Optimizing Financial Health for badass, purpose-driven women

Today's Valuable Free Resources/Links:

·        Free Resource Link to learn 3 Simple Steps to Uplevel Your Budget: https://amyscottcoaching.com/uplevel-your-budget/

Summary

In this week’s episode, I introduce you to Amy Scott, a financial coach.

It was her own family's financial challenges that led her to a career in finance.  After having their first child, her family’s expenses rose exponentially. Determined to reduce their financial stress, she began reading books on money management and personal finance.

Applying the lessons she learned, she and her husband reevaluated their financial picture, got clear on what purchases were aligned with their goals, eliminated non-essential spending, and determined how much money they needed to cover their living expenses.

Amy developed a budgeting method that allowed the family to stay on top of their monthly expenses, live the lifestyle they desired, and plan for future financial goals. 

In this episode, Amy Scott will be discussing the following:

Financial challenges and coaching for purpose-driven women. (0:00)

Financial clarity and avoidance. (4:39)

Financial confidence and control for women. (8:48)

Budgeting, identity, and financial habits. (12:52)

Empowering women with financial knowledge and seeking help. (17:29)

Join me for this episode of Mommy Heal Thyself to explore ways to optimize our financial health.

Transcript
(Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)

Intro  0:00 

Welcome to Mommy Heal Thyself.  We featured guests that provide you with the tools, resources and strategies you need to say no to a life of pain and suffering all forms of preventable disease, toxic drugs and unnecessary surgeries. We hope to inspire you to boldly reclaim your ability to heal, and to serve ones to love.

Dr Michelle  0:15 

Welcome my lovely sisters today I have with me a phenomenal guest. Her name is Amy Scott, and she is a financial coach. Now you all have been talking to me about finances and I know that one of the most pressing issues that impacts our health is our relationship to our finances. In fact, I would say that, that kind of sabotages a lot of people when they're working with me because they get into programs and then their finances are kind of Wonka, or they say, Michelle, I just can't do a program with you because I don't have the finances. And I know that this is an extreme burden to many, many of you. And in fact, it was Amy's own financial challenges that led to her career in finance. After having her first child. Her family expenses rose exponentially determined to reduce their financial stress. She started reading books on money management and personal finance. Now applying the lessons that she learned she and her husband reevaluated their financial picture and got clear on what purchases were aligned with their ultimate goals. They were able to eliminate non essential spending and determined how much they really really needed to cover their living expenses. Then, this is a sweet spot. Now ladies then she said, You know what is not good for just me. She began to develop a budgeting method that allowed their whole family to stay on top of their monthly expenses and to live the lifestyle that they desired, and to plan for future financial goals. And once she was able to cultivate this method and perfect this method, she then brought it out to the world. So Amy, thank you thank you. Thank you for joining us. Fun. Absolutely. So, first and foremost. What type of people do you help?

Amy Scott  2:38 

Well, I like to say I help purpose driven women, and that could really mean a lot of different things. My 13 year old says to me, Well, what does that mean mom, but most women know what that means right to have some kind of a purpose whether their purpose is, you know, caring for their family. Or pursuing your career or taking care of their health or their family members. I typically help women who feel like finances or an area of their life that they don't feel as competent in as they may feel in some other areas. It's been kind of like their Achilles heel. It's that thing that continues to come up for them that they wish they either understood better, they had more skills around that felt like they kind of missed the boat on it. And they're just typically women who are looking for help.

Dr Michelle  3:32 

So now what are the symptoms that you have experience that many of them are dealing with? How can they identify that you know what I really need to deal with this issue? What is it that's coming up in their world?

Amy Scott  3:48 

That's a good question. I mean, I think just in general, they're thinking about finances. A lot. And you know, how much is too much? How much is not enough, right? But they're typically finding themselves thinking about and stressing about money on more than a daily basis, and maybe even losing sleep. Right from thinking about their finances having arguments that they have a partner they share finances with, or constantly do what I call like bank account budgeting or mental math, where they're running numbers in their head and saying, like, how much do I have to spend and they're worried they have a sense of worry or maybe not having enough whether it be for today, or for the near term or the longer term they don't feel they don't feel at peace around their finances, whatever that looks for them. Yeah.

