Are you considering working with a money coach? This episode is for you!
In today’s episode, I am joined by my client Sarah. Sarah shares her journey of being a single mom by choice and how getting help with her finances was pivotal to her leaning into motherhood. Sarah has just finished working with me in my five month partnership and came on the podcast to share her journey working with a money coach. Sarah is a single mother who works in the education sector. She came to me with a list of bills and a desire to get out of the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle. Now, Sarah has all the tools she needs to be empowered to take control of her money goals.
Listen in to hear how learning to manage her finances has empowered Sarah. Not only does she feel confident about her ability to earn and budget money, but she knows she is capable of so much more!
The main points Sarah and I talk about in this episode are:
[01:30] Why Sarah decided to work with Keina
[05:48] What coaching allowed Sarah to do
[10:37] Sarah’s proudest moment during coaching
[12:30] Finances and motherhood
[20:40] Sarah’s experience with Keina’s budgeting system
[26:08] Domino effect of money coaching
[29:49] Sarah’s unexpected wins
Tune into this episode of Money Files to learn what it’s like working with a money coach!
Are you ready to start asking for help with your finances? Apply to work with me, and let’s start working towards your financial goals.
IF YOU LOVED THIS CONVERSATION ON FROM FINANCES TO MOTHERHOOD: LET’S TALK MONEY COACHING, CHECK OUT MY EPISODE ON THE 5 MONTH COACHING CONTAINER – EXPLAINED!
Transcript for “From Finances To Motherhood: Let’s Talk Money Coaching”
Intro: Hi and welcome to Money Files. I’m Keina Newell from Wealth Over Now. I work every day with professional women and solopreneurs to help them get out of financial overwhelm and shame so they can experience more flexibility and ease with their finances. Are you ready to gain confidence and learn to manage your finances intentionally? Tune in and grab financial tips that will help you master the way you think about and manage your finances.
Keina: Hello and welcome back to another episode of Money Files. I’m excited. Today I’m here with my client Sarah and Sarah and I started working together. She reached out to me at the end of April and so we worked together from May through the early part of October. And Sarah, I’ll just go ahead and let you introduce yourself.
Sarah: Well thank you for having me. My name is Sarah I am single and I’m also a mother unplanned pregnancy but I am a mom. Currently I am a middle school director and I’m excited to be here with you.
Keina: Thank you for hopping on with me. I appreciate it. When I was thinking about your story, one of the things that, if you listen to my podcast, anyone who’s listening right now, I’m incredibly inspired by my clients because people come from me from all different walks of life and Sarah still to this day I remember our consult and you found me because I did a podcast interview with my friend Crystal and you reached out to me. But I just remember on our consult, one, I know it was about the money, you wanted to manage your finances but the thing that I remember above all else was you were talking about yourself as a mother and how you wanted to show up for your son because at the time, your son wasn’t quite a year old, but I just remember being like I can help you be the mom that you desire to be, which I also remember getting off that call and then calling one of my friends and I was like “I just told someone I can help her be a better mother.” And I say that because it’s one of those things where money touches every single area of your life and for you I was like “I really want to help this woman be a better mom.” So I don’t know if you remember that at all, but that’s what I remember about our consult. And then definitely one of the things that I think I’ve held when I’ve been thinking about you for the five months that we worked together.
Sarah: Absolutely. And I mean you came in at a time where personally my postpartum journey was hard and I don’t want to get emotional here. I’ve been working hard not to, but my postpartum journey was hard and it just felt like everything was so out of control and it was, like I said before, it was an unplanned pregnancy and I made the decision to keep my baby. And within that decision I knew I was making the choice to do this alone financially and also caring for my son. And I was at a place where I was feeling disappointed that I was making decent money but still had no control. And now I had this baby that I was fully responsible for and somehow had to figure out how I was going to make it work. And I was coming from such a hard place but I was still so determined somewhere to not let this break me and figure out how I could be the best person for him.
