“What do you do?” It’s the simplest, most basic question, one we might be asked on a daily basis. I know exactly what I do, but I’m still trying to figure out how to answer that question in a way that people can understand.
In a nutshell, I help people think and feel differently about money.
I help people create wealth, but not with stocks, bonds, real estate and budgets with built-in automatic saving plans. (Yes, one must have a plan, but it’s the wrong starting place.) I help people create wealth from the inside out, through transforming beliefs, attitudes, and emotions.
But what am I?
Sometimes I define it by describing what I’m not. We all probably know what a Financial Planner is, or perhaps we have had experience with a Financial Advisor, Financial Services Representative, or similar animal. Some work on commission, some work for fees, all have tools to help you assess your current financial situation, panic properly as you grasp the enormity of the canyon over which you must leap in order to one day retire, and financial products (investments, insurance, etc.) you can purchase that may assist you in reaching that and other benchmarks.
I took a CFP course once. I got my life insurance license. I interviewed in the financial services field. I was well on my way to a life of using tools and charts and calculators to help people plan their financial futures.
But I wasn’t sleeping well. It wasn’t my calling. I knew the world didn’t need another financial planner (with all due respect to the thousands of fine financial planners who serve a genuine need to their grateful clients).
I knew what I was. I couldn’t deny it. I had been one for years. It was time to admit it.
I was…
A Financial Therapist.
Since no self-respecting therapist would ever call themselves a “shrink,” I figured I’d be “The Money Shrink.” I started a blog, I put it on my business cards. Then another expert pointed out that money “shrinking” was actually a very bad thing. Good point.
An old-fashioned therapist might have asked you to look at an inkblot and tell him what it represents to you. Does it look like a rabbit? A monster? Your genitals? I give a Money Rorschach test. I ask people to look at words like “investor,” “landlord,” “rich” or “millionaire” and tell me how they feel, to observe and rank their emotional reactions. Do they feel excitement? Overwhelm? Anger?
I remember two years ago reading David Bach’s “Smart Women Finish Rich” and being utterly shocked at a statistic. The average retired woman in the United States at that time was living on an income of just over $1300 a month. Thirteen Hundred Dollars! And that included her social security, which made up the bulk of the $1300! I remember in that moment thinking two things:
First, it’s just not enough!
And secondly, I wanted to do whatever I could do to help change those statistics. Here we are, in one of the richest times and places on planet earth (yes, even in this recession), and too many women are having to choose between heat, medicine, or food.
I come from a middle class family. We are not destitute. But even so, I worry about my father, who still works at 75 only partially because he enjoys it. Truth be told, he can’t afford to stop. I think of a woman I know, who was forced to move to a more affordable city in her late 70’s when her apartment rent soared due to appreciation and a remodel. I think of friends, single women in their sixties, who have credit card debt and no savings.
A little financial planning might have made a big difference in all of these cases. But as a “financial therapist,” I’m here to say that financial planning is only one piece of the puzzle.
The most powerful determinants of our financial results are our thoughts and feelings.
Ask any financial planner: if a potential client doesn’t believe they’ll ever have a net worth higher than their credit card balances, will they bother to even meet with a financial planner? Not likely. If they are frozen by fear, regret, and shame, would they even follow through with the financial planner’s advice? Probably not.
As Maxwell Maltz discovered, we rarely outperform our self-image.
Lottery winners end up broke again, and tycoons who lose it all are usually back on top in a short period of time.
T. Harv Ecker calls this phenomenon of predictable results the “financial thermostat.” What’s yours set at? This is what determines your financial results (and the behavior that leads to those results): Your own thoughts and feelings. The decisions we’ve made about ourselves. The judgments and assumptions we’ve adopted about wealthy people. The beliefs we’ve inherited about money since we were children. That’s why most of us need…
A little financial therapy.
Welcome to my blog.
Kate
Excellent description, Kate! I have such a clear image of who you are and what you do from this blog. What a timely service you offer. Thanks for putting yourself out there for all of us who are afraid to face our finances.
Cheers!
Suzanne Griscom
Editor, Writer, Wordsmith
Suzanne@wisewillow.org
Thank YOU, Suzanne, for pointing out the obvious… that money shrinking is not a good thing!