money

3 Easy Things You Can Do In October To Invite More Money Into Your Life

Happy October! Can you believe we’re in the last quarter of the year? (I’m still in denial: how is summer over already?) This year is moving quickly but, fortunately, we still have time to set ourselves up for success before we welcome 2024.

While I don’t believe in waiting until tomorrow (or in this case, waiting until 2024) to make drastic changes, I do think that it’s wise to build momentum before committing to major uplevels. And this last quarter of 2023 is perfect for building momentum that will help you start 2024 on a strong note!

Here are three little things you can do now, to build momentum for a prosperous 2024. These changes may not turn your whole world upside down, but little steps can absolutely put you on the path to financial security and abundant living. I’m doing each thing mentioned in this post, and I’d love for you to join me on this journey.

Cancel one subscription or membership – Look carefully at your last 3-6 months of banking and credit card statements, and figure out which subscription, membership, or recurring payment is least important or minimally impactful. That’s the one to cancel, and even better if you can cancel a few of them. It’s always easiest to start with the ones that you’ve been meaning to eliminate but just keep forgetting. Even if it’s a small amount (perhaps $2-3 a month spent on an electronic game, or a few dollars for food delivery), try canceling it, then immediately designating that amount to go to a high yield savings account (HYSA) each month. If it’s a small amount, you probably won’t notice the savings as they build up, but believe me, those savings will grow over time, and you’ll be very glad you stopped spending your money on something that you really didn’t want or need.

A couple of months ago, I canceled a Patreon membership to a content creator who hadn’t generated any Patreon-specific content in more than 4 months. I earmarked that $6 to go to my HYSA. This savings will yield a whopping $72 annually, but it’s not about the amount, per se: the important part of this exercise is the ENERGY I embody when I direct my resources exclusively to things that bring value to me. At the beginning of this month, I canceled a subscription that cost me roughly $80 per month. Yes, the items I received from that subscription had value, but it was one of the least impactful investments I make during any given month. I’ll be canceling a bimonthly service by the middle of this month. Between these two cancellations, I estimate I will save about $135 a month. I will have to pay a cancellation fee for the service I’m eliminating mid-month ($161) but the savings I will enjoy over the next two months will more than make up for the upfront elimination costs.

Vow to go one week (or more!) without takeout or nights out – As a person that adores GrubHub, UberEats, and any other service that takes the thought process out of dinner preparation, this isn’t my favorite way to save money. However, I have a freezer full of food that I can prepare, and there’s no good reason for me to order takeout when I have downtime, adequate supplies, and some energy. So, right before I wrote this post, I started doing some prep: outlining some of the frozen, fresh and canned food I had, and using ChatGPT to whip up some recipes (AI is your friend!)

Perhaps you have someone in your home that handles all of the food decisions, or maybe you don’t order takeout. Look at anything you purchase weekly or monthly, and see if you can skip it. Think of beauty products, junk/snack food, alcoholic beverages when you go out, etc.,. I have some travel planned for the end of the month, so avoiding takeout for the entire month isn’t realistic. That’s why I’m doing my prep now, and committing to one week (maybe two weeks, if I can be disciplined) without food delivery.

Read 1 book that will increase your financial knowledge – This is such a simple thing, but learning more about how to handle your money can do wonders for bringing more money into your world. If you’re not used to reading financial books, don’t go for complicated texts. Try a book that isn’t too long, and serves as a good introduction to basic financial concepts. Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki, Saving on a Shoestring by Barbara O’Neill, or Earn What You Deserve by Jerrold Mundis are all great places to start. You get bonus points if you choose to borrow the book from the library instead of purchasing it!

But, perhaps you already read these kinds of books (I know I do!). In that case, an unorthodox self improvement book is a good choice. It will indirectly support your financial mindset, because how you do anything is how you do everything. I’m re-reading “How To Really Be Rich” (a 4-part workshop transcribed into a set of booklets) by Jeannette Maw, as well as reading, for the first time, Filthy Rich Woman by Dr. Portia Fulford (I’ll be reviewing it in an upcoming post). Both of these are basically workbooks that have exercises to improve your money mentality, but since I know I’ll have some additional downtime, I’ll also be reading A Glorious Freedom: Older Women Leading Extraordinary Lives by Lisa Congdon. I figure those inspirational stories will feed my soul in innumerable ways.

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These three simple tips can help you build momentum as you invite more money into your life right now, and in the future! What are some things you’re doing to welcome the wealth? I’d love to hear your comments below!

