Do your financial dreams go beyond improving your credit score or paying off debt?
One of the common challenges I see as a coach is that people do not allow themselves to have financial dreams outside of common financial advice like saving more money, improving their credit score, or paying off debt.
When I think about my own financial dreams, even while I was in the midst of paying off my student loans and saving $50 per month, my dreams were big. I was outlining the next version of my life because while I was aware of the goal to pay down debt and save more, I also knew those challenges weren’t always going to be there.
In today’s episode, I want to give you permission to dream. What do you want life to look like after you’ve saved six months of expenses or after you’ve paid off all of your debt? Think about the things that you want to be able to say yes to, write them down and allow your brain to explore life after you reach your goals. Giving yourself permission to dream will allow you to attach a purpose for the money in your life and your brain will problem solve to accomplish your current goals while also building your capacity to dream bigger.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
- [00:00:54] Why giving yourself permission to dream is important
- [00:02:40] How your dreams are incorporated in my coaching partnership
- [00:04:08] Selling yourself on the life that you desire to build
- [00:12:20] Using financial visioning to help you dream bigger
- [00:13:56] Ideas for your dream list
- [00:15:01] Establishing your goals in four areas of your life- Six Months From Now, One year From Now, Five years from now, 80 years from now
Tune in to this episode of Money Files to learn the importance of giving yourself permission to dream big in order to create the life you desire.
Are you ready to create your path to financial success? Apply to work with me, and let’s start working towards your financial goals.
IF YOU LOVED THIS CONVERSATION ON HOW TO USE FINANCIAL DREAMS TO PAY OFF DEBT AND SAVE MONEY, CHECK OUT MY EPISODE ON HOW TO USE FINANCIAL VISIONING TO ACHIEVE YOUR MONEY GOALS!
Transcript for “How to Use Financial Dreams to Pay Off Debt and Save Money”
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.
Hello and welcome back to another episode of Money Files. So today I want to talk to you about dreaming. I am noticing that when I am talking to people on consults that some of you don’t have dreams. You are stuck in the advice that financial gurus give you. Like you want a budget, which is cool. Or a couple weeks ago I talked to someone who wanted to improve her credit score and I was asking her like, why do you want to improve your credit score? And she told me that she could get access to better interest rates, like in case she wanted to buy a home. But I was like, alright, well imagine you have the credit score. What does that do for you? Like what do you think about yourself? What else do you desire to be true? And there was a lot of crickets on this call and I left the call being really baffled, wondering what does she want?
Like if I could talk to her again, I’d be asking like, what do you want? If you were thinking about your dreams, what you desire to create? Do you want a house? Do you want to be able to vacation more? Do you want to be in a position where you could retire early? Like what do you want? Hands down, what do you want? And I was like, I need to talk to you guys about being able to dream. Like dreaming is something that I do a lot when it comes to my finances. It’s in the numbers and in my numbers because I have dreams that I want to obtain. And so in order to access my dreams, yes I budget, but regardless of where I am right now financially, doesn’t dictate the type of dreams I have.
So you might be in a situation right now where you know that you’re making really good money, but you feel like you don’t know how to manage it. You’re making six figures, but it almost like you’re kind of in this like holding pin and you’re in this space where you don’t know how to move forward. And I don’t want the only thing you think about is a budget. I want to know about you and I want to know about your dreams. That’s one of the reasons my coaching partnership works because I’m all up in your business trying to figure out what are we working towards? Like what is your ultimate goal and not goals as it’s aligned with what a lot of financial gurus talk about.
I sent out an email a couple weeks ago and I was sharing with my audience that connection is really, really important to me when it comes to working with people in my five month partnership. And I know random things about people like how they like their coffee. They might be a French press person or a drip poor person, or I know that they like cashmere sweaters or I know that they’re planning a trip with their girlfriends to be on a yacht for their birthday or I know that they want to be drinking champagne in the spa on their birthday. Like these are the things we’re talking about because it fuels why getting your money together is so important because you don’t want to say no to things. You want to be able to spend money without drama.
