Hey guys!
Welcome back to Lavendaire.
Today I have a special guest for you.
This is Ms. Canna Campbell from SugarMammaTV.
She's a financial advisor, a money guru.
She talks about minimalism as well on her channel, so check her out at SugarMammaTV.
Today she's gonna share the things that all people should know about managing their money,
things that we're not taught in school.
So are you ready?
- I'm ready. Are you ready?
These are seven easy-to-follow steps to get you back on top of your finances
and being excited about your financial future.
The first thing is, with any journey, it always begins internally.
So have a look at your money mindset.
What blocks do you have around money?
What limiting self beliefs have been planted into your head?
What I recommend you do is: Stop and spend the time to explore them.
An example, I found one the other day – and everyone has these blocks.
They appear and go away, but you have to do the work on them.
I realized I had this self-limiting belief that I wasn't worthy of
earning more than a certain amount of money.
That I had a ceiling and I couldn't break it.
It was so frustrating.
But then I realized, it was just a belief.
It was just something in my mind.
I was able to explore it, challenge it, and let it go, and I proved myself wrong.
Within a week, I was earning more money.
I was able to give myself a pay rise.
What I recommend people do when it comes to experiencing these blocks
and ways you question your self worth,
when it comes to being financially savvy with money,
is to think about talking to yourself as your friend.
Would I ever say to my best friend,
"You're not worthy of earning X amount of dollars per year. You don't deserve it."?
Absolutely no! Nobody would say that!
You'd be like, "No, go for it! You're worthy!
You're actually worthy of more! Of course you can do this. You got this!"
That's how we need to learn to speak to ourselves.
It helps earn our own belief in ourselves, our sense of self worth,
our esteem, and our sense of confidence,
to actually go and thrive and strive, and really have a go at achieving our dreams and goals.
- I love that you say that there's no ceiling.
It is true.
When I think about a friend, I'm not gonna tell them how much is the most money they can make.
There's no ceiling.
- Yeah! We live in an abundant universe.
Just because you earn more money, you're not taking money away from anyone else.
- Exactly.
- And also, the flow of money is very important, because when we have more money,
we can spend money on the people we love,
we can give money to charity, we get more time back, we can invest more.
We put the flow of money back into the economy.
Great, beautiful things do come from being financially free and independent.
The next thing is to understand where you stand financially.
Just like if you want to go and lose weight or get fitter, you need to know what you weigh,
or how long you can run without stopping.
Make sure you stop and take the time to get a snapshot of where you stand financially.
Write down all the money you have in your savings account,
in your 401k plans or IRAs, any shares or investments that you might own.
And then also write down all the liabilities.
So who you owe money to and how much.
And that will then add up each of those two lists, it will give you a net wealth figure.
Now what we want to try and do is build and improve from that net figure going forward.
A great way to write down, or a great place to write down this,
is obviously in your workbook, which I genuinely love and use.
- Thank you!
- So take the time to write down a snapshot of where you stand financially,
so you can start to see the progress very quickly.
The third thing you need to do is come up with some financial goals for yourself,
things that make you feel excited about changing your life.
Say you've got lots of credit card debt that you feel really embarrassed or ashamed of,
set yourself a goal to pay that debt off and to stay out of debt for good.
Set a goal to pay the debt off by a deadline, and your deadline should always be a timeframe.
Not "in three months time",
because you constantly push that goal three months always into the future.
It should be, "My goal is to pay off my $3,000 in credit card debt by the 19th of December 2018."
- Very specific.
- Very specific because, actually, it makes you accountable.
And you realize time is ticking.
We say "You have to pull your finger out," and do something.
No more excuses.
You got a deadline, you gotta get it done.
You'll see better results.
You'll see better progress.
Another great goal to have financially might be to build up a certain amount of savings
so that you can sleep well at night
and know that you've got emergency money set aside if anything goes wrong.
Or you might even have a goal to start investing,
investing into, say, a share portfolio.
Things like that, which I share about how to do on my YouTube channel.
Have meaningful financial goals that you feel excited about and you want to achieve.
The fourth most important step to do is to have a budget.
Now, budgets are not supposed to be restrictive or mean or coming from a place of scarcity or deprivation.
It's about giving yourself really healthy guidelines and boundaries when it comes to spending.
For example: You allow yourself to have a certain amount of money per month to spend on clothes
or to spend on new experiences or social activities.
So for example, you might say to yourself,
"Okay, I'm going to allow $100 per month on takeaways,"
or "I'm going to allow $200 a month on new clothes for my wardrobe."
Whatever it may be, you gotta honor what's important to yourself.
And my money mantra is: Always buy what you love, value, use, and appreciate.
When you do your budget, you'll see all the mindless spending that goes on.
You get a coffee here or juice here,
or buy a new top that we didn't really need.
We got one similar at home.
It stops that.
It makes you more centered and more grounded as to how you spend your money.
Step #5 is to focus on abundance.
So just because you earn X amount of dollars per year working,
doesn't mean you're not entitled to or worthy of making more money.
As you know, there are so many different things you can do to make money.
People set up new businesses all the time.
They have side hustles, they have gigs, they have hobbies, they have arts and crafts.
It's amazing what you can do to create extra money when you put your mind to it.
I started this thing called "The $1000 Project" which is a challenge that you can all do for yourself
where you look at ways to hustle and earn and save extra money,
that you then put towards your financial goals,
whether it be paying off debt, building up savings or investing in a share portfolio.
And I show you how to do this in my book.
But the important thing is: Stop and take the time to think about,
"What do I love doing? What could I be paid to do whilst doing things that I love?"
I saw an amazing woman on Instagram
and she set up a business where she looks after kids at weddings.
Parents can go to a wedding and relax,
and know that their kids are having a great time, someone's watching over them.
