The reason given by most online business gurus for creating a multimillion dollar business is so that you can have a more “impact.” You can reach more people, and therefore help more people, and therefore “change the world” for the better.

Now I certainly see that a large, well-known business with thousands or millions of followers will have substantial influence and have power that a small operation will not. Large businesses might have more money to contribute to causes that they believe will help others.

On the other hand, I’m concerned about what happens in the process of becoming large and influential. One of the most popular models for growing a large business is to “leverage your time.” That means that if you can serve many clients at a time, while still charging what you would for an individual client, you can reach more people and make a whole lot more money!

Sounds good, right?

But let’s look at it from the standpoint of the individuals who are the clients, the people “being helped.” I can speak to this from personal experience and here’s how it looked to me.

I wanted to learn more about marketing my money coaching services online, so that I could continue my practice while living on my rural farm. I joined a mentorship program with a woman who I thought was good at presenting marketing in an intelligent and engaging way. I wanted to learn from her. But the only program available to me was her group mentoring. So I joined, with a bit of a cringe at the cost!

The program included no 1:1 time with this mentor (my first big mistake!) unless you paid for the “Gold” version, which cost twice as much as my version, and then you got 1 or 2 45-minute sessions with the mentor. But my program also included 3 in-person retreats where I imagined our mentor would get down and dirty with us and give us feedback and direction about our businesses.

Wrong!

That wasn’t the case at all. This coach presented the material and at the first retreat was available for quick questions (if you made it to the front of the line). But at the second retreat she wasn’t even available for private questions. She certainly was not coming around to our group tables to help us with the exercises or to get to know us or our businesses. There were hired coaches to do that, and coaching groups, but these weren’t the people I had chosen to be my mentors. (And I’m pretty sure I could have hired them for less than I was paying per month for the mentorship program.)

So this is an example of an experience I had with someone who was “leveraging her time.” The model most certainly worked for her (she was very clear about the amount of money she made and the lifestyle she lived) but it didn’t work so well for me, the client.

Another personal example of this is when I joined an online program to help me create my “More than Money” course. There was a Facebook group for the program, but the woman who taught the course (a different coach than the one above) was rarely there to answer questions. Most of her time was spent promoting her high-end mentorship program and her other courses. So the business model worked well for her – she had also made lots of money and had a built-in audience to market to – but my course was a huge flop! (Not because it wasn’t good – it is! – but because no one enrolled for it. Hence the marketing guru!)

Do you see how this works? The “guru” leverages their time, you don’t get a whole lot of their time, and then you get told that if you just take the next program (which is also heavily leveraged) you’ll reach your goals.

And, yes, some people do reach their goals this way (as evidenced by those lovely testimonials) but I wonder what proportion of other people do not, despite their best effort to do so.

So here’s my question. For whom is the large, “high-impact” business created? Who benefits the most from it? Is this true service to others, true helping of others, true “changing the world,” or is it self-serving ambition, plain and simple?

Can “helping others” and “I-want-to-be-big-and-famous” ambition in coaching truly co-exist?

From my personal experience the answer is probably not, but it’s not really a black and white issue, is it? Some good invariably comes from these types of businesses, to be sure.

But then I wonder: what would happen if every one of us – coaches, therapists, spiritual leaders, body healers, nutritionists, etc. – focused on helping each individual who comes our way, to the very best of our ability, without striving to reach millions or to make millions, but to give enough and make enough. What kind of impact would that have?

The post Ambition and Service in Coaching: Are they compatible? appeared first on Denver Money Coach.

It goes like this. The person posting had a request from a previous coaching client for a one-time meeting.

Now you’ve probably heard the dogma – coaches don’t exchange time for dollars! We exchange value for dollars. Therefore, no one-time meetings. Okay, I understand that approach. But wait.

When encouraged to charge a premium for a one-time session, the person posting said that if she charged for one session what she charged for a package, it would come to over $500 per hour.

Most of the people on the forum replied ‘Yes, go for it!’ etc. etc. They suggested she let the client know that this would be a special favor.

(I’m not going to go into why, to me, it seems incredibly misguided to treat a former client that way! Maybe I’ll save that for another post.)

But that’s not the end. Another person (let’s call her Person 2) came on and said she wished she had the courage to charge those kinds of fees ($500/hour) and how she wanted to improve her “mindset” and remove “money blocks” so that she could.

