One of the things I discovered very early on in my money journey is that being good with our money isn’t just about the numbers. Yes, I didn’t know what I was supposed to do with my money but even once I did learn and decide what would work best for me, I wasn’t taking action that aligned with that plan. And it’s not like it was too complicated or confusing. 

I wanted to spend less money than I was earning (and at the time I had a steady paycheck) and have some money leftover to save. That’s it. 

Why didn’t it work? How we interact and behave with money (aka our relationship with money) has a lot to do with our emotions and beliefs. 

Money is tough for so many reasons: we aren’t taught about it, it’s taboo to talk about, and we derive a lot of our self-worth from our financial status. And that’s just if you’re a white man.

Women and even more so, BIPOC, have infinitely more working against them when it comes to their money. There are pay gaps, investing gaps, accessibility gaps, discrimination - and the list goes on and on.

How important is our mindset? It turns out, mindset impacts almost every aspect of our lives, from finance to education to equality to corporate culture (and beyond). As a strong believer in the power of mindset, I’m a huge fan of Carol Dweck and her work. Dweck is a professor of psychology at Stanford and a leading researcher in the field of motivation. She’s also the best-selling author of Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.

In her book, Dweck identifies two core mindsets:

• A fixed mindset, the belief that one’s abilities were carved in stone and predetermined at birth.

• A growth mindset, the belief that one’s skills and qualities could be cultivated through effort and perseverance.

A lot of times we’re doing so many things right in our personal finances, but we’re still not seeing the progress we want. We’ve taken the time to set up a weekly or monthly budget (we may even be using a great budgeting spreadsheet). Everything runs smoothly for a little while, until a larger irregular expense comes up. 

I’ve found that sinking funds are an easy and straightforward solution to getting rid of the ups and downs and money stress that come with these types of expenses. 

There are expenses in life we can’t plan for and that’s why we have a rainy-day fund. But there are also many expenses that we can plan for and just don’t. The holidays are a perfect example. They come around every year and yet almost half of us get stressed out about money around the holidays. We don’t set up or stick with a holiday budget.

We spend more than we plan or expect. Cash ends up feeling tight, we have to pull money from savings, or we put the extra expenses on a credit card that we have to deal with later. It takes away from this joyful time and ends up causing us a lot of stress.

Right now, there’s a lot of moving going on. Some are moving in with family in order to save on rent, some living in expensive cities with indefinite WFH plans are moving to cheaper locations, and others are pushing up their plans to move to the suburbs in order to have more space.

Regardless of why you’re moving, it’s never easy to move - and it’s expensive. Most of us don’t actually plan for the cost of moving and even when we do, we grossly underestimate what it will cost. This can cause us a lot of stress and affect our financial goals. If you are budgeting for a move in the near future, here’s how to do it

We all know that saving for something in advance makes financial sense, but can it also make us happier? Science says yes. Researcher Elizabeth Dunn says that paying for a vacation ahead of time separates the pain of paying with the vacation itself, so we are able to enjoy it more. 

Have you experienced this? You’re mid-way through an island vacation you’ve been excited about all winter long, but each time you swipe your credit card at a hotel or fun restaurant, you can’t help but think about your increasing credit card balance. 

Weddings are expensive. In 2018, the average cost of being a bridesmaid was $1,500. When you add up the cost of the travel, gifts, bachelorette party, and dress—and multiply it across multiple friends -that is a huge chunk of change.

These are big expenses that can hit all in one paycheck and make cash flow tight. If you’re feeling the financial hangover from a banging wedding season, we’ve got you covered with seven steps to recover and plan to make the next wedding season go a whole lot more smoothly.