Dr Michelle  4:40 

So now what is the mistake that you find a lot of them are making when they're dealing with their finances for themselves and for their family?

Amy Scott  4:49 

Well, um, I don't know if it's necessarily a mistake, per se, but I think one well, let me say it this way, Michelle, that you know, I think one of the things that's a challenge around finances is a lack of clarity. I actually find that when my clients are women, I'm leading workshops with that. If they can get clarity around their finances, they are, it's easier for them to make confident decisions with peace of mind. And a lot of times people think like well, to have clarity, I have a pretty good idea of what I'm spending what's going in what's going out. But it's hard to have our head around our finances. We're not like dealing with, you know, getting paid one day and spending all our money in one day. income and expenses go in and out of our bank accounts on a regular basis and we may have expenses that are daily like gas or groceries where we're psyched to swiping a debit card or credit card. We may have expenses that are once a month like mortgage or rent cell phone bill. And then what we have what we call my house Whammies of life, you know, maybe car insurance that hits twice a year or a repair to a house or health or something your kidneys. So I think one of the first steps is really just getting clarity that these type of expenses whether they're regular monthly, day to day expenses, or those Whammy, one off expenses, they impact our bank account in different ways. So when you ask them, well, what's the mistake that people are making? I find that they're treating those three categories of expenses in the same way. Well, here's my bank account. And I have that type of expense i It goes in it goes out of this account and I find that leads to a lack of clarity. And that's what I guess I will call a mistake is treating those three types of expenses the same way.

Dr Michelle  6:44 

Now do you also find that it's kind of like an ostrich burying their head in the sand? I find that a lot of women are clueless about their finances. I mean, they're like scared to even look at their finances. And when I asked them well, how much are you spending on a monthly basis because I'm, I'm always perplexed by women that are making a lot of money as far as I'm concerned. You know, relatively speaking, and yet, they are all they always have this mentality of, I'm broke and I cannot afford to do what really matters in my life. I cannot afford to do these things for my health. So do you find that they're just like, like scared to even touch the whole aspect of finances?

Amy Scott  7:34 

I mean, I think I think there is that scared piece. I think it's also a matter of I tried this before, and maybe I haven't done well at it and that's why we put our head in the sand. I think when people don't feel that they're strong in an area of life, they don't feel as confident they may avoid it. So you may find I find a lot of my clients, you know, whatever you want to call good money, they're making good money. Sometimes they're making more than they've ever made. And yet they may be more stressed about their finances, because then they have the added layer of I should be doing better. Right I should be saving more I should be contributing more to this. And I always like to say that should is never compelling why right should is never going to carry the day and yet we do so much shitting on ourselves around money. And so I think that that can get away in the way a lot of the time. So it's it's that matter of creating a y that I'm sure it's I would imagine the same as far as taking a stand around your health. Like if you shouldn't be doing better around your health, you may not follow a plan all the way through. Whereas if you've created a y that's like, I don't know, I'm just making this up. I'm going to be alive in 10 years like Kilimanjaro with my mom, right that can be a more compelling why. So I find that my number one goal of course, I love helping people pay off debt. I love to have helping people save, but my number one goal honestly is to help women feel confident, to feel confident and in control. When you're confident and in control. You look at your bank account and follow a plan. When you feel like I suck at this right I'm always going to be bad books. You put your head in the sand. It's just a normal reaction, I think so. My work is about creating confidence and control which I find comes from as I said earlier, clarity and having a plan. I don't know if that's similar in your work, but when you have a family Yes, I got a plan. Yeah,

Dr Michelle  9:40 

that having that plan and really, really being clear on why this is important for you. You know, so women, why is it important for you to get your finances in order for you to be confident with regards to your finances? And so what is the number one tip that you would give to our women

