Category Archives: MoneyMinder

moneygrit

My favorite money tool—MoneyGrit.®

The other day someone asked me what financial program I recommend. That is an easy one for me—MoneyGrit. The answer is easy, but the question is, why?

My client Jenny comes to mind. Jenny has been my client for many years, so I don’t see her as often as I used to. Once a quarter we get together and talk about her money life. We use MoneyGrit. to look at her annual spending plan and see how her year and goals are unfolding. We talk about her self-care plan, we discuss ways to increase her net worth and fund some big dreams she has, and then I support her in increasing her income. Years ago, I taught her how to manage her cashflow and get out of debt. I was struck by the story Jenny told me recently.

She has a child who has some developmental challenges and had come across a new form of therapy that could potentially really help him. But it was very expensive. So, on Sunday night, when she sat down to track her money, she said to herself, “I’ll adjust my monthly spending plan in my MoneyGrit. with this big new expense and see what happens. Can I afford it?” Then she excitedly told me, “Well, when I went to the part that tells me if this plan works, I was shocked that it did! After all these years, I’m still amazed how this process brings my stress down. Mikelann, what do other people do who don’t have a way to get these answers?”

The short answer is most people are more stressed about money. 

Jenny uses MoneyGrit. to give her a sense of calmness about her money life. Life in general can feel chaotic and MoneyGrit. creates a calm oasis for her when she sits down once a week to track her money and look at her spending plan. She does this on Sunday evenings and it gives her a sense of control over the coming week.

Does it work magically? No. But MoneyGrit. provides you with the perspective and tools you need to make the right decisions and take the right actions.

 I recently had a huge opportunity come up regarding travel and tango dancing. I really wanted to go to this festival, but when I adjusted my own monthly spending plan with the airplane ticket and hotel, it did not work. So, I had to move to the level of looking at my annual plan in MoneyGrit. and see if I could make it work out in some way. Was there something else I could let go of later in the year, so I could make the trip and not have my savings plans and other goals interrupted? (After some thought, I decided to go, and wait on buying a big piece of furniture I had my eye on.)  

What I love about MoneyGrit. is that it helps me look at my options. This helps me feel in control. I have created a wonderful life, and money is a sacred tool in that creation. But things do not always go according to the original plan. Opportunities arise. Unexpected expenses hit.

As I tell my clients, “You can have anything you want. But you can’t have everything you want.” My clients and I love having a tool that helps us see our options and lets us decide what we are willing to give up or postpone.  MoneyGrit. provides the insights we need to take advantage of a new opportunity or roll with a sudden expense—and this is huge. And sometimes the key to good money management is all about finding a more creative way to get something done. I love this. Seeing the whole picture is so important and MoneyGrit. helps you do this.

I also teach people how to unlock their earning power. (My course page is here: Unlock Your Earning Power). I truly love the power of MoneyGrit.’s annual plan for helping my clients and students create an “earnings plan” and accurately see how much they really need to make. MoneyGrit. then helps them make the earning plan become a reality. Self-employed users also harness the power of an earnings plan when they use the business version of MoneyGrit. I love this. No other software does this.

Money programs should help you see where you spend your money, stay out of debt, and not create new debt while you pay off old debt. And they should also help you see your whole life and allow you to consciously create and craft a lifestyle you love, while helping you easily see what you earn and spend, so you can make the best decisions.

I can go on and on about MoneyGrit., but that is not the point of this post. You can visit their sales page to read about its features and benefits, (www.moneygrit.com). I do use all its features with my clients, in addition to using MoneyGrit. both for my own personal and business finances. There are two versions of MoneyGrit.—a business version and a personal finance version. I use both, as do many of my clients. (Disclaimer: while I am an occasional consultant to MoneyGrit., I do not get paid for recommending it!)

Ultimately, a tool is just a tool. Buying a beautiful new cookbook and gorgeous dishes won’t manifest dinner on the table (trust me, I’ve tried that one). Tools must be learned. (And “yes”, you’ll learn it faster with a coach, but “no” you don’t need one). MoneyGrit. has great support for all its users. But it is really about the intention under the tool. MoneyGrit., in my opinion, is a wonderful tool for creating a conscious life and sustainable lifestyle. It’s a tool that allows us to better use money as the sacred means for creating the life you want.