It was also I think when you become a mom it feels like you’re losing a part of yourself too. And for me it was trying to find a space where I could give myself something and feeling in control of my money was something I needed to gift myself because I needed that out of my way to be able to love being a mom as much as I could be the best mother I could for my son. And that’s what really stuck out to me and I’m so happy that I took the chance. It was just, I don’t know, something hit me one day and I was like “I need help. I can’t do this. I need control of this part” because there are so many other unpredictable things that come with motherhood and I wanted to be able to focus on that to become the best mom that I could.
Keina: Well, as you were talking, you kind of answered this, but why did you decide to start with money because I know on our consult we kind of talked about you are like “I’ve been wanting to work with a coach and I wasn’t really sure where I was going to start.” And then you chose, obviously you chose financial coaching but why did you choose to start there?
Sarah: I chose to start with financial coaching because I had been in a place before of debt. I had lost a job and within that time I had actually been able to pay off some debt and not go into further debt and actually start saving money. And there was a sense of power that came from that. I am in a place of possible transition with a career as well too. I couldn’t go backwards as far as money went. It was something that I knew needed to be a baseline to support myself and my son. So for me it was like okay, “if I can get this part of my life under control, then the other part of getting a new job and possibly looking to switch careers and things that, I could focus on that a lot easier because the stress of money wasn’t going to be there anymore.” And that’s what drove me because it was also something I knew I could change.
It’s something I knew I could get better at. I just needed help because I really was like I don’t understand what I’m doing here. I pay my bill every month. I pay off my credit card every month. I’m not saving, I’m not traveling when I want to, where I want to. I’m not spending money here when I want to and it’s feeling like I needed control. And focusing on the financial coaching helped me get to an equilibrium in my life to be able to, “okay, I can focus on these other pieces that I know also need to change for me.”
Keina: What else has coaching allowed you to focus on?
Sarah: It’s helped me to not be so hard on myself. It’s helped me to enjoy my son more. It’s helped me to also really realize that I have control over my situation and my life. It’s helped me to identify why I want money, why it brings me happiness and why it’s important to me. And it’s so much bigger than me in a lot of ways. I just bought some stuff off Amazon to make cakes because I like to make my godson and his little brother cakes for their birthday and it’s this big deal to them. And I finally bought a little cake carrier instead of having to put toothpicks in my cakes and [06:23 inaudible] wrap smooshes it and I bought cake pans and a little cake board and a cake leveler and it was only $50 but I had the money to do that.
And that brings me happiness. I feel mature, I have a whole cake box. Guys it’s professional and it’s something that, silly, I want a raspberry cake, I want a blue raspberry cake, I want a strawberry cake. I literally make a box cake but it still brings me happiness because they think it’s so meaningful and special. And I was really able to identify my value and why I wanted money as well too.
Keina: Why do you want money?
Sarah: Because eventually I want to retire, but I want money to be able to spend more time with my loved ones. I want money so I don’t feel the stress of that hand to mouth, “oh my gosh, am I going to pay my bills? How am I going to pay the rent this month?” Granted I’m not in that same situation that I’ve been in years ago, but I want money to be able to take my son on vacation. I want money to be able to fully max out my retirement eventually. And actually having a plan to be like “alright, I’m going to make that happen” feels really good. I want money to be able to maybe one day send my parents on a vacation, have all of my whole family go somewhere. I want to buy food for my friends when they come over and not have to worry about it and get to spoil them. And that’s what I want. I want to be able to set my son up as well too. And that’s a big piece for me is setting myself up so I can then be able to set him up with the knowledge. But then also I would love to be able to set money up for him so he has a jumpstart when he gets older.
Keina: When you talk about why you want money because you had mentioned a career transition which we’ve talked about, like you transitioning out of your career and making $200,000 a year. Does it feel attainable when you think about your goals that you have now?
