The Beautiful Truth in Beautiful Money
A change in perspective could be the thing you need to achieve success.
The power of positivity is something our Queen Bee here at Miss Money Bee has always encouraged us to embrace. April believes readers are inspired by the positive and only get turned off by the negative. Essentially, if you can change the way people think about finance, they gain a positive financial outlook simply by being more positive in their thoughts and actions.
It’s a mentality that fits right in with the Beautiful Money concept presented by Leanne Jacobs in her new book. Leanne promotes a financial plan that starts with foundational lifestyle changes in how you think about money. Beautiful Money is designed as a 4-week program that can help anyone get on a path to wealth, regardless of where they may start.
So whether you’re an hourly wage worker living paycheck to paycheck or a CEO working 50+ hours per week and trying not get burnt out, Beautiful Money is designed to help you achieve the wealth you want.
Beautiful tie-ins
Beautiful Money appeals to me because it works beautifully well with principles I’ve already adopted in my time writing for Consolidated Credit and Miss Money Bee. In fact, two principles that we love to promote here at Miss Money Bee also made it into Beautiful Money…
#1: SMART goals create real progress in your life
SMART goals are something we promote here and on ConsolidatedCredit.org because they give you achievable milestones to aim for. A large goal like becoming debt-free can seem daunting. When you’re overwhelmed, you’re less likely to act. But if you break that big goal into smaller milestones you can work to achieve, you’ll have more success.
Last year my focus was on debt elimination. I paid off debts that were smaller and still hanging around; then I consolidated the rest with a personal debt consolidation loan. I made a goal that any new credit card debt I generated last year would be paid off within the first billing cycle. And even now after the winter holidays, all of my bills are already paid.
So by making SMART goals out of debt repayment and celebrating the elimination of each debt, it’s kept me motivated to achieve my goal. I’m planning on doing the same thing this year with a focus on setting SMART goals investing.
#2: Money mantras inspire you to success
Another concept I was happy to find while reading Leanne’s Beautiful Money was her use of money mantras. Leanne recommends creating money mantras that can inspire success. It’s an affirmation of your core values in your financial life.
Leanne’s clients have come up with mantras like:
“I am more than enough and am exactly where I am supposed to be – I already have all the answers.”
“I always speak my truth and no longer settle for anything less.”
At Consolidated Credit, we’re currently running a Money Mantras contest. We’re asking people to send us a selfie video of their personal money mantra. With our videos, the mantras center on specific goals and ways of being in your financial world. So my mantra from last year was “Reward credit cards are only rewarding if you pay off the balance in full every month.”
It’s not quite as metaphysical as Leanne’s clients, but it’s a mantra that kept me on track last year to avoid running up credit card balances that I didn’t pay off. If my balance was getting high, I repeated the mantra to myself and left my card in my wallet.
My mantra for this year:
“The greatest risk to achieving wealth is inaction. Investing wisely opens a path to wealth. Even losses lead to wisdom about what I can do better next time.”
Establishing your own Beautiful Money journey
If focusing on finances brings up a sense of fear in you, you’re not alone. I’ll be the first to admit I know very little about investing at this moment – far less than I should. But letting that fear prevent me from acting is the worst thing I can do. If I invest money this year then although I may have losses, I will also enjoy gains. But if I do nothing, then I have nothing to gain.
The same is probably true in your own life. If you have $25,000 of credit card debt, you probably get a sinking feeling in your stomach every time you think about it. But as Leanne promotes in her book, if you can overcome the fear and find positivity in your journey, you can start taking practical steps forward. And this may lead you to be much further along by the end of 2017 than you would have ever thought possible.
Finding positivity in debt elimination
Changing the way you think about your debt is all about mindset. So right now you may be thinking, “Oh my god, I have $25,000 in debt to eliminate and I don’t even know where to start.” But what you should be thinking is something along the lines of, “I have 5 credit cards to eliminate to be debt free and the first one is only $2,000, so I can have that paid off by March.”
Then when you get to March and pay off that first debt, you celebrate that victory and focus on the next debt down the line. This helps you gain momentum to keep going. At the same time, you balance your budget so you’re not adding to your debt (Leanne also encourages that budgeting is key and cash flow is queen in a beautiful money life). You may not be to zero by the end of 2017, but you’ll have measurable progress to look back on to encourage you even more for the next year.
Create your own money mantra!
It may seem silly, but creating a positive affirmation of something you want to actualize in your life can have a big impact. I’d encourage you to make your own money mantra for the year. And hey, if you record it and send it to us, you can win a little extra cash to accomplish your goals this year!