And you are probably spending money right now, but there’s some drama behind it because you’re thinking about what are all the things that I should be doing? I have enough money, but I don’t feel like I’m managing it. I’m making six figures. So I should have $10,000 saved. I should be able to go on this trip with my friends, but I can’t. And so I want to know your dreams because your dreams are really important. When I was in the midst of paying off my student loans and making like $55,000 a year and saving $50 a month because I was living in a high cost of living area, I was still outlining the next version of my life because I knew that today’s problems weren’t going to always be today’s problem.
So at that time I was thinking about like, oh, I want to be able to save $500 a month consistently. I want to be able to buy a home. And so that’s where I was going to work in my brain when I thought about my finances, I was thinking about the next version of myself. That’s the thing that was driving me. Then easily saving $500 a month, easily bought my home, no issues. And then I went to work thinking about my next set of goals and I wrote a index card that’s actually still hanging in my office. And I think I wrote this card probably about two or three years ago. But the things that I wrote on it was like I wanted to make $20,000 a month in my business. I wanted to be able to have $25,000 in savings. I wanted to be in a position to hire a personal trainer. I wanted a housekeeper and I wanted the housekeeper to come monthly.
I wanted to be able to pay for my parents vow renewal. But those are the things that I wrote about that had nothing to do with where I was financially at that point in time. Those are my dreams. I’ve always given myself permission to dream because like I said, today’s problems aren’t going to be always today’s problems. And so that was like my purpose and my why. Those things that I’ve written down, I’ve done a lot of them. But here’s what’s also cool. Like one of the things on that card is to have a housekeeper monthly. I don’t even desire to have a housekeeper come into my house anymore for a million different reasons. But it’s cool to see that I could afford a housekeeper, but I don’t want one. So it’s also the fact that you can write a dream down and a dream could change, but you also know that you’re in a financial position to say I actually don’t want that because there’s another priority or that doesn’t interest me anymore. And if I were to write a note card today, my note card would tell you that I want a house that’s a million dollars. They frequently pop up in my ads, on my phone, like I want a custom built house. I know that.
I want to be able to have like a personal chef that would prepare all of my meals. I know that I want over 3 million in my retirement fund. I know that I want a seven-figure business, that would be on my next card. That has nothing to do with today’s financial problems. But if I was going to work to tell you about my next set of dreams and thinking about what fuels me getting started, it’s that set of dreams that’s fueling me to get started. It’s that set of dreams that creates urgency for me. So when I think about where I’m investing my time, where I’m investing my money, how I’m developing myself, it’s for those dreams. So when you allow yourself to dream, your brain is going to solve for those problems and you’re going to attach purpose for the money in your life.
Hear me now, you can dream big and also have today’s problems. So you could want a bigger house and still right now you’re like, I have no idea where my money is going. But it’s fueling the why and it’s opening the space in your brain that you need to open to actually allow yourself to think about what’s possible. And it presents a stronger why. I don’t want you to get on a call with me. I don’t want you working with me and you come saying, Keina, I want to improve my credit score. Because I’m going to say, okay, I don’t actually really care about your credit score. Your credit score is going to improve by us doing work together. But what do you really, really want? Do you want the house that you get to have, like an interior designer decorate the home? You have furniture that you love. There’s like this house with windows in the back.
That right there is selling yourself on the life that you desire to build. Or if you think about, oh, it’s just so much, it’s not about your credit score. If you’re listening to this and you think like Keina I want a higher credit score, I’m going to listen to you because I’m kind and I love you. However, I’m also going to tell you I don’t care about your credit score. And a lot of people come to me and they care about their credit score. So yes, I hear you, that’s what you want. But when you know how to manage your money well, when you don’t fear the money that’s in your life, those things clean themselves up. That’s not a conversation. I’m thinking about a couple that I worked with this year and from January to October their credit score improved but I want to say like one person in the partnership was, I want to say like 80 points. Someone else was 100 points. But even using them as an example, we didn’t go in thinking about their credit score.