Ready to earn more and step into greater freedom? Click here to be notified of the next time Mikelann offers her 8 week Unlock Your Earning Power course.

MoneyMinderOnline Holiday Planner

A Gift for You: Create a Soulful, Balanced and Sane Season with this Holiday Planner

Happy Thanksgiving!  Listen- as a money coach I know that though the holidays are a joyful time, they can actually bring great stress in our lives. We often struggle to enjoy the season because of expectations and pressures we put upon ourselves. Many of us overspend, and then greet January with an emotional and spending hangover. Take heart! I want to share with you my good friend and MoneyMinder co-founder Karen McCall’s Holiday Planner . It can help you create a holiday season that is balanced and financially sane. Below, Karen shares a part of her powerful process. At the end you can download her free holiday planner.  It’s a gift for you.

Best, Mikelann

How to Enjoy the holidays as balanced, within your means and stress free

From Karen McCall:

For years the holidays left me with an emotional and financial hangover. If you can relate, I’d like to share the process that turned this around for me.
The first step to making this holiday season better than previous ones is to examine what worked and what didn’t work with previous seasons. Would you like to do that? It’s not always easy, but let’s give it a try.
Here’s an example. I remember when my children were young that I used to love to buy them lots of presents… even if I couldn’t afford it. I’d start my shopping early when the department stores first started playing the Christmas music and decorating. (Have you noticed that they start this earlier and earlier these days) I would continue to shop throughout the holiday season, sometimes forgetting how many presents I had already purchased.  January, when the credit card bills came, was not a pleasant experience.

Yet, when I look back to what my daughters loved the most, more than their gifts, it was the simplest things like Mom not being stressed, family time with games, and just spending time together.

What did I learn from this?  MoneyMinderOnline Holiday Planner

Planning.

Planning what I would spend and then sticking with it.

Remembering.

Remembering that it was the time I spent with my children, like baking cookies, that they loved even more than a new toy.
So now, each year in November, I get out my Holiday Planner and I work the process. Doing this helps me to stay in touch with the holiday season that we as a family want to have: balanced, within our means, and stress free.
To see all the steps and complete planner, you can download your copy here.  Holiday Planner


Want more help transforming your relationship to money? Check out all the eBooks, audios, and more robust products Mikelann has created. Are you ready to break free of the “money fog” and step into earning what you are worth? Are you are ready to get in touch with your emotions so you never feel out of control around money again? Are you ready to love your financial life? Let Mikelann help you get there. Free items are at the top of the page.


 

The Transformative Power of a Personal Money Practice, 30 min audio interview with Mikelann

Podcast3Sara Harvey Yao, a national executive leadership consultant and head of Yao Consulting, interviewed me recently on her “Whole Leader Podcast”.

As Sara shares in this podcast, she has been on the receiving end of my coaching on how to create a healthy relationship with money. And she has also noticed how often the “money conversation” comes up in her work with leaders.

She wanted to share her experience and interview me on creating a “personal money practice”.

Sara and I both believe that this can help everyone- including the many amazing leaders Sara works with from around the country, embrace their goals of stronger leadership presence, less stress, greater impact and more peace. (In fact, Sara is an expert in how leaders can experience more presence in all areas of their life.) A personal money practice brings them all this and more.  Enjoy this transformative 30 minutes.

Download the Podcast


If you’re curious about MoneyMinderOnline, you can watch a five minute video of it at www.moneyminderonline.com.


Want more help transforming your relationship to money? Check out all the eBooks, audios, and more robust products Mikelann has created. Are you ready to break free of the “money fog” and step into earning what you are worth? Are you are ready to get in touch with your emotions so you never feel out of control around money again? Are you ready to love your financial life? Let Mikelann help you get there. Free items are at the top of the page.


 

Mikelann Valterra - Seattle Money Coach

Of new eye glasses, football and dating. How a money coach uses her own process

Sometimes people ask me if I “practice what I preach”. Though they usually say it differently. I hear things like, “Do you actually do this yourself?” or “Is this type of coaching only for people who have tons of money?” or “Is this only for people who have financial problems?”

