Every year when I sit down to plan the upcoming year for The Heavy Purse, I always begin by asking myself the following: has my purpose has changed? And for the past couple of years, the answer has been a resounding “no”. My passion for helping parents raise financially confident children remained high as I knew there was a deep need for this information. However, this year, my answer shifted a bit. I am still 100% committed to showing parents how to help their kids develop a healthy relationship with money, but I also realized that I needed to broaden my scope.
From both talking to The Heavy Purse readers and my clients, it’s become clear to me that parents struggle to talk to their kids about money when they don’t already know the answers themselves. While I firmly believe you can learn together, many want to feel better prepared before beginning money conversations with their kids. They may need to right their own financial ship but don’t know where to begin.
Regular readers know that I believe money is emotional and it can be a fierce bully. Instead of you being in control of your money, it controls you through intimidation and fear, which creates many false beliefs that prevent you from living your ideal life.
Some False Beliefs include:
It boils down to people lack financial confidence. They don’t trust themselves to make smart decisions with their money. Sometimes this happens due to past mistakes or their perception that money is really difficult.
It’s not.
What I do understand is that fear holds many adults back from finding their own money happiness. Their uncertainty prevents them from taking action, both with their family financial situation and helping their kids develop a healthy relationship with money.
While I have never singularly focused on kids and money, it has been the focus on the majority of my posts. Now, I’m going to utilize my 23 years as a Certified Financial Planner (CFP®) to delve deeper on a broad range of topics, all aimed at improving your financial confidence and well-being. Here are some of the changes you will see at The Heavy Purse.
Learning about money is always in vogue here, but there are certain events that happen throughout that year that require an in-depth discussion, such as tax time. Starting next Monday, I’ll be starting a series on taxes, not so much on filing, but creating an appropriate tax strategy.
Ongoing, I’ll be selecting timely topics and applying my experience to give you the knowledge needed to make informed decisions on your personal situation.
One thing that is often overlooked is our emotions around money. As you know, that is something I don’t shy away from because I believe our emotions guide so many of our decisions. And unfortunately, our emotions don’t always make the best choices.
I want to help you think about money without fear and gain emotional competence to make confident decisions.
Beyond helping you shift some of your money emotions that hold you back, I am also going to focus on my tried and true tactics. I’ve helped hundred of individuals, families and businesses throughout my career and I know what works and what doesn’t. I’m going to share them with you too.
Many people who struggle often do because they lack a concrete plan. And they lack the plan, because they don’t know how to put it together or where to start. You’ll still need to do the work, but I’ll give you the tools to create your actions plans.
Over the next few weeks, you’ll see some minor changes to the website as I broaden my focus. Additionally, I will return to posting two times a week, Mondays and Fridays. Mondays will typically be part of a month-long topic series, and fridays will no longer only be round-up posts. They will be a mixture of posts from light to serious, and I will debut a new year-long series this April.
The one thing that will never change is my desire to help you improve your financial literacy or financial confidence. I believe, whether you are 3 or 83, how you view and use money affects your well-being. And the relationship we have with money today — good or bad — began when we were 3 years old.
I want to instill healthy money beliefs and habits in our young children and recognize it starts by helping adults, no matter their age, find their financial confidence first so they feel prepared to teach their children. Because financial confidence is what empowers us to make good decisions that create money happiness. Ultimately, that is what every single person I have ever worked with wanted. To use their money joyfully in accordance with their values and goals. I’ve helped hundreds, including myself, find money happiness, and I can help you find yours too.
The Heavy Purse Store is now open! My new downloadable Money Club Workbooks are now on sale. Each workbook provides five targeted lessons to help you raise Financially Confident Kids. Please check them out in The Heavy Purse Store.
SHANNON RYAN, CFP®
Comments