Sarah: Yes and no. It does and I’m starting to, which feels really good, get really excited about that. But there definitely still are some invisible strings that I think keep me in place a little bit. I’m going to get there. I actually am joining this fellowship that you actually presented to me as well too to kind of help me along that line, which I’m excited about. And I think that will continue me down this path of uncovering that stuff and now I’ve kind of debunked this whole terrible thought I had about money. So things are possible. And again, you met me at a really hard time where I was in a very negative space in general and I’m finally turning a corner and you’ve been there with me throughout all of this and kind of have seen that corner turned. But now I feel like I’m able to start seeing things again and feeling things again and being excited about things. So I am not fully there yet. I can be aware of that but it will happen and I know that it will happen.
Keina: I know when we were actively coaching together on our coaching calls, I remember one call you were just like I feel I’m not doing. I feel like I don’t remember your exact words, but it was like I’m not doing enough. I’m not showing up in the way that you wanted to show up on the calls. And it’s interesting to me as a coach because I think sometimes we all think that especially we could be doing more, especially I work with a lot of type A women and so they all want to be doing more and I’m going to say this here so you have it forever and ever. I think you showed up in the most phenomenal way. You are a mom, you’re also in a school, which I’ve been a school leader, our first call you were in the supply closet.
Sarah: I was like “ignore the background please.” You knew where I was though?
Keina: Yes I knew where you were. You were in a supply closet, working in between dismissals to show up for you and show up for your son and show up for that future version of who you desire to be. When you reflect on the five months of us working together, Sarah, what are you most proud of?
Sarah: I am most proud of when I was able to buy my son clothes because it was such a meaningful moment. I remember I had gone through my budget and I kind of got to a place where I was just putting the money in the envelopes, paying the bills I had to, but then all of a sudden I was holy cow I have almost $100 in my clothing budget between me and my son. And I’m like he needs clothes and I love to shop and it’s something that I haven’t really been able to do a lot of since I’ve become a mom. And I was able to buy him clothes, I bought him stuff that he needed, but then I also was able to like okay, he’s got his necessities and I bought him a cute little sweatshirt and some dark wash straight jeans, and a little button up shirt.
And I think that was one of the moments I was most proud of is because I didn’t see that at first. It was literally impossible. I mean it wasn’t, but it felt impossible to me where I was. So it’s something he needs but the fact that I wasn’t also be able to like, oh I’m going to swear to get this cute little gap sweatshirt and this cute little button down for him and I got him two nice pieces as well. It was really empowering to me because I was scared. I was scared going into being a mom by myself. I was scared when I made that choice. It felt like I was losing a lot of me. But then to be able to do something that I really liked but then to spend it on him, it really was a big turning point for me because it was so much bigger than just the money. It was about, “no, I can really do this and look I am,” yeah, things are tight right now, but that’s temporary. I am getting control of this so I can focus on the other things that I need so that money isn’t going to be as tight for me as I move forward. So it was bigger than just even that moment for me.
Keina: How are you thinking about motherhood now that you feel more in control of your finances?
Sarah: I’m actually a lot more present and I think I’m a present mom in general, but I’m looking at motherhood as I have my baby and I love him and there’s part of motherhood that I still don’t like. I’m just going to be honest. But I love the hell out of my son, excuse my language. But I love him and watching him grow and watching him become who he’s going to be and allowing him to be exactly who he’s going to be is really cool. And I don’t know, being a mom, especially when I made the decision to become a mom the way that I did, I was so scared. I keep going back to that, but I was, “like how am I going to do this?” I also live in Brooklyn, New York, which is one of the most expensive cities in the world or in the US anyways. I didn’t know how I was going to do it. So now I can do that financial part. And now that that’s kind of out of the way, I feel I’m able to be more present with him but then also focus on the other parts of my life more consciously to make a better choice for myself. That’s how it helped me become a better mom.