What I’ve Learned From Ten Years As An Enrolled Agent

This year, I celebrate TEN years of being an enrolled agent! I don’t discuss my previous IRS career often, so this seemed like a good time to talk to you all about it, as well as to reflect on what I learned over this past decade.

I started working at the IRS in the call site, then I became a correspondence auditor on a whim (I put in one application in Washington, DC, and I got selected for the role). I eventually got promoted to an international tax specialist role, where I completed hundreds of audits of foreign nationals living in DC, as well as audits of US citizens living abroad. I loved the work, but I disliked many of the managers (this was most pronounced at the beginning of my IRS career as well as the end of my time there: the in-between years were better). The managerial abuse was insane, and I knew I needed to leave for my mental health. Once I started my family, I left IRS and applied for my enrolled agent license (I had the requisite experience to apply without having to take the exam).

I was awarded my license in 2013, and I’ve been in good standing ever since. Here is some of what I’ve learned from being an enrolled agent.

  • Maintaining my license is pretty straightforward and fairly inexpensive. I complete the majority of my 24 hours of continuing professional education (CPE) on CPA Academy, one of the few websites that offers a lot of free classes that count toward CPE. There was a brief, shining moment during the Trump administration, when renewing my tax preparer ID number was free (there is no law that requires IRS to charge fees for these numbers), but that ended with Biden’s administration. There is a $30 annual fee to renew the tax preparer ID number, and I also pay an enrolled agent fee once every three years ($140). So, my average annual costs for maintaining my license is around $80.
  • Tax preparation is my least favorite part of taxes. I liked it when I initially began as an enrolled agent, but now I don’t do it at all. I prefer resolving tax discrepancies, or providing tax advice. Being an enrolled agent helped me learn what I really enjoyed about taxes, and which parts are better left to others. I learned that there are some people that love preparing taxes, and I don’t cross over into their territory.
  • Most tax work is underpaid, so it’s a good idea to work for yourself. You may not get the volume of customers you’d expect by working through a major tax company, but you earn more. With my expertise, I got an offer for a part-time senior tax consultant earning (drumroll please) $25 per hour. Not bad for part time work, and the ease of being an employee (no 1099-MISC payments, so less bookkeeping work for me). But, as someone that doesn’t need immediate income, AND as someone that has a client roster that pays $30+ for a half hour of my time, it wasn’t worth it.
  • Being an enrolled agent is a fiduciary-level role. You have to put your client’s interests first, and you are bound to the same ethical standards as most financial advisor/consultant roles. Just because you haven’t completed any of FINRA’s exams doesn’t mean that you’re able to bypass those standards. You are required to operate ethically at all times (both when working with clients and during your off-time).
  • You’re one of the few roles that can adequately represent people at the US Tax Court. I didn’t learn about this until I had been an EA for a while, but US Tax Court allows non-attorneys to represent clients in court, so long as the non-attorney has passed the Tax Court’s admission process. Being an EA offers a lot of credibility to your application to represent people in tax court. If you’ve always wanted to know what it’s like to work in a legal capacity, being an EA can position you to have this experience.
  • This job is what you make of it. You can do so much with this license: tax preparation, tax consulting, tax resolution, digital product creation, webinars & other instructional sessions, keynote speaking, tax research, and so much more. I have seen people pivot their EA license into all sorts of fascinating careers that go beyond the typical things we think of when talking about tax licenses. Your career is limited to your imagination.

Those are just some of the things I’ve learned from 10 years as an enrolled agent. So tell me: are you familiar with EAs? Would you be interested in getting this license? Let me know your thoughts below!

Harvesting Financial Wisdom: What Autumn Teaches Us

The autumn season is full of wonder and magic. Just think of how our senses are engaged during this time of year: the air gets cooler, the leaves change color, apples and pumpkins are at peak tastiness, and the environment is infused with the cozy energy that complements and prepares us for the chillier months to come.

As a financial consultant and part-time herbalist, I am struck by how much nature reflects her wisdom to us at all times. As I always say, how you do anything is how you do everything, and nature is no exception to this. We are surrounded by clues and hints from the natural world at all times. And in this season, there are many lessons to be learned that can be applied to many areas of our life, including our finances. Some of the autumn-themed financial lessons I’ve observed are:

