How to Make Lasting Financial Changes Today | Ep. 150
Welcome back Money Talk With Tiff listeners! In this milestone 150th episode, Tiffany dives deep into the critical importance of making meaningful changes in our financial lives. Often, we find ourselves stuck in patterns that don’t serve us, and Tiffany is here to break down how to recognize those patterns, why change is essential, and actionable steps to transform your financial journey.
Every Tuesday, Tiffany answers one of your submitted questions. To submit a question for an upcoming episode, visit here: https://www.moneytalkwitht.com/asktiffany.
Key Takeaways
The Necessity of Change
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results. Tiffany emphasizes how crucial it is to recognize and change self-sabotaging financial habits.
Get Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable
Growth happens outside of your comfort zone. Tiffany shares personal anecdotes and motivational insights to encourage listeners to embrace discomfort for the sake of progress.
Tips for Financial Change
- Savings Challenge: Join the free savings challenge with Copper Vibrations. Save amounts ranging from $1 to $100 in a dedicated envelope or account.
- Track Your Money: Start tracking daily expenses to become more aware of spending habits. This awareness naturally leads to saving.
- Budgeting: Create and stick to a budget. It’s not about restriction; it’s about finding financial freedom and clarity. Whether you call it a budget, money management tool, or cash flow statement, the goal is the same.
Foolproof Your Finances
Implement strategies to safeguard your savings, such as using online savings accounts that are harder to access or physically removing credit cards from easy reach.
Mindset Matters
Positive self-talk is essential. Believing that you can save, make more money, or achieve financial goals is half the battle won.
Community Awareness
Tiffany addresses the spending habits within communities and highlights the importance of collective awareness and responsibility for financial growth.
Throughout this engaging episode, Tiffany calls listeners to action, encouraging them to take control of their financial destiny through intentional, consistent changes. She asserts the power of knowing oneself and leveraging that understanding to create a healthier financial future.
Resources Mentioned
- Savings Challenge with Copper Vibrations
- Online savings accounts
- Budgeting tools and apps
Connect with Tiffany
- Website: moneytalkwitht.com
- Social Media: @moneytalkwitht
Don’t Forget to Subscribe, Rate, and Review!
Transcript
You know what it is. That's right. It's time to talk money with your money
Speaker:nerd and financial coach. Now tighten those purse strings
Speaker:and open those ears. It's the money talk with TIfF
Speaker:podcast.
Speaker:Hey, y'all. Alright, so I was having a
Speaker:conversation this morning and one of the things
Speaker:that I needed to say was
Speaker:if you want things to be different,
Speaker:you have to do things differently. The definition of insanity
Speaker:is doing the same thing and expecting a different result. It's not going
Speaker:to work. You're going to keep doing the same thing and getting the same
Speaker:result. So, for instance, if you know
Speaker:that you are a spender and or you know that
Speaker:every month you're struggling to make ends meet,
Speaker:then you have to do things differently. You
Speaker:can't keep doing the same thing and expecting a different result. It's not going
Speaker:to work. So when I say do things differently, you
Speaker:have to challenge yourself. You have to be comfortable getting
Speaker:uncomfortable because that's the only way that you can grow and that's the only way
Speaker:that you can change, is if you get uncomfortable.
Speaker:There's growth on the other side of that.
Speaker:You can't be fearful
Speaker:of making things different. You can't be
Speaker:fearful of making changes. Because a lot of times if we're
Speaker:fearful of something, it could be the best thing that ever happened to us.
Speaker:So let me throw out a few tips and maybe just a
Speaker:few, because sometimes we just get stuck and we just like, you know what?
Speaker:I hear you, Tiffany, and I want to make changes, but I just don't know
Speaker:how. I don't know how to make that change. So here's
Speaker:one thing that you can do, okay? So if you know
Speaker:that you are a spender or you know
Speaker:you're horrible at saving money, go ahead and start on that savings
Speaker:challenge that me and my friends over at copper vibrations got going on right
Speaker:now. Okay? It's free. We did it because we wanted to do it
Speaker:for ourselves, but we also wanted to help other people as well.
Speaker:And the premise is simple. All you do is take one
Speaker:amount, one amount. And it ranges from one
Speaker:dollar to forty nine dollars or $1 and $100. You just take one
Speaker:amount, you put it in an envelope or whatever vehicle
Speaker:you want to put it in, and you save it. That's an easy
Speaker:first step and it's very. Anybody can do.
Speaker:Anybody can take a dollar and put it in an envelope and not touch it.