It's amazing what you can do when you put your mind to it and you get really passionate.
- Yeah, and I was reading about this in your book, "The $1000 Project" is,
you had listed so many different options on ways people can make money.
And I think a lot of people normally don't realize
there are all these different ways to make money,
but you figure out these ways once you put your attention on it and you just get creative.
- Exactly, and you open yourself up.
Some of the craziest ideas I had actually ended up --
amazingly powerful beautiful ones were born from those crazy ideas.
And it's amazing, success breeds success.
So as you start earning extra money,
you'll start putting it out there to the universe and the universe has got your back.
When it sees you're connected to a passionate goal, it will send help and support your way.
And I met people who walk dogs.
I met people who do babysitting.
I met people who started cutting people's hair,
a whole range of different ideas and services to help people,
and they bring in extra money that they can use to help alleviate financial stress in their life.
- Yeah, I think it's one of those "ask and you shall receive" kind of things.
- I love that!
- You have to open yourself up to abundance.
And then once you just sit down and ask yourself,
"What can I do to generate extra income?" the ideas will start coming to you.
- 100% - And the opportunities will start coming to you too.
- Exactly, and because you've tracked your net worth position and your financial snapshot,
you can see where all this extra hard work is going.
You can see that, "Okay, well I had to work an extra shift at work,
but I actually managed to pay off one of my credit cards,"
or "I actually managed to build up an extra $1000 in savings this month."
It all becomes worthwhile.
You get that sense of comparison and perspective that's so worth the investment.
Alright, the sixth thing you need to do is to set up an emergency savings account.
If you're someone who has previously been in debt, you never want to repeat history.
You don't want to finally pay off your credit card debt
or your student loans, and then get back into it again.
You want to change it.
This is where we shift, we raise our bar.
So you set up a separate emergency savings account,
and this is what I call your "life" and "emergency".
Things happen in life.
We get a speeding fine, parking ticket.
We need dental work.
Something breaks in our home. We need to fix something.
That just happens to all of us in life.
We're not immune.
- We never really plan for it either.
It just happens and you're like, "Ugh, I have to pay for this."
- Exactly, but if you have that money set aside for those things that happen,
but also if you have that money set aside for things that are irregular, like Christmastime.
You don't have to use a credit card to pay for Christmas presents
because you got the money set aside.
It means that life throws you a curveball, you get a rattle, it's okay.
You're so much more resilient because you just go to your emergency savings account
and fix the problem using the money there.
And once you've used it, you always restock it.
If you take $1,000 out of your emergency money, as soon as possible–
- Restock it.
- Get it back in there.
But it feels good.
It helps you sleep well at night, so have an emergency savings account.
- And can I ask you: How do you figure out how much is the right amount to save up?
- Such a great question.
You know, there's no magic formula.
There's no one-size-fits-all.
What I recommend you do is sit and have a think about what makes you feel good.
What amount of money would you like to wake up in the morning and see in your account
so that you don't need to worry so much about money?
Take some pressure and stress off.
And going back to your budget, have a look at what your living expenses are.
How many months can you survive financially without having to get towards debt?
I know some people like to get – the round figure is 3x the amount of your monthly living expenses.
If that works for you, then that's great.
Work towards that.
- So that means you'll be able to live for three months with that money.
- Yes, without having to borrow money from other people.
- Okay.
- And then the final and most important step that brings all of this together is passive income.
We need to be building and buying long-term passive income streams
so that our money is working for us, rather than us working for money.
I know for you, one of your most important financial goals is to have enough passive income
so that you work because you choose to, not because you have to.
You know that you can take a couple months off to go traveling overseas
and you'll still be making just as much money.
You can afford to pay for things that are important to you.
And this is why I say, by doing your budget, knowing what your cost of living is,
you know how much passive income you need to then build.
Through my YouTube channel, I show people how to build a passive income stream,
things like buying a property portfolio, slowly building it up property by property.
Or my favorite is building up a share portfolio
where you invest in companies and you receive dividends from those stocks.
And that builds up over time,
and you end up with a multimillion dollar share portfolio paying you passive income.
It's the true definition of financial freedom.
Everyone can do this themselves.
It's really very easy.
- I just want to point out how important this step is.
I think a lot of people out there may not have heard of passive income to start with.
So just so you know, passive income is money that comes to you without you doing any work.
You can make money while you sleep, basically.
And it is possible.
- Yes.
For The $1,000 Project, by the time I finished round 1 where I saved and invested $32,000,
my passive income 12 months later was $1,700 a year.
I don't physically do anything to earn that $1,700 a year.
I just get paid– - But it was the fact that you invested the $32,000
and it generates passive income.
- Exactly.
And I hustled and I turned my hobbies into passions and made money.
And I did so many different creative things to bring in some extra money.
It enriched my life on such a deep and profound level beyond the $32,000.
I got a greater sense of community.
I started to value my friendships more.
I understood the investment of my time and what sacrifices meant, and whether they were worth it.
It was hugely enriching in my life.
- I love that.
If you're curious about how to generate passive income
or anything else about money and money management,
check out Canna's YouTube at SugarMammaTV.
Thank you so much for coming on my channel with me today.
- Oh my gosh, thank you for having me.
And thanks for having me in Los Angeles!
- I know!
She came all the way from Australia to be here with us.
- You know what?
It's actually such an honor to be here and to be here with you,
because I look to your videos for motivation and inspiration for my own videos and in my own life.
So thank you.
- Thank you.
That means so much to me.
It's awesome to meet someone in real life after knowing you for a while, right?
- And doing a podcast together and speaking over emails.
And you meet someone, you're like,
"Wow, you're the real person behind the camera that's in front of the camera."
It's a breath of fresh air.
- Yes, alright.
Have a great one guys!
See you next time!
Bye! - Bye!