  • Balance is key to everything. The first day of fall is an equinox, meaning that there is the exactly same amount of daytime and nighttime. It’s this perfect balance between light and dark that I like to keep in mind when looking at financial strategies. Yes, make sure to save, but also make sure to spend. Invest in boring things that grow slowly and steadily (like bonds) but also invest in things that excite you (like plucky startups or fine art, if that’s your thing). Do work that you enjoy, but also remember to make time for restoration and rejuvenation. Duality in all things is required to create a satisfying, balanced lifestyle.
  • Use your energy wisely. There are some plants that thrive in the colder months, and that’s because they don’t waste their energy during unfavorable seasons: you won’t see those plants struggling to adapt and grow in the spring or summer. Likewise, we need to use our energy wisely. Instead of trying to bloom in every season, we should look for the time that is most favorable, and do our best work then. Consider what times of day, month, and year we are most energized (this is particularly relevant to women, who have to consider our monthly cycles and energy levels) and plan around that. When it comes to money, use your energy to develop income sources that won’t constantly deplete your energetic reserves: you want to focus on developing some sources that are passive, and will allow you to use less energy during the times when it’s required. Wisely using your energy is key to living comfortably throughout your years.
  • Slowing down doesn’t mean ceasing to exist. The plants that come back to life every spring appear to be dead during the winter. At first glance, these plants appear to be a hopeless case, going from lush green to dry, brown and brittle in the fall. But then, when the necessary amount of time has passed, you’ll see little green shoots and proof of life on these very plants that looked like they’d expired. Likewise, you may find that you’ve been going hard – too hard – to create the things that you dream of. This is easy to do, especially in your wealth-building stages: it can be exhausting to take in a lot of information, experiment with different strategies, go back to the drawing board to modify your approach, then start all over (psst – You don’t have to do this alone). . . After doing all of that, you may one day feel like you can’t take another step. Or, maybe you feel yourself declining, and, before you collapse from the stress, you realize you have to change the pace to preserve yourself. If you ever get to these points . . . Slow down. You can come back stronger and more resilient if you give yourself a chance to rest and regroup. Opportunities are infinite, and you’re better able to take advantage if you aren’t depleted and at your wits end. SLOW DOWN, and get back to your plan when you’re feeling better.
  • Embrace change. In autumn, the air goes from warm to cool, bringing in the crispness we’ve come to expect from the season. The leaves go from green to red, orange, yellow and finally brown, and the days have less and less sunshine. Nature shows us that the only constant is change, and embracing it is good for us. Instead of arguing against the cooler air, we wear clothing that makes us feel more comfortable. We enjoy the sunshine while we have it, and appreciate the variety of color the leaves offer us. If we’re wise, we embrace the change and adapt accordingly. When you see that your financial plan has gaps or doesn’t meet your needs, you may need to make some changes. There is wisdom in making adjustments with confidence and calm, instead of agonizing over the “could haves/should haves”. Making changes when appropriate and with an accepting spirit can mean the difference between the life of your dreams and lingering in “someday land”.
  • Release anything that isn’t serving you. Speaking of leaves . . . The gorgeous color changes we enjoy in the autumn reminds us that release can be beautiful. Letting go of leaves allows trees to conserve precious energy, with the promise that these leaves will return when the resources and energy are more plentiful. When we release the things that are draining us, or that aren’t serving us, we can use the energy we preserve on things that will support and nurture us. When it comes to money, I checked my investments regularly to make sure that the accounts are growing at a reasonable rate. Anything that is performing poorly over a period of time is released, and I’ll only reconsider when performance improves. Having a healthy level of detachment (which is different from denial or delusion) from our finances allows us to make rational decisions that serve us now and in the future.

Do you have any lessons that you’ve learned from the changing of the seasons? I’d love to hear more about it below!

3 Reasons Why Your Money May Be Stagnant (And How To Change It)

Recently, I had a great chat with a few friends, and we were all excited about a number of things, including our finances. One of my friends is transitioning to a new career and has been weighing different compensation scenarios. Her main concern is whether she’ll be able to continue growing her personal wealth once she takes the new position. She fears becoming stagnant in her financial gains, and doesn’t want to lose time or regress during the transition. I assured her that she wouldn’t experience this, because she didn’t have the most common stagnancy factors working against her. I told her some factors off of the top of my head, but as I sat down and thought about it further, I realized there are a few top reasons why someone may experience financial stagnancy. I figured you all may like to know what those reasons are, and some possible solutions for them. So, here you go: financial stagnancy reasons and solutions!

Reason 1 – Your money may be stagnant because you’ve stopped growing your knowledge or skills. I’ve noticed that many people complaining about their income have either stopped learning about money, or they stopped developing their skills related to their earning potential. This is very common with employees that have “comfortable” jobs (adequate salaries, good benefits, pleasant work conditions). The comfort within these jobs can make it easy to get satisfied with “good enough”, and that complacency often translates over to financial decisions that they make.