Speaker:Anybody can take a dollar and put in a savings account and not touch it.
Speaker:You just have to believe that you can do that, okay, so
Speaker:that's one change that you can make and you can start immediately. I'm sure you
Speaker:got some change somewhere around you right now if you just look
Speaker:close enough where you can start on that. Now, the second thing
Speaker:is, just start tracking your money. Just start
Speaker:seeing where it's going. Because a lot of times,
Speaker:we don't know where our money's going, and that's
Speaker:when our money is doing whatever it is it wants to do, and
Speaker:then we're not reaching our financial goals. So you have to
Speaker:track. That's the first step to anything. And I tell people all the time, if
Speaker:you start tracking, you will automatically start saving money.
Speaker:Why? Because it's awareness. It's awareness. You don't realize
Speaker:how much you're spending on these little $5 here, $10
Speaker:here, all these subscriptions and things you got going on. Whatever it
Speaker:is, you don't realize how much money is flowing in and out of your
Speaker:hands on a daily basis until you become aware.
Speaker:And the way that you become aware is you start tracking it. You start seeing
Speaker:where your money's flowing. And I will tell you from experience,
Speaker:every time I've done this with people, they
Speaker:immediately start saving money because they just like, dang, I didn't know I was
Speaker:spending $300 eating out. I didn't know I was spending dollar 800
Speaker:drinking, going out with friends, entertainment, all that stuff. I didn't know.
Speaker:So you start building awareness. And the first step
Speaker:to solving any issue, regardless if it's money related or
Speaker:anything, is to have awareness that there is an
Speaker:issue and to have awareness on where that issue lies,
Speaker:then you can start. You didn't miss much yet. I'm gonna keep this on the
Speaker:live so that way you can go back and rewatch it. Hey, girl.
Speaker:So you can see where your money's going,
Speaker:and you immediately give yourself a raise. I can tell you that from
Speaker:experience, you immediately give yourself a raise. Now,
Speaker:if you feel like you got that down and you want to take it to
Speaker:the next step, go ahead and create a budget. Now, I
Speaker:know the word budget is triggering for some people,
Speaker:okay? So I don't care if you call it a cash flow
Speaker:statement. I don't care if you call it a money management
Speaker:tool or I'm just setting intentions. Whatever it
Speaker:is you decide to call it, you still need it. And it
Speaker:still needs to have the same function. It still needs to have the same
Speaker:function. You have to know exactly how your money's flowing in and
Speaker:how it's flowing out. Otherwise, you'll be on this continuous
Speaker:hamster wheel of not having any money or having
Speaker:money and not reaching your financial goals. And I can tell you from experience,
Speaker:because I've been in both situations,
Speaker:not knowing how your money's flowing is not fun. It's not fun
Speaker:at all. It's not fun at all. It feels
Speaker:very. It feels like you're being suffocated, at least in my experience.
Speaker:It feels like you're being suffocated. Yeah, it's all fun and games while you out
Speaker:spending, you buying this, buying that, you doing this or whatever. But then when you
Speaker:look up and you like, dang, I'm not reaching any financial goals that I set
Speaker:for myself, whether it's saving or whether it's investing or
Speaker:whatever it is that you decide that you want to do. It's all
Speaker:fun and games until you realize that I'm nowhere near close to
Speaker:there. And then it starts feeling bad, and
Speaker:then you have to go through the same cycle all over again. Then you spend
Speaker:to make yourself feel happier because it gives you a dopamine hit and
Speaker:the cycle continues. Back to my original point, you have to
Speaker:do things differently if you want a different result. Okay? So like I
Speaker:said, I don't care what you call it. If you think budgeting, if you think
Speaker:budget is triggering for you, call it. I am setting my intentions
Speaker:with my money. Call it. This is my money manifestation tool. This
Speaker:is my money management tool. Whatever it is you want to call it, make
Speaker:it happen. Because I can tell you and a lot of other
Speaker:financial info, whatever they will tell you, that is the
Speaker:foundation of everything. Everything.
Speaker:You have to have it. And I can tell you from being
Speaker:on the other side, too, that having one is
Speaker:so freeing. It's so freeing.
