Episode Summary

Welcome to a new year and a new season of the If Money Were Easy podcast. On today’s episode Mary Beth and Neela dive deep into how to set yourself up for a financially strong year. They discuss the power of realistic goal setting, the smart habits that help you save effortlessly, and how investing in your mental health and relationships can bolster your finances. They share personal insights, reevaluate their own financial strategies, and even discuss making this year about finding balance over setting strict goals. If you’re ready to transform your approach to money and prepare for all that 2024 has to offer, tune in to this episode and start paving your path to financial freedom. Remember, it’s less about the numbers and more about the journey!

What You’ll Learn in this Episode:

• The approach Mary Beth and Neela have to New Year’s resolutions for 2024
• The importance of letting yourself slow down
• Why it could be beneficial to have fewer New Year’s resolutions
• How to wrap your financial priorities and long-term goals into your resolutions
• Why it’s important to set realistic personal and financial goals
• What you should work to maximize and what debt you should tackle
• Investment options to look at for your annual financial goals
• How have your income goals changed over time
• How the psychology of money could be affecting your money habits

Resources Mentioned on the Show:

• 9 Tips for Achieving Your New Year Money Goals
• 4 Money Intentions to Help Build Wealth and Find Ease
• Atomic Habits by James Clear

Stay Connected:

• Join the Abacus community by connecting with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and on LinkedIn
• Connect with Mary Beth on Twitter, Instagram, and on LinkedIn
• Connect with Neela on Twitter, Instagram, and on LinkedIn

Transcript of the Episode

Neela [00:00:14]:

Hey there. Welcome to the If Money Were Easy podcast, the show where we teach you how to expand what’s possible with your money. We’re your hosts, Neela Hummel 

Mary Beth [00:00:23]:

and Mary Beth Storjohann, 

Neela [00:00:25]:

certified financial planners and co CEOs of Abacus Wealth Partners. Today on the show, we’re going to talk about money plans for 2024. Let’s dive in. 

Mary Beth [00:00:36]:

Hi, Neela.

Neela [00:00:34]:

Hi, Mary Beth. 

Mary Beth [00:00:38]:

Happy new year.

Neela [00:00:39]:

Happy new year. Here we are. We’ve made it. It’s 2024. 

Mary Beth [00:00:43]:

Have we made it? Do we make it? 

Neela [00:00:45]:

I think we’ve made it. So for other millennials and Gen Xers who are listening out there, 20 years ago was, in fact, 2004 and not 1980. So if you’re like me and you feel like 20 years ago was 1980, you are in good company. But we are in 2024. 

Mary Beth [00:01:02]:

What Neela really wants to say is that she and I both turned 40 this year. It’s a big year. It’s a big year. So we’re leaning in heavily. Neela’s very excited to turn 40. I think I am, too. But Neela is, like, outwardly excited, and I’m processing internally excited, but I’m pretty sure I’m okay with it. I’m coming to terms. 

Neela [00:01:21]:

In financial services, as we know. I remember turning 30 and being like, oh, thank heavens. I can finally stop telling people that I’m in my 20s, and that felt like a very big milestone. And now the 40s, I’m like, oh, bring it. 

Mary Beth [00:01:33]:

Well, now you’re amongst peers. At this point in time, there will likely be some clients who still call you kiddo because, I don’t know, forever. Based on the demographic of our industry and our clientele, forever. But yes. So here we are, turning 40 in 2024. Neela, did you make any resolutions? Any New Year’s plans or goals? 

Neela [00:01:53]:

So I’m so glad you asked that because normally I make a lot of resolutions and basically put a lot of hoops in front of myself. And this year, what I did was I said I need to do less of a lot of things. And so instead of giving myself more Peloton minutes that I needed to hit or other milestones, I wanted to give myself a little bit of permission to slow down in some areas and focus in others. So I very intentionally did not do resolutions in a move of just kind of embracing balance and self-care and knowing that I can be naturally very hard on myself and that I wanted to take my foot off that gas for, like, 5 seconds. 

Mary Beth [00:02:40]:

Good on you. I like that. 

Neela [00:02:43]:

How about you? 

Mary Beth [00:02:44]:

This was not coordinated. Although Neela and I are morphing into the same person with our wardrobes, I too have deemed 2024 the year of no goals. 

Neela [00:02:55]:

Really? 