Amy Scott  10:07 

and I do it in three smaller tips. Sure, sure. Sure. Okay, well, I think you know, kind of said it earlier. The number one tip is to, you know, first of all, it takes courage. I think it takes courage. And so number one tip is just like acknowledging yourself or even going through the process. This is a big deal and most people just get by, they do the best they can with what they have. So if you're in that category, like to not shame yourself around it and to give yourself like, oh, it turns out in this area, I'm ordinary. We're probably extraordinary in many areas of life. It's okay to be ordinary, which means quite frankly, in America, having died having your head in the sand not knowing what's happening around your finances, to be honest with you, that's kind of orange. So it's okay to number one acknowledge like I'm ordinary in that area. To write average in this area. Exactly. If you want to take the first step I'd say kind of what I mentioned earlier, which is Get clear that there's monthly expenses a fixed amount fixed, you know, a fixed amount like cellphone bill $100 On the 15th of the month, next day of the month fixed amount. Those expenses tend to be the least stressful, because we know when they're due, and we know how much we don't say like, oh, my gosh, I can't believe my mortgage is $1,500 this month, because typically around the same amount, right? So what we want to do honestly, Michelle is to take though that that regular fixed expense and turn the other two categories into regular fixed expenses. So what I recommend is turning your day to day spending. That's us groceries and Amazon. Target runs, right? What else like Uber Eats those kinds of things where you're either swiping a debit card or swiping your credit card. This tends to be the area where we're like, I have no idea what I'm spending in this area. And it's the not knowing or not feeling like we can really get our hands around it. Like I'll never know how much I can't land for that. It's not my mortgage, just got my cell phone bill, right. That's what causes stress is the not knowing, right? We don't have confidence because we don't know especially if someone uses their credit card. That amount is going up every month. We opened our bill it's never less at least that's not been my experience, right?

Unknown Speaker  12:37 

That's stickers shock like.

Amy Scott  12:41 

Exactly, exactly. So really, it's kind of thinking about your expenses in those three categories. The second step is to really turn the day to day into a fixed amount that you can plan around. So I don't have a set number. I'm not going to say everyone should stick with $1,000 a month. No it's different for every person. There's no one size fits all budget. But look at the last few months and see. What are you spending on gas groceries Amazon going out to eat? Let's just pretend it's $1,000 a month. My number one tip is to honestly take that amount of money every month and actually move it out of your checking account. So you know Dave Ramsey and all his buddies would say take it out of cash, but we don't really live in a cash culture right now. So I recommend that you set up a second checking account and put that money into that account. Yeah, smart. That becomes quote unquote, your patient account that's your spending account. And the thing about it is I won't go too far into this but numbers coming down. You started in 2000 and you spend down psychological studies have shown the impact is you spend 20 to 22% less when the amount of 1000 is coming down as opposed to a credit card when the amount is going up and we're unconscious of what we're spending.

Unknown Speaker  13:56 

I liked that idea. So

Amy Scott  13:58 

I'll stick with that tip. That was a lot of me talking.

Dr Michelle  14:01 

No that was fantastic tip and I and I think it also leads into what I share with people, which is the importance of getting someone to assist you on this, someone who is dispassionate, they're not emotionally tied to whatever is on your list, you know, and so you can have that third party looking at and when it's a third party, I'm assuming that you know, it's you and your your husband or you know, something of that nature. And so you have a third party that can look at the finances and say, Hmm, have you considered this? Have you considered this? And that person doesn't have any dogs in the fight so to speak, you know, so therefore you can get that kind of objective look at it, and you too can start to become dispassionate and look at it as just numbers as opposed to having it feel like it's a judgment call on yourself. You know, I think that's like you said that shame and that guilt that's so woven into our relationship with money can be very disparaging. So now, Amy, share with us what is the one book or TED talk or something that really impacted your life with regards to this journey?