Like that wasn’t the goal. The goal was as a couple together they’re making multiple six figures and they wanted to be able to buy a home. They wanted something that was theirs. They also wanted to be able to travel and they wanted to travel more together without money being something that they worried about. And so those are the things that we went in to solve. And now those are the things that they’re able to do. A byproduct of that is that their credit score went up, so they’re going to get access to lines of credit if they need it. They are going to be able to buy a home at a lower interest rate. But I would say also for that couple, before they ever talked about their credit score, they would tell you about how they were able to pay all of their quarterly bills with ease.
They would tell you about how they were able to pay their quarterly taxes with ease. Like they had a tax bill when we started working together that they were having to pay off and we paid it off within the time that we were working together. And we also paid for their current taxes. Like we developed a system to pay for their current taxes. And so thinking about money at night was not something that they’re doing, but we literally built our partnership on dreaming. So it was like, okay, what’s next? Now that you’re not paying taxes, what’s next? And really getting them to dive into the next version of themselves. And I think they did a fabulous job.
I gave them a dream budget assignment, which is something I like to walk all my clients through. And they had the most expansive dream budget I think I’ve seen any of my clients create. They owned a couple properties. That is where I want people to be. And I realize that where you are with your finances, especially if you’re in a place that I would consider tender, if something in your life is changing or you are making more money than you’ve ever made before and that just feels very unsettling, that it may kind of feel scary to dream. But this right here now, these words that I’m saying to you, this is your permission to dream big.
I want you to dream big because that’s part of the process. This is not just about a spreadsheet, it’s not an app. It’s not about you being good at math, it’s about you opening your mind to dreaming and not questioning whether or not something is possible, just putting the dreams on paper. And so when I do this with my clients there are two ways that I ask them to dream. And so they actually would be dreaming with me inside of the container. But I want to give you this opportunity to dream before you’re working with me because when we get on a call together, I want you to be able to say like, Keina, these are the dreams that you are going to help me accomplish in our five months of working together.
These are the dreams I’m going after. I’m like, great girl, let’s go. So the first way that I ask people to do this is to go through financial visioning. And this is actually later on in the partnerships. I’m probably starting this in reverse, but this will help you as well. And I say starting this in reverse just because we do the financial visioning in our five month partnership a little bit further along into our relationship after people feel comfortable with their numbers. But when we’re thinking about financial visioning, it’s stepping outside of the current budget you have and it’s building the life that you desire. So if you are building the life that you desire in budget form, what do the numbers look like? Do you want a travel fund?
How much are you saving towards your emergency fund? What are you spending on food each month? What are you spend on concerts? How often are you getting your hair done? How often are you getting your nails done? Do you have a housekeeper coming or do you have a car payment? What is happening? So you know how much money would I need to create each month to live this lifestyle? So it’s the difference between where you are now and where you desire to go. But it’s incredible to do this work especially with women because women are typically under earners. And so when we are looking as women, whether you are in a nine to five or even if you work for yourself because you could be under pricing, but when we look at the life you desire to create, now we can actually name a number and we can go to work to help you create that money.
So if you’re in a nine to five, you now know and are now able to build what that timeline looks like in terms of you increasing your salary, it gives you a different reason for the amount of money you want to make. Maybe you’re making $150,000, but you realize when you build your dream budget, you want to be making closer to $230,000 And so now you can think about what would that actually look like for you to move closer towards that goal. If we are looking at this dream budget and you are a solopreneur and it looks like you making $10,000 a month after taxes, we can then look at your business budget, we can look at your business goals and think about what would be the trajectory for you to get there.
