Financial Recovery: developing a healthy relationship with money– The Book

June 6, 2011

It’s finally here!!! I’ve been waiting for this book for three years. It’s called Financial Recovery—developing a healthy relationship with money, by Karen McCall. Karen is my mentor, colleague and very good friend.  (And she is the founder and director of the Financial Recovery Institute.) She is the one who inspired me to become a [...]

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Credit Card Debt: Are you bailing water out with a thimble?

May 24, 2011

My long-time colleague Karen McCall published a fabulous post last week called “Saving Your Way out of Debt”, where she lists ten steps for breaking the vicious debt cycle so many people are caught in. I want to call attention to her second step: Stop the leaks by stabilizing debt.
McCall says that if you’re trying [...]

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The “Vow”- and 7 questions to help you avoid using credit cards

May 4, 2011

At times I feel like I’ve taken a vow of sorts. And this vow guides me, irritates me and gives me amazing freedom, often all at the same time. This vow, this guiding principle if you will, allows me to live my life without a lot of financial guilt or confusion. It gives me the [...]

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Does your childhood last name affect your adult spending? Maybe so.

March 21, 2011

I’ve always thought of myself as a reasonably patient person. And this patience is a handy thing, when it comes to spending. I can often make myself wait until something goes on sale. I’ve noticed my son is less so, and hope that he will “mature” as time goes on. But now I wonder if [...]

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4 Steps to Calculating Your Life-Energy Number

March 1, 2011

I’m as human as the next person. Sometimes I want to spend money I shouldn’t. Take clothes, for example. For Christmas, my father gave me some very generous clothing gift certificates. So I hit the after-Christmas sales pretty hard with my friend Sandra. Between the sales and my gift certificates, it was like everything was [...]

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Training to become a Money Coach

January 6, 2011

On Wednesday January 12th, I am doing a Telecall about the Financial Recovery training program– how to become a Financial Recovery Coach. As many of you know, I am on the faculty of the Financial Recovery Institute. The Institute is founded by financial counseling pioneer Karen McCall. Over the past twenty years, Karen has developed [...]

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Mikelann’s Crystal Ball

January 4, 2011

I’ve been looking forward to a certain Saturday morning in late December for a while. Why? Because I want to know if I can put new windows on my house this year. And I want to know if I can afford some extra landscaping help before my backyard turns into a wildlife preserve. (That’s just [...]

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8 steps to avoiding that holiday spending hangover

November 8, 2010

Yes, I know it’s only mid-November. But we all know that we’re starting to do some holiday planning.  Last night my sister and new brother-in-law were at my house for their first year wedding anniversary dinner party (I made the perfect pork roast!) and we started talking about exchanging gift lists. She is hosting this [...]

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