Solution: Start learning again. You can start by committing to reading one brief financial article daily, or listen to podcasts or YouTube videos about financial matters. Or, decide to learn something else. The fun thing is, you don’t have to limit your learning to financial topics: pick up any new (or abandoned) hobby or activity and start practicing again. Remember, how you do anything is how you do everything. The expansion that comes from developing one area of your life will flow over to other areas.

Reason 2 – Your money may be stagnant because you’re emotionally stuck. Perhaps you feel angry because you’ve been passed over for promotions. Or, you’re sad because you made an investment (emotionally or financially) that didn’t turn out the way you wanted. Maybe you experienced the death of a loved one, a traumatic accident, or some other devastating experience, and now you’ve been moving through life on autopilot. You may have seen someone close to you lose all of their money in a scam, and now you’re afraid to do anything that may result in a loss. Whatever the emotion is, you know that you’re stuck there, and you feel that emotion every time you start to think or talk about money.

Solution: Identify the emotion, then work through it. One of the simplest ways to identify the core emotion is to start with the scenario that created the emotion, and ask ourselves, “How does this make me feel?” Don’t stop asking the question until you get to at least one of three possible culprits: anger, sadness, and/or fear. Generally, every uncomfortable emotion will boil down to one of these three, at the most fundamental level. After identifying the emotions, seek resources to help you with processing it (FYI the professional that can help you most with these feelings is probably a therapist, not a financial advisor). You can start journaling about the emotion, expressing it in a way that gets the energy “moving” (crying, screaming, boxing class: whatever works), or whatever else helps you to process the feeling. Then, when the emotion has decreased, start venturing beyond your comfort zone. Start with small risks, and rack up a few wins before you go bigger and bolder with your financial decisions.

Reason 3 – Your money may be stagnant because you don’t have a clear goal. Money (like people) enjoys direction. If your money goals are vague, you probably won’t see your money growing or accomplishing the things you want it to. You need clarity to guide your financial efforts; without it, you’ll hop from idea to idea, making very little progress along the way. After reflecting on your experiences, you may find that you’ve taken no actions, because you thought you’d be young and healthy forever. Perhaps you didn’t hop through ideas, and maybe you took actions, but the progress is nowhere near what you wanted at this point in your journey. There are many things that can happen when there isn’t a clear goal, and your money generally suffers when this happens. In any case, a lack of goals and a lack of clarity will often mean a compromised financial path and delayed/denied financial growth.

Solution: Get clear goals and take actions that align with them. Instead of getting exasperated and throwing up your hands in frustration, sit down and ask yourself what you really want. There is no dream that is unreasonable or impossible, so remove those limitations and allow yourself to dream about what an ideal life would look like. Then, determine how your money figures into that: do you need a little more, a lot more, or none at all? After you have the dream life envisioned, and you know how money will serve you in that life, start the process of asking yourself how can you get there (if you want to devise a plan for that, I can help you!)

Stagnant money doesn’t have to be a permanent condition: you are one decision away from ushering fresh energy into your finances! So tell me: do you have stagnant money energy? Are you committed to changing that, or have you already taken actions to change it? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Habits Worth Incorporating: Tzedakah

For those that are unaware, tonight is the first night of Rosh HaShanah, or the Jewish New Year Festival. I enjoy learning about different cultures and what practices have served those groups, so when I saw Rosh HaShanah on my calendar, I was inspired to learn more about Jewish practices related to finance. There are many principles that Jewish individuals incorporate into their spiritual and secular lives, but the one that caught my eye was tzedakah.

Tzedakah (or Sedaqah) is the Jewish principle related to obligatory charity. This goes beyond general philanthropic efforts: the word “tzedakah” means “righteousness”, and so this type of giving is a moral and spiritual obligation. It is considered a cornerstone for obtaining spiritual favor, and it expected regardless of an adherent’s financial means.

While I’m not new to the concept of tithing, I found tzedakah to be interesting, because Jewish philosopher Maimonides expanded on this idea and determined that there were levels (eight, to be specific) to this sort of giving. Here are the eight levels of tzedakah according to Maimonides, in order from most favorable to least favorable:

  • Giving an interest-free loan to a person in need; forming a partnership with a person in need; giving a grant to a person in need; finding a job for a person in need, so long as that loan, grant, partnership, or job results in the person no longer living by relying upon others.
  • Giving tzedakah anonymously to an unknown recipient via a person or public fund that is trustworthy, wise, and can perform acts of tzedakah with your money in a most impeccable fashion.
  • Giving tzedakah anonymously to a known recipient.
  • Giving tzedakah publicly to an unknown recipient.
  • Giving tzedakah before being asked.
  • Giving adequately after being asked.
  • Giving willingly, but inadequately.
  • Giving “in sadness” (giving out of pity) or “giving unwillingly”.

