Latest / Your Money, Your Rules | Financial Mastery, Wealth Mindset, Leadership Principles, Intuitive Decision-Making, Human Design / 109 | Is Your Financial Plan Creating Financial Freedom—Or Quietly Causing Burnout?
Transcript
- 0:00Erin Gray: Your financial plan is meant to create more peace and help give you direction and structure, and if you've ever felt stressed out more because of your plan than supported by it, I want you to know that you are not alone.
- 0:18Erin Gray: You know, I see this often with women who are trying to and I'm air quoting do the right thing financially, and then the plan that they're following is either too rigid, it's too vague, or it's just too far in the future, so it just simply doesn't reflect how they actually live, run their life and their business.
- 0:39Erin Gray: And so in this episode, I'm going to help you take a step back and really ask is your financial plan truly supporting you and your life and your business, or does this just another source of pressure for you?
- 0:53Erin Gray: Do you want to create a system to stop avoiding your money?
- 0:56Erin Gray: Maybe you're feeling guilt and shame when it comes to your finances.
- 1:01Erin Gray: Welcome to your Money your Rules.
- 1:03Erin Gray: Comes to your finances.
- 1:06Erin Gray: Welcome to your Money your Rules.
- 1:07Erin Gray: I'm Erin, a former certified financial planner and CFO, and yet I used to avoid my money and had fear, no matter how much we had.
- 1:12Erin Gray: I can't wait to teach you how I overcame my money avoidance and started consistently managing my finances in a really simple way.
- 1:20Erin Gray: It's time to get comfortable with money.
- 1:22Erin Gray: So let's break down what a peaceful what I believe a peaceful financial plan really looks like, and then how to adjust yours so it serves you better.
- 1:31Erin Gray: Before we dive into this week's episode, I know that maybe you are tired of feeling stressed about your money, about your finances, and you're done constantly worrying about if you're saving enough or you're investing the right way.
- 1:46Erin Gray: You know, maybe your financial planner might be suggesting you know to do one thing and your body is saying or asking of you another, and you don't actually know what to do.
- 1:59Erin Gray: I think so often we hire people to help us and advise us, but somewhere along the way we forget to ask ourselves does that feel good for me?
- 2:09Erin Gray: And so if you are stuck in that cycle of either not enough or you want to feel more in control of your money and you are unsure because you're getting advice from several different people, but then when you ask yourself, it just feels a little off right.
- 2:27Erin Gray: And so if you don't know where to start, I want to help you stop feeling overwhelmed and second guessing your financial decisions.
- 2:36Erin Gray: You know, one of the biggest passions of mine is to really help women come back home to themselves and to trust themselves again, especially with money and the decisions that they make.
- 2:47Erin Gray: So I am here to help you to create a financial plan that feels simple, that feels empowering and really freeing.
- 2:54Erin Gray: Together, we're going to create a customized plan that helps you align your values with your goals and then build wealth and the financial confidence that you deserve.
- 3:07Erin Gray: You don't need to figure this out on your own, and you can totally do that if you want to.
- 3:12Erin Gray: You don't need help from anybody, and I will say it's a lot more fun when you get to do it alongside someone who is encouraging you, who is further empowering you, who is encouraging you to make your own decisions that feel good for you and your body, versus telling you what to do.
- 3:30Erin Gray: So I would love to guide you in helping you feel more empowered, make decisions that are more calm and peaceful, and that you can use your money in a way that lights your soul on fire and creating the life that you want.
- 3:46Erin Gray: In order to book a session, all you need to do is go to my website, generatealifewelllivecom and schedule your one hour call.
- 3:57Erin Gray: So let's talk about what I think plans.
- 4:01Erin Gray: I don't like using the word should be, but let's talk about what they should be.
- 4:06Erin Gray: I think financial plans are supposed to be clear and simple and not complex, so if your current financial plan feels overwhelming, you probably don't need more details and things added to it.
- 4:22Erin Gray: You need more clarity.
- 4:24Erin Gray: So often I'll see a financial plan and I'll ask the client, like does this even make sense to you?
- 4:31Erin Gray: Do you?
- 4:32Erin Gray: Have you looked at this thoroughly?