Speaker:It's not restrictive at all. Honestly. It's not
Speaker:like, that's a misconception, how I
Speaker:teach people when it comes to budgeting. I'm like, look, this is not
Speaker:a tool to restrict you. This is a tool to give you freedom. This is
Speaker:a tool. If you decide that you don't want to leave, if you don't want
Speaker:to work at your job no more and you have a budget,
Speaker:you can say, okay, I know that all I need is
Speaker:x amount a month, all my bills will be paid and everything, and I can
Speaker:flow just as normally as I would have if you knew that
Speaker:information. Like, when I decided to quit corporate,
Speaker:it was because I said, okay, I know my
Speaker:budget. It only takes me $50 a day and I can
Speaker:cover all of my financial obligations, $50 a
Speaker:day. So then when I broke it down like that, I was like, $50 a
Speaker:day. I could do that. What? Okay,
Speaker:so I'm sitting here at a job. Let me premise. There's
Speaker:no issue with having a full time job because
Speaker:I solely believe in using other people's money to
Speaker:make money. But anyway, I'm like, I'm sitting here for 8 hours out the
Speaker:day when I could really only work hard for
Speaker:maybe two or three and go on about my business. Cause $50 a day,
Speaker:you know what I'm saying? So I'm like, this doesn't make sense to me.
Speaker:And that's why I decided to make that decision. But it
Speaker:wouldn't have came. That decision would have not even crossed my mind
Speaker:had I not had a budget, had I not known how much I
Speaker:needed to survive. Like, it's power in knowing
Speaker:these things, y'all. There's power in this. There's power
Speaker:and awareness. There's power in it, I'm
Speaker:telling you. And even if you do decide that you want to work for other
Speaker:people. Cause there's nothing wrong with that. If you have a budget, you can reach
Speaker:your financial goals faster. I promise, I promise,
Speaker:I promise. And you can hold me to that. I promise. If you
Speaker:watch how your money is flowing, you can
Speaker:do anything. Like, when I first started on this journey and
Speaker:I saw $50,000 in debt staring at me,
Speaker:I was like, dang. First of all, what did I do? But second
Speaker:of all, I'm like, how the heck am I gonna get out of this mess?
Speaker:Especially at the time when I was making ten dollar eleven an hour?
Speaker:But I said, I'm gonna go ahead and see how my money's flowing. I know
Speaker:there's some holes I can plug. I know it is. I know it is.
Speaker:And I did it. And then I decided, because
Speaker:that was my big goal, I said, any means necessary. And that's
Speaker:another lesson here today, y'all. You got to get
Speaker:serious about your goals. You got to get serious about what you doing
Speaker:on a daily basis. You got to get serious about this stuff
Speaker:because nobody's going to work on your goals for you. You have to do
Speaker:it. So if you have a big goal,
Speaker:if you, let's say your goal is to save up an
Speaker:emergency fund, okay? If you have that goal, what
Speaker:are you doing every day to get towards that goal? What do you do?
Speaker:Any goal you have, you should break it down and
Speaker:make sure that your tasks match up to your goals. A lot
Speaker:of times we'll have goals, and we'll make goals, but our
Speaker:lives don't reflect those goals, or we'll have value or whatever you
Speaker:want to call it, but our life doesn't reflect those values.
Speaker:So then what are you doing it for? A lot of it. Honestly,
Speaker:y'all is mental. It's mental. It's very
Speaker:mental. And, oh, Rev, you said, what is the foundation? The foundation
Speaker:is budgeting. And I was saying, it doesn't matter what you call
Speaker:it. I don't care what you call it, but you have to have it. And
Speaker:I was saying, you can call it a money manifestation tool, you can
Speaker:call it a money management tool, whatever it is you want to call it,
Speaker:but the premise is the same. You got to know what's coming in. You got
Speaker:to know how it's flowing out. And you said, I need help. I can't save.
Speaker:Now, see, here's the thing, too, that I've been tapping into a lot
Speaker:here lately, is the self talk. Is the
Speaker:self talk. Because like I said, this is all mental.
Speaker:This is all mental. So if you
Speaker:tell yourself you can't do it before you get out the gate, then guess what?
Speaker:You're not going to do it. Booze. And you're not going to do it. But
Speaker:if you say, you know what? I can do this. I
Speaker:can say, I can make more money.
Speaker:I can get this promotion, I can pass this test. I can go to
Speaker:school. I can guess what you will. So a lot of
Speaker:it is a mental game, too. And a lot of times we play
Speaker:these mental games on ourselves and we talk ourselves out of things before
Speaker:we even get started, before we even get out the gate, we're already telling ourselves
Speaker:it's not possible when it is. So that's another thing,
Speaker:too. You said I can. Then I spend it. I feel you, sis.