Mary Beth [00:02:56]:

Yes, I have. Clearly we haven’t talked about this yet, which is great. Don’t worry, Abacus is fine. We have goals for the business. Abacus is okay. Professional goals for the company. Still there, still doing her job. Personally, though, definitely putting things down. 

Neela [00:03:14]:

Finding more balance. That is really funny. Good idea. 

Mary Beth [00:03:18]:

Good idea. I support yours as well. I think that’s a bold move. Bold. I like it. I have resisted, like looking at my lists that I have, even around from 2023, I’m like, no, not doing it. No, not going to do it. 

Neela [00:03:30]:

Don’t take the bait.

Mary Beth [00:03:31]:

No. There’s like creativity that comes from allowing yourself space. 

Neela [00:03:35]:

I think so. I think so. And so as we think about the typical time right in January to set goals, we often find there are a lot of financial goals that people end up setting for 2024. And so we thought we would do a podcast on helping people actually set those goals. For those of you who do maybe have financial resolutions and not a nap planned for your financial goals. 

Mary Beth [00:04:01]:

It costs nothing. It costs nothing. I guess time depends on how much your time is worth. 

Neela [00:04:06]:

Strong ROI, definitely.

Mary Beth [00:04:08]:

So where does one start when we’re heading into the new year? Thinking about it, assuming this was like a pro goals year for us and we have big things we want to shake up, what are we looking to start with? What would you advise a client?

Neela [00:04:20]:

So the first thing, and we’ll sound like a broken record here, is to pull back and figure out the question of why. What are you aiming for? What are your priorities? It’s so easy in the financial world to fall into the how we spend a lot of time, how much money should I be putting away? How should I be doing this? But to start with, why? And if this is your goal, to say, hey, I really want to get out of debt this year, or I want to really focus on getting my kids launched. And so I really want saving into college plans to be my priority. Really ask what your top financial priorities are and then take the steps to back into those combining both short term money goals with long term money goals. It’s a really important time to just reflect and sit back and say, okay, what are our big picture goals? Especially if you’re partnered up, meet with your spouse and say, what are we trying to do? What do we want to do in 20 years? What do we want to do in ten years? What do we want to do in three years and let that kind of drill down to, okay, how are we going to approach that for this year? 

Mary Beth [00:05:23]:

Yeah, agree. You’re struggling with where to start. You know, you want to make progress with your money. One of the things you can always do is actually just reflecting back on the past year, reflecting back on 2023, what happened, what transpired throughout the year. Sometimes we forget to celebrate our wins. And so even celebrating wins that happened in 2023 can encourage yourself to figure out, okay, what’s the next step forward in this area that I’d like to take? So if you are not sure where you would want to head, but you do want to make progress, looking back at the past year is a great way to give yourself a gauge of where have you spent your money, where have you spent your time, where might you be lacking? And you can adjust from there. 

Neela [00:06:00]:

Yeah, I love that you mentioned that about giving yourself time to celebrate the wins. Because I think with finance, we are so often inundated with the shoulds. You can always save more money, you can always invest more money to an unlimited amount. But if you look back and be like, what did I do really well? Did I open that savings account or that investing account? Did I put x amount away? But really taking a moment to reflect on what you actually did and celebrate that. 

Mary Beth [00:06:27]:

Yes, totally preaching to the choir with all the shoulds. And you can always save more, that’s us. 

Neela [00:06:36]:

You will always find somebody who has a higher savings rate. You will always find somebody who has a higher income. You will always find somebody who has either a nicer car or a cheaper car. And if you get caught in that comparison game, it’s just a recipe for unhappiness. And so really focus on your game. What is the game you’re playing? What constraints did you have last year. And what did you do with those? And celebrate the things, however small they might feel. Was it a step in the right direction? Good. Go you. Own that.

Mary Beth [00:07:05]:

Perfect. Yeah. And I’d say going off of those goals, I think the next thing really is about prioritization. 

Neela [00:07:12]:

Yeah. 

Mary Beth [00:07:12]:

So you can have ten things you want to accomplish this year, and it might not work out. Right. It might be at a snail’s pace if you’re trying to cross off all ten. 

Neela [00:07:18]:

Right.