So that financial vision that’s built with numbers is going to go to work to help you dream bigger. And then in the beginning, so I told you step, or not step one, but one way I do that is through that financial vision. Another way for you to do this is to look at your life during four different times. So I ask people to think about what their goals are in the next six months, in the next year, five years, and then when they’re 80 years old. And I always prompt people to start at 80 years old because I don’t think we think about like what life will look like when we’re 80 years old, but I always invite them to be like, where do you want to be when you think about being 80 years old? What’s happening?
So people will talk about being able to travel, they have a foundation, they’re thinking about that they have five properties in other countries, but it allows them to actually sit down and think about themselves and their dreams. Like what’s going on in your life? It could be financially, professionally, personally. And so if that’s where you want to be when you’re 80 years old, what does that mean with where you want to be five years from now? And literally do the math. So this podcast is coming out in November of 2022. So where do you want to be in November of 2027? Like think about that, right? What’s happening for you? What’s that big vision you have for yourself? What’s that permission to dream?
And then you can think about whatever five years is from now, maybe you’re like, okay, I’ve bought a new home. I am traveling every month with my husband. Whatever that looks like for yourself. Then if you look at a year from now, maybe it’s November, 2023, depending on when you listen to this podcast episode and think about what do you want to be financially true? Maybe you have $5,000 in savings or you have $20,000 in savings, you’re able to pay for Christmas with cash. Like what would be the dream? What’s the vision there? What are the things that maybe you’re not able to say yes to right now, but you want to be able to say yes to in a year from now? And then lastly, you would go to six months from now.
So if you think about May of 2023, where are you? What are you doing? What are your goals? Maybe you’ve paid off your debt, maybe you are making sure that you save a thousand dollars a month consistently. Maybe you have moved. In a recent podcast episode with my client, Karen, she talked about how powerful this was to go back and look at the goals that she had written down and to see that she had actually crossed off the goals. And her goals were to, at the time she was house sitting for someone. So she wanted to move out and have a place of her own. She wanted to buy a new car, she wanted to move to Florida. But those were the things that she accomplished. Like if I had to think about like her permission to dream and why she started working with me, it would be because I want to move to Florida and buy a new car. That was her big vision.
So if you’re curious, and you’re like, the people that you’ve worked with, what are some of their dreams or what have they been able to do? And I’m going to give you a couple of examples to help you think through this. I think about a client of mine, Lena. Lena is like, I mean all my clients are my favorite, but Lena is really my favorite too. But when we started working together, she was in debt and she was in the education system and at that time she would get a lump sum of money in the summer because she was a 12 month employee, but paid on a 10 month cycle, if that makes any sense to you. So they would give her a lump sum of money at the end of May and she had to make it work until September and she would generally blow all the money and then just be curious about how she was going to pay things in August.
And her credit card became the backup for how she managed her expenses in between August and September. So one of the things that, I’m trying to think when we were working together, she had to give you the big dream. Like her big dream was really to pay off her credit card. Lena is also very concerned with her credit score. And I also would tell Lena, you don’t need to be worried about your credit score, but she loves watching her credit score, so let her watch her credit score. I’m okay with that. But what Lena has done since we worked together, and when we think about compound results, Lena has recently just been able to purchase an investment property. Lena has been able to shift from her full-time job.
So now she works part-time for the school system and she works part-time for herself. So she has two different streams of income and she also, like earlier this year, she gave her sister a loan for her sister to work with me. But when I think about the things that Lena has done since we’ve worked together, like working together has just created ease in her life. Lena also loves to travel and she has been able to travel. I follow her on Instagram and every time I see her, she’s in Mexico, she’s somewhere in New York, but the girl is outside enjoying her best life and she always is talking to me and she’s like, Keina, I’m so thankful that we started working together. Like she’s not using her credit card anymore. She’s just in a completely different financial decision and like we were able to dream together. Now she dreams on her own and she’s just managing her finances at an entirely different level.
