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In today’s episode, Living Your Abundance Agenda, I’m talking about:
- Completing parts one and two of your Abundance Agenda
- Tracking your spending
- Checking in with your money weekly
Transcript
Welcome to money and magic, the podcast that combines the mystical with the practical to help you navigate money in the Muggle world. I’m your host, shy remote bookkeeper and judgment free money coach. I hope this podcast helps you create a harmonious relationship with your finances that empowers you to lead your truly magical life. Let’s get started. Hey magical human. Welcome back to money and magic. Today’s episode is the final part in our three part series about creating an abundance agenda. If you’re listening to this live, I just want to say happy new year.
It is a fresh start and this is the best time for us to talk about this topic. If you’re listening to this later, then welcome. I’m so glad to have you and let’s get going. If you have not listened to parts one and two, you’re definitely going to want to go back and listen to those because that’s where part three comes into play. We are putting parts one and two together, and we are going to talk about how you can live your abundance agenda every single day going forward. So at this point, you should have everything written out. You should have your income, your expenses, your debt. All of that information should be written out either on a piece of paper or a word document or however you did that.
And you also should have tracked your spending, either going back three to six months or starting from when you listened to that episode. If you are not tracking your spending, you’re definitely going to want to start doing that. That is one of the best ways to start with your abundance agenda is to track your spending. And you also should have a little bit better understanding of what your magical life is at this point. Whether you used the guided meditation episode to help you dig deeper into that, or you pretty much already had it figured out when I told you the details. Either way, you should have all of that completed before you move on into the rest of this episode. Something else that you should have done by this point is opened up your high yield savings account. I talked about that a lot in several different episodes.
If you have not opened a high yield savings account, do that this week. Make that the top of your priority list when you get unlisted into this episode, even if you only have $20 to put in that, go ahead and get it open because we’re going to need it. I personally have my high yield savings account. I have one at ally and I have one at discover. I also recommend a capital one, and a lot of people recommend Marcus. So there’s four different options. They’re all about the same. The current interest rate as of today is like 4.25 to 4.55.
So as long as the interest rate is somewhere in that realm, go ahead and get it open. Make sure they’re FDIC insured. If you have any questions, let me know. But get that high yield savings account opened because you want to make sure that your emergency fund, the $1,000 for cover your ass, and the three to six months worth of expenses are in a high yield savings account. We’re also going to work on your seeking funds this year if you don’t already have sinking funds. And those are going to need to be in a high yield savings account as well for that reason. That’s why I recommend and use ally because I have my sinking funds set up as buckets. Capital one, I think also allows that.
So those are two good options for sinking fund high yield savings accounts. There are a lot of things that go into your abundance agenda, but for me, probably the most important is conscious spending. And this is something that I am personally working on every single day and it is very difficult. But I’m seeing the change as I work through this. So when I say conscious spending at this point, you have your magical life in your head. You need to begin weighing your short term decisions against the long term goals to get you to that magical life. What do I mean by that? Okay, so today is a prime example. I am personally trying to save money for some big goals, and I tend to spend a few too many dollars at the local coffee shop.
And so I have decided to cut back on going out to the local coffee shop. So today, when I wanted to get in my car and drive up the road, I said, wait a second, this short term decision is going to affect my long term goal. How do I feel about that? Is me going to get coffee today an okay replacement for getting to my magical life faster? I decided it was not and I stayed home. So while it was tough, I consciously thought about that decision. It was more of a habit. I like to talk to the people at the coffee shop. I think the coffee is delicious and it’s just kind of a routine and a ritual that I have. But that routine and ritual of getting coffee too often is not contributing to my magical life.
If anything, it is holding me back. So the opportunity cost of me spending that money is not getting close to my magical life as quickly. Another way to look at this is kind of flip side. This past year, I went to Vegas for the first time as a business owner for a conference all in all, I spent about $3,000 on this entire conference experience. I had to ask myself, because $3,000 is a good chunk of change, I had to ask myself, looking at the goals of my business, am I okay spending about $3,000 for this outing? Am I going to get enough benefit from that to move me forward? Or am I okay losing that money if necessary? I made the choice that it was worth it for me. Looking back now, about two months, being home from that, I’m definitely going to get my investment back tenfold. It’s definitely worth it. But in that moment, I had to talk myself through.