Mary Beth [00:07:19]:

So what can you do? What takes precedence in your life? What’s priority? Is it taking the big trip? Is it maxing out your 401K, is it a down payment for the car, doing a remodel, whatever those things are? You might feel like it all needs to get done immediately, but you need to be able to prioritize. You need to be able to figure out what’s the smart decision for me to do. And then crossing one thing off at a time. Brian and I had a conversation before the end of the year. We did talk about money plans, and we ended up with like five different things we needed to stash aside for. And I was like, divvying up. I’m like, this is bananas. And so drilling it down to talk about, okay, what’s the priority? How can we cross one thing off at a time? You can be one of those people also who has multiple savings accounts. I’m that person. I do have multiple savings accounts. But making sure you’re aware it takes you longer to get there when you’re trying to hit five to six financial goals at one time versus just one. So make sure you’re prioritizing, talking with your partner or your planner. Whatever makes the most sense for you. 

Neela [00:08:14]:

Yeah, that reminds me of a favorite phrase I’ll share with clients sometimes, is you can do anything you want, you just can’t do everything you want. And so how are you going to create priorities? Because the definition of priority is that it’s one item. 

Mary Beth [00:08:27]:

Yes. 

Neela [00:08:27]:

Like, literally, yes. 

Mary Beth [00:08:29]:

I always say you can do it all, you just can’t do it all at once. 

Neela [00:08:31]:

Right? Yeah. And I think that speaks to, as you’re setting whatever goals personally with your partner, if you have one, making sure they are realistic. I feel like finance goals often get the same kind of extreme goals that weight loss goals come with, where you’re like, hey, I’m going to, all of a sudden, I’m going to start by just eating 500 calories and I’m going to work out for 3 hours a day. And you’re like, that will last maybe a day. And also, what are you going to do when you fall off that unrealistic goal? I’m going to go to in and out, and I’m going to go crazy. And so by setting more realistic goals, it’s actually easier to stay on track versus this binge and purge. I bring in the diet industry because January comes around, people tend to have personal physical fitness goals and they have financial goals, and people put a lot of pressure on themselves for both of those. 

Mary Beth [00:09:26]:

Yeah, totally agree. And I think the stats are like, close to 91% of people who make resolutions abandon them at some point. So being mindful of that, and it’s really about habit creation, going back to the goals, the habits, and that’s where we always talk about. And that’s broken record. Automated savings setting it and forgetting it. There’s a reason that it’s a habit there. It’s automatic for you. You don’t have to manually go in and that money doesn’t end up spent in a different way. So when you’re thinking about your financial goals, what kind of habits can you set in order to support them? And honestly, it shouldn’t be huge life changing habits. It should be small micro steps along the way so that you can actually have the space to get them going. 

Neela [00:10:06]:

Yeah, and a huge plug. You mentioned habits, Atomic Habits. Great book. It talks about just be 0.01% better and move in that direction versus 0.01% worse because it’ll compound in the right direction by just making that commitment and being very specific. You talk about smart goals, are they specific? Are they measurable? It’s not just do more of something, it’s, hey, take my savings rate from 7% to 8%. That’s something that you can actually reflect back on and be like, did I actually hit that right?

Mary Beth [00:10:37]:

And then back to what you said, which is like, what’s the why behind that 7% to 8% is just because you should, or what’s that do for you and your life? And what’s that tied to and invested, whether it’s security or a big purchase in the end. But whatever you’re doing, the adjustments for tying it back to yourself, personally. We don’t lose weight just to lose weight. Nobody wants to lose weight to lose weight. You want to lose weight to live a healthier lifestyle, be more active, fill in the blank. So making sure that when you’re making these adjustments, they are tied to your personal situation.

 Neela [00:11:04]:

Absolutely.

 Mary Beth [00:11:05]:

So once you have the goals, a plan in place, we’re thinking about reflecting what are some of the things that people should be looking at in general with their money this year?

 Neela [00:11:15]:

So the lowest hanging fruit that I think we often start with is retirement contributions. A lot of those limits have shifted. You can now put $30,000 away in a 401K, you can put $7,000 away in a Roth or a traditional IRA. So if you have some of those automated savings that we recommend, it’s a good time to take a look at those numbers. Can you dial them up? Are you able to max out? If you can’t max out, can you at least increase those? So I think taking a look at your retirement plan, we always are advocating to think of future you. And one of the great ways to do that is to take advantage of a tax deferred retirement plan. I think another big one is take a look at your debt. We are in a time where carrying debt is extra expensive, be it credit card debt, variable rate student loan debt, or variable rate housing debt, like a home equity line. Take a look at your overall debt situation and see how much are you actually paying in some of that interest. And is this a year where you can really double down on some of those principal payments so that you’re not paying some of those higher interest rates?

