Change Your Spending Habits and Learn About Yourself Too

Posted on: September 21, 2007

I attended a teleconference class yesterday. Something I have been meaning to do, but just needed to commit the time. I am glad I did. It functioned very much like a class, except I was sitting at my desk which meant I didn’t need to get in my car, deal with traffic, and find parking just to get some great information. A huge time-saver, indeed!

Shell is a very good speaker and her ideas definitely expanded my awareness of who is actually in charge of making my money decisions. The class topic was, Who’s That Little Kid Managing Your Money? The idea Shell portrays in the class is that we develop much of how we view money, our relationship with money, and spending habits when we are around five years old. Now we develop a lot of who we will become when we are that age, except much of that gets worked out as we interact with other people, ideas, and experiences. Unfortunately, money seems to be a taboo subject so we end up stuck in old belief patterns; and often we just take our belief patterns as “truth”. Instead of examining patterns of thought around money the way we would a relationship or career, most of us feel “this is just how it is done” without realizing why we believe it.

Some people on the call had huge epiphanies about why certain patterns continue to pop up in their lives. With a father who was a spender and a mother who was a saver, one woman figured out why she was inviting men into her life that wanted to spend her money while she wanted to save it.

My parents are both thrifty savers. They worked physically challenging professions and did their best to stretch their dollar as far as possible. Spending was about practicality for the most part, and good deals. My father will buy a whole “lot” of miscellaneous stuff from an auction because he wants one thing from it. Eventually, he finds uses for some of the other stuff. I am the shopper who goes to the clearance rack first; I think I took on my parents’ love of a good deal. My father is always the happiest when he just purchased what he considers a “good deal”. I still have much unraveling to do about how my family impacted my thinking about money. So, first I’ll just spend some time becoming aware of my thought process while making purchases; instead of just assuming “this is the way it is done,” I’ll ask myself “where did this thought process come from?” and “Does this help me reach my life goals?” If not, then I have identified something to work on, and soon it will be a new me! A person I have created instead of being a product of my environment, and nothing inspires me more than that!

So, if you would like to take a therapeutic walk into your money beliefs from the comfort of your own desk, then join next month’s call, Charge What You Are Worth.

Here is Shell’s description of the class:

Lots of people in business for themselves have trouble figuring out not only what to charge, but just how much they and their time are worth.

Do you ever find yourself tongue tied when people ask for your fees or rates?

Have you now and then discount your rates before you are even asked to?

Do you sometimes feel guilty about how much you charge?

Do you occasionally think deserving people can’t afford you?

This teleclass is an examination of how we often self-sabotage ourselves around our fees and charges. In this class we will start to untangle and shift your beliefs about your worth and value, and their affects on your fees.
Date: Thursday, October 25th
Time: 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Pacific (1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. Eastern)
Registration: send an email with your name and phone number to shell@sensiblecoaching.com
Fee: FREE…your only cost for this call is your regular long distance call charges

I hope to “hear” you there!

Written by Heidi Aspinwall, Broker for portlandrealestate.com.