Here’s what really interested me at this point. I know Person 2 to be a very environmentally and socially-conscious woman who truly has a kind heart and wants to do good things with her business and her life. Yet she was okay with the idea of charging what I would call an exploitive amount for a former client to see her. Mind you, former clients are the very people who have supported our coaching practices in the past!

So, yes, in my book charging a former client $500/hour for what I call a “tune-up” appointment is exploitive. (Those of you who have followed my writing and understand how our economic system works will fully understand why. For an explanation, click HERE. And for a wonderful exposition on questionable online practices, see this post.)

Here’s the point of this post: I believe the mindset of Person 2 to be perfectly fine. Her instinct, her intuition, is right.

To charge whatever the “market” will bear for services that were once feely given in our communities is not what is going to make a better world. (It might be better for you in the short term, but it’s not sustainable over time, and probably isn’t in the best interest of your client.) Again, I won’t go into all the reasons here, but you can click HERE for more information.

I believe that many women intuitively “get” that there is something very wrong with our current money system. And that’s probably why so many of us struggle in it, or want nothing to do with it. On some deep level we know that our current way of doing money is destructive and soul-crushing.

Just to be clear here, I’m not opposed to women making good money or to being compensated equally as well as men. What I’m saying is that the way we do money in our society is not healthy, and that many of us know this on an intuitive level.

So the next time you think you need to adjust your “money mindset” I suggest you pause for a moment and ask a few questions. Is there something “off” about what is going on, rather than about your mindset? What is your gut trying to tell you here? If money were no object, what would be the right thing to do, according to your sense of ethics and morals? Is it possible you’re blaming yourself for what is actually a societal issue?

Until we start questioning the story of money that we’re immersed in, we won’t be able to change the world in the ways we want to. I invite you to stop questioning yourself, and get curious about the story of money, and all it has to teach us about the changes needed to make a more beautiful world.

The post What if your “money mindset” isn’t the problem? appeared first on Denver Money Coach.

But you may have the same question: “Amy, why on earth would you want to be a money coach? It’s such a boring subject!”

Well, there was a time I would have heartily agreed with you.

In fact, there was a time I did everything in my power to avoid dealing with money.

I was a scientist and I wanted to cure cancer.

I was an activist and I wanted world peace.

Money didn’t enter into my idealistic dreaming. I believed it would all work out because I was smart and resourceful — somehow I’d have enough to live the life I envisioned for myself, and make a difference in the world.

So I avoided money and focused on my education and career, got married, worked hard, and enjoyed my life.

Then everything changed. My mother died. My husband and I divorced. I left the career I’d spent the last 15 years building, and I was wracked with pain and grief.

I had no job, no health insurance, no retirement plan, and I was on my own. I realized that money was at the very core of my ability to live a life of my own choosing – as opposed to one at the mercy of the winds of change.

I realized it’s not possible to avoid money. Money touches everything.

And I realized it’s not responsible to avoid money. At the end of the day, I’m responsible for my own financial security.

I set out to take better care of my own finances and to learn more about the strange world of money.

I slowly got back on my feet, went back to school and trained for a new career. When I began working as a counselor and therapist I saw that other women were struggling with money in a big way. But the subject seemed to be taboo. I noticed that clients found it easier to talk openly about their sex lives than to talk about their finances!

But I wanted to incorporate what I’d learned about money into my psychology practice so I could help other women improve their money situations as well. So I did.

That was in 2008.

Since then I’ve been studying all the money gurus and learning every which way to have a good relationship with money.

But there seemed to be an essential piece missing. I kept asking, why is it so hard to get the money thing right?

I decided to stop listening to the gurus and start paying attention to what my clients, newsletter readers, and friends said.

And here’s what I keep hearing over and over again:

• You don’t want to use a complicated software program to take care of your money
• You want and need support figuring out what to do about your money, and how to do it.
• You often get really anxious when you look at your money situation.
• You don’t want to spend your time tracking every penny of your money.
• There just doesn’t seem to be enough of it! (Money, that is!)

So I’ve been testing and honing a system that breaks your money down to the simplest possible categories and makes it easy to keep track of it without having to count every penny.

And I’ve also been finding the best possible ways to manage the strong emotions that come up around money, especially that big issue for women – not having enough!

If you’re dedicated to getting rid of crippling anxiety about your money and creating a solid foundation for your personal finances . . . then I invite you to join me and a small group of other committed women in the “More than Money Experience.”

Briefly, the More than Money Experience is a small group training program designed to give you personalized support to create your own rock-solid financial foundation. You can click the button above to find out all the details.

