4 Simple Steps to Make Financial Planning Feel Good

Back in the days when I was swimming in debt and not paying very much attention to my money (other than spending it regularly) I felt like the whole financial planning world was too boring for me.

The idea of getting out all of my statements, talking with a professional, and plugging my financial life into equations that were supposed to help me live long and prosper just felt impersonal.

The truth is, though, that we can’t get where we want to go without a plan. If where we’re going is financial freedom and prosperity, we gotta know how to get there.

Since I was such a chronic financial avoider, I had to learn to make paying attention to my money fun. I had to learn to make it feel good!

There’s a whole chapter in my book, Money: A Love Story, called Feel Good Financial Planning, and today I boiled the gist of it down into a Financial Freedom Friday episode for you.

In today’s video you’ll learn:

4 steps to identifying your values
how to make every single spending decision obvious and easy
how to feel good both during the journey and when you get to the destination
why being an emotional creature is actually one of your best assets when it comes to your financial life

Click below to watch the video:

Bringing our emotions to the table is critical for successful financial planning. (Tweet it!)

Over to you:

What practices help make managing your money feel good? What are your core values?

P.S. Have you gotten your copy of Money: A Love Story yet? It’s been hanging steady on Amazon as the #1 seller in Finance and I was featured on the Today Show chatting about it with Al Roker and Willie Geist this week!

When you get your copy you get free access to a 2-hour online event I’m doing called A Course in Having Enough with special guests Marianne Williamson, Barbara Stanny, and Amanda Steinberg. Get your copy and details HERE.

20 comments

Ashley

September 13, 2013 AT 8:32AM

Absolutely loved this! I really connected with everything you said..going to work on my values today with my husband and post it where we can see it. We made a vision board in the beginning of the year of things we wanted to accomplish and that has really helped us out, paying off my husbands car was one, and we are almost there! It helps so much to be reminded of what we really want. I almost made a huge mistake the other day taking a job that would of totally sacrificed my current values but realized it before I took it..life is amazing and I am slowly making since of it all with the help of people like you! Thanks Kate!

Kate

September 13, 2013 AT 4:27PM

Nice work! I love that you guys are working on it together!

Reply

Camille

September 13, 2013 AT 9:03AM

Love this video! My son says “oink, oink” whenever he sees your book including in this video! It’s pretty cute. Thank you for sharing these steps! I am excited to explore my new value system thanks to you!

Jennifer Bardall

September 13, 2013 AT 12:18PM

Just wanted to let you know that I’m loving the book so far!

Kate

September 13, 2013 AT 4:27PM

Thanks so much Jennifer!

Reply

Devani Freeman

September 13, 2013 AT 1:08PM

Great tips Kate! I need to do the tip about laminating index cards to always have a reminder of my values and goals. Thank you :)

Heidi

September 13, 2013 AT 2:32PM

Thanks Kate, learning so much with you about my finance relationship! My values are: Connection, Beauty, peace, freedom, travel. Lot of love

Ana Goncalves

September 13, 2013 AT 4:25PM

Thank you Kate, for another insightful and highly helpful video. It’s interesting as I had the same experience happen to me this week like Ashley where I was given the opportunity to work in a full time job and I realized that after a 3 day trial it would sacrifice all my current values so that is why I turned it down and it made me acknowledge my own worth better and what I desire to do right now, stand in my power and commit to my own service based business and projects.

Thank you for the tips, will work on them closely.

Have a wonderful weekend :) x

Kate

September 13, 2013 AT 4:26PM

Congrats on listening to yourself!

Reply

Deborah Chalk

September 13, 2013 AT 4:28PM

Also loving your book so far Kate. I love how you tell your money story. Thank you!

edwin pineda

September 13, 2013 AT 11:03PM

I love it. Thank for this wonderful video of financial freedom friday.

elizabeth Peterson

September 14, 2013 AT 4:19AM

I have to get this book. Hurry up, Australia and bring it!

Deane Giordano

September 14, 2013 AT 8:08AM

So excited to get my copy of your book, yesterday! (Big shout out to my friend Falan Storm for her interview with you…y’all had me at hip circles!) Clarifying values got close to my heart (and one of the first things I help my clients with) when I realized how long I meandered through life without a clear idea of what I valued. Ugh, the decisions I made. Anyway, thank you for your wonderful work in the world! Can’t wait to share.

Maria

September 14, 2013 AT 10:14PM

It´s the first video I watch and suddenly there is so much I have to analyze on my daily life and why is it that know I feel more free and creative than when I was full time job at and ad agency that sucked all my energy. It´s clear that one answer is never good for everyone!

April

September 16, 2013 AT 7:03AM

Thank you ! This is the best advice, and so true !

Antje Roggemann

September 18, 2013 AT 9:55AM

When looking at the peak experiences in my life I just thought I also identified two things that I was missing in all of them. But then I realised that this wasn’t true. All my values were there: a home (that is mine – that was illusion), family, friends, helpers, being happy and excited. But it all got screwed up through fear of not having enough money to sustain it. And over time some things and people turned out to be illusions.

Everything blew up last year. No money. No house. All members of the family living in different places. Me, my husband, cats, the dog. After slowly recovering from the major blow and burnout, we are now building it up again from scratch. Together this time. Doing as work only things we love. Having found new friends that match us. And counting on our grown up animals to take care of themselves for most of the day or being taken care of by helpers.

Thank you, Kate, for this video. It helped me to see that I know my values. And even with not having much money still, I learned during the last year that I always manage to pay for the things that are really important to me. Like the daycare of our dog. It’s nice to realise that I do spend my money on the things that are important to me. And it might make future decisions easier.

Antje

Cindy

September 18, 2013 AT 11:42AM

great session. Thanks for sharing

Zephyr

September 18, 2013 AT 6:13PM

If this is already very obvious to me will the book be helpful or full of what I already know? I know money is a stand in for what I value. I have been saying for years I would love to skip the money and go right to the things I want like travel and freedom. I know my values and spend according to that while enjoying the present. The problem? Ahh! My # 1 value is freedom and consequently I am a self employed artist and parent so I end up with neither freedom nor money! What to do, what to do…..

Claudia

September 27, 2013 AT 11:20AM

Your book is on my wishlist and perhaps that is my reward, getting our of my own financial mess. I am grateful for what I have learned from you so far and what I’ve discovered already, so the rescue work is not so much.
I feel much more confident now, as the value and emotion direction certainly provides me with the structure/guidance I needed.
Thanks so much.

Star

September 30, 2013 AT 12:11AM

Thank-you Kate for this video. I have ascertained that my values are: Optimism, Achievement and Happiness.
I can see where they relate to all my top experiences, and the reason why I am not in alignment at the moment, being surrounded by people that don’t have these values.
Thank-you so much,
Star