Keina: And I mean you’ve also engaged in some self-care around motherhood like going to therapy and being able to do these other pieces and that being a part of your financial plan. It was being able to think about what does Sarah need in order to show up as the best version of herself, which generally speaking, we talk about showing up as the best version of ourselves. Money is involved and so being able to, we talked about how can you leverage your flex spending account at work and how much do you want to be able to set aside for therapy and just thinking about what do you need so you can be present in your child’s life.
Sarah: Yeah. I think that this allowed a lot of that to be able to speak with him, I need to go to therapy. And at first it was only every other week that I was doing it but then we put it into the budget every week because like I said, my postpartum journey, it’s something I didn’t even realize how terrible of a place I was, but I was in a bad place and I needed more support and I needed it and I think that for me that was the self-care I needed because I was not happy. I was struggling in so many different aspects of my life and I needed to be happy again for myself first so that I could be the best mom. I was able to spend the money and put money in that bucket because that was necessary for me. And it was really helpful. It’s exactly what I needed. I also was able to really identify, okay working out is really important to me too. Now I have my kid, I tried to record it last night.
I was doing yoga, a quick yoga stretch because my hips were really tight from working out the day before. He’s like on top of me, on my head laying across me and you just learn to go with it. I feel like when I first started with you that would’ve frustrated me a lot more than it did. And now I’m like it’s cool. This is my life now. This is what we do. And the mom works out and my kid does this and that’s okay because I was able to afford therapy because I was able to kind of get over some hurdles that were really hard for me because I needed to.
Keina: And I told you earlier that you did a phenomenal job showing up and I want you to always know those things that you did for your son, they matter. I think that when we think about our finances, we think we need to have a million dollars saved by the end of the year but being able to be like yeah I can go to therapy every single week for 52 weeks. And what benefits does that yield in your life and what are the compound results for you and for your son?
Sarah: Yeah and I think that the compound results are that I’m now in a clear head space to be able to make the necessary adjustments. We were just speaking before we get on here too around like I’m really scared to get a new job because then I’m thinking about getting him to daycare on time so I can get to work. And there’s definitely a sense of fear there. But because I’m doing the support or getting the help that I need on the back end, I’m going to get those pieces out of my way so I can create the life that I really want to have with my son. And I think that’s also finding happiness, finding happiness again was really important for me and I’m able to do that. I feel so much better now. And that was also really important to really identify the things that make me happy so I can then create more of that in my life.
Keina: I’m going to go back a little bit because you talked about not having debt, which I know you didn’t have any debt prior to working with me, but how are you managing your finances before we worked together and then how are you managing your finances now?
Sarah: Well, before I would just pay my credit card every month, but I wasn’t really knowing what I was spending. I mean I knew, I was going shopping, I was going out to eat, I was buying groceries, that kind of stuff. But then all of a sudden, my current not inspections but that’s pretty cheap, but my registration would be due, it’s $200 every two years. And it was like this extra $200 I was having to find and come up with. I was paying my bill every month and I would sit down and identify, okay, I need to spend less. That’s what I would identify every month. Okay, I need to spend less. Oh. And I was like great my credit card bill was $300 less this month. Great I’m on the right track. That’s how I was managing my money.
Now I have these little invisible envelopes that I actually already have, like $50 in towards my next car registration that will happen not for another year and a half now, but I already have that money saved because we figured out how much I should be putting aside each month. It’s given me just control. Like I said, I was able to buy clothes for my son before that would be like oh he needs this, let me just charge it. And then I’ll be alright, great my credit card bill is another $100 this month. Where’s that money coming from? I guess I’ll pull it out of the $25 a month that I have going into my savings, which would happen every single paycheck or every single month. I would have $25 go to savings. I’d pull it back over to my checking and pay a bill with it.