As many of you know, I’m dedicated to helping women become competent and confident about money, starting with our personal finances. From there, my dream is that we’ll be in a better position to contribute to the necessary changes that must happen in the global marketplace in order to create a more just, humane, and sustainable economy for us all.

But let’s start with each one of us, talking about money and helping one another. I’d be honored to guide you on that journey.

The post My Sister’s “Embarrassing” Question appeared first on Denver Money Coach.

My goddaughter called last week . . .

She and her sister wanted to come visit me on my farm about 2 hours from where they live in Denver.

This was nothing new. What WAS new (and a bit scary for me!) was that Carol would be driving them here.

My little girl has a driver’s license!

I was thrilled they were coming but surprised at my worry. I’m not generally a worrier. But I made sure they’d arrive before dark – the roads out in the country can be very dark! – and that they give me updates along the way.

The upshot is that they made it here safely and, as always, we had a wonderful time together.

In the letdown after their departure I reflected on what a gift these two girls have been to me, since the day Carol was born 16 years ago, and her sister 2 years later.

How does this relate to my work as a money coach?

Well, I’ve been exploring the idea of ‘alternative’ forms of ‘capital’ – in other words, capital other than money. I’d recently read an old article¹ that proposed 8 forms of capital:

1. Financial – the most familiar one, money
2. Material – non-living physical objects
3. Social – influence, connections
4. Spiritual – for example, karma
5. Intellectual – knowledge
6. Experiential – experiences
7. Cultural – shared parts of a community
8. Living – Animals, plants, water, soil

In this article, social capital is described mostly in political, business, and community terms, but I am beginning to see that social capital extends far beyond this description.

Social capital to me means the blessing of these two girls in my life, and the love they’ve returned to me more than 1,000-fold for my love and contribution to raising them. This kind of capital cannot even be compared to financial capital, they are so vastly different.

And yet we live as if money is the only true capital.

I love how this model of ‘capital’ invites us to expand our thinking about what is valuable in our world and to take the focus off the one form of capital that has become so grossly over-emphasized and over-valued in our culture.

When I look at my life in terms of the 8 forms of capital, I open to how incredibly rich I am, right here, right now.  For me, this more expanded view of wealth reminds me that every day I can thoroughly enjoy how very rich I am!

What about you? What forms of capital (i.e. wealth) are most important to you? How can you bring more awareness of all the forms of your wealth to each day of your life?

1. Ethan Roland & Gregory Landua, Permaculture Magazine #68, www.appleseedpermaculture.com/8-forms-of-capital/

The post What my Goddaughters Taught me about Money appeared first on Denver Money Coach.

My sister helped me get the basics at a warehouse owned by an old junk collector. But when my Mom came to visit it was still quite bare. In her usual generous way, she helped me fix it up and make it my own.

On one of our excursions, we were drawn to a beautiful Queen Anne secretary – the kind where the desk folds up when not in use, so your mess doesn’t show. My Mom talked me into buying it, as it would fit perfectly in the far corner of the living room. Despite its huge (to me!) price tag of $350, I took the plunge!

So if you love antiques, you’re golden! Find them on Craigslist, auctions (try EBTH.com in your city), from private owners, or from antique shops in remote areas. (Avoid the city shops or those in tourist areas – few deals to be had there.)

Don’t buy for resale value; just buy what you love and can afford. I guarantee you’ll get years of pleasure from your special purchase, the environment will thank you, and you just might get your life dreams fulfilled that much sooner.

Happy antiquing!

The post How My Antique Secretary Helped Me Buy My Dream Farm in Colorado appeared first on Denver Money Coach.

I’ve talked a little about how I lost track of my dream and then came back to it (to read the full story, I’ve written a 2-part blog you can get here).

What I haven’t talked about is that over the past couple of years my numbers were no longer working. What do I mean by that? Well, my percentages had drifted, and I was barely covering my basic needs and savings.

Those of you who have followed my writing know that I recommend 60% or less of your after-tax income go to basic needs (housing, food, transportation, medical), 20 to 30% to savings, and the rest is fun money.

So when I first worked out my percentages, I had a full counseling and money coaching practice 4 days a week and I was working in the ER 1 to 2 nights a week.

But over the past 2 years I  had stopped working in the ER and was slowing down my therapy practice in Denver. My plan was for the money coaching business to make up the difference.

As I started to look for my new home in the country, I realized that my money coaching business would have to transition to being fully online because I was going to move farther away than first planned. And as those of you who have online businesses know, this can take a while to build.