This is a good chunk of money. I could do a lot of other things in my business with this. Is this the best way for me to consciously spend this money right now? And I’ve also decided that that is going to be my budget every single year now I’m going to this conference. So now I know that I can budget that in going forward. It’s already in my business budget for this year. It’s going to be my business budget for next year. And I am consciously putting that money in that budget. But that also tells the universe, hey, this is something I really enjoy.
I want to continue doing this. So I need you to help me get the finances to do so. And by putting that out there, the universe is going to help me work towards that goal that I know is something that I want to do. Another part of living your abundance agenda is keeping that mindset in check. It is all too easy for us to let those limiting beliefs and those money blocks creep back in or to stop working through those. One thing I want you to remember is that at some point, everyone struggles with finances. That makes you human. So when you’re struggling through this, just remind yourself, everyone struggles with finances.
You’re not bad with money. You’re just learning. So when you start to get those money blocks coming back in, talk yourself through that. No, we’re changing the way we do things. We’re unlearning all of the bullshit that we learned before. Just keep an eye and be mindful about those thoughts that come into your head. And then the last piece of living your abundance agenda every day is the practical aspect. It is the numbers.
It is finding how to do a zero dollar budget. I talked about that in a prior episode where you give your money, every single dollar gets a job. Every single dollar knows exactly what it is supposed to do. So when you go to spend that money, you have to ask, is this part of its job? Or am I taking the job from money somewhere else to cover this job. And then the last piece of living your abundance agenda is the practical part. It’s the numbers. It is looking at your money and working through and learning how all of this works until you get the concept to where it’s a breeze. I look at my money every single week.
Honestly, I look at my money twice a week. But at the minimum, you should be looking at your money every week. And when I say your money, this could be just your bank accounts. This could be your budgeting app, whatever looking at your money looks like for you. I look at my debt balances, my investment balances, the expenses that came out and the income that came in throughout the week. I also look at the income and expenses that are going to come in or out next week. So I know that I have enough in there to cover it. Or if I need to do some transferring, move some money around, or maybe I have a little extra just sitting in there before the next payday, I will take that and I’ll go ahead and transfer it over to my savings.
That way I don’t spend it. If that was not already allocated to something else, I send it to savings. And it’s a great way for me to save a little extra than I had originally planned. And that could be $5 or $15. This doesn’t have to be $200 extra sitting in there. Those 510 15, $20 transfers do add up. And if you’re using a proper account, those transfers should be completely free. So you can do those as often as you want.
I also look at my budgeting apps. I currently use two different budgeting apps. I’m testing a new one, and I haven’t decided if I want to leave my old one. But the one that I’ve been using for over a year now is called you need a budget or ynab. And I really like how it works. It’s a zero based budgeting model, but it wants you to grow the age of your money. The goal of YNAB is to have next month’s expenses sitting in your bank account. So if next month, you know you have $2,000 worth of expenses coming out, you have that much sitting in your checking account already ready.
So you are operating a full month ahead and you are replenishing as the money comes in. Whereas most people are living paycheck to paycheck, and the paycheck comes in, they send the money out to the bills. The paycheck comes in, they send the money out to the bills, and that is what creates so much stress around money. If you can work to get one month ahead and have that sitting in there and know that you’re just replenishing, it makes life so much easier. And so YNab really helps with that. And that’s why I really like that feature. I still haven’t got it down 100%, but I am almost there to where I have a full 30 days of aged money. So I think that’s a super neat feature of Ynab.