The types of giving are ranked preferentially, because Maimonides recognized that giving with the right intention, coupled with the most positive, lasting impact, is always best. As we descend down the list, the generous actions become more ego-serving and have more short-term impacts. And, while the lower ranked types of giving are still “good”, there is a great chance of deeper satisfaction by participating in giving in the higher ranked ways.

I find this scale to be an excellent way to gauge our own generosity. While I love to talk about making money and spending it marvelously on ourselves and our dream lives, I also believe that generosity is part of spending well. Supporting the causes that are meaningful is good for us, and our generous actions are always returned to us in delightful and unexpected ways. I love that

Are you familiar with the concept of tzedakah? Have you considered how generosity shows up in your daily life? I’d love to hear your thoughts below!

The Goal Is To Labor LESS

To my American friends, I hope you all are enjoying your holiday. Today, for those that aren’t aware, is Labor Day, a national holiday that commemorates the efforts of the American labor force. It’s taken many decades of work, negotiation, and standing up for the rights of workers, but we in America benefit from a body of laws that projects us in many ways. For that, I am thankful.

However, the downside of labor in the US is having to participate in a system that still manages to take more from its labor force than it gives in return. Even the most diligent workers have to deal with unfair treatment in the workplace, a lack of adequate healthcare after leaving the workforce, and very slim chances of achieving comfort in the elder years. It’s a system where the amount of work completed doesn’t usually correlate to rewards: in fact, the current work system usually penalizes the hardest and most efficient workers.

So, what that means for the savviest among us is that we must aim to labor LESS. In the words of the old adage, work smarter, not harder. Part of working smarter means letting our money work for us, instead of us working for money. Our energy can be depleted, and we can experience burn out if we’re trying to leverage the majority of our physical energy to create the lifestyle we desire. We have to learn to utilize our mental energy and strategies to create frameworks that put our money to work on our behalf, so that our initial investment of time, energy and resources can continue replicating itself for many subsequent years.

I’m looking forward to exploring more ways to work less, and sharing those findings with you all. I believe wholeheartedly in working a little upfront, and letting that work continue to pay me for years. I’ve made some great decisions, but I want MORE, and I want you all to experience MORE, too. Look out for more posts about working less in the future!

It’s Back-To-School Time! 7 Money-Saving Tax Tips for Parents

Parents, you are probably tired of the many back-to-school ads, endless emails from administrators, and registration fees for the myriad activities that your children have. For once, wouldn’t it be nice to SAVE money, as opposed to spending it?

As a parent, I feel your pain, and I’ve got some tips that may give you a little relief. For starters, children are costly, and the costs will only increase as they get older. In order to prepare our children for the world they will have to navigate as adults, we must invest in them emotionally, time-wise, and yes, financially. But, even with rising costs, it’s possible to save money, and even put more money in your pocket. Here are some ideas that can help you save money as you prepare for your younger and/or older children to return to school.