Amy Scott  15:18 

Okay, that's a good question. A lot of books along the way. When I started getting interested in finances, honestly, it was before I even knew podcasts were a thing. So now it's been a lot of podcasts. So they've been listening to but I think one of the most helpful books honestly for me it wasn't necessarily a money book but atomic habits by James clear. I just I use that a lot with my clients because he talks about truly like before you change habits in life, which allow you know a lot of times as human beings we relate to ourselves as a human being, but we're really a human doing. We're looking for things that we can do. And that's all very important, but what he talks about in that book is like to really change a habit. It's about changing your identity. And I find that a lot of my clients come to me with an identity that has been built from a very young age over time, which is some some version of I'm not good with money. I'm bad with money, right? I didn't learn the right things about money. I'm screwed with money, some version of that and the work that I do with women over time is about transforming that identity. And I just found that that atomic habits really just really spoke to the importance of that but it isn't just about changing a behavior. It's about changing your identity and how you view yourself.

Dr Michelle  16:45 

Absolutely. I love that I you know, that's something that I hadn't really thought about, but it's it is very, very true. You know, I, one of my previous hats was that I was a math teacher. And one of the things that we come into this world, a lot of us especially women tend to say I'm just not good at math. And interestingly enough, I think that's also tied into our relationship with money. Somehow we have connected our fear of math, and we think that it's intermingled with finances, and it's just one whole ball of interesting, false identity. Which you're saying has to be looked at and purged before we can have a healthier relationship. So I like I like that. I like that. So now what is a free resource that you can connect us to that will help our women on their journey to being more powerful and and feeling that sense of Yes, I got this.

Amy Scott  17:44 

Yes, absolutely. So a few of those tips that I talked with plus some more, I got it out of my head and I got it into like a document a PDF document that's called Three simple steps to uplevel your budget really talks about those three different categories of how we organize our finances, how to turn our spending into a day to day expense. And then the third thing that you have to get the document to read. I don't have too much time to go into. So you

Dr Michelle  18:12 

Yeah, you'll be able to get that link in the show notes lady, so don't worry about it. We've got you covered Amy's going to provide me with the link and it'll be in the show notes for you being able to click on it and get access to that powerful PDF that is given give you that those three important steps for you to be able to be one become more empowered in your relationship with your finances. So now in closing, is there anything that we should have talked about or I should have asked you that we didn't cover that you'd like to, you know, bring home with?

Amy Scott  18:44 

Oh, great question. I think so. I think you and I it's it's very interesting to me because my background is in public. Health, which I think I've shared with you. mandator Chris and a couple of boys. It's 35 and my life took a different turn. But you know, it's interesting to hear you when you share about your passion about women having really getting taking steps around their health. I feel that same way. One of the biggest stressors around our health is the stress is financial stress. So I just see that a lot and align in parallel. And more than anything else, I just, you just made me as I would have asked me but it's my number one message to women is to give yourself permission. Instead of asking, How can I figure this out? Asking who can I ask to help me to figure this out? Yes. Is a different is a different question. Is that different from paradigm to us? So I didn't even just listen to the podcast is a bunch of women saying like, hey, you know, how do I move forward in my life powerfully?

Dr Michelle  19:53 

And I love what you're emphasizing the fact that we do not have to figure everything out for ourselves. I keep stressing that to you ladies you are not alone. Please, please, please, if there's nothing else you get from our times together, is the understanding that you are not alone. Please, as Amy says, Start reframing that question and start looking to the sources around you putting that question out to the universe saying, Who can help me with this issue? Who can help me and I guarantee you once you put it out to the universe, the support will appear. Whether it be in the form of podcasts like these or PDFs like the ones that Amy's going to show or invitations to join in different programs. You will have your answer to that question. But you first have to ask the question. Know that asking for help is actually a sign of courage. Asking for help is a sign of strength. And to me, asking for help is a sign of intelligence, I think is only stupid people out there who think they know everything and don't feel that they need to ask anybody for any help. But hey, you know, I'm biased. So you know, take it with a grain of salt. In any case. Ladies, thank you for joining us today. Amy, thank you for being here with us and sharing these powerful words of wisdom. And we look forward to seeing you once again in our next episode of mommy heal thyself. Bye.

Closing: Thank you for tuning in for this episode of Mommy Heal Thyself, if you liked what we're doing here, please share subscribe, like us and leave a comment. Your feedback is very much appreciated.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai