***Do You Know Where Your Money Is Disappearing To?

Every time I teach money classes or coach one-on-one with clients I am always amazed at how much resistance comes up around gaining clarity about spending. It's almost as if our culture as a whole has a love/hate relationship around controlling their spending. Here's what I've noticed: people know that they "should" be tracking their spending. They frequently feel out of control when it comes to how they're spending money and yet at the same time they stubbornly resist it. And, in fact, a great number of people are stuck in what I call "Financial Denial." Meanwhile we try to force ourselves to track our expenses and get control of our spending, but under the surface we resist it. We are setting ourselves up for failure. Somehow we have to resolve this. Otherwise we walk around with the experience that "tracking money and controlling my spending is hard." And when we have this kind of conversation going on inside our heads we won't be motivated to take any constructive action. Most people think that they need to just change their money behaviors, i.e., track their spending. But it is equally if not more important to look at the belief systems that we have around money. Our actions and behaviors will always be in perfect alignment with our internal perceptions and beliefs. If we believe that tracking our expenses will be a time consuming task, or if we feel like tracking money is equivalent to getting a report card in which we're always doomed to get an "F" on, then we're not going to be motivated to stick to a money tracking system. I've found that it's essential to discover a money tracking system that matches your unique money personality. The money tracking system that works for a "Numbers Lover" won't be the same for the "Money Avoider or Free Spirit" money personality. To sum it up, here's what I'd like you to take away from this: first, get clear on your money story so you can begin to question your money reality, shift it and take on a new money behavior that results in new actions. And second, find a money tracking approach that works well for your unique money personality.