 Mary Beth [00:12:17]:

Yes.

 Neela [00:12:18]:

What else?

 Mary Beth [00:12:18]:

I’d say one of the things also is check in on your budget. So it’s a new year, making sure that you have an updated spreadsheet of, like, what’s everything looking like? What did 2023 look like for you? Making sure you’re increasing things we went through in our household and did that as well, and made sure that line items were matched up to what was actually happening. Because sometimes you set a budget at the beginning of the year, like an idealized one, and then you’re like, oh, what’s the reality? So making sure that your expenses, your budget matches up to what’s actually happening or what you want to happen, and then can you save? Do you have the room to do those things in there? So I’d say making sure you have an updated budget for the year with plans for your expenses, your savings, the travel, et cetera, coming up throughout the year are factored in there.

 Neela [00:12:56]:

Right. Yeah. And if you also think about if you’ve made one more year on some of your financial goals and you’re looking to dial that to the next level, maybe this is a year that your emergency fund looks really great and you want to focus on opening an investment account or you want to invest extra heavily in some other accounts that you haven’t opened, how can you take things to the next level, acknowledging the wins that you’ve had? I think one of the things that we see often is people get into this habit of saving and that money just ends up going into a cash savings account and you end up with just too much cash. So I think taking a look at your overall cash position, figuring out, okay, do you have the right amount? We often recommend three to six months in an emergency fund. Anything above that, is it time for that money to do more for you from a long term basis?

 Mary Beth [00:13:45]:

Right. I do want to go back to the budget thing really quickly because we talk about making sure that you have room for savings. But other things that get factored in there that I’ve seen with clients across the board, especially those with young kids, reprioritizing date nights with your spouse, is that factored in in terms of dining out and childcare or getting more help at home in terms of house cleaner, like making sure you’re bumping up those expenses and factoring it in for the year if that’s one of your goals, if self-care is one of your goals, or mental health, therapy, like factoring those things into your budget and thinking through what are my goals for myself this year and does it work with my budget? So going back again to thinking what are the areas that you’re investing in for you this year, for your own mental health, your financial health, et cetera, and get those into the line item.

 Neela [00:14:23]:

I just love thinking about that from an investment standpoint, you are investing in your relationship, you are investing in your own mental health. And to really think about them as such, because if you get into this cycle of like we’re going to eat bread, water and then save everything else, that’s a bummer. There’s other areas of your life that you should be investing in.

 Mary Beth [00:14:43]:

Exactly. So we talked about emergency fund retirement planning, maximizing contributions, talked about the debt, estate planning documents. That’s another thing to check out at the beginning of the year. If you don’t have them done, get them done. That’s mostly it. That’s all we have to say on that. And listen to our last podcast, what’s amazing on that. So plug there. 

Neela [00:15:02]:

Another good one for people. We focus so often on the spending and the savings side, but your number one wealth creation tool is your ability to earn income. So what are your income plans going forward? Is there a course that you would like to invest in? Some sort of a certification that’s going to allow you to get a raise at work, something that’s going to allow you to start your own business, something that’s going to allow you to increase your rates? Something like that. Are you able to invest in your earning potential as a way of really moving the needle on your financial life? 

Mary Beth [00:15:34]:

Yes, definitely. So career development, human capital is your greatest asset. So whether it’s on the professional, you don’t own a business side. And whether you’re paying for that or you’re working with your employer to compensate and to cover those courses, or if you have a business and you’re running the expenses through your business to ensure that you’re adding to your skills and you are able to increase that income over time is incredibly important. So if you don’t have a plan for your career growth or your career development, we definitely encourage you to set one. I know one of the things that, I don’t know if you did this Nee, but tracking your income over the years, basically, where have you started and where it’s gone and where you want it to go. So if you don’t have a plan, write some goals for yourself.

Neela [00:16:13]:

Yeah, absolutely. And write them down. I mean, I think we’ve talked a lot about there’s neurochemical reasons why actually writing your goals down leads you to having a better success rate in actually achieving those goals. And I think it comes back to this idea of accountability. You’re holding yourself accountable. And then beyond that, as you think about setting your goals now and looking forward, how are you going to continue to hold yourself accountable? Are you going to have check ins with this goal on a quarterly basis? What works for you? How will you know that you’re on track? 

