Transform Your Relationship with Money, Transform Your Life



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In this interview, Karen McCall recalls her own struggles with money and what she had to realize in order to start on the path to recovery and success. She identifies what you can do to transform self-defeating money habits and achieve financial well-being—by engaging in the compassionate, non-shaming, and empowering process of the MoneyMinder® system, beginning with the MoneyMinder® Money Autobiography. The Money Autobiography helps you understand how you’ve developed the belief systems that drive the money habits you have today.

The Karen McCall MoneyMinder® system, based on the expertise of Karen McCall’s more than 20 years of financial counseling experience, is designed to provide the understanding that will lead to true behavior change. It is a system you can use to clarify your financial goals and visualize how money decisions lead toward—or away from—those goals. Using the MoneyMinder® system, you can learn how to achieve peace in the midst of the anxiety, stress, and suffering that are caused by fundamental problems with money.

Here are ten basic tips that are part of the process:

  1. Get Connected To Your Money.
    Write down everything you spend, so you become connected to your money.
  1. Become Conscious.
    Record your tracking over time, so you can become aware of how much you are spending in all categories.
  1. Plan To Succeed.
    Create a spending plan at the beginning of each month to see ahead of time whether you’ll have enough. 
  1. Take Charge, Don't Charge.
    Make adjustments to your plan by asking yourself if you can meet some of your needs in ways that cost less or no money.
  1. Stay Aware.
    Stay connected to your plan throughout the month, so you can self-correct if something changes. When people deviate from their plan, it is usually for one of three reasons:
  • Not planning enough, or planning too much – for example, under- or over-guesstimating at the beginning of the exercise (it’s normal because you haven’t been tracking long enough yet to know);

  • Something comes up that you couldn’t have planned for – for example, your computer crashes in the month of June;

  • Impulsive spending – for example, “I saw it, and I wanted it, and I bought it.” Most of us are masters at rationalizing and justifying our decisions to spend and charge any number of things to our credit cards; the key is to recognize when and where we are doing this, so we can remind ourselves of our goals, remain in control, and feel good about it.
  1. Adapt To Changes.
    Make adjustments again if one of the three above deviations from the plan has happened.
  1. Accept The Reality Of Your Situation.
    Plan for non-monthly expenses and start saving your way out of debt. These savings are classified as “periodic savings.”
  1. Avoid Surprises.
    Pay the minimum on credit cards until you’ve built up savings, or you will never be able to stop the debt cycle (this is contrary to some popular advice, but teaches the individual “good psychology of saving”).
  1. Break The Debt Cycle.
    Look at all credit card statements and list all debt, interest rates, etc. Get conscious and connected to your debt.
  1. Create Lasting Change To Live The Life You Want.
    Create bottom-line behaviors for yourself around the use of credit cards and general spending, so you know when you cross the line. This is where you’ll see when and how you’re deviating from the plan, and take action accordingly.