Is this how you feel when you think about money?
No? Let’s change that.
Money is a huge part of most adult lives, but many of us never discuss our financial journey with another soul. It is so emotionally charged and sensitive to discuss that we just stew in isolation and keep our myriad questions and confusions about money to ourselves. Perhaps when we’re 55 years old, we meet with a financial advisor for the first time. This is a great thing to do, but at this point many of our prime “life designing” years are behind us. Additionally, while financial advisors are a great resource, they aren’t the CEO of your life… you are. To succeed as a CEO, understanding your own “game of money” is probably a good idea.
Often, our feelings around money have nothing to do with what’s actually in our bank account. They have to do with how well we understand the game of money we are playing. If we feel in control of our money and have a game plan that we are following and measuring, we feel good. If our money is in control of us and we are living year-to-year without a game plan or clear end-goal, we often don’t feel as good.
As a money coach, I help clients to learn about, explore and create frameworks for financial success so that they can take control of their money and feel more empowered. What do I mean by game of money, game plan and end-goal? I’ll start with the “end goal”.
End-Goal
This is the place to start your planning process. What is your vision for the future? Be specific. For this step, I will challenge you to use your creative side to envision what you want your life to look like starting with a few questions like the ones below:
-How do you love to spend your time when you are 100% in charge?
-Where do you love to spend time?
-Who do you love to spend time with?
After you think about your life from a holistic perspective, we can explore how to engineer your “money game” to support your vision.
I usually suggest starting with something like this… “My end goal is to retire at age X with $Y in savings because I have done the math and this is enough to support me in retirement.” The fun part is that this is ENTIRELY up to you. As the CEO of your life, you are in charge. What do you want? Have you ever asked yourself that? What do you really want in 10-15-20 years? How do you want to spend your days? How much money will your desired lifestyle cost? How will you support those lifestyle costs (ie: using savings, passive income, continue working and earning income actively?). Hopefully you are a nice CEO of life and allow yourself to set empowering goals!
Game of Money = Business
The truth is that we are all playing pretty much the same game and it’s the same game as the company you work for. It’s called business. Our lives are like a mini-business. With financial statements and everything. It’s a shame we weren’t all taught this important reality. It is never too late to learn business and it is probably easier to learn than some of the video games or languages or other skills you have learned in the past. You learned all the math you need to understand business by the end of middle school.
Your life is a business. You have an income statement (what you earn and spend) and balance sheet (what you own minus what you owe). Your goal is to be profitable as a mini-business. Your end-goal is self-defined, but at a minimum it is “to be profitable enough that you can retire some day if you choose to”. Your end-goal might be to earn $25 million and build a charity or leave generational wealth to your kids. Whatever it is, the game of money is the game you are playing to get there.
Game Plan
Successful businesses need a plan. Since you are a business, you might want one of these too as a guiding force in your life.
-First, a business creates a “business plan” to outline the big picture, long-term view of what they do, how they do it, and what their overall goals are.
-Next, a successful business creates a more detailed plan called a “strategic plan” that looks more closely at the upcoming 3-5 years. They begin to set goals around many areas of the business, including money. Your “business of life” has many areas as well like your health, fulfillment, enjoyment, social connections, family, friends, learning, etc. What do you want to be spending your time doing? What do you want to experience? In what ways do you want to grow and evolve as a person? What new skills do you want to learn?
-Finally, a successful business boils their plan down even further to explore the upcoming month and year ahead. THIS is where we can truly lead ourselves and make changes that matter. From a coaching perspective, this is where we work together to clarify what you should be measuring and managing in the near term to empower you. From a money standpoint, there are just a few critical metrics to learn and measure. Target Monthly Income, Net Worth, and target Net Worth to retire (aka Your NUMBER). Once you have a plan around these, I think you have an advantage on the majority of people that don’t do this work.
How do you feel?
If you don’t feel like you have a grasp on your money game currently, don’t worry. You are in the majority, not the minority. Our schools never taught financial literacy in a meaningful way and it actually benefits our consumer society if you remain confused and unclear about your financial journey. The more powerless you feel, the more you’ll rely on outside sources to solve your problems for you. The cards are stacked against the consumer since corporations and school systems are still so interconnected. It is up to us as individuals to break the cycle of disempowerment.
As a money coach, I help clients to understand their personal game of money (aka financial literacy) and to feel more clarify around their financial future. When a client trusts me to explore this topic with them, they are allowing me into a part of their lives that few, if any people see. This can be scary, but also liberating and empowering once you to realize that you aren’t alone and that no matter where you currently sit from a financial perspective, you can find clarity and confidence by creating a plan for your future.
Your life is a business and you are the CEO of that business. Own it.
The best way to understand the life changing impact of coaching is to experience it. Click here to schedule a free 30-minute coaching experience and take the first step toward feeling better about your game of money.