I have another client, Lordes, who when we were working together, she had just bought her first home. It was on her radar that she wanted to buy a second property and just this past year she just brought her second property. Like that was something that was really, really important to her and now she’s able to do it. So those two examples just happened to have property in it. But imagine being able to invest in property, being like financially responsible, being financially aware that you’re able to do those things. What is on your dream bigger list? And I would also give you some other ideas here. Maybe it’s that you want to travel at least once a quarter.
I had a client that purchased a $300 purse for her sister who was graduating from med school, I had another client that on her list was to know that she was financially okay because her mom was potentially going to pass away or had a diagnosis where she could potentially pass away. And so part of her dreaming bigger and wanting to start this work was that she wanted to make sure that she was financially in a sound place in case of her mother’s passing. Maybe you want to like buy something that’s $2,500 without thinking twice about it. Or I had a friend telling me that she wants a $50,000 travel fund. I’m like, girl, you can do it. She’s a solopreneur, an entrepreneur. And I’m like, you have the funds to do these things. You just want to one, name that that’s a goal and then do the work that actually, looking at your numbers to make that happen.
Maybe you want to be able to spend $3,000 and have $3,000 in cash for like a prompt you vacation with your girlfriends. Or maybe you want to pay for dinner for the entire table when you go out next time without flinching. Or maybe you want to spend a weekend in Jamaica with friends or maybe you want to take a month off work to just be able to travel and enjoy that time with your significant other. Maybe you want to be able to treat yourself to a spa weekend, like with all the bells and whistles. You want the scrubs, you want the massage, you want the facial, you want to go there and spend a thousand dollars and be treated like a queen. And you want to be able to do that without thinking about the money.
Maybe you want to just blow a thousand dollars just because you want to be able to go to New York, blow a thousand dollars. Or maybe your dream is to retire at 50 years old knowing that that’s an option. Or maybe you want to be able to travel in retirement or you want to be able to buy a bigger house. Or maybe you had a goal similar to mine where you want to get your house cleaned weekly or maybe you want to hire a personal trainer to prioritize your health. But I really want to invite you in this episode to dream. I want to invite you to think about not today’s problems, but to give yourself permission to dream. And as you make your dream list and you’re like, Keina, I don’t know how, just investigate what are some of the things that you said no to recently and what would you love to say yes to in the next six months?
What would you love to say yes to in the next year? What would you love to say yes to in the next five years? Like if you answer those questions. At the end of this, you’re going to have your dream list. You’re going to have permission to problem solve for the things that you desire, and you’re going to be able to use your money to build the life that you desire to create. You’re not going to be thinking about your credit score, you’re not going to be thinking about how you can’t sleep at night, you’re not going to be thinking about your bills not being paid right now, whatever it is, like not today’s problem. That’s not the focus of this episode. I want you to be thinking about the things that you want to be able to say yes to.
Like this is your dream list, your opportunity list. And being able to have this list, especially as we work together and we do the work together is going to allow you to evaluate like trade offs. And it’s going to be able to see, just like I was telling you, I don’t have a desire for a housekeeper anymore. And so if I was looking at my budget and I had a housekeeper in my budget, I would shift that to something else. Like that’s not something that I desire. It might also be that there are things that as you’re going through this journey and you’re thinking about what you want, you may say no to some things and some of those things may be like material things you want to actually buy, but it could also be opportunities where you’re like, that’s not how I want to choose to make money because it’s not an alignment with like where I’m going.
So it all comes back to this opportunity to be intentional. So build your dream list, go to my website and let’s get on a call together so I can help you walk through the process to help you gain peace of mind with your finances and help you start being able to spend your money with ease and feeling really clear about where your money is going and being able to shift that scarcity mindset that maybe you’ve been carrying with you for so long and you don’t necessarily know why you’ve been carrying it with you. But we’ll be able to do the work together to help get you in a place where what you’re going and moving towards is building your dreams, being able to look at your numbers, being able to find joy with actually looking at your account, being able to know how much you can spend and not even really thinking about how much you can spend because you know that there’s money in the bank. So I look forward to hearing from you. And until next time, have a great one.
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.
