Stop being so aspirational
Let's embrace realistic right-sizing
Last week Cheddar asked me to come on and discuss my tips to get ready for the holiday spending season. I thought about saying the usual about making a list and adding up what you planned to spend. The next steps would be mapping out your savings strategy and if you could not make the numbers work, you would have to get some kind of side hustle. You might also consider cutting back on some of your current lifestyle costs that are optional. Goodbye Latte. Give it 100 percent effort and you will succeed!
And then reality hit. Literally.
I realized that we could also just… not. We could downsize our expectations- of us and of everyone else in our lives. We could choose not to aspire to give everyone we cared about exactly what we knew they would love. We could skip it and spend time with them- instead of spending time shopping FOR their gift. We could downsize our expectations for our own holiday spending (and receiving). Instead of making a list and checking it twice we can take last year’s list and cross off 50 percent of the items on it. We don’t have to buy holiday-specific table-scaping decor. We could just use what we have. We don’t have to be better than last year. We don’t have to give it 100 percent. We can give 70 percent. That 30 percent can just be a little space for us to breathe and give ourselves a break.
And if you see a hot trend on TikTok? That’s your cue to put it on your naughty list.
Speaking of taking money stress down a notch...
If you watched the full Cheddar segment you saw we moved on to talk about inflation. Life is getting more expensive and it is getting harder to not let the anxiety take over our lives-including our professional lives.
Just today I got a press release from Moneyzine. Their research found that Financial stress does hinder performance at work.
Employees are self-aware of the negative impacts of their financial stress, with 1 in 3 admitting it negatively impacts their productivity and 44% estimating they lose at least 3 hours of work every week due to being distracted.
It is also expensive. The study calculated that roughly 1 in 4 workers cost their employer $5273.84 per year in lost productivity.
You can read all the details here.
At Financial Wellness Strategies, our new workshops are streamlined and focused on putting realistic strategies in place for financial wellness. We can live our best financial grownup lives at work, and at home. Even if they are the same thing.
Please put us in touch with your company’s HR department so we can get started.
Book by October 15th to get the next workshop at 50% off
Love these brilliant ladies in pink!! The interviews will get you thinking- and doing more of what makes you YOU.
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And don’t forget to pick up their fantastic books!
Fall is in full swing.
Time for all of us to do our homework so we can help our (almost) adults learn to be financial grownups.
My book will help you, help them.
My book “Launching Financial Grownups” will teach you how to help them. The book is full of ways for you to open the conversation about money, and guide those you care about to live their best financial lives.
So pick up a copy of my book Launching Financial Grownups for yourself, or for anyone you know and care about who has kids heading to high school, college, or their first “real” job so you can help “launch” a young adult and set the next generation up for success! And yes, it makes a GREAT gift for parents, grandparents, and anyone in an older generation looking to learn how to help emerging adults.
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