Feature Presentation for April - Finances

Feature Presentation – Finances

By Dianna Meyer   (notes by Evelyn Marinoski)

Money and finances is often more about emotions than anything else – emotions such as fear, doubt, shame, etc. We frequently use money to measure our self-worth, to express love, to show our social conscience through donations, and so on.

All of us have a money style. There is no particular right or wrong answer to this – it just helps to understand what our style is and how to work with it.

Money is a learned behavior with lots of emotions attached to it. The question we need to ask ourselves is whether our past behaviors and emotions mesh with who we are or want to be now.

There are a number of Money Personalities – each with good and bad sides to them.

• Keeping up with the Joneses
• Gambler
• Financial fugitive
• Conservative
• Ostrich
• Miser

Are you conscious or reactive in your relationship with money? How does that affect your personal relationships?

Are we making decisions based on past emotions or present realities?

It’s important to have a personal vision for your life. But it can be a problem if others in your life have a different vision than yours. It’s important to discuss your personal visions with each other, to come to a similar vision that you can work on together, and to get expectations out in the open.

Dianna shared some questions from a financial survey that she works through with her clients.

She noted that while our lifestyle has increased, our disposable income has dwindled. We need to do some serious thinking about our retirements, to think about what that will look like for us, to consider how much we will need to live on, what about illness, what about travel plans, vehicles, dental care and so on.

Consider paying off your house as soon as possible.

Track your spending for awhile to see what you really spend and where. Start paying everything by cash and with only one credit card.

She suggested that we may want to consider a career change, one that would take us into our 70’s. So start now to think about alternate careers that you could enjoy and that could supplement your income now and later on a part-time basis. Choose something that is your passion – it will meet and address our emotional need. Often when we don’t have our emotional needs met, we self-gift ourselves by spending too much.

(Dianna Meyer is a Certified Management Accountant with over thirty years of experience in financial management and consulting.  She currently practices on a part time basis while she pursues her alternate career and passion, opening a Pilates Studio in Cochrane.

You may contact her for a consultation at diannam@shaw.ca or by calling 403-981-3033.)