Join me in exploring the transformative power of infusing joy into your financial journey.
We explore practical strategies for creating a pleasure account, elevating your money mindset, and experiencing greater abundance. Discover how aligning your financial practices with gratitude and intention can lead to less stress, greater awareness of the opportunities around you, and stepping more confidently into the vision you have for your future.
YOU’RE INVITED to a special 3-day Free workshop with my friend and Money Mentor, Kate Northrup. Join us April 22, 2024 here.
Join me in exploring the transformative power of infusing joy into your financial journey.
We explore practical strategies for creating a pleasure account, elevating your money mindset, and experiencing greater abundance. Discover how aligning your financial practices with gratitude and intention can lead to less stress, greater awareness of the opportunities around you, and stepping more confidently into the vision you have for your future.
YOU’RE INVITED to a special 3-day Free workshop with my friend and Money Mentor, Kate Northrup. Join us April 22, 2024 here.
Hi, welcome to the Connect with Sheila Botelho podcast. I'm an entrepreneur, self-care strategist and creator of this season's self-care app. I'm committed to helping you reconnect to your purpose, elevate your well-being and build your version of a happy, successful life. You're listening to a Monday Minisode where I share an insight designed to help you live into what lights you up this week. Today, I wanted to talk all about a transformative practice that is about creating a pleasure account for your money.
Sheila:
The world of personal finance is filled with so many different ideas and thoughts and practices that can sometimes feel really, really restrictive and, frankly, it's the reason why a lot of people are avoidant with their finances. Right, you think of budgets, you think of savings, investments, but how often do you think about money when you really think about pleasure, the idea of the fact that money can actually provide something for you in an experience? That is just how your life is being lived. That is just how your life is being lived. So today I wanted to talk about something that really shifted the way I started to look at money, in terms of how I could actually enjoy the process of managing it, of planning with it, earning more of it, making an impact with it right, because we think about what money can provide for us. That's really what we're after. We're often thinking about when we think about creating income for our lives and building careers, building businesses. It's like what kind of lifestyle can we have? How can we contribute with our personal gifts, how can we impact the people around us and how can we actually enjoy our lives gifts, how can we impact the people around us and how can we actually enjoy our lives and so much of our money? Talk time is very, very serious, especially in these times where the economy's doing all sorts of things right. So how can we actually infuse more pleasure into the practice of looking at our money? Think about it. When you think of money, does pleasure really come to mind? Is that the first thing that comes up for you? I don't know. That's maybe not true for a lot of people that I talk to, and so in the past year, I've been part of a program with one of my mentors, kate Northrup, called Relax Money, and she has been really walking all of us through a different way of approaching how we view our finances and how we plan things. So I wanted to share a couple of things, my own kind of personal story about what's really been happening for me over the last number of years, in spite of just this past year being that program.
Sheila:
One of the things that really has been impactful for me is having a pleasure fund. And I mean growing up maybe it was called a rainy day fund, something like that right, thinking about those things that you wanted to set some money aside for things that you enjoyed. But often, as we get older and we have families and we have college funds and kids buying cars and like this is the phase of life I'm in right now it's easy to miss really investing in your own pleasure because there's so much demand on your time and demand on your money when it comes to just running your life. And so this idea that was brought forth and it's actually by Amber Duggar of Profit for Keeps where she talks about the pleasure fund it just struck me. I loved it so much and she's recommending and of course, this is different for everyone, you get to work your numbers, but let's just give an example of potentially 5% to 10% of your net income or of your profits that you can put towards something, let's say monthly, an account, a pleasure account, thinking about how you would spend that money for pleasure, and I really believe these things that bring you joy can be a foundational self-care practice that elevates your relationship with money and helps you actually feel more well in your body and your mind as well, and in your relationships. Because, let's face it, when you think about relationships, especially partnerships and marriages, money can often be the sticking point. And so what would happen if you actually came together with your partner or just with yourself and had a little chat about what would make us happy? What kind of pleasure could we have if we planned with our money? What could it look like? And so, really, the first thing is about starting the conversation, actually thinking about this and definitely check out Kate Northrup's work. She wrote a beautiful book called Money, a Love Story, and you can find her everywhere online. She is actually hosting a live workshop this coming week that you can check out. I will put a link in the show notes so you can look at it. I am affiliate for that program as well. Just full disclosure. I love it so much. I do not promote a whole lot of other things other than my own work, but I stand behind what she is guiding people through. It is so beautiful and so foundational.