Speaker:So, look, then you have to foolproof, right? So if you
Speaker:already know, and this is part of awareness, right? So if you already know that
Speaker:you a heavy spender, you love to spend, okay, then how do
Speaker:you foolproof that in order to save, you know what I did? Because,
Speaker:my. Y'all, I'm. Be real with you. I don't
Speaker:really spend on much, but what I like to spend on is
Speaker:technology. And usually my technology is very expensive
Speaker:so that everybody has what they like to spend their money on,
Speaker:okay? But here's how I foolproof that. And there's a lot
Speaker:of different strategies and tips and things that I have, but I'm going to give
Speaker:you one. Open up an account,
Speaker:an online savings account or something that you don't have
Speaker:regular access to. That's where I keep my emergency fund,
Speaker:because I know maybe a new gadget or a new piece of
Speaker:technology is coming out, and I'm like, oh, I want that. I gotta have that.
Speaker:I know I can't tap into my savings account because it's gonna take me two
Speaker:to three days to get the money. So I'm not even gonna go through the
Speaker:whole process to do that. So you have to know yourself and
Speaker:then figure out ways to
Speaker:foolproof. Foolproof. Whatever goal you're trying to do,
Speaker:it's really important to
Speaker:acknowledge and be aware of
Speaker:how your brain works. So that way, when
Speaker:you're trying to go against your norm, you can
Speaker:already build in some strategies to make it where you're more
Speaker:successful. You know what I mean? So that's one tip where I have with
Speaker:savings, okay, so another one, which
Speaker:I've had people do, is don't leave your savings in
Speaker:your account. Take it out. Take it out and put it
Speaker:in an envelope and hide it in your house at a site out of
Speaker:mine. You know what I'm saying? You can do that. You can do the online
Speaker:savings. There's so many different things that you can do depending on who
Speaker:you are and what you feel will work for you. But there's way to
Speaker:foolproof. There's ways to foolproof anything,
Speaker:regardless of what you think your struggle is. If you know that
Speaker:you love credit cards and you love to spend on credit cards, take
Speaker:the credit cards out your wallet,
Speaker:don't take them with you. If you know you like to spend
Speaker:on, remove the save payment methods on your phone. If
Speaker:you like to online spend, remove it, remove
Speaker:the saved cards, and then take your cards out your wallet or whatever and put
Speaker:it up somewhere. So then you can't even be like, oh, dang, I want to
Speaker:get this. Then you try to press the button, you're like, oh, dang, it ain't
Speaker:even safe. Let me go get the car. Then you like, dang, where's the car?
Speaker:You can safeguard yourself. That's pretty
Speaker:much what you do, and it's safeguarding yourself. But all jokes aside, though,
Speaker:there's so many different ways to make sure that
Speaker:you are good at money management. And
Speaker:really, at the end of the day, as a people, and I'm talking to
Speaker:my people right now, I don't know who's watching, but I'm talking to my people.
Speaker:We have a huge spending problem, y'all. We spend a lot on
Speaker:a lot of different things, and a lot of times, it's for no reason. It's
Speaker:just for us to feel better. I get it. I understand.
Speaker:But at the end of the day, we have to start taking responsibility.
Speaker:We have to start taking responsibility. Responsibility. And we have to become more
Speaker:aware of what we're doing, okay?
Speaker:Because we don't have an earning problem. I know a lot of
Speaker:people that make a lot of money doing different things, from
Speaker:being a custodian to being a professor to
Speaker:whatever it is. But a lot of times we all have the same
Speaker:thing in common. We all like to spin, we all like to impress other
Speaker:people and all of that stuff. And you don't have to do all of that.
Speaker:I learned that when I started working at the thrift store.
Speaker:Because I used to be like, I would never like thrift what?
Speaker:Excuse me. I need all name brands, everything. You know what I'm
Speaker:saying? Then I started working there and I was like. I started seeing
Speaker:doctors and lawyers and even the guy
Speaker:that's his grandma is Kathleen Bryan. If you in
Speaker:Greensboro, Bryan is everywhere. Okay? He used to come into the thrift store and
Speaker:shop. And I'm like, so if
Speaker:that's the case, my whole concept of
Speaker:thinking was completely. It was
Speaker:completely distorted at that. That's how I started thinking. I was like, wait
Speaker:a minute. So you mean to tell me this is how people keep
Speaker:money? But I bet you they spend
Speaker:on what they want to spend on what they deem is important,
Speaker:what aligns with their values, what aligns with their goals. You know what I'm
Speaker:saying? So that's why it's important to know these things. You gotta know what
Speaker:your values, your goals, all of that stuff is. So that way you can start
Speaker:moving your life accordingly. And this goes far beyond money. This
Speaker:goes with everything. Relationships, everything.