  1. Get familiar with the tax credits that are relevant to parents. It’s wiser to know the range of what’s available than to hope that your tax software (or tax preparer) will automatically know what benefits are applicable to you. At the beginning of every calendar year, remember to check out IRS.gov for information about tax credits, and then remember to check it at the beginning of every school year (like, now). For tax credits specific to parents, click HERE.
  2. Remember to separate the business from the personal. If you run a home business, then make sure that your business assets are “exclusive” – only used for the business. Please disregard all of those claims by scheming “tax gurus” and “entrepreneurs” that advise you that you can write off any and every item that you buy. The burden of proof for business expenses is “ordinary and necessary” (and sometimes reasonable is thrown in there). Yes, cell phones are necessary, but the phones that you purchase for your children who do not work in the business aren’t necessary to your money making operation. I hate to fear monger (but I suppose it isn’t mongering if it’s factual?), but IRS plans to hire (and has begun hiring) many thousands of employees, specifically for audits. Get your children their own cell phones, their own computers, etc., – if you are audited, and the auditor determines that any of your assets were not exclusively for business use, you may end up repaying IRS for any tax write-offs relevant to those assets. (If you need help setting up tax strategies that save you money and shield you from audits, contact me)
  3. Purchase school items on tax-free weekend (if applicable to the state where you live). If you want to bypass taxes completely, then tax-free weekend may be a good time to do so. Figure out when this occurs in your state. For some states, it has already occurred, but if you’ve missed it, remember that you can always plan for next year. Research your state to see what qualifies for the tax exemption (simply Google your state’s name and “tax free weekend”). You probably won’t care about this tip if you live in Alaska, Delaware, Montana, Oregon, or New Hampshire, since tax-free weekend is every weekend where you are (these states have no sales tax).
  4. Feel free to donate to your child’s school. The same rule that allows you to deduct the value of items donated to charity also applies to donations to schools, museums, and other nonprofit organizations. Always check IRS’s website to determine if an organization qualifies as charitable. If your children’s schools qualify, then you may be able to deduct items that your children will also benefit from (score!)
  5. Mind your memberships. The enriching things that you do for your children can be tax-deductible, so long as the organizations are nonprofits. So that museum membership that exposes your little ones to art, culture, and history may have multiple benefits for you (check with the museum to see how much of your membership cost is tax deductible). That same membership that your children enjoy may have perks for adults, like free exhibit tickets, exclusive invitations to gala events, and discounts to other businesses and service providers in the area. Not sure which museum is best for membership? Start with the North American Reciprocal Museum (NARM) Association, where you can quickly look up member institutions near you, and see what benefits they offer. If your nearby museum is a member, then you can get free admission to other member museums (this is great for when you’re traveling).
  6. Take your time with your (and your kids) W-4. For children that are working, remember to help them fill out a W-4 properly, so that they won’t get hit with a tax bill. A little known fact is that when your children get their first jobs, they will have to fill out a W-4 and possibly a comparable form for state withholding purposes (if you’re subject to state income tax) because taxes don’t care about your age. *If* your children are employed part-time, many people (friends, teachers, and employers) will tell them to write that they are”exempt” on the form. This is a TERRIBLE idea, especially since it doesn’t teach them how withholding is calculated and deducted from their pay. Also, if they earn more than they anticipated (which can easily happen when they work during summer breaks or over holiday weekends), they may go beyond the ceiling for “exempt” income and end up with – yup, you guessed it – a tax liability. And, unless they plan to consistently earn below the poverty level (the threshold for “exempt” income), they’re going to need to learn about withholding at some point. No time like the present to learn about how wages are taxed. If you’d like me to create a video about how to complete a W-4, let me know, and I’ll try to create that for you all. Just select “Other” on the dropdown options and write “W-4” in the details.
  7. Check your state and local tax website for additional tax benefits. Every state will have different tax requirements and benefits, and all would do well to consider the tax obligations within their states. Further, if you live in a city that has local taxes, there may be some things you need to know in order to maximize your benefit and reduce your expenses (click here for a list of states that have local income tax). The best tip that I have for familiarizing yourself with the tax obligations of your state and city (if applicable) is to get a copy of your state and local tax return instruction booklet, and flip to the section for deductions and credits. See what they have: you may be entitled to more credits than you realized.

Those are my top 7 tax tips for parents. Do you have any tips that you’d like to share? Feel free to post it in the comment section below.

3 AI Tools For Wealth Creation, Pt 1

I’ve mentioned FutureTools here before, because it’s one of my favorite databases for all of the newest AI tools on the market. As someone that regularly uses FutureTools, I’m always testing out new tools and figuring out which ones are best for my audience over here. Since wealth creation is the focus of much of my writing (because you can more easily create the life of your dreams if you have adequate financial resources, at whatever amount/level you decide), here are some of the tools that I’ve found may be helpful for you as you build wealth.

I’m limiting the tools in this series to free (no cost) versions. I’ve financially invested in a few AI tools, but I find it far more interesting to see what can be done at low- to no-cost, especially since people at the beginning of their wealth creation journeys usually have less disposable income. Without further ado, here are three tools to try:

Tool 1 – AOMNI – This site allows you to submit 3 free research requests per day. It provides fairly comprehensive responses and saves the request results, so you can “build” a body of knowledge related to whatever you need to research. If you’ve found your “shovel”, this can save you a lot of time and legwork when it comes to researching different aspects of your business. Since this searches the entire web (unlike the free version of ChatGPT, which only uses data up to September 2021. This can fill in many of the gaps from 2021 to the present, and can be used for detailed market research. Just make sure you write your question well (if you struggle with wording your questions, consider asking ChatGPT to help you write a question that will give you the best response on AOMNI).