I’ve now had a consistent savings account even more than I think we both realized at first, which is an awesome surprise. But I have that money being saved and I’m building up these other little mini savings to be able to pay my bills, my monthly bills, my yearly bills, my couple year bills. I think I have $1.38 cents in my license bill because that’s every 10 years. But it’s just such a different way of looking at my bills and it feels empowering. I remember just being alright, you got to cut, you got to cut, you got to cut. When I used to just look at my credit card and pay that and say I have to spend less, that left me in scarcity. It left me in, I never have enough. Why isn’t my money working? Now I see exactly where everything’s going and I’m able to pay it based off of the money that I have and I can move things around. I know where every single dollar is going. And it’s just empowering because like I said, when I bought my son clothes, I had the money, it was there and I was able to do that and it just felt amazing.
Keina: I’m looking at your plan in the background as well because I don’t know how I missed this. When you did your client profile, you took a picture of your notebook where you had all of your bills written down.
Sarah: Yes. That was it and my credit card bill would just be there.
Keina: I feel like it’s the picture that needs to remain on my social media because it’s the epitome of someone who’s adulting well and it says May, 2023 and you have due dates and then you have the price of what your mortgage etcetera and whether or not you paid. But how has the budgeting experience that I’ve walked you through been different and how it’s pushing you to think about how you want to spend money or how you want to be able to, I know where I see people get caught up is that they know what bills they have. Like okay, you have a mortgage, you have your HOA on here, right? Those things are all things that they know, but it’s the things that you’re talking about, like car registration. Oh my kid needs clothes. It’s not a bill that we can know the exact amount of, but I believe I’m like no, you can plan for everything so you don’t feel you just have these phantom expenses and money leaving your account.
Sarah: Yeah. So I think what changed is that for me, the biggest one was the credit card. I would pay my credit card every month. I also knew those other pieces existed somewhere in the universe. I was like okay, well that Amazon bill is coming and oh, I pay for that every month. And oh that car inspection, oh shoot that’s coming up. And I would only recognize like oh, like three months in advance. I would still do nothing about it. Alright that month I’m going to have to spend way less because I’m going to have to pay this extra money. That’s more the thinking that I was doing and it just felt so rudimentary and just existing, I felt I was just existing. Money was there, I was here, I was living. And then bills would just get paid. It didn’t feel intentional. It didn’t feel okay, I know that Christmas is coming up, which we had talked about more recently.
I need to have X, Y, Z, or hey, Christmas comes up every year, why isn’t this something that I’m planning for and putting $10 away every month? But it would be something that I always felt I was like behind the eight ball, but two steps always. And it was like okay cool. Well now Christmas came and went and I paid an extra $500, I’ll just pay that off after. Or it would just be this extra lump sum that I would pay onto the credit card bill. So now it’s just, I don’t know how else to describe it, but I just feel in control because I know what’s coming, I know what to expect. But then also I know that I already have things stacked to go towards that. So it’s not something where even my car while we were working together got hit. If you live in New York plan for getting your car fixed, the car deductible, it happens several times because people just back into you and drive away.
And my whole bumper cracked, had to get that fixed. That was an extra $500. It didn’t even hit me because I had money in the auto maintenance. I had to pull from some other categories, but it already had some of the money saved towards that. So it wasn’t something that completely devastated me, which in the past I would start saving, saving, saving. And then a big bill that would come and I’d be like “oh, at least I have money there.” Instead of having all of these buckets going so that those hits don’t actually feel hits because I’ve planned for it. So I just feel a lot more intentional right now with my money and I feel empowered.
Keina: What about the thought that budgeting is restrictive and that’s why people don’t do it?
Sarah: Well the way I was doing it before was because every time I have to spend less. That’s the goal this month. Stop shopping, stop eating. That was my goal. It was restricting. But the way that I’m doing it now, have I had to cut down? I’m not getting my nails done right now. I’m not doing a lot of things. I’m also paying what, $16,000 a year in daycare? On my own, that’s a lot. I’m okay with that. I’m okay to make some of those sacrifices. But what’s empowering right now, the reason it doesn’t feel restrictive again, I’m going to go back to when I was able to buy my son clothes. I wasn’t like “oh shoot, I shouldn’t be doing this. Where is it coming from?” I said, “nope, I have $100 and I’m going to spend on him.” And I see it right there in my account. And as soon as the bill came, I paid it right off. And that felt freeing because yes, I’ve had to cut down in some ways, but I don’t know, it’s not restricting because it’s for the greater good of myself. It’s for years down the line. It’s for a better, fuller life that I’m working towards.