Mikelann Valterra - Seattle Money CoachSo I thought I’d share an evening at home when I used my money coaching on myself. Picture this:

It’s Thursday night and the Seahawks exhibition game is on in the background. I’m sitting on my couch with my laptop open, sipping on a cup of tea after dinner. My 14 year old son is half watching the game and half playing with his new I Phone- I think he’s checking his Facebook status every 2 minutes, texting, and watching YouTube. I’m eying the basket of laundry threatening out of the corner of my eye and texting my own friends about a date I went on last night.

I’m feeling a little stressed about money. So I know I need to look at where I am and see if there is anything I need to do differently this month.

I open my wallet and pull out some receipts and then I log on to my MoneyMinderOnline subscription. (This is the financial tracking and spending plan tool I co-developed that people use to create a healthy relationship to money.) I enter what I spent over the last few days, taking note of a touchdown on the TV. I check my bank online to make sure I haven’t missed anything and I see an automatic payment that went through for a dating site I forgot to cancel (crap!), so I enter that too. And I make a quick note on my MoneyMinder action plan sheet to track down my log in and cancel that site.

Then I click to my august spending plan and look at what I planned to spend for the month, relative to what I actually did spend. Hmmm. I came back from a trip to Whistler last week, but it looks like I did a decent job of planning that. No real damage. Fabulous trip, too. I grab my phone and text a friend some Whistler pics.

Ah, but the issue is actually my dang eyesight. I spent two hours at the eye doctor unexpectedly today when I broke my eye glasses and emerged with….. progressive lenses…. I have been in denial about my changing eyesight. I’m in my fabulous forties and for some reason the print keeps getting smaller!

So I just dropped $600. Um, didn’t plan for that. Sigh.

Now my spending plan has my full attention. So I adjust my August plan for the glasses, and for some other things, like that dating site… I also see that I under-planned my son joining the high school football team. Cleats, sign up fees, equipment fees etc. Then I check to see what bills I have left to pay.

With a bigger sigh, I hit the summary button. The button says, “Does this plan work?” Well, gosh, no it doesn’t. If I don’t make any changes, it calmly informs me I will be negative in my account at the end of the month.

Another touchdown. It’s going to be a very good season.

I sip my tea and debate my life. I decide the way to handle the month is to wait on buying this new chair I’d been planning on buying for my living room. I can arrange this gorgeous throw I bought recently over the back of my current chair to give it a little life. And I’m also going to transfer in some money from my “periodic savings”. So I go online and quickly transfer the money and then I make the chair and savings adjustments on my august plan. Now I would end with enough money. Relief!

And when I thought about it, the glasses were on my annual plan- I just didn’t intend to do it this month. I decide that this weekend I’ll sit down and adjust my annual plan and look at the bigger picture. And I’ll update my needs and wants list. The eye glasses were definitely on the needs list. I will put the new chair on my wants list so I can prioritize for it.

For now, I am doing well. My stress is gone.

My son shows me a YouTube video he found on a rapper he likes. He’s trying to get me to see the light- “Rapping is cool, mom!”

Time to fold the laundry and pay closer attention to my Seahawks.


Want more help transforming your relationship to money? Check out all the eBooks, audios, and more robust products Mikelann has created. Are you ready to break free of the “money fog” and step into earning what you are worth? Are you are ready to get in touch with your emotions so you never feel out of control around money again? Are you ready to love your financial life? Let Mikelann help you get there. Free items are at the top of the page.


 

A simple and effective way to track your financial goals

As co-founder of MoneyMinder (www.moneyminderonline.com ), I could go on and on about the virtues of tracking, or being able to do a simple monthly spending plan and know I’m okay. Yes! But what about pulling back and working on goals like debt reduction? Or building more savings? What is an easy way to do that?

In MoneyMinder, there is a simple net worth tab. I say “simple” because some people get very complicated when they think about net worth. However net worth is “simply” taking everything you owe and subtracting it from everything you own, and seeing the difference.

But there is an even easier way to jump into this subject. Don’t worry about your entire net worth right now. Really!

Simply use the net worth sheet to focus on your current debt and savings goals.  Or grab a blank piece of paper and do this–

At the top of a sheet, write down your savings goals: perhaps your current savings goal is to start a safety net so you know you are okay if don’t have any money coming in. (Look here for my article on creating a safety net. I call it a “Freedom Fund”. https://www.seattlemoneycoach.com/how-to-create-your-very-own-freedom-fund-yummy. ) And you want to put $100 into it each month and you want to watch it grow. So write down “Safety Net” or “Freedom Fund”. (I recommend setting up an automatic transfer to savings that is small and sustainable to get this going.) Then make a list of your current debts that you dislike- perhaps it is credit cards. Write out their names (and their interest rates next to their names if you want some great incentive.)  Don’t worry right now about big things like mortgages. And you may also want to wait on thinking about student loans.