Tool 2 – Let’s Recast – I use this app to take articles and turn them into podcast-like audio files. This isn’t an app to “read” the article to you, but rather, to summarize the details and make it easily comprehended. If you find it easier and/or more time efficient to listen to articles as opposed to reading them, this can save you a LOT of time. I usually add articles from Harvard Business Review to Recast, and listen to the articles while I’m doing chores or walking. The app requires either a Chrome Extension or an app download (iOS) to operate the recasting function, but you can also just sign up for the website and listen to the recasts that already exist on the website, too. Lots of the available recasts have valuable information for business owners and anyone interested in finance.

Tool 3 – Video Highlight – This is almost the inverse of Let’s Recast, in that Video Highlight takes video content and turns it into written, summarized information. Remember that 5+ hour video I mentioned in my Millionaire Blueprint post? I actually put that into Video Highlight so that I could get a bulleted list of the recommendations in the video. It was far quicker for the app to summarize the video than to sit through the five hours of content (though I still enjoyed watching the episode and taking my own notes). I’ve since used it for 3 other longer videos. The notes that Video Highlight generates may not be a perfect capture of the information in the video, but it’s excellent for making sure that most of the crucial points are documented. I’m actually considering how I can take the Video Highlight summary and turn it into a recast, so I can listen to the key details of the video whenever I want.

All of the aforementioned websites require sign ups, so have your email addresses ready. However, as someone that has used each of these tools, I have to say that I really enjoyed the capabilities of these apps, and I found them useful for the researching and learning phases of wealth creation. Have you already used any of these? I’d love to hear what you think of them in the comments below!

What Are Your Financial Core Values?

(Slightly longer intro: if you want to go directly to the subject, start reading after the photo inserted).

This is a topic I’ve wanted to explore over here for a while now, and I think now is a good time. 2020 was a reset for most of us, because major changes on the world scene and in our personal lives brought our values to the forefront and made us all keenly aware of what matters to us, and how we prefer to live.

Three years ago, I think most of us were forced to ask ourselves hard questions and to carefully examine whether the lives we were living were 1) sustainable in the “new norm”, and 2) actually making us happy. I personally had many revelations while experiencing lockdown, and these insights made me more aware of what made my heart sing, what saddened or angered me, and, ultimately, what didn’t serve me.

This experience prompted me to dig deeper, and I decided that I needed to revisit and clarify my core values. I did a core values exercise several years before COVID, but post-COVID seemed like a good time to review these values and ask myself if these still rang true for me. So I re-read Jeannette Maw’s Core Values Uncovered (this absolute GEM of a book is a free PDF!) and took my time doing the exercises. I uncovered eight core values, and, in the months following the discovery, I’ve prioritized these values in my daily life. I’ve seen that prioritizing my core values has helped tremendously with my emotional health, productivity, creativity, and the quality of my relationships.

The inner peace that comes from living in harmony with your core values (Photo by Aidi Tanndy on Pexels.com)

This brings me to financial core values. After completing the core values exercises, I realized that most of us have financial core values that have to be honored as we build the lives that we desire. Ignoring these values is a surefire recipe for frustration, disappointment, and discontent. If you find that you aren’t earning enough money, or if you find that you aren’t experiencing any financial difficulties yet still feel unhappy with or insecure about your money, you may be disregarding your financial core values.

I’d define financial core values simply as the principles that govern how you earn, save and spend money. Your core values around money should make you feel good about the way you earn your money, how much and how often you save money, and where you spend (or, as I prefer to say, invest) your money. Whenever you have discomfort around any of these things, there is probably some fundamental financial core value mismatch.

I’d argue that your personal core values may differ from, but don’t contrast, your financial core values. For instance, one of my personal core values is rest, but I don’t necessarily want my money “resting”. I want my money to have a lot of ease with (easy coming in, easy to retain). In this case, “rest” doesn’t translate to a state of inaction for my money, but a relaxed energy that feels good to me. I’m looking at my other personal core values, and these can translate over to my financial core values.

I have eight personal core values, but for the sake of brevity, I’ll share how a few of them cross over into my financial core values. Some of my core values are security, sagacity and artistry. These show up in my financial core values prominently. I invested heavily in bonds and other slow growing (but stable) financial instruments when I was younger (security). I still prefer some of these conservative but sure vehicles for growing my money. I constantly learn about money and apply what I learn to my financial strategy, and I chose to earn money through working in finance for most of my professional career, allowing me to earn and learn simultaneously (sagacity). I donate to charities that support the creative arts, and I also purchase items that nourish my creativity and inspire me (artistry). The things I invest in feed several of my personal core values, and this makes every purchase feel delightful.

I enjoyed reviewing and clarifying my personal core values, then translating these over to my financial core values. I highly recommend you try this and see where it takes you!

