Category Archives: Relationship to money

Money and finances isn’t all about dollars and figures. Money is very tied to our emotions, our self-worth, our values and beliefs and bythe experiences we have had with money in the past. What’s your relationship to money and what role does it play in your life?

End Financial Avoidance and Reclaim Your Power Today

By Sheila Walkington, co-founder and CFO Money Coaches Canada and the Women’s Financial Learning Centre

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Most people procrastinate from time to time, it’s human nature to put off tasks we believe to be unpleasant or time consuming. But the habitual putting off of our responsibilities, especially our financial responsibilities, transforms procrastination into avoidance. Avoidance —Stage 2 of the 7 Stages of Financial Well-BeingTM —is one of the most potentially damaging stages on the path to financial fulfillment.

Are you in Avoidance?

It’s essential to understand that financial well-being comes with a deeper understanding of where you stand with money, emotionally and financially, developing concise and attainable goals, getting organized and implementing a manageable plan to move forward. The 7 Stages of Financial Well-BeingTM is a framework that will help you better understand where you are, and what actions to take, as you move towards Financial Fulfillment. Continue reading →

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How to Take Charge and Say Goodbye to Financial Chaos

By Sheila Walkington, co-founder and CFO Money Coaches Canada and the Women’s Financial Learning Centre

Names and identifying details have been changed for privacy. Story used with permission.

Do you remember the children’s game Chutes and Ladders? Players are moving forward and climbing the ladders when suddenly a roll of the die lands them on a chute that sends them tumbling backwards. When we meet clients in Stage 1 of the 7 Stages of Financial Well-BeingTM – Chaos, it is almost always because a major life event (illness, death of a spouse, job loss, transition to self-employment or divorce), has sent them sliding down a chute into Chaos.

7 Stages of Financial Well-Being ChaosThe base of the 7 Stages of Financial Well-BeingTM pyramid represents those furthest removed from feeling in control and empowered financially. For many, Chaos represents their starting point on their journey to Financial Fulfillment.

It’s essential to understand that financial well-being comes with a deeper understanding of where you stand with money, emotionally and financially, developing concise and attainable goals, getting organized and implementing a manageable plan to move forward. The 7 Stages of Financial Well-BeingTM is a framework that will help you better understand where you are, and what actions to take, as you move towards Financial Fulfillment. Continue reading →

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Money Coach Spotlight: Melanie Buffel

“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” –Albert Einstein
Melanie Buffel Money Coach in Vancouver BC

Melanie Buffel, BA Psych, MBA Candidate

Melanie Buffel changes the way her clients think about money.

“When I begin working with clients,” she says, “whether they are individuals, couples or entrepreneurs, they usually present me with foggy numbers: unclear expenses, numbers that are rounded up or imprecise. Then at one point on the journey they begin updating their spreadsheets, rebalancing their plan and speaking with a level of confidence that tells me they’ve had a paradigm shift. It’s wonderful to see them believe in their capacity to make sound financial decisions.”

Understanding what’s important to her clients is the foundation of Melanie’s approach. She recognizes that every person, couple or business owner has different needs and goals, and on an even deeper level; everyone has an emotional relationship with money that has been shaped by their childhood and life experiences.

Conflicting money personalities can cause tension within a relationship, says Melanie. “I help people clarify their priorities, and as an objective third party I can ask the hard questions without judgement.”

Melanie’s objective perspective can also help couples who enable each other with magical thinking solutions to their challenges. Judging or enabling is just two sides of the same coin; nothing changes.

Clients working with Melanie can expect change. “It’s so important that we clear the fog and determine priorities and goals, but that is just the beginning. The end game is integrating workable solutions into the reality of their lives.” Continue reading →

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Credit card rewards: perk or pitfall?

By Karen Richardson, FPSC Level 1TM Certificant in Financial Planning

Photograph of a stack of credit cards

Credit cards, when used carefully, can play a positive role in your financial life. Using credit wisely is critical to building a solid credit history. If you need a loan or a mortgage, or you want to renegotiate a loan, a good credit rating is important and will help you negotiate the best terms. But credits cards used carelessly can send your life and finances into a tailspin.

But we all know this, right? So how do smart people with six figure incomes end up with more credit debt than they intended? Often it’s the seductive lure of credit card reward programs.

How many people do you know who put almost everything on their credit card so they can earn reward points? Maybe you do it too. Well let’s take a look at the perks and pitfalls of a rewards plan spending habit.

Perks

1. If you are using a card with rewards that are of value to you, and you are paying off your balance each month, you may be benefitting from the program.

Well that was a short list.

Pitfalls

Unfortunately this list isn’t as short. Continue reading →

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Do 6-figure professionals need a budget?

By Sheila Walkington, co-founder and CFO Money Coaches Canada and the Women’s Financial Learning Centre

new-years-eveHappy New Year!

The New Year is a natural time to look forward and set goals, but it is also a good time to reflect on how far you’ve come. Looking back one year life may not be dramatically different, but if you look back 10 or 15 years, so much has probably changed, especially in terms of your career and income.

When you were starting out you probably had a pretty simple financial plan – pay the bills so the lights stay on. Going out to the movies may have meant you’d have a smaller bag of groceries that week, and you may have dreamed of the day when you’d reach a level of success that you’d never need to budget again. But like the child who dreams of eating chocolate all day when (s)he becomes an adult, it isn’t such a good idea when the moment arrives. Now that you have achieved a good measure of success, you probably have a lot more reasons to stay on top of your finances.