Speaker:It all starts with knowing yourself, knowing
Speaker:yourself. So if you don't take anything else from
Speaker:this live, please
Speaker:start learning yourself. Start knowing what makes you tick. Start
Speaker:knowing what makes you fall off track. Start
Speaker:knowing these things. Start knowing what self talk you do to yourself
Speaker:on a daily basis. Start knowing, becoming more aware of how
Speaker:you were raised and I what beliefs were predisposed
Speaker:or whatever the case may be. Start understanding that
Speaker:stuff about yourself. Because then that's the only way,
Speaker:the only way that you all can make any changes.
Speaker:And I had to learn it the hard way. I had to learn it the
Speaker:hard way. And I'm still learning, don't get me wrong, I'm still learning more about
Speaker:myself every single day. Every single
Speaker:day. But that's the beauty of this journey called life.
Speaker:The more you learn about yourself. The better of a person you can
Speaker:be and the better effect you can have in this world.
Speaker:So, anyway, y'all, I just had to go on that quick rant.
Speaker:Don't pay me no neverminds, but really do, because I was dropping some gems right
Speaker:there. But I just want us to do better as a people,
Speaker:to be honest with you, that's the whole reason I do everything that I
Speaker:do. I just want us to do better. I want us to be better
Speaker:as not only as a people, but as a community, as a
Speaker:nation. These are things that we need to know about.
Speaker:Money is an energy exchange. Money is an
Speaker:energy exchange.
Speaker:I just want you to let that sink in. This is a way you exchange
Speaker:energy. So you want to make sure that
Speaker:how you're doing it and how you're showing up, how you're showing up in
Speaker:the world is reflective of what you want to reflect.
Speaker:You have to make sure that what you're doing
Speaker:on a daily basis is moving towards what
Speaker:your higher calling is. And money is a way to do that. We're
Speaker:taught that money is the root of all evil, but
Speaker:that's not true. Really. The saying is money. The love
Speaker:of money is the root of all evil. You can
Speaker:have a great relationship with money, and you should. You
Speaker:should. Don't feel ashamed to talk about
Speaker:money. Don't feel ashamed to feel like. Don't feel bad about
Speaker:money. Because what does shame do? It makes you shy away
Speaker:from it. When you're ashamed of something, you don't
Speaker:confront it. And it's important to confront this thing. It's
Speaker:important to talk more about it. So we have more conversations like
Speaker:this, because if we're all just, we're all having the same
Speaker:struggle, and we all in the same hustle and bustle, and we all in the
Speaker:same journey called life together, we might as well share
Speaker:our information so that way we can all be better as a
Speaker:collective. You know what I mean? Anyway, that's a whole nother rant. But
Speaker:thank you all so much for tuning in. And I'm like I said, I'm gonna
Speaker:keep this live. So if you want to replay, rewind, whatever, feel
Speaker:free to do, and please feel free to share with someone you love, because this
Speaker:stuff is important, y'all. We have to make a change. We have to change
Speaker:our trajectories for our entire community, for our entire nation. And
Speaker:it all starts with us. Don't think you're ever too small.
Speaker:Don't think you're ever too small. Because everybody big,
Speaker:you see around here. They all started somewhere. They all started
Speaker:somewhere. So if you have a piece of knowledge and you like, dang, this could
Speaker:help somebody. Don't be afraid to share it out. Don't be
Speaker:afraid to share it out. And don't be afraid to take that
Speaker:leap. Don't be afraid to do things differently, because that's the only
Speaker:way to affect change. You have to do things
Speaker:differently. You have to be on a continuous cycle
Speaker:of constantly being fearful and constantly
Speaker:overcoming that fear to get the change that you want.
Speaker:So anyway, I hope you all have a wonderful rest of the
Speaker:day and I will see you soon. Bye.
Speaker:Thank you for listening, joining and being a part of the money talk with TIFF
Speaker:podcast this week. You can check tiff out every Thursday for a
Speaker:new money talk podcast. But if you just cant wait until next week,
Speaker:you can listen to previous podcast
Speaker:episodes@moneytalkwitht.com or
Speaker:follow Tiff on all social media platforms at
Speaker:moneytalkwitht. Until next time, spend wise
Speaker:by spending less than you make a word to the money wise is
Speaker:always sufficient.