So, what are your financial core values? Have you done core value exercises before, and what did you learn from them? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

How To Find Your Shovel (What To Sell In a Saturated Market)

Last year, I wrote a post about selling shovels, or, in other words, catering to the less obvious markets. I wanted to highlight the fact that business success doesn’t require that you do what everyone else is doing; in fact, you can find tremendous success in offering secondary goods and services to the people who are pursuing the mainstream business ideas. I still maintain that your personal “gold rush” is easier to create when you sell the tools that the hopefuls need.

But, maybe you’re unaware of what “shovels” you should sell. It’s easy to get overwhelmed with numerous options available and so many people being willing to “coach” you (for a fee, of course). But we’re friends, and friends share information with each other. So I’m going to share a strategy for finding your “shovel”, so you can start making the money you deserve. I made sure to do this exercise myself, so I found more than a few “shovels” of my own in the midst of it. More about that later, but here’s the strategy for finding your own “shovel”.

  1. Make a list of what interests you. Aim to write down at least 20 things (I felt ambitious, so I wrote down 45 things). These don’t have to be your hobbies, per se: this is a list of interests, not necessarily things that you are actively pursuing. The interests do not have to be activities: I mentioned whisky, vintage fashion, travel, and excellent ink pens on my list. You’re using the list to capture things that you enjoy. If you struggle to come up with 20 things for your list, you may be thinking too narrowly: write down anything that puts a smile on your face. If you like the color pink, that can go on the list. If you enjoy the sounds and smells of wood burning in a fireplace, that goes on the list. Anything you like can go on the list (including people!). If you still struggle to come up with 20 interests, it may be time to grab your journal and figure out if you’ve been suppressing your interests. If so, you’ll have to spend some time rediscovering yourself (it’s worth it to spend time doing this).
  2. Randomly pick two things off of the list, and see how these cross over. Whatever cross over you find, consider it the “overlap”. Think of the “overlap” is your sweet spot for “shovel” creation. For the sake of giving an example, let’s take two of my interests, whisky and vintage fashion. These two seem to have nothing in common, but this is just the beginning of your research. A Google search for “whisky vintage fashion” turns up results of vintage resellers with the word “whisky” in their titles, and several whisky brands that have their own vintage inspired logos and branding, who are also selling their own t-shirts and other merchandise. There is ALWAYS some crossover, no matter how wildly different the two interests may be. The “shovel” you’ve been looking for lies in the overlap, and the gaps that the overlap creates.
  3. Ask yourself, “What’s missing from the overlap?” The overlap always creates another market, some under-served population that’s waiting for what you have to offer. It may take you a while to brainstorm, but you can always find something to offer the “overlap” population. In the instance of whisky and vintage fashion, I thought of things that whisky lovers that appreciate vintage fashion may like. A vintage themed notebook to capture tasting notes, vintage inspired whisky paraphernalia (glasses, bar tools, etc.,), wall art that features men and women from the 1920s – 1970s appreciating whisky, vintage themed whisky stickers, host whisky tastings that require attendees to dress in vintage clothing, a cool vintage-esque poster that is a checklist of bunch of whisky brands (something that appreciators can “check off” as they try each one) . . . The possibilities are endless, but try to come up with at least 5 ideas. If you struggle to come up with ideas, use something like ChatGPT or Claude to help you brainstorm (I didn’t use either for this exercise, which confirms that you don’t have to rely heavily on technology to generate the idea [though it may be useful to use technology to eventually bring the idea to market]).
  4. Determine what you want to offer, then develop your plan to bring it to the market. This will require additional research and possibly some upfront financial investment, but if the idea excites you, then it’s worth exploring. I have some resources I can share in a future post, with how to research your “shovel” potential. Also, I’d be remiss if I didn’t tell you that some of these ideas you come up with will bore you . . . And that’s okay. You’re looking for one that offers something unique AND will hold your interest. This is something you want to sell again and again, and that will only happen if you aren’t bored with it. Of course, you may “sell your shovel” once or twice before you realize you don’t enjoy it, and that’s okay, too. You can always go back to your list of interests and try again. With 20+ different interests, possibly hundreds of combinations, and (easily) thousands of business ideas, you’re guaranteed to find something that you want to do.

I don’t plan on using the whisky and vintage fashion idea to test my strategy, but I love proof of concept, so I’ll be taking my own advice and creating a “shovel” with the steps I just mentioned. I’ll take you all through that process in the upcoming weeks. I’m excited to share that with you all as I complete the steps! But until then, think of your own interests, figure out some overlap, and learn how you can serve those groups that will happily buy what you’re creating. You can do it!

I’ll talk to you all soon: take care!