So here I was, a money coach, with my numbers out of whack and a plan that was falling apart. Yikes! You can imagine my shame about this.

I realized I needed to take a hard look at my plan, and then make some serious adjustments. So I brainstormed . . . and brainstormed some more. Here are some of the things I considered:

• Buy a smaller house
• Buy 10 acres of land instead of the 40 I’d planned
• Do ER evaluations in my new rural area
• Delay my move and increase the number of clients in therapy
• Charge more for my services
• Take on a temporary boarder
• Keep my old truck for longer than planned
• Buy another fixer-upper home for less than I had planned to spend

I didn’t have to do all of these things – I chose a few and moved forward. (As you can see from the photo, one was to buy another fixer-upper. Not too hard a decision, since almost all the houses are fixer-uppers out here, and that’s my hobby anyway!)

The point in telling you this: When our numbers aren’t working, we need to make adjustments, the sooner the better.

So here’s my challenge to you. Take a good look at your numbers. Are they working and sustainable? Are they providing the safety and security your family needs?

Here are some specific questions you can ask: (If you have records from all of 2015, use those; if not just look at last month.)

• How much did you earn?
• How much did you save? What percent of your after-tax income went to savings?
• How much did you spend?
• Did you spend less than you earned or did you rely on credit cards to make up the difference?
• If the answer to #4 is yes, how much credit card debt did you take on?
• What percentage of your after-tax income did you spend on basic needs (housing, food, transportation, medical)?
• In 2016, do you want to have similar numbers at the end of the year, or do you need to make a change?
• What do you need to change now so that your numbers are on track? Brainstorm 10 ideas of things you can change. Do this with your partner if your finances are combined.

Once you’ve looked at your numbers this way, you can set your goals for 2016 – how much you need/want to earn, how much to save, what you’ll save for, what do you want to learn about money this year, how do you want to feel about money this year?

If your money is on track, congratulations! You can keep doing what you’re doing and know that you’re managing your money in a way that is sustainable and safe.

But the only way to know this, and get the peace of mind that comes with it, is to take a truthful look.

The process I went through was painful. I didn’t like my numbers for a while there! But with the changes I made I’m on track to live sustainably in my new country home, and that feels really good!

I want you to be able to feel that same sense of calm and safety with your money. I hope you’ll take the time to have that little talk with your money!

The post When My Money Got Out of Whack appeared first on Denver Money Coach.

That dream, the one I’d forgotten while I built a career and a way of life, was the yearning I was feeling ever more consciously as I stopped to pay attention.

The dream? I had always wanted to live on a farm in the country!

I had wanted to own land and live in the wide open space where my neighbors could barely be seen. I wanted to grow things – trees, vegetables, flowers, baby animals. I wanted to paint landscapes, and the walls of a farmhouse, and my toenails! I wanted to create. How could I have forgotten?

I know now that I’m not alone in this forgetting. We all seem to get caught up in our lives – finding a partner, building a career, starting a family, opening a business – working out how to live in an ever-changing world. We forget what drove it all to begin with – what we really want, and that we’re here to LIVE, not to spend all our energy to make a living. We “make a living” so we can live, not the other way around!

So I decided to start looking for a house with some land, even as I couldn’t imagine leaving the home I’d rescued from demolition, leaving my friends and clients, or moving my practice. How would I “make a living?” How would I survive without my dear friend who always came to my rescue when something broke down at home? How could I leave my two feral cats who, after a year of wooing, now let me stroke their smooth fur as they happily downed their Fancy Feast?

But the dream, once again conscious, took over. Now all I could do was follow its urgings, frightening as they were.

It didn’t come easily. I’m an introvert. I don’t have the same kinds of experiences my extroverted friends describe where, once they make a decision, the Universe opens up and all sorts of synchronicities occur and opportunities fall out of the sky in astonishing manner. For me the internal is vivid, and the external is subtle and often elusive. But the Universe also provided, in a quiet way, for this introvert.

Through what I later found was a very narrow window of opportunity, I went to see a property much farther from Denver than I’d first planned. It was not love at first sight. But it quietly spoke to me and kept speaking until it drew me there with its reason. Each time I went to visit a piece of my heart connected to the place, despite its run-down condition and distance from town.

So here I sit today in front of my farmhouse, looking out on to a vast expanse of prairie and farmland, hearing only the occasional song of the one remaining meadowlark who continued to sing into the winter.