Sheila:
So, listen, money is frequently excluded from conversations about self-care, but doesn't it actually play a real, pivotal role in our overall wellbeing, right? If you're wanting to do something that brings you pleasure that is, self-care like even if it's going for a walk you need to buy yourself a comfortable pair of shoes that are going to not hurt your feet. If you like to go to body practitioners, like osteopaths or chiropractors or massage therapists, it costs money and perhaps you have a plan that covers the cost of that, but some people don't, especially if you're self-employed. That's something that comes out of pocket. That's how it has always been for me. So allocating a portion of your income to pleasure activities actually allows you to acknowledge the importance of joy and fulfillment in your financial journey. It supports. It supports you in the process and also when you actually are putting your loving attention on your money and when you think about gratitude, when you think about any money that comes through the door, regardless of where you may find yourself financially right now, just being grateful that there actually is money flowing in, like if you're listening to this, if you're watching this and you're on some kind of device that is allowing you to access the internet is allowing you to download things. There is some money flowing in your life for you to be able to access this information, most likely, and so just take a moment right now and think about the gratitude that you have for that, and that may be small potatoes. You may have a whole lot of other things that are struggles in your life surrounding money. The more you focus on being grateful for that which you have, it really, really helps to open yourself up to what else is around you, and I say this from a place of experience.
Sheila:
When I first was living on my own, I was earning a very basic income and all of my money was going towards rent and food. I didn't even have a car. I couldn't afford a car. I had to basically bum rides off of people, and I had so many beautiful people in my life who were willing to cart me around and pick me up, and it took a lot of planning and it took me time to get to a place where actually I could start even having a savings account, much less an investment account. So we all start from somewhere. We're all at different places, and sometimes you may be making great money and then something happens in our industry, or something like the last three years happens. You may find yourself in a position where there is financial struggle and you're coming back from that, or you're still trying to figure it out. You may be at any place on your path.
Sheila:
I really invite you to start looking for even the tiniest little crumb of something that you can feel grateful for, even if it's not a monetary thing. Often money is so baked into our lives though right, like just the food that you got to eat today. It costs something, right. So I invite you to think about that, because the more you plant those seeds of gratitude, the more things you see that you can be grateful for, and then you shift how you're showing up in the world, and then you just start to see things a little differently. And so, really, when you shift from viewing money as a source of stress to a source of gratitude, you open yourself up to opportunities and possibilities.
Sheila:
In my own personal life again, I've seen huge shifts when I began looking at my money from a more grateful lens instead of a disconnected lens, like, oh yeah, there's that money thing. Yeah, we just I guess we need it to live, but whatever, and just not being present with it, not being aware with it. When I actually really started to get close to it and get focused on it, more relaxation started to happen in my body, and exactly what I said earlier started to happen I became aware of more opportunities that were actually they were right in front of me at the time. They were not new opportunities, but I saw them. I actually saw them, and then I started to make connections to other ideas and people and options, and then new things came up in my life, and I was actually ready for them, because I had upgraded my internal money set point, my abundance set point, whatever you want to call it.
Sheila:
I became more open to receiving, and so I wanted to leave you with this today, because when you remember that everything in your life is connected to some form of commerce getting cozy with it, getting cozy with money, getting cozy with the fact that you have some agency over it everything will shift for you. It really is, though, about prioritizing your well-being and inviting abundance into your life, and so, when you infuse your financial practices with love and gratitude and you start thinking about okay, let's look at some numbers here what if we projected even if I can't do it this month. What about if, next month or in the next quarter, I can actually start setting aside five to 10% of my profits or my net income for pleasure, while you're also saving and investing, perhaps or, whatever the case, paying down debt? What would happen if you actually were investing in yourself and your wellbeing and your pleasure? How would things shift for you? I invite you to think about that and how possibly you can elevate your money not just your mindset, but like your overall being around, how you're showing up, around your money so that you can experience greater fulfillment. Because when we do that, when we are coming from a pleasurable place, a place of relaxation, it's not just about how it impacts us. It really does impact the people around us. And when we feel good, typically we want other people to feel that amazing feeling that we're feeling. And then what happens? Maybe we start helping others more, maybe we start giving of our time and maybe our resources to other people who need it and who could use the boost as well.
Sheila:
So that's my little tidbit for today, and if you're interested in the workshop it is a three-day workshop series Go to the link in the show notes. I guarantee it will be completely different than anything you've ever seen or heard of when it comes to money, finance, investing, all that kind of stuff. It's not about investing, but it's just. It's about money. And it's not just money mindset, like think better thoughts, it's just. It's so much more in depth than that and embodied.
Sheila:
I so appreciate you listening and if you got something valuable from this episode, tag me on social media, like and subscribe if you are listening on YouTube or on the podcast, of course, because I really love to make sure that this message of going for your life, of more and in a way that is not burning you out, but in a way that is feeling fulfilling, is possible, and when you share it, when you share it with a girlfriend, when you share it with a friend, it really spreads the message.
Sheila:
So I appreciate you doing that. One other thing I wanted to let you know something like this that we've been talking about is what we get into in the Seasons Collective, because a key ingredient of building your business dream is money, and when you're in community with others who are elevating the relationship with purpose, worth and wealth, the effect is often growth, and not just growth for you, growth for all of those around you typically, which is pretty cool. I've experienced this over the years and it is available for you as well, so tap the link in the show notes for the Seasons Collective as well. Thank you for being here. I hope you have a beautiful rest of your week. Big blessings.