- 4:34Erin Gray: And most financial planners from what I have seen this is what I used when I was a financial planner use what's called a Monte Carlo simulation, where it runs through all these different scenarios, and it's a technique where it's used to understand the impact of risk and uncertainty, and they use these simulations in like investing and in business, and it basically runs through all these things and it gives you a percentage of you reaching your goal.
- 5:01Erin Gray: What I don't think, though, that these plans take into account is how you're going to change as a person over the next 40 to 50 years.
- 5:10Erin Gray: You know it doesn't take into account your wealth, consciousness and how you're going to grow, that it doesn't take into account what is important to you now, what might not be important to you 10 to 15 years from now, and so what I like to ask, or some questions that you might want to ask yourself, are what are my?
- 5:33Erin Gray: I think I like to look at it as like what is some of your short term and then also, what are we planning for the long term?
- 5:39Erin Gray: Looking at it both, both ways, right.
- 5:41Erin Gray: So what are my priorities this quarter?
- 5:44Erin Gray: What is my minimum enough number each month?
- 5:47Erin Gray: I think we need to start asking ourselves some very simple questions and real world questions in order to give ourselves direction.
- 5:58Erin Gray: You know, a lot of these plans are looking as if we have a certain amount of money that we're going to earn.
- 6:05Erin Gray: You know it literally takes in the data that you give it right now, today, which does not account for how much you're going to, you know 2X, 5x, 10x your business over the next couple of years 10 years, 15 years, whatever it might be.
- 6:18Erin Gray: It's not taking that into account.
- 6:20Erin Gray: It's not taking into account that it literally thinks that, okay, your retirement is going to be some set you know number, and then that's the total amount of money that you're ever going to have for the rest of your life, which I don't think that that really comes from a place of sufficiency and abundance Like I, I really think that our soul came here to expand and to grow and to think that we aren't going to want to continue to work after some point.
- 6:49Erin Gray: I don't know if that's actually realistic and I don't like using that word realistic but so often like we're just getting started, you know, and to think that we're going to just wrap it all up and call it done at a certain number.
- 7:07Erin Gray: I don't know if that, if that actually feels true, I think plans really need to be built around your values, not necessarily somebody else's formula.
- 7:20Erin Gray: You know, one of the biggest sources of stress that I see is women trying to force themselves and their finances into somebody else's template.
- 7:29Erin Gray: You know, I know I've talked about on a previous podcast, you know you can look at.
- 7:34Erin Gray: For some of you it may, it may resonate of, you know, saving or investing.
- 7:40Erin Gray: You know 20 to 30% living off of 50 to 80% depending.
- 7:46Erin Gray: You know, but that only works if that fits in your reality and with your values, you know.
- 7:54Erin Gray: So you always have to come back to are my financial decisions reflecting my actual goals and what I want to create, not what you think you should be doing?
- 8:07Erin Gray: I've said this before and I might never wear Fendi or Prada, right?
- 8:15Erin Gray: I will 100% drop that amount of money on travel and airline tickets, and so you have to really get clear on what do you enjoy, where do you want to spend your money?
- 8:25Erin Gray: Where do you want to um tide and circulate your money?
- 8:30Erin Gray: And it's going to look different for everyone else.
- 8:34Erin Gray: I mean, might have someone who really wants to live in a very large house.
- 8:39Erin Gray: You might have someone who's like you know what?
- 8:41Erin Gray: I'm totally fine with living where I live.
- 8:43Erin Gray: I just want to travel more often.
- 8:45Erin Gray: There is no right or wrong here, and I think you really have to get clear on what it is that you want and what do you want to create so that you can start allocating your money in that way.
- 8:57Erin Gray: Versus.
- 8:58Erin Gray: This is what someone says that I should do, and so I'm just following the formula.
- 9:03Erin Gray: You know, if you think about it, if, if your plan is all situated or focused around the masculine right Of, of goals, of reaching the next thing, right, where are you allowing yourself to have celebration, breathing room, receiving like that very feminine energy, and when you start to trust yourself, when you start to feel supported by yourself and then supported with your money, right, you're very you're.
- 9:36Erin Gray: You're more likely to stay consistent with it versus coming from the place of like this is what I should do, and so often.