I sigh for the umpteenth time in relief and pleasure. Sometimes the realization of what I’ve done hits me and my heart takes a leap of excitement. I did it! Hard as it was, I followed the dream, and I have no regrets.

Who knows what will come 20 years down the road? When it comes, I’ll look at it too, because only by having the courage to look at the shadow and trust our own inner knowing can we live a truly fulfilled life.

What’s the dream you’ve lost in all the busy-ness of making a living? Is it time to take a peek and see where it might lead you?

Postscript

You may wonder where money comes into this story. Well, because this small farm was out of commuting distance to Denver, and because I had previously looked at my money shadow, I knew exactly where I stood financially, and was able to make an incredible deal on the farm. On top of that, I was able to keep my house in Denver as an investment (and because I wasn’t really ready to let it go!), and now it provides me with a supplement to my income while the equity increases. All in all, a win financially too! (To read more about the financial challenges of my move to the country, go to “When My Money Got Out of Whack.”)

To read Part 1, click here.

The post Yearning Part 2 appeared first on Denver Money Coach.

I was living the life I’d imagined – practically to a tee. I had a beautiful old house that I’d restored and decorated. I had a private psychotherapy practice with clients I loved, and a comfortable office with soulful, caring colleagues. I had great friends and lived in the beautiful state of Colorado. I was healthy and active.

So what was wrong? What was this vague yearning, this fleeting irritation, this dissatisfaction I felt?

“What’s wrong with me?” I thought. “Am I just one of those horrible people who are never satisfied, no matter what they achieve? Why can’t I just sit back and enjoy the fruits of my labor?”

It wasn’t until I resolved to pay attention to my yearning, irritation, and dissatisfaction that the answers started to come. Carl Jung, the brilliant psychologist, had taught me that what I refused to look at – that which I relegated to what he called “the shadow” – would haunt me from the unconscious until I gathered the courage to take a peek.

But I didn’t want to look at it, not even a peek. I had worked so hard to get to where I was. I didn’t want to disrupt my peaceful existence. The irony was that as I started to pay attention to the rumblings, I saw that my life really wasn’t all that peaceful.

I had lived in Denver, Colorado for 30 years, my entire adult life. Thirty years ago Denver was a small “cow town” and there was no such thing as rush-hour traffic. It was a friendly place, and the nights were quiet and peaceful. There was a lot of undeveloped land, even close to downtown, so it felt open and spacious.

Of course I had noticed my beloved cow town morphing into someone else’s vision of what it “should” be. The development of every lick of vacant land, moving the local airport 35 miles away, the “scraping” of small homes in my neighborhood so that huge mansions could be built, the influx of people, the increased traffic. I thought if I just stayed in my neighborhood and worked close by, then maybe I could ignore all the signs of growth and change.

But as I looked at the shadow, I admitted to myself that my neighborhood was no longer quiet, my 10-minute “commute” now took 20 to 25 minutes, and the traffic, noise, and constant building projects in both my home and office neighborhoods was truly rattling my nerves. I was not happy with what had become of my home.

Looking deeper, I had to admit that my work had taken a toll as well. I’d worked with people dying of AIDS, sexual abuse survivors, people with serious mental illnesses, and people in hospital emergency rooms (ER) who were suicidal, homicidal, or psychotic. I’d also been verbally attacked by people high on meth or PCP and dealt with criminals who avoided incarceration by feigning suicidality. My colleagues had been attacked in the ER, and it was only by the grace of God that I hadn’t been hurt yet. My team was there when the Aurora movie theatre shooting happened and we dealt with distraught patients and families for weeks. In all of this, no services were provided by our employers for the secondary trauma we experienced as a result of ER work.

If I were honest with myself, I was burned out. If I were honest with myself, I was exhausted. And once I was honest with myself, I remembered that, once upon a time, I’d had a different vision for my life, one that I’d buried along with everything else I’d pushed into the shadow.

To continue to Part 2, click here.

The post Yearning appeared first on Denver Money Coach.

My sister and I are like clones of one another. We know what the other is going to say before it’s said. We laugh at the same things. In fact, we laugh the hardest with one another. Our beliefs are nearly identical, and we hold the same values.

Except in one area. My sister cannot fathom my fascination with money. Why would I want to be a money coach? It is beyond her. Money is so boring! There are so many more important things to think about.

Until the other day.

We were talking politics again, and ended up on a discussion of big corporate chains and the loss of unique little shops in both of our neighborhoods.