Keina: And I want to underscore, because you are talking about making intentional shifts. You’re like I chose to be a single mom and with that, some of the pieces of my lifestyle have changed even where you spend your time on Saturday evenings,
Sarah: Yes.
Keina: You and your son are cooking inside. I see him on Instagram. And so it’s being able to look at your money through a different lens. It’s not saying that you can’t spend, but it’s really being able to connect it back to what are your goals and how do you want to spend, which some of the work we started to do towards the end of us working together was like “Sarah, how much money do you want to make to really think about what’s the life you desire to create for you and your son?” Because my desire is for everyone who I work with to make more money and not just for the sake of making more money, but you were talking about earlier, why do I want to make more money? And to be really tied to these fundamental shifts that change and shift legacies for you, your family, thinking about that domino effect.
Sarah: It’s interesting. I went to my parents’ house a couple weeks ago now and I was talking to them about, wrapping up this coaching work and talking about how I’m thinking about my budget. And even my mom’s like “wow, that’s such a cool way to think about it.” And when I look at my dad and my mom, my father is such a traditional dad, father, parent, he really is the provider of the house that’s been how their roles have really been. My mom works as well too, but my father is the breadwinner. My father is the one who financially supports the family. That’s how it’s always been. And he is really just starting to look at his finances and he’s 67, he should have retired two years ago and he’s still not retired because he’s just really starting to dig in and look at that. And I realized that I need to start now and if I start now, that’s going to set me up better to then be able to, and I didn’t want to just like oh save money and have a retirement. I really wanted to understand money better and face it. It’s one of those things I feel I was in ignorance as bliss like if I just don’t see it, it’s not there.
And I kind of just was existing. And then finally it was just like okay, no, look at your reality, see what’s really in front of you. And then be like okay, now let’s take a step and fix it. So for me, I really just wanted to understand money better and starting with my budget has helped me understand it a lot better. So then it becomes more empowering. I have a lot more room to grow and a lot more to learn, but it’s not as overwhelming anymore because I’ve been able to tackle such a basic fundamental thing of living every day and making sure that my money is working for me. So I think about my parents and I’ve already started that work. Granted I should have started it sooner because I am 43, but it is what it is. I’ve started it now. But I’m excited to then pass that on to my son.
Not only just like I want to start some sort of Roth IRA for him eventually and get some savings and actual money for him. But I want to pass on the mindset and I still have a lot of work to get over some of the subconscious things that hold me back still. I see where I get it from with my parents and I am so thankful for everything that my parents have done, especially my father. But there are definitely some things that I want to do differently for my son and it’s got to start with me.
Keina: What’s the biggest shift you think you’ve had with your mindset in the last five months?
Sarah: I think for me is just getting to a space where I can, I believe I can. And I feel that, I don’t know, money is such, not always for everybody, but for a lot of people I think it’s such a scary thing. And it was hard for me. Something I’m just not good at making, something I’m not good at keeping track of and it’s not something that is empowering to me and I feel like I’m feeling opposite of all those things, complete opposite of those things. I feel empowered right now about my money. I feel that I can, I feel like I am totally capable of making more, but then also seeing the clear reasons as to why and I can make a change in that now. I’m not going to be 67 like my father and not being able to retire because I’m not set up yet. I can look at that now and be like I can really change that trajectory and make a better choice or a different choice than maybe what he’s made. And that feels really good because at the beginning it was just kind of like alright, I’m existing, floating through life and I pay bills and I go to work and that’s what I do. But now it’s just intentional and have a plan.
