The One Thing People Should Remember About Money - Expert Edition Episode 30 (Classic Episode)
In this classic episode, we discuss the importance of focusing on money with our Certified Financial Planner Leisa Peterson. We emphasize that money is a tool and that what people pay attention to in life tends to grow, including finances. We also discuss the significance of setting goals, being intentional with money, and tracking expenses. We then provide recommended tools or apps to create a plan and allocate funds towards specific goals. By shifting your focus and being intentional about your finances, you can make progress towards your financial objectives.
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TRANSCRIPT:
[00:00:00] Naseema: Welcome back, nurses on Fire. We are joined again with our beautiful certified financial planner, Leisa Peterson. Hey Leisa. Hey there. And today I just wanted to talk about what is the one thing people should really remember when it comes to money?
[00:00:23] Leisa: So we were talking, first of all, money is a tool, but the other piece that I think people don't always think about is the fact that what we pay attention to in life grows.
This applies to our relationships, this applies to our money. This applies to our. Body and I mean hopefully grows, I'll say with our body, it like grows stronger.
[00:00:49] Naseema: We don't, I don't think
[00:00:51] Leisa: we need it to grow bigger. Like, no, that's not the point. But with money on the other hand, it's amazing because I remember way back, and I shared this with you before, but not necessarily in this context.
It was about setting goals and. Saying, this is what I want. And then checking my net worth statement on a pretty frequent basis to say, am I actually moving the needle? Am I getting there? And just two things, intention and attention come together to allow us to. Make more of it, save more of it, invest more of it.
But if we're not paying attention, most of the time it doesn't do what we most
[00:01:40] Naseema: want. That's funny. And it just clicked for me just now. I mean, like that's the whole reason why my platform is called financially intentional because it wasn't that I made more money or that I like did anything drastic to.
Get the money. I have the money successes or the financial gains that I had. It's just that I started paying attention and I was being intentional with my money, and then I just created a plan around it. So oftentimes what I hear people say is, oh, when I make more or when this thing happens, or when I get this job, or when I'm in this relationship, then I can do those things.
But it's really, I. Like being with who you are right now in that moment and focusing on what you can do in that moment to change things and focus on that. And, I have a mentor that likes to say, be, do, have instead people like, Operate from a place of when I get something, then I'll have it instead of being the person that has it in the moment and operating like that.
And I think that's what focusing on it is. And so I really like that. I also, what sometimes can aggravate people or sometimes, push a button for some people is when. You say a phrase like you can kind of tell where people's attention is or what they're focus on by looking at their bank account, right?
[00:03:16] Leisa: Yeah, totally. Totally. It's so amazing to me because. I think that
[00:03:26] Naseema: I
[00:03:26] Leisa: am working on some business coaching stuff, and there is absolutely no question in my mind that the more we pay attention to cashflow management in our businesses, the more likely we are to have success, and we can apply this for our business or for our personal life.
Even something as simpler as this. Let's say we have a goal of making $10,000 on a monthly basis in our business, and if we're not paying attention to the expenses, we won't know the bottom line and what's coming through. If we don't pay attention to how much we've brought in. Again, we won't know if we're gonna hit the target, but.
If every single week we had to check in and we have the 10,000, so that means on average we should be making about $2,500 a week in order to achieve that objective. But if we get to the 15th day of the month and we've got a thousand dollars versus $5,000, we're, and we're willing to look at it and own it.
It's like, well, okay, I've made a commitment to actually achieving that $10,000, so what am I gonna do today to get that money coming in between now and the end of the month? And if you don't have a target, there's a really good chance as a business owner, you're not gonna consistently get to those numbers.
But if you're paying attention, It's amazing. The human mind will be like, oh, I need to call that person. I need to follow up on collecting that money that person owes me, or whatever it is. We take care of it and we can do the same exact thing in our personal life.
[00:05:00] Naseema: Yes, you're speaking directly to my heart.
That's as good as I am with my personal expenses, my business expenses, but, but it is definitely like something that. You can totally put your head down and get bogged down with work and the doing of things and not really paying attention. So I don't want people to feel like they're doing something wrong.
It's just that we get caught up in the day-to-day, our day-to-day actions, and that's outside of business. Just day-to-day life. You get so bogged down with it. It's like at the end of the day, if you don't set time, And like actually really plan on focusing on those things. It's gonna get away from you over and over and over again until before you know it time passes and you haven't taken action on the things that you really wanna take actions on.
Not because you didn't intend to, but just because you weren't intentional about it. So I really love that, Leisa. So yes, money is what you focus on, and what you focus on is what grows, what you focus on.
[00:06:06] Leisa: Right.
[00:06:07] Naseema: I love it. Yes. Yes. And so, I think for people just in their personal lives, like what would you just recommend them do, like right now to turn that around to.
Shift their focus on what their goals are.
[00:06:27] Leisa: So I'm sure you talk about this on a regular basis, but something like, why nab? You need a budget.com or some kind of tracking tools. So people use Mint, they use Quicken, they use lots of different apps, but. You can even do it on a spreadsheet. It's just have something that allows you to track what's happening.
And what do you normally recommend Asma? Because that's what's coming to my mind.
[00:06:53] Naseema: Yeah. It's. It's creating a plan. So for years and years, I thought because like I was using Mint and I was tracking my transactions, that I kind of had an understanding of where my money was going and what was happening with my money.
But it wasn't until I kind of shifted and created a plan in advance for my money, and then told my money where to go in advance. And then was able to measure the success of that, that I saw like real financial gains. And so I think like tracking is one thing and keeping up with your numbers, but like shifting that relationship and telling your money, like this is where I wanted to go.
Like you said in the beginning, like, If you have that goal of making $10,000 a month, then you knowing, okay, this is our goal, this is what we have to hit, and I think that that's a component that's often missing in people's financial plans. So, yeah.
[00:07:46] Leisa: Yeah, and Y nabs sets you up pretty well to be able to do that.
Like they're one example where you can designate that money and you can see where things are going and how you're saving, and all kinds of different tools that allow you to, I think they're building off of this envelope system, but this idea that it's taken, it's going to be applied in a certain way, and you're already deciding those things ahead of time.
How much you're gonna pay off in debt, how much you're gonna save, how much you're going to contribute to your savings account for your vacations, so and so forth.
[00:08:19] Naseema: Yeah. I think y a is an incredible tool, and I know so many people who use it. I never actually used it, but I, I have spoken to the. Crap founder and the creator of it.
I actually use a tool, a Dave Ramsey tool called Every Dollar, which is zero based budget. It's a little bit simpler than Yap. Yap has the same functionality as that, but it's a little bit more advanced, but do whatever works for you? So I'm not, yes, I'm not like dogmatic when it comes to the kind of tool that you have to use.
I'm always a person that's gonna say, do what works for you. But yes. You have to do it with intentionality. So I think that's the most important thing. Yeah.
[00:09:00] Leisa: Yeah. Yes. Thank
[00:09:02] Naseema: you. All right, Leisa. I think that that was great and I think that it just, again, it's one of those things that we kind of know, but we have to remind ourselves often like what are the things that we can do just right now?
And even I needed that reminder actually, so. Thank you
[00:09:24] Leisa: Yes. Thank
[00:09:25] Naseema: you.
Hey there I’m Naseema
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