Now you have a column with savings goals on top and debt goals on the bottom. Once a month, write down their new balances.

Each month, once a month, you simply update this sheet in a new column on the right side – you write in your new savings balances and you write in your new debt balances. You’ll have columns going across your page.  Check out the picture I made of what this could look like. (This picture isavings_debt_picture_newsletters from MoneyMinder- the spending plan software I use with many clients.)

Seeing debt balances go down and savings go up feels sooo good. Over time you may fill in the other parts of your net worth. But for now, focus on your immediate goals. Make filling this out the first thing you do each month. You’ll immediately see if your debt balances went up, which is great for breaking denial and re-setting your intention. (Take your credit cards out of your wallet?)  And you’ll feel good seeing your savings go in the right direction.

Here is a tip: put a reminder in your smart phone on the 30th of each month- “Grab current debt and savings balances”.  You can even put them in a simple note on your smart phone and when you have time, write them in your columns.

With some simple monthly updating, you can make a ton of progress on both your debt and your savings goals. It feels great!


Want more help transforming your relationship to money? Check out all the eBooks, audios, and more robust products Mikelann has created. Are you ready to break free of the “money fog” and step into earning what you are worth? Are you are ready to get in touch with your emotions so you never feel out of control around money again? Are you ready to love your financial life? Let Mikelann help you get there. Free items are at the top of the page.

A little anniversary gift for you- conquering underearning!

It’s our 6 month Anniversary! And we want to celebrate with you.

That’s right. Just 6 months ago, in January, we launched the new online MoneyMinderOnline spending plan software system. We already have over 400 users, and they are thrilled with how easy it is for them to stay conscious of and connected to their money.

Did you know that with the MoneyMinderOnline system, it only takes about 5 minutes a day to know exactly where your money is going and what you need to earn to not only cover your monthly spending but live your ideal life? And with MoneyMinderOnline, you can customize your own spending categories so they reflect what’s truly important to you.

Plus it is cloud-based, which means you can access MoneyMinderOnline from any computer, any time. Whether you are at work or home, your MoneyMinderOnline is always accessible to you!

Yes, we’re extremely pleased with how the new MoneyMinderOnline is helping so many people transform their financial reality, plan for the future and feel on top of their money… and on top of their world.

So… here’s how we want to celebrate!

Anyone who orders a MoneyMinderOnline subscription before July 31, 2013, will receive the first two chapters of Why Women Earn Less: How to Make What You’re Really Worth a book written by ME- Mikelann Valterra, MoneyMinderOnline co-founder. These two chapters will give you a greater understanding of how you may be underselling yourself and whether hidden feelings of unworthiness are sabotaging your ability to earn more.

Oh, but wait!

Before you sign up, you need to know this:

We offer a business version of MoneyMinderOnline, designed for “solopreneurs” who own and run a small business. And just like the personal MoneyMinderOnline, it is a complete, cloud-based system that is easy to use, understand and customize to fit the needs of your specific business. Now it’s easy (and even kind of fun) to stay on top of your business income and expenses, reduce or eliminate debt, prepare for tax time and plan for the future.

Whether you order a personal or business subscription to MoneyMinderOnline, you get our anniversary special gift, the first two chapters of Why Women Earn Less: How to Make What You’re Really Worth.  But you must place your order before July 31st.

Thank you for your well-wishes and support during these first 6 months. We couldn’t be happier about the way MoneyMinderOnline is taking off, and we’re so excited about the months to come.

Best,
Mikelann

P.S. Do you know anyone who could benefit from either the personal or business version of MoneyMinderOnline? Please feel free to pass on this information so your friends, colleagues and family members can discover how liberating it is to stay connected to their money.


Want more help transforming your relationship to money? Check out all the eBooks, audios, and more robust products Mikelann has created. Are you ready to break free of the “money fog” and step into earning what you are worth? Are you are ready to get in touch with your emotions so you never feel out of control around money again? Are you ready to love your financial life? Let Mikelann help you get there. Free items are at the top of the page.