Keina: What’s a result that you didn’t expect from coaching that you actually ended up experiencing or achieving?
Sarah: A couple actually, one is I feel this has helped me be a lot kinder to myself in a lot of other areas of my life. Working out is one of them and just kind of getting to a space where it is what it is and my life is going to be lots of transitions and yeah, I might only work out for 20 minutes and my son might be my weights for part of it or he might be flopping on top of me or be hungry and that’s okay. So it’s transitioned into a lot of other parts of my life. But the second piece that I think was a switch or a transition switch that I didn’t think that I would have, is I didn’t realize how freeing it would feel even though I’m still making the same money when we started, I’m still in that same financial space as far as the income that I’m bringing in, I didn’t realize how freeing and how much the underlying unrest of money was going in the back of my head. And even though I was paying my bills every month and I was paying off the credit card every month, even when it was higher than I thought it would be, I was paying it off. I didn’t realize how much peace it would bring me to really have this under control.
I knew it would help me feel better, but it was like alright, cool I just have to do something because my life is pretty crazy right now. But it really brought me a sense of peace that I wasn’t thinking sense of peace but then also like “wow, I can do this” and I can actually make even more and have better goals and bigger goals.
Keina: I just want to echo again, you’re doing a phenomenal job.
Sarah: Thank you. I appreciate you.
Keina: And I feel like we got to move an extra $500 into your high-yield savings account.
Sarah: That was the accidental savings that we found.
Keina: Yeah, even you talked a little bit earlier about you were automatically saving $25 a paycheck, which wasn’t even the money that was hitting your account. And then in addition to that, we were making sure you were saving another $50 a month. So you ended up saving like $100 a month and that’s money that’s untouchable, that’s not including, like oh yeah we’re going to save for auto maintenance. But really getting you on your way to having a rainy day fund and building that security for yourself so that if something happened you’ll feel like you’re taking care of.
Sarah: Yeah. And that was awesome. Even the $25 a pay period that went off the top into my high-yield savings account, that was new for me. But the fact that then that was gone and wasn’t even included in the numbers that we were working with on a monthly basis and the fact that that was just growing and then I forgot about the extra $25 that was going to my other checking account and that’s where we got that extra $500. And I was like “oh my gosh. Wow.” Because that was the money every time I had to pay bills I was just pulling right back. So even to see that one day, I remember I was like “wow, my savings account in this bank is really high. How is this going up right now? That’s crazy. That’s why because that was money that I just wasn’t touching at that point in time, but I was still making the rest of my money work for me.
Keina: Yeah. I feel we did all of this, like people were in the intricacies of it all. It’s like oh but wait, Chase has a birthday party that we didn’t plan for. Oh wait, hold on, there’s this. Even being able to pivot with all of life’s normalcy. Normalcy that happened and you’re like oh okay, I didn’t think of this. And so the budget allowed you to be able to accommodate for those things.
Sarah: And I mean we started working right before Chase turned one and you were like “well what’s your budget?” I’m like “I don’t know.” I pulled that number out of the air because it’s about going to be that much. And you’re like “where’s it coming from?” I’m like “my bank.” that was my basic answer. And now it’s like “okay, maybe I’m going to save my entertainment fund for a few months because I know that’s coming up and I’m not going to do,” like I can see now where money is going to come from and hey there might be a time where I have to pull some money out of savings because maybe the car happens again and I have to pay that.
Keina: None of these things are going to happen because you’re going to get a new job.
Sarah: Well yes.
Keina: That’s just what’s going to happen.
Sarah: Yes. And maybe that’s why I accidentally worked on my larger budget the other day because it’s like my brain being “oh you’re going here. Don’t worry.”
Keina: I’m just going to say this. You are going to be making more money in less than a year.
Sarah: Absolutely.
Keina: And we know exactly where it’s going to go, which is the most exciting part.
