Cultivating Clean Generosity: A Guide to Giving Without Strings Attached

In the season of gratitude and giving, it's crucial to navigate the fine line between generosity and unintentional relationship issues. The concept of clean generosity is about giving without imposing expectations or creating a manual on how the gift should be received. This delicate balance ensures that both the giver and the receiver experience the true essence of generosity without the burden of strings attached.

The Giving Manual: Lessons from Personal Experience

A poignant example of the giving manual surfaced in my own. I come from a farming family. When my grandfather passed in 1994 he left his 30-acre farm to his four children with strict instructions to never sell. Nine years later when my father passed, my sister and I inherited his quarter share. After a devastating flood, a change in market conditions and no family member able to farm the land, the farm became a burden, financially and emotionally....

2024 Mindful Money Book Club for Women Reading List

JANUARY: The Next Millionaire Next Door: Enduring Strategies for Building Wealth by Sarah Stanley Fallaw

FEBRUARY: The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks

MARCH: Super Attractor by Gabrielle Bernstein

APRIL: The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy

MAY: The Book of Boundaries: Set the Limits That Will Set You Free by Melissa Urban

JUNE: Cues: Master the Secret Language of Charismatic Communication by Vanessa Van Edwards

JULY: How Money Works for Women: Take Control or Lose It by Sharon Lechter & Kim Scouller

AUGUST: Abundance: The Inner Path to Wealth by Deepak Chopra

SEPTEMBER: The Gap and The Gain by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy

OCTOBER: Mindset by Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D.

NOVEMBER: Homecoming: Overcome Fear and Trauma to Reclaim Your Whole Authentic Self by Thema Bryant Ph.D.

DECEMBER: We Need to Talk: A Memoir About Wealth by Jennifer Risher OR Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin...

4 Reasons Your Sales Manager Make a Horrible Coach...and it's not their fault.

Like athletes, salespeople are experiencing the benefits of one-one, individualized coaching. When employees are heard, attitudes improve, efficiencies gain, and results soar, goals accomplished. Just about every influencer, personal growth author or high performing individual talks about and/or attributes their success to the coaching they received. There is no doubt coaching performance works, on and off the field.

Coaching requires holding space, diving into limiting beliefs and exploring growth opportunities, encouraging shifts in tactics and mindset.

Is this how your manager shows up to your regular one-one meetings? I didn’t think so. From my experience managers are often harried and/or distracted, ill-equipped to hold space.

And then there are these four other issues:

1. Compensation – In 99% of companies, your manager’s performance review and compensation are tied to your results....

As a Financial Life Coach, I am often surprised how challenging it is for women to verbalize what they want from their money. Is it because we have so many options? Fifty years ago, our options and paths were fairly linear: go to school, get a job, work for a few years, get married, have a couple kids, quit job to maintain the home and family unit. Today, there is no clear path. We have so many options to explore.  Here are a few possible options:

• Maybe I will start an online business that doesn’t require a degree?
• Maybe I will take a gap year to travel at any point in my path?
• Maybe I will have children without a partner?

One thing for certain is all choices require money.

Helping my clients discover “what is” rather than “what if” has proven a helpful exercise. When we explore what is true today, we have a starting point for “what could be” true in the future.

Here are two areas where you can discover what is true today:

Calculate...

In order to manage your money mindfully, awareness is the first step.  With my style of financial coaching for women awareness comes in two forms: your numbers and your mindset. I teach proven financial practices along with how to manage your mind around money: earning it, spending it and saving it.

So often clients are fearful about addressing their numbers but when we rip the bandage off to expose the wound (one of my client’s words) it feels so much better. We bring air and light to suffering and darkness. The stories and numbers we make up in our mind are often worse than reality.

“We suffer more in our imagination than reality.” - Seneca

One of my clients described her financial worry as a committee meeting that takes place in her mind when she’s trying to fall asleep. The committee members are made up of all the people who feel they should have a “say” in her personal finances. Have you ever experienced an unwanted committee meeting? I...

Side Hustle Selection Secret with 18 Ideas

How to have less friction when selecting a side hustle

When selecting a side hustle, I recommend you make sure your choice is in alignment of your core values (what matters most to you) AND your desires (your financial goal). The key word is AND. How can you accomplish two goals?

Before Seinfeld’s famous episode on “double dipping” a chip in a dip, double dipping was about money. It’s when you accept income from two mutually exclusive sources for the same resource, usually time. Since time is a limited resource, using the concept of double dipping your time is a great way to choose your side hustle. Let me give you some examples.

You value physical activity AND you want to increase your income. You could look at side hustles that provide exercise like:

• Fitness Instructor
• Lawn Mowing & Yard Maintenance
• House Cleaning

You love caregiving of pets AND you realize you aren’t financially ready to...

2022 Mindful Money Book Club Reading List

JANUARY: The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel

FEBRUARY: What to Say When You Talk to Yourself by Shad Helmstetter PhD

MARCH: Get Rich, Lucky Bitch by Denise Duffield-Thomas

APRIL: The High 5 Habit by Mel Robbins

MAY: Boundaries by Drs. Henry Cloud & John Townsend

JUNE: Captivate by Vanessa van Edwards

JULY: Set for Life by Scott Trench

AUGUST: It's Not Your Money by Tosha Silver

SEPTEMBER: Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway by Susan Jeffers PhD

OCTOBER: The Four Agreements by don Miguel Ruiz

NOVEMBER: Feeding the Soul by Tabitha Brown

DECEMBER: Finding Your Own North Star by Martha Beck

How to avoid feeling deprived on a budget

By Liz Carroll, Financial Life Coach

Are you feeling resistance to budgeting? Do you think budgets are punitive or you will feel deprived living on a budget? I used to think this too until I realized I was the one making the choices on the budget.

In fact, I made all the choices – past, present and future. Every mandatory expense I had on my monthly must pay list was a choice I made at some point.

• I chose whether to live in the more convenient yet more expensive neighborhood.
• I chose what car I drove.
• I chose where my children went to daycare.
• I chose how often I ate out.
• I chose what clothes I purchased.

A budget, often referred to as a Cash Flow or Spending Plan, is really a guideline for your money choices. Some items on the budget are for choices you made previously (ex: car loan payment). You know exactly how much your reoccurring monthly loan payment is. That is an easy item to plug into a spending plan since it is the same...

How to Start Your Financial Dream Plan

by Liz Carroll, Financial Life Coach

Don’t know where or how to start with planning your financial future? You are not alone. This is the most common email request I receive so I thought it warranted a blog post. To create a Financial Dream Plan, you need to know what you want. This can be a difficult exercise. We are often challenged with verbalizing our desires or imagining our future-self. We have a notion of what we want but when asked we can’t provide specific details. And for dreams to come true, they need to be specific.

Here are two fun ways to start dreaming about your future:

• Plan a Dream Vacation completely budgeted on paper.

Go all out. Where do you want to go? How long will you be gone? Alone or does someone go with you? Pick a time of year, research flight routes and costs. Plan the itinerary. Where will you stay? Accommodations vary based on your dream (i.e. Backpacking, Airbnb or Luxury Resort). What kind of...