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No one will ever care as much about your money as you do. This is a point I like to make in my financial education sessions with students. It’s our money and our responsibility to manage and grow it. But I also say this to make a point about how interest goes both ways, that is, you can earn it or pay it.  Interest is simply money paid for the use of money. Are you borrowing money? Then you’re paying interest to use that money. Are you depositing money into your savings account? Then the bank will pay you interest on your savings. They canRead More →

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Comparing ourselves to others is a somewhat normal, human activity. But we’re doing ourselves a disservice because we’re not, as they say, comparing apples to apples. You see, when it comes to our own lives, we know all the nitty gritty details, all the imperfections – and that’s fine, but is that what we compare, too – no! Because we don’t have that same perspective on other people (thankfully, because I wouldn’t want to know all those details about others’ lives and I wouldn’t want everyone knowing all that stuff about me – TMI). So, what do we compare ourselves to? Not to actual peopleRead More →

decorative purposes - one whole egg surrounded by broken eggs

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Of course, you’re leading your life. But, that’s not the same thing as being the leader of your life. In truth most of our decisions are automatic – that is, we don’t really even think about them anymore. And even when we do think about our decisions we may rule out or not even realize some of our options. Why?  Because instead of leading we’re more concerned about fitting in. We’ve learned since we were little to go along and most of all to avoid standing out.. That means doing what others do and what others would find acceptable while avoiding anything that others wouldRead More →

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Sometime in the last year or two I finally got around to listening to the audiobook of The Millionaire Next Door.  I’d come across the book and also heard from one of my favorite authors, that one of the key takeaways was the importance of managing your money. After hearing that, I actually felt less motivated to read the book but it would still cross my mind. Eventually I took the plunge and I’m glad that I did.  While this book is not one that I would necessarily recommend to someone who is just starting to learn about money (The Automatic Millionaire is a betterRead More →

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It’s interesting how sometimes a word or a phrase can have a connotation for someone that others don’t have. Recently, it crossed my mind that something inside of me cringes at the phrase ‘live within your means’ yet, I feel empowered by the idea of living on less than I earn. The directive, ‘live within your means’ is advice that I heard frequently growing up and for me, it always seemed to suggest that people should live within their ‘station’ and be satisfied with their lot in life. Looking back, I’m pretty sure this is far from what was intended when people gave this advice.Read More →

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For a long time, I thought that someday I’d get things right and figure out how to have balance, work/life balance – all of it. And for some reason, I thought that once I’d figured it out, I would remain in this state of balance. And then finally, I found a new perspective. Balance isn’t a state of being but an ongoing process. Sometimes that means trying to balance one role off of another, other times it’s about balancing one idea off of another.  As a college financial educator, I try to stress this point to students, that it’s about striking a balance between livingRead More →

Half full cup

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In my previous post, I outlined the 3 reasons that you’re not happy and experiencing the metaphorical overflowing cup and I dove into not receiving as one of those 3 reasons. Today we continue by exposing the impact of feelings of unworthiness. In short, the feeling of ‘I’m not enough.’ I think we all deal with it and those who don’t deal with it, probably dealt with it in the past. I know that I used to, though I didn’t even realize it at the time. Thankfully, at just the right time I found videos from British therapist and author, Marisa Peer. She says thatRead More →

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I believe that when people aren’t happy, there are three main reasons: Having the wrong strategy. This happens because many don’t understand what happiness is and tend to look for it in the wrong places. More on this in future posts. Feelings of unworthiness, aka ‘I’m not enough’ this includes a multitude of ideas about being too old, too young, too tall, too short, too fat, too scrawny, not qualified, not educated, and so on. Not receiving. I believe that the saying that it’s better to give than to receive has created a misunderstanding in many that receiving is bad. That’s not what it says,Read More →

cow (decorative purposes)

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If money is an emotional subject for you, like it was for me, or if you think that money is bad, then I hope today’s post will help you to rethink things and change those feelings. I’m the type of person who likes to understand things and now that I’m a financial educator, there were a few things that I felt I needed to understand better.  One of those things was money.  We spend a lot of time trying to earn it, save it, learn about it, but rarely talk about what money is – so, here goes: Money is a tool for exchanging andRead More →

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There’s nothing wrong with wanting more in life. Unfortunately, society doesn’t usually affirm that. We tend to get the message that if we want too much then we’re greedy, therefore bad.  But I don’t think it’s greed that makes us want more but rather the natural drive that each of us has within us to grow and make progress. But because on the one hand we want to grow and experience progress but we’ve also received the message that wanting more is bad – well, it’s rather like having one foot on the gas pedal while the other foot is on the brake. So, today,Read More →