that we value, that's when things change, right? Sometimes we're not ready, but I would hope you don't keep kicking it down the road too far because then it's never going to happen, right? And some people tell me, oh, I'm too old, I'm this age, I'm that age. Well, I've worked with somebody that turns 80 while we were working together. I currently have a client that's 76. So I feel like you're never too old and you're the youngest you're ever going to be right now. So today's the day to start, right? So what does loving your money even mean? It's— this is, you know, maybe it's catchphrase, maybe it's because Valentine's, it's where my mind is, but Um, to me it's about respecting money and respecting your income, how we treat it, what we think about it, what we intend to do with it in the world, and spending with intention. I think too often our world is one where we just do whatever feels good or whatever we're marketed to. And instead, I want you to be mindful with your money and, and treating it with the respect that you You worked hard to get it. So building some security is a huge part of finances, right? I watched my mom run out of money at the end of her life with— she was very frugal and we were pretty poor. And so it was like, well, how did this happen? But if we don't start today, it's really hard to build that long-term security. And a number of the people that I've worked with, especially people that have come from poverty or lower middle class, we have a mindset and a behavior that's a cultural expectation that sometimes we're fighting against. And so you have to look at that a little bit too. And removing the shame from money, you know, it's kind of like when I was a kid, women never talked about their age. I don't think women are as much like that anymore. I'm 61, proud of it. And you know, you kind of feel like I've earned these wrinkles. Why do we have to be ashamed of our money? We are where we are, and then what we should be ashamed of is not trying to fix it, right? So it is one of those things that I really value as an old social worker to help people understand this isn't a place of shame. It's just where you are. Now let's move forward. So let's talk about money habits. On how we do money is very habitual, right? And We can do money out of love or out of fear, and I want to talk about the differences of those. So money from a place of love looks like this: intentional choices. I'm going to spend X on eating out. I'm going to donate this much to charity. I'm going to buy this subscription. What is your intention with your money and why? Planning ahead is a huge part of financial, peace and stability. And most of us are living day to day. Our lives are busy. And so if we can just start planning ahead, whether it's car registrations or, or trips or whatever, that really helps it fit into the daily. Being generous is a huge part of money, I think. And when you can live your life with generosity, with your hand open, you're likely to receive more. If you're holding on to every penny that you make— no pun intended— you don't have any room to get more. So keep your hand open, give a little. Um, we're talking 1 to 10%. You don't have to give it all away, but if you give a little, you're also telling the universe, I'm open for more, thank you, I'll have another portion. And having some peace around your money because you've created systems that you know are working towards the right thing. There's a lot of people that have anxiety around their money, and that's having money is from a place of fear, right? And that includes impulse spending, like doom scrolling and Amazon shopping. And it's funny to me, like Amazon Prime Day, like you didn't think you needed something, but the minute it goes on sale, all of a sudden you need it. Maybe if you had a rule that I don't spend on things that I didn't sleep on for 3 nights, or, um, if it's over X number of dollars, I have to have that saved before I buy it. Avoiding money is a big one. A lot of people feel like, I just don't want to see it, I don't want to know, so I'm just going to avoid. And that's handling money from a place of fear. Then, as I said earlier, the guilt and shame is so palpable for a lot of the people that I work with that we have to just be like— my favorite phrase that kind of my husband chuckles at is like, oh, it's only money. He's like, I think that's so funny coming from you, but it's true in terms of the big things in your life. Are you gonna lay on your deathbed and look back and say, I wish there were more zeros in my bank account? So getting past that guilt and shame is huge. And then the stress around money, but it doesn't have to be stressful. If you'll take steps to change it, you reduce the stress level. So how are you treating your money? I, I love this saying: when you love something, you take care of it, and your money is no different. So are we taking care of our money? Are we being mindful and intentional? I, I worked with a client back in the early part of my business. We were doing debt reduction using cash envelopes, like literally going and getting cash, cash. Here's one of my visual reminders— $50 bill, real cash. And this gal had all these wadded up bills in her purse because I said, well, how much do you have? And she kept pulling out these wadded up bills. And I said, I feel like there's an energy there around your money where if you don't even choose to like lay it straight and put it in order and put it in a wallet, and you know, do you really value it? Because you wouldn't even know if it was gone or if it's torn or whatever. So, um, take care of your money. So we want to improve our relationships this time of year, and we're showing love to those we care about. So part of that is being intentional with your time and your money. So the first step is to prioritize your needs over your wants. And that sometimes gets a little gray where