Sarah: Which is the most exciting part. I’m excited. I’m actually looking forward to like okay, I’m going to up my percentage for my retirement. I’m going to actually have some money in a vacation fund. I’m going to have more money going into my savings to build that emergency fund because all the basic bills that I have are covered and now I’m excited because those can remain the same while I’m building the emergency fund in my retirement because I’m getting by which I also wasn’t sure I was going to be able to do. I’m doing it.
Keina: You are your own example of what’s possible. Well is there anything that I should have asked you that I didn’t ask you?
Sarah: No, but I just want to thank you too for your time. I think your non-judgmental approach and it’s clear that you want to help people and I think that just really made this a really great experience for me and I’m so glad I gifted myself with this. I’m so glad that I got to meet you. I love that you are also following your dream too and I think there are parts of that that’s also really inspiring to me. So I’m happy I was able to spend time with you as well. So it’s given me more than even just this financial stuff. It’s been really nice to get to know you as well.
Keina: Well thank you. I sometimes think about the fact that complete strangers agree to work with me and pay me money after talking to me for an hour. But I’m so genuinely invested I feel like in all of my clients and where they desire to be and how they want to spend money, especially just thinking about you as a woman and thinking about you as a mom.
Sarah: I came to you raw at the beginning. I came to you and I was just like “wow, my life is a mess. What did I do to myself? Oh my goodness.” And I was just emotionally in the hardest place I’ve ever been. Ladies, if you’re pregnant, please ask for help. It’s so important. It is not normal to not feel yourself for months and months and months. Might be typical, but it is not normal. And there’s help out there that you can get. I came to you at such a vulnerable space in my life and I literally was just raw and this is where I am. Help me. And you did.
Keina: Well and I think too. Not being afraid to ask for help. And I think you’ll also know what’s the help that you desire. Like who, follow the nudge for the person that seems like they fit, in terms of if you are looking at coaching or therapy, whatever that piece is because I think a lot of women just are like I can figure it out on my own, just give me one more chance to figure it out on my own. And it’s like well what happens if you allow somebody else in and you just ask for help?
Sarah: And I was doing the therapy stuff, which also was beyond important for me. And for me it was bigger than just that.
Sarah: I knew there was other parts of my life I needed to really get in order and get control of. And coaching is something I’ve thought about for years and my finances was also something and how I happened upon you. And I was like “oh my God, this is it.” It felt the sign for me where I was like that’s what I need to do. And it’s like when I pondered the idea of working with you around finances, it was like okay, this just feels right. Not everyone in my life was like “yeah, great idea. Go for it Sarah.” But for me it just felt this is what I got to do and that’s what I did.
Keina: How did you overcome? I think like an objection that people have is like I’m financially stressed but I need to spend money to get help.
Sarah: It’s interesting too because I was also on top of that, a newer mom struggling with postpartum stuff, struggling with a lot of different things. At that point in time, my job, a lot of things. And then for me to be like “oh, I’m going to drop this money on coaching.” So many people were like, “sure, you’re making a good choice?” I think for me it was an investment to my future self. It was an investment to now my son. It was just an investment to also like where I’m going to be in life, who I’m going to be around. Like I’m going to be a more whole person because I finally have control over this piece. It feels scary, but it was definitely the right decision because of the freedom that it’s given me.
Keina: Hmm. Thank you.
Sarah: Thank you.
Keina: I’ve loved working with you.
Sarah: I got on the call and I was like I miss you already.
Keina: It’s been fun. Well thank you so much Sarah and thank you for sharing your story and I hope if you’re listening to this and something resonated with you, that you’ll take some of Sarah’s encouragement. If it’s, “Hey Keina, I want to work with you,” apply to work with me. Or Sarah’s also talking about postpartum. If you need to get some additional help, do that as well. So thank you so much.
Sarah: Thank you.
Outro: Thank you so much for listening to Money Files. If you’re ready to take the next step to reach your financial goals, head to www.wealthovernow.com/appointment and let’s get started.
