Embrace Cozy Conversations & Reflect on Your Money Relationship - Building your confidence in Money talks

As the leaves start to fall and we spend more time indoors with loved ones, it's the perfect opportunity to reflect on how we manage and talk about money. While sipping a warm drink, consider how comfortable you feel discussing finances with your partner, family, or friends. With the holidays fast approaching, now is an ideal time to get cozy with your money goals and develop a plan for holiday spending.

Fall naturally invites self-reflection. Take this time to evaluate how you currently approach budgeting and how open you are to discussing finances with others. Personal Finances are inherently personal as each person’s puzzle of needs, wants, choices, and opportunities is uniquely different, so taking the time to truly reflect on our relationship with money and openness about money is vastly important.  I encourage you to sit with these questions and consider your responses.

• Questions you might consider while reflecting on your Money Relationship

  • Do I feel comfortable talking to others about my money choices and theirs?

  • Do you spend dedicated time reviewing your expenses, tracking your budget, and ensuring your spending connects to your values?

  • Have you ever shared your money struggles or successes with another person?

    • Why or why not? How does it make you feel when you talk with others about Money?

  • If you look up to someone for their money savviness, have you ever asked them how they learned about Money or what Wisdom they could impart to you?

    
    

If you have not been great with being connected with your spending and money choices, this fall is a perfect opportunity to get connected. If you’re not ready to make a budget for your monthly income and family start smaller with seasonal budgeting for the upcoming holidays. Create a budget for gifts, gatherings, travel, and decorations. Get clear on how much you want to spend versus what your current budget allows. If you want more details on how you might create a Holiday spending plan check out this blog

Take time this fall to build family money conversations. Consider using cozy fall evenings as an opportunity to talk openly with family about holiday expectations and how money will be managed. It's a great way to align goals and avoid stress. This might look like small scale conversations one on one with individual family members letting them know how you plan to allocate your money during the season. You never know how these conversations might alleviate financial stress for other adult family members that feel the need to keep up a gifting and spending level that might not be reasonable. This is also a great opportunity to set reasonable expectations with children on gift giving and receiving.

My Action Tip for you: Have a "money date" to talk about holiday priorities. Take time to add this to the calendar and make sure your conversation partner knows what the conversation will focus on so they are not taken by surprise. Some discussion ideas might be where you can scale back, where you want to put a spending priority on, or if there are any shared costs with family gatherings. Make it comfortable by pairing the conversation with something enjoyable—like a cozy evening by the fire or warm fall drinks.

• Join us for our Community Chat this month on October 17th at 5:30 pm Pacific Time. Our topic is how to plan a Money Date and have successful Money conversations. Registration link