I started to tell her about my recent discovery related to the growth of corporate chains, and why such growth was necessary. I had always wondered why the economy needs to grow continually. What else in nature grows without stopping? The only answer I could think of was cancer.

So how could it be healthy for our economy to grow forever?

It just didn’t make sense to me.

Then I found Bernard Lietaer and Charles Eisenstein – writers about the “new economy.” They were finally able to answer my question about growth.

And this is it: the reason we need continual growth is because of interest charged on everything and how this system of lending really works.

Did you know that the majority of the cost of everything we buy consists of interest? Say you buy a winter coat. The retail store is paying interest on its loans; the truck company that delivered the coat to the retailer is paying interest on their loans; so is the company that sews the coat, the company that makes the buttons, the textile company that dyes the wool, and the farmer who raises the sheep.

Everyone pays interest, and that gets passed on to the buyer (that’s us!).

And here’s what I found beyond belief. When the bank lends the money, the amount of the loan is “created.” But the interest to pay back the loan is not created. Therefore, the economy must grow so that the businesses who borrow money can pay back the loan and the interest.

In other words, when lenders charge interest (BTW, called “usury” in the past, and illegal!) we create an economy that must grow.

What this means for you, me, and our world

The constant need for growth is rapidly destroying our environment! When we live in a system that requires growth in order for businesses to succeed, then cutting down the rainforest becomes more financially viable than preserving it.

Our current system of lending and interest actually creates competition and scarcity in our economic system. If the economy doesn’t grow at all or doesn’t grow enough, then not all the borrowers will be able to pay back their loans + interest. Only some of them will.

This means there is only enough room for a certain number of businesses to succeed, and the rest must fail. It doesn’t matter how much we want to create something different, as long as we are entrenched in the current system, it will continue to be a scarcity and competition system.

Under our current system, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. The awful reality is that the poorer you are, the more you will pay interest versus earn interest. The end result is the concentration of money into the hands of fewer and fewer people, which is exactly what we are seeing in our global economy.

Enter the socially-conscious individual and the new economy

You’re probably already supporting the “New Economy” without being aware of it!

Have you used Craig’s List to buy or sell used items? Or maybe you checked out AirBnB last time you vacationed and found it more satisfying than a resort or hotel.

These are examples of ways to use existing resources to support a lower-growth economy that still satisfies our needs without having to extract resources anew. An important feature of the new (low-growth) economy is shown here – lower growth does not necessarily mean austerity! If fact, we could actually provide for more human needs in the new economy! (But more on that in another post.)

Another example of moving from the interest-based economy to the new economy are the large trade barter associations that circumvent the need for interest-bearing loans from a bank. According to the International Reciprocal Trade Association there were more than six hundred commercial barter exchanges in the world in 2010.

Other options include member-owned banks, state-owned banks, mutual credit systems such as LETS (local exchange trading systems), credit unions, and time banks. There are also some online trade and favors groups starting to grow in membership, such as Simbi.com and Karmatribe.com, respectively. These are just a few examples of how to unplug from the “death economy” and create a brighter future for ourselves and the coming generations.

After I told my sister about all this, she was incredulous.

“I had no idea,” she said. To which I replied, “That is why money is interesting, and why we need to understand it!”

If we – the women of the world, the environmentalists, the believers in social justice and equality – are to “change the world” we must first understand how it currently operates! Then, and only then, can we find ways to change it.

And you know what happened next? My sister asked for more information. Miracle of miracles!

Resources:

Eisenstein, Charles. 2011. Sacred Economics. Evolver Editions, Berkeley, CA.

Lietaer, Bernard and Dunne, Jacqui. 2013. Rethinking Money. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., San Francisco, CA.

Greco, Thomas. 2009. The End of Money and the Future of Civilization .Chelsea Green Publishing, White River Junction, VT.

Perkins, John. 2004. Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., San Francisco, CA.

Katie Teague. 2013. Money and Life. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2-yjhccGdQ

https://www.charleseisenstein.net

The post My Sister’s Money Aha appeared first on Denver Money Coach.

How will you split the expenses? What are your short term and long term savings goals? How much debt are each of you carrying? What sort of lifestyle is each person expecting? Will you be taking vacations together, and if so, what kinds of vacations and what are the usual expenses? What do you do when one person makes significantly less than the other? And most importantly, what VALUES drive your money goals and spending?

This is a conversation that most couples will NOT have had, but it is essential for harmony when you live together. Be brave and introduce the subject! You’ll be glad you did.

The post Before You Move In Together . . . appeared first on Denver Money Coach.