- 9:45Erin Gray: You know, I had a client when, um, this is probably several years ago we were talking about some of the money that she had received and I said, well, what do you actually want to do with it?
- 9:56Erin Gray: And she said you know, I want to open up a yoga place, a yoga retreat place.
- 10:02Erin Gray: And I said, well, why aren't you doing that?
- 10:03Erin Gray: And she said well, because my financial advisor thinks that.
- 10:06Erin Gray: I said.
- 10:06Erin Gray: I said this is the thing that we have to learn how to trust ourselves as women.
- 10:10Erin Gray: I know that your financial advisor might be suggesting to put it in the market and you really have to start getting very clear.
- 10:16Erin Gray: Why are you suggesting that I put it in the market?
- 10:18Erin Gray: Because obviously you know a lot of times when our advisors invest for us, they receive a percentage, which I am totally for, because they are advising us and everyone should be paid for their contribution and their value that they are providing to us.
- 10:34Erin Gray: But if that isn't in alignment with your goals, why are they suggesting that?
- 10:38Erin Gray: Suggesting that, so she ended up doing it no-transcript, doing this that this would be part of my financial plan, but she's thriving because it's coming from a heart and a soul centered place, not from a place of should and have to.
- 10:58Erin Gray: So I really want you to think about does your plan give you that, that space for that joy?
- 11:06Erin Gray: For the rest, for the receptivity that we need to have?
- 11:10Erin Gray: Like, money is both masculine and feminine.
- 11:12Erin Gray: We like all the energy, right, we are masculine and feminine.
- 11:16Erin Gray: I'm talking about from an energetic perspective, right, and so really allowing you know, if we are just constantly looking at what's the next goal, what's the next goal?
- 11:26Erin Gray: What's the next goal?
- 11:26Erin Gray: Like, receiving is an actual doing activity, right, when we receive, we have to be present.
- 11:34Erin Gray: And so, really focusing on, like, what does my plan include?
- 11:39Erin Gray: Does it allow for some of that more feminine energy?
- 11:43Erin Gray: And they need to be, you know, and I think also plans need to be flexible and evolving.
- 11:49Erin Gray: Like I said at the very beginning, you know who you are today is might be vastly different five years from now.
- 11:55Erin Gray: You know, if I remember having financial plans years ago, my life looks nothing like what I thought it would five, 10 years ago, because I'm not the same person anymore and you won't be either, so allowing them to be flexible, to evolve as you evolve.
- 12:11Erin Gray: You know your business is going to change.
- 12:13Erin Gray: Your life changes, because you are changing as a person, right, and so your plans can change too.
- 12:19Erin Gray: So when we look at, when we are coming from the mindset that our financial plan has to be exactly like this and it is so rigid and it has all of these rules that we think you know, think we have to follow, rather than this plan that grows with us and molds with us as we mold as people.
- 12:42Erin Gray: You know you're allowed to pivot, you're allowed to refine, you're allowed to say you know what?
- 12:48Erin Gray: That was really important to me five years ago, but that isn't really something that is on my radar anymore, and so it's allowing yourself to make these changes and to really start to question what do you value and what do you love, and is this an alignment with my soul and what my heart wants, or is this what I think I should do?
- 13:08Erin Gray: So if you're feeling stressed, or if you're second guessing where you are financially, or your financial plan or your planner, or you're unsure where to start, I can help you.
- 13:24Erin Gray: We can create a simple, empowering financial system that aligns with your goals and your values and feels good in your body.
- 13:33Erin Gray: In order to book a session, you can head over to my website, generatealifewelllivedcom and click on the link.
- 13:40Erin Gray: Work with me and schedule your session.
- 13:43Erin Gray: I look forward to seeing you.
- 13:44Erin Gray: I would love it if you would leave a review for this podcast.
- 13:48Erin Gray: It helps the show grow and I love hearing from you.
- 13:51Erin Gray: And if this episode resonated with you and you have a business bestie who is also avoiding her money, will you share this episode with her?
- 13:59Erin Gray: My mission is to help more female entrepreneurs feel safe and empowered with their money.
- 14:05Erin Gray: Okay, I'll see you in the next episode.