My name is Jaime, I live in Australia and I work as a town planner and a part-time yoga teacher. I actually started with Wealth Enhancers (WE), Finnian’s previous financial advice company about two years ago now. At WE I went through the process of identifying what my larger goals were, how to start allocating money towards those, and how to become intentional with the way I was spending my money week to week. I started to have money that I could put towards going out and catching up with friends, that wasn’t then detracting from my larger goals. Participating in the Financially Happy program with Finnian and a small group of other women was even more empowering. The program gave me a meta view of the skills that I had developed at WE. So rather than being led through the process, now, I was actually being empowered to take charge of that process myself and to be able to say, ‘Ah, okay, this is how I’m setting goals. This is how I’m going to make them happen over time. This is how I’m going to start being happier now, rather than putting off my happiness for the future.’ I now feel like I’m in control of my wealth creation, and before even using the phrase ‘wealth creation’ would have been so uncomfortable for me.
I have struggled with debt for about 12 years now. This has been hanging over my head from when I went on exchange at university and I came back with a bit of a debt. I didn’t actually take responsibility for that debt and it just continued to grow. I continued to ignore it and think that everything was going to be fine, almost like somebody else was going to come in and save the day. In my work with the Financially Happy program, I put that center of control back in myself, rather than waiting for somebody else to fix it for me. I realized I actually need to take control of this, and it really took a big mind shift for me to do so. I shifted from feeling guilty, sad, and like a failure over having that debt and not taking responsibility for it, to a place of acceptance and confidence. With a reframe I saw that this debt was a kind of investment in an awesome experience where I made a huge amount of friends and memories that I’ll have with me forever, and I’m still getting that return on investment. I’ve allocated funds towards this debt and I’m still paying it off, but I feel so much better about it. I don’t feel heavy. I don’t feel sad. I don’t feel guilty about it anymore.
I feel like I made a pretty good decision to live my life passionately in that moment and I’m still reaping the benefits of that once in a lifetime experience.
My biggest aha moment was actually cutting up my credit card and realizing how I almost thought that the credit card was fake money, it didn’t feel like it was my money that I was spending. When I really took a look at my spending and saw that money was depleting, either from a savings account, or my weekly spending, it became real for me. I then could identify habits in my spending, and I noticed I would tend to purchase things when I was bored at work. After identifying how I was compensating for my feelings by spending, I then could change my behaviors and find a task or a project to dive into in a little bit more detail at work. It’s given me that opportunity to take a pause and think, ‘Oh, I don’t have that money in a bucket for that right now, because I’m saving for this bigger goal. Do I want to take the money now and delay that bigger goal? Or do I want to continue working towards the bigger goal?’ This has been a really enlightening process to realize how often I was using the credit card and a real shift in the way that I’m actually spending money, which is so cool.
My behaviors and mindset have shifted after completing the program and I’m not thinking so much about spending money, rather I’m thinking about how I’m investing it.
Before I make a purchase I think about if there is another way that I can invest in this, whether it’s for my energy or my health or something that is more aligned with my values. And now I’m realizing that the program reframed not only my spending behaviors, but my total mindset. I’m now more often assessing, is that a conversation that I need to have? Is this a relationship that serves me? Is that taking from my energy or giving to my energy? The very simple mind shift between am I spending or investing that we went through has had major ripple effects into other areas of my life.
An intentional practice that I have started doing on a daily basis is looking at all of my different accounts and investments. I actually have this cool wealth tracker, which shows me everything in one place at the same time. And even though I still have some debt, I’m now on a net balance in the positive in the green, and since Financially Happy that has gone from the red to the green! On a daily basis I’m watching that slow growth towards the positive and seeing how I’ve got money saved up for a holiday or a big investment that I want to make. It’s a really great way to start the morning because I’m really conscious that my goals are on track and it guides how I’m going to structure my day to keep moving towards those goals. I now see money as an energy to actually birth those goals into reality and it’s also made me really conscious of how I’m living in the now. When I’m checking my accounts and investments every morning, I can see all my goals for the future growing. I see how much I have to spend today that will keep me in that happy zone of knowing that my goals are happening, and I’m also able to enjoy the present moment and not stress about money I’m spending on daily expenses.
Like I mentioned, I’d worked with a financial advisor for two years,
but the Financially Happy course did so much to support changing my mindset and giving me the control and empowerment to make my own decisions.
I don’t feel like I necessarily need an advisor anymore, because I’m confident in making my decisions and I’m able to really align them with my goals. I have a lot of intentionality already in my life, but the Financially Happy program showed me how to bring that intentionality to my finances, and my wealth creation and how I’m using my money as a force for good in my own life.
I have goals that I’ve always had in mind but they kind of felt like mystical creations because I didn’t have a plan of how to achieve them. Now I’m so empowered and intentional about where my money is going. I’m spending sensibly and am still able to have fun and enjoy my life. I’m investing in my future, which is actually helping me to bring those goals to fruition.
I adored the time during the program, it was really cool spending time with other women who have had similar challenges through their lives and feeling that I’m not the only one who’s had debt at some point in their life. The reframing that you can do in that group is just so powerful. As a Financially Happy person, I have intentionally changed the way that I’m living. I’ve stopped thinking so much about decisions that I made in the past, and have come to peace with those decisions through some of the processes that we went through.
I feel like I’m much more cognizant of where I’m going and have a clear direction and I’m putting money towards that.
The program has absolutely changed the way that I think about not only my money, but my day to day life as well!
