Remember the Wizard of Oz? The imposing figure whose huge head and booming voice were magnified by lightning and fireworks? The one that Dorothy, the Tin Man, the Scarecrow, and the Cowardly Lion went to visit in the Emerald City? The same one who, when Toto pulled back the curtain, turned out to be a little old man with a stutter, a non-magical man operating a giant console of wheels and levers? Well, your money’s like that.
The first major stumbling block to taking control of your finances is your fear of what “the numbers” will tell you. No one wants to open and check bank statements … or look at monthly credit card charges and balances … or see how much money truly comes into your possession each month after taxes, deductions and expenditures (if you’re running a small business).
Truth is, you keep your money hidden behind a virtual curtain.
By not pulling back the curtain on “how bad it could be” so you can see “what it truly is,” you give your money the equivalent of Oz’s magical status. And, in all the time I’ve mentored women to get control of their finances and thrive, their finances have never been as uncontrollable as they imagined.
Let me help you put your money in its rightful place.
Money truly is just numbers. It’s not an indictment of your character or of your self-worth. So the brave step I’m proposing you take is to get familiar with those numbers by putting them down in black and white.
I’ve provided a simple tool from my upcoming book Money after Menopause that I use with my clients and that helps them get those numbers down on paper. I’m gifting that tool to you by clicking here. Once you’ve downloaded the PDF, follow the instructions to the best of your ability. Don’t worry about being perfect …
Understand that writing down the various numbers the first time will feel real foreign … maybe even a little scary …to you. But the sense of power you’ll start to feel when you know what’s going on in your financial life will lead you to re-doing the exercise every once in a while.
You’ll naturally start tackling the “bleeders,” those places where you spend money in ways that aren’t helpful to you. You’ll even see some of your behaviors changing in positive ways. By dealing with numbers unemotionally, you’ll find that monitoring them becomes a power-building game. As your self-confidence grows, you’re well on your way to getting the rest of your present … and future … finances pointed towards the financial security we all dream of.
So, go ahead, pull back that curtain!