we think, but I need to eat. But you don't need to eat steak and lobster, or you don't need to eat out. Yes, we all need to eat. We maybe even need a cup of coffee, but does it have to be an $8 cup of coffee? Right? So needs and wants. Pay attention to that. And one of the gotcha places for people is planning for irregular expenses. I literally just had this conversation with somebody earlier today and they're like, oh yeah, I didn't think about my license plates. So here's some examples. I'll leave it up for just a second so you guys can see, you know, some options here. So quarterly or annual payments is a big one that we forget until it comes back around, right? Car registrations, depending on where you live in the country, and how your car registrations work, they can be a big chunk once a year. So if we plan for that, maybe by setting aside 1/12 of it, then when it comes around again, it's not such a big stressor. That's the same with holidays like Christmas or birthdays, things like that where we know we're going to spend some money. Quit faking yourself out and saying, oh, I'm not going to do that, or I'm, you know, be realistic and build that into your intentional spending plan. Here's an activity you might want to consider, is to write a love letter to your money. What do you appreciate about it? How will you treat it differently going forward? What boundaries does it need? Any other kind of questions or things you want to tell your money? And maybe this is like a time capsule that you can pull next year and look at it and compare. One of it is maybe looking at what's your debt or your savings today And how much different is it next year? More or less. So here's a little nerdy exercise that I'm gonna go through with you and try to not bore you with the numbers, but I think this is fascinating where so many people think they have to do gigantic things to really make a difference. And really a little bit makes a huge difference. So we're gonna talk about that. Many people come to me with debt and they're overwhelmed and stressed by that, and they don't feel like it's ever going away. Well, the first The first line of defense is to quit using credit and to only live within your income. Then you kill the debt, right? But let's say you have $10,000 on a credit card. You may have less and think, well, I'm doing really good. You may have a lot more. I see big numbers behind this. So just this for example purposes. So if you had $10,000 and your interest rate was 25%, your payment would be about $300 a month. If you only pay the minimum, you're gonna pay another $7,253 in interest, and it's gonna take you almost 5 years to pay that off. And that's assuming you quit using it right now. I'd be surprised if your interest rate is only 25%. A lot of people, depending on what their credit score is and such, is— could be more 29%. I've seen store credit cards as high as 39%. So That's a probably average interest rate. So keep that in mind. You're going to pay $7,253 in interest, right? What if you could find just $100 a month? You could cut some subscriptions, you could eat out a little less, um, you could, um, take on a side hustle, right? So we're finding $100, it cuts our interest to $4,276, and it cut 22 months off. So you saved almost $3,000 and 22 months. That's huge. Then if that same money decides to go to work for you, $400 a month instead of going to Visa or MasterCard can go into your account. And this would be probably an interest rate of a mutual fund, so not you could probably get 3 to 4% in a high-yield savings account. This is just assuming it is a, um, a regular old or a mutual fund of some kind, and that's probably a low number, but I wanted to go low. So if we had 6%, your maturity in that same 22 months that we were paying off the credit card before, now you got $9,325 in like a retirement plan. And imagine what would happen if you did this for 20 years. Now you got $186,000. Now I'm going to assume that you're going to put more than just that $400 a month. Now you're going to start— now you got good habits, right? You're going to increase that monthly, or you're going to get a job change or a bonus or an inheritance. We've got much more money going into retirement in 20 years, but depending on where you are, you probably have 20 years left to save. So start doing that instead of just thinking there's no money to invest. So we've probably all heard about the book The Five Love Languages, and that's about building relationships with people. What do you think your money love language is, or how could you improve your, your money love language? Quality time would equal time with your budget, right? Every paycheck is what I teach. Words of affirmation means talking about money positively. Instead of saying, I don't have money for that, or I can't afford it, how about, I'm choosing not to spend my money on that right now? Acts of service is actually tracking your spending and knowing where it went, tracking the interest you're paying, tracking the interest you're earning, or the the growth in your savings account. Gifts. Gifts are huge. Saving for meaningful goals, like what do you want your money to do? This is a great place for you to, you know, touch the world. Physical touch is about organizing your accounts. I'm actually doing a workshop next month, um, about specifically that, around organization and our finances. So follow up with me about the date on that. So for those of you that signed up for this workshop and, um, are interested in learning more, you can get a copy of my book Make Your Money Behave, um, on Amazon or on through my website. And you can get a free copy of the PDF here, which I will, I will, um, include in the recording to you. So that's what I have for you today. I appreciate all of you that came in person, and I hope that this was helpful to you to help you love your money a little bit more. Be wise.