And I do give a 30 day free trial of that. I have a link in the show notes if you want to check that out for 30 days, you can link all your bank accounts. And it’s a super neat app that you should definitely give a try. If you’re looking for a budgeting app, the other one that I’ve been using for several months now is called Monarch Monarch money, I think, and I really like it a because it’s kind of pretty, and I like when apps are pretty, and it gives a lot more functionality and personalization than ynab, and it categorizes things differently and it budgets differently than ynab. So I really like it, and I might stick with both, but right now, I’m just kind of testing that out, and I do have a link for that one as well for a 30 day free trial. So the link to both of those apps for 30 days free will be in the show notes. You don’t have to pay anything like that. And I’m going to be releasing some courses to kind of walk people through how to use those as well.
So definitely check out those apps if you’re looking for budgeting apps. I think all too often when we’re trying to learn new money habits and fix our old mistakes, we kind of get scared, and we don’t want to look at money. We’re afraid what we’re going to see when we open our bank account. We don’t want to track our spending because we know it’s out of control. And I just want you to release all judgment. All you can do is better than what you can do now. So start from where you are and move forward. Do not judge yourself whatsoever.
Maybe you do spend too much on eating out, and you’re aware of that, but now you’ll have actual numbers and you can set goals around that. And for me, that’s very helpful, because if I say, oh, I just want to spend less on eating out this month, well, does that mean one dollars less or $100 less? Technically, if I spend one dollars less. Then I met my goal, but that’s not really where I want to be. So when you start tracking these things and you start to see, a lot of times, honestly, it’s the 510 $15 purchase here and there. Oh, I stopped at the gas station and grabbed a drink and some chips. Oh, I grabbed this extra couple of things at target I didn’t really need, but I was like, okay. And once you start to kind of break that down, you realize, oh, well, I could save money I’m just spending on frivolous things. Or you break it down and you’re like, shit, I really can’t save money.
How I’m even affording my bills right now is beyond me. And so then that tells you maybe you should go ahead and up that income. And so when you start tracking the numbers, you have concrete proof. You have evidence right there in front of you that tells you what to do next. It gives you ways to set those concrete goals. And so living your abundance agenda is literally just doing the same thing day in and day out, thinking about your money mindset and what is popping into your head? Looking at those numbers, consciously thinking about the money you’re spending. Instead of clicking add to cart, think about, do I really need this? Am I willing to give up this piece of my magical life for these pants right now? Or just different things like that? It really makes you think. And once you start thinking, you can start changing.
So now that you have all three pieces of the abundance agenda complete, you can start working towards your magical life one step at a time. In our next episode, we’re going to talk all about the different bank accounts that I believe you should have and different ways to make your money work for you in a digital world. And that’s a wrap for another spellbinding episode of money and magic. I hope you learned something that can help you navigate money in the Muggle world. If you have any questions, topics, or even your own money and magic story that you’d like to share, reach out to me on social media. I’d love to hear from you. And if you have found the show insightful, I’d truly appreciate it. If you could take a moment to subscribe, leave me a review and share money and magic with your friends and family.
Think of it like casting a spell to help others on their financial journeys. As always, stand tall, shine bright, and stay grounded. I’ll see you next time.
Resources and links mentioned in this episode:
- Connect with me on Instagram and TikTok
- Learn more about how we can work together by visiting my website
- Check out my Money Alchemy course 101 HERE
- Monarch 30 day free trial
- YNAB Free Month
More about Money & Magic:
Welcome to Money & Magic, the podcast that combines the mystical with the practical to help you navigate money in the muggle world. Hosted by Chey, the Witchy Bookkeeper, we explore the emotional and spiritual dimensions of money, as well as provide actionable advice on budgeting, investing, and helping you create a harmonious relationship with your finances that empowers you to lead a truly magical life.
Whether you’re seeking financial freedom, looking to overcome money blocks, or simply want to learn how to make your financial dreams a reality, Money & Magic is here to inspire, educate, and empower you on your journey. Join us every other Wednesday and discover that, with the right mindset and a touch of magic, you can turn your financial dreams into reality.
Subscribe now, and let’s embark on this extraordinary journey of “Money & Magic” together. Stand Tall, Shine Bright, Stay Grounded!
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Website: www.abundancealchemy.co
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