So, do 6-figure professionals need a budget? Not if your idea of a budget is restriction and inflexibility. At Money Coaches Canada we’ve created a Spending and Savings Plan, not as a euphemism for the word budget, but as a tool that keeps you engaged with your money. Engagement fosters informed decisions and informed decisions will likely be in your best interest long term.

What happens to many high earners is that they get busy; they work hard, play hard and are often raising families at the same time, and they lose touch with where their money is going. They don’t have to choose between groceries and a movie anymore, so they may stop worrying about day to day spending in general. The catch is, with success comes different reasons to pay attention. Continue reading →

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September is a great time to check-in with your financial goals

No matter how many years it’s been since we’ve tossed a graduation cap in the air, the back-to-school energy of September motivates many of us to re-commit to moving forward in our lives; making it the perfect time to check-in with our financial goals.

CROPPED UPDATED-7-Stages-of-Financial-Well-Being-732x1024As Money Coaches we help people progress through the 7 Stages of Financial Well-Being™ to ultimately achieve financial fulfillment. A great way to set goals is to recognize which stage you are in and to understand what you need to do to move to the next stage. You may be able to determine where you are by reading the descriptions of each stage in the graphic (click the image to enlarge), but you can also download our 7 Stages of Financial Well-Being™ Quiz to see where you stand.

Maybe you are already very clear about which of the 7 Stages you are in, yet you feel stuck. Continue reading →

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Success Story: Louise – A life changing financial turn-around

All information used with the client’s permission.

In 2010, Louise was a single mom with a teenage daughter and another daughter under age 10. She spent her days working with words, writing sales and advertising copy that garnered her great respect in her field, but at the end of the day, it was numbers that weighed her down.

Despite the outward signs of success, Louise owed $15,000 on credit cards and $10,000 in income tax. She had purchased a duplex and had upstairs tenants to help offset the mortgage, but she was also paying rent of $1,000 a month for her daughter at college. And just over the horizon loomed an income tax bill of $26,000.

“It’s very shaming to be that far in debt,” she says, “so you start hiding a lot of information from family and friends.”

She felt isolated and uncertain about how to turn things around. She read books and blogs about money management, but confidence in her financial skills was so low, she wasn’t able to turn the general information into personal solutions. She discounted the idea of reaching out to a financial planner because she believed planners were for investing and not for dealing with debt.

“I had never heard of a money coach,” Louise says, until she came across the term in a Canadian Living magazine article featuring Money Coaches Canada co-founder Sheila Walkington. The idea that there were financial professionals who could guide and teach her how to manage her money gave Louise just enough courage to break her isolation and reach out. Continue reading →

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It’s time to break down the money talk taboo

By Melanie Buffel, B.A. Psych, MBA candidate

Our culture is rife with mixed messages about money. Money is freedom, money is greed, live simply – but to be happy you’ll need this car, have these clothes and that phone. Yet one message comes through loud and clear; don’t talk about money – at least not at the personal level.

On a broader scale we talk about money all the time. The financial media talks about the level of consumer debt that Canadians carry, or how unprepared many people are for retirement, while at the same time new homes seem to get bigger, and Facebook is full of vacation and home renovation photos. We hear that people are struggling but we don’t see it. We commiserate with friends that gas and groceries are too expensive, or that university tuition for our kids is weighing us down, but we often do that over a nice glass of wine or an overpriced coffee. Everyone we know seems fine. The thing is, behind closed doors, not everybody feels fine. Many people feel overwhelmed and stressed, but are too embarrassed or ashamed to tell anyone. The isolation goes even deeper if financial worries are being kept from people otherwise close to you, such as a spouse, close friends or family.

Continue reading →

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The money goal that’s often neglected

By Alison Stafford, FPSC Level 1TM Certificant in Financial Planning

Information Definition Magnifier Showing Knowledge Data And FactsAt this time of year lots of people set goals, and it’s certainly not unusual for one of those goals to be about money. This year I’m going to pay down my credit debt, or this year I am going to spend less on dining out and save for a trip, or, I’m going to put more into my retirement savings. All worthy goals. But there is another money goal that is often neglected, one that would reduce the need for goals that “fix” our past behavior with promises to make better choices this year. That better money goal is: This year I’m going to focus on my financial knowledge.

The more we understand the mechanics of money, the more engaged we are with our finances, the more likely we are to make good choices every day, not just for the first few weeks of the New Year. So what holds people back? Continue reading →

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7 Stages of Financial Well-Being™ – Where do you stand?

By Karin Mizgala, BA Psyc, MBA, CFP®

Whether you believe in New Year’s resolutions or not, doing better with money in the coming year is probably on your mind.  Why is it such a popular resolution, yet so hard to keep?

One of the biggest reasons is not having a clear sense of what financial success means to you.  The other reason is that it’s just not easy to do what it takes to be good with money in the complex and busy culture we live in.

It takes less effort to hope that a windfall will suddenly appear or to just stay stuck in financial inertia, but wouldn’t it be nice to finally feel in control of your money once and for all –  on your own terms? Continue reading →

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