Mary Beth [00:16:45]:

I’d say the other thing, as you’re heading into the year, making sure that you’re set up to max out if possible, your health savings account. If you have a high deductible plan or your flexible spending account. Your flexible spending account is you can do $3200 through payroll deductions for 2024 and your health savings account is $8300 I believe is the max for families and I think it is $4150 for individuals for 2024. So making sure if you have not already adjusted your contributions that you go in at some point in time in the next month or two to adjust those to max out for the year.

Neela [00:17:20]:

And a huge plug for the health savings accounts. Those are some of the most underutilized, best financial vehicles available. You do need to have a high deductible health plan to use them, but they are amazing. You get a tax deduction for the money going in, you don’t pay taxes on the money coming out and it grows tax free. It’s like the whole enchilada when it comes to financial planner heaven.

Mary Beth [00:17:42]:

I love mine.

Neela [00:17:43]:

It’s a good one. 

Mary Beth [00:17:44]:

It’s a good one. Now is also the time going back to income goals if you’re looking to make a move from your job or if your dream has been to be an entrepreneur, a lot of people, I usually say like starting a side hustle. The beginning of the year is a great time to kind of evaluate and think through your plans and your freelance kind of opportunities. If you’re able to and allowed, make sure you get approval if you need to or don’t get approval if you’re trying to exit. You do you. But exploring opportunities if your goal is to be a business owner, we typically don’t advise starting cold. We typically advise, like get your business plan together, figure out your funding opportunities, figure out if you can work part time while you’re launching. So January is a great time, if this is on your radar, to be a business owner, to start your own thing, to begin to ease yourself into that and create a plan that’s not going to negatively impact your cash flow and to get yourself a cushion as much as possible. 

Neela [00:18:36]:

Yeah, I think all of this all comes down to giving yourself a little bit of a financial physical. What has gone well? What would you like to improve upon? Where do we want to go forward? And you mentioned things like estate planning documents, insurance. Dust those puppies off, take a look, see if they are still current. Do you have the right amount of life insurance? Do you have the right amount of homeowners insurance? If you’re a renter, please tell me you have renters insurance. Please get it. It’s so cheap and so worth it. And just kind of taking a look. What do you have, what do you have to work with and where can you continue to make progress on your financial goals? 

Mary Beth [00:19:08]:

Yeah. And making sure you have the right coverage and knowing that not your life insurance premiums, because those could be term and those are going to be fixed, but your home insurance, your car insurance, your renters insurance, all of those will likely adjust on a year over year basis. So sometimes your insurance carriers will just push those adjustments through. So make sure you’re checking in on those and what you’re paying for your coverage. And if you have time and it’s of interest to you, you can always price shop. But being aware of the coverage that you have, it takes an hour of your time, maybe two. But it’s really important because if those emergencies do hit, you want to make sure you understand and you have the coverage that you need. 

Neela [00:19:44]:

Yeah, that’s great. So, Mary Beth, as we head forward, you mentioned a little bit some of your and Brian’s priorities coming from the place of we’re not making any kind of resolutions because we’re not doing that. 

Mary Beth [00:19:55]:

We’re not. 

Neela [00:19:56]:

But hypothetically, if one were making a resolution about finances for 2024, what would that be?

Mary Beth [00:20:03]:

If I hypothetically, hypothetically was… 

Neela [00:20:08]:

Do you see how we can’t resolve? 

Mary Beth [00:20:09]:

Yes. 

Neela [00:20:10]:

Do you see what– I’m sorry, I’m such a monster. 

Mary Beth [00:20:11]:

No, you’re not. No, it’s an unresolution because it’s so interesting. I’m trying to pull back from the finances. The resolution is for me to actually do less in that area. So what that looks like painting done. Still working on that. Because I don’t know, it’s like losing an arm in some ways because I’m tied to the finances and I don’t know who I am without it. So that’s my own stuff to work out on my own. 

Neela [00:20:35]:

I love that. 

Mary Beth [00:20:36]:

But it is pulling back. Resolution is me pulling back, doing less, and not spending so much time in the spreadsheets. Because I know self-reflection is that it comes down to my need and desire to control. I get a lot of fulfillment from there’s a lot of chaos in the world, and I feel like I can control the numbers in this small little space, but I know it’s not healthy. It’s not like the best use of my time, and it triggers me in some other ways. And so if I have a resolution, it is to do less in that area and to trust that things will work out. 

Neela [00:21:09]:

I like that. 

Mary Beth [00:21:10]:

An interesting one. It’s different because I can give you the numbers and different things, but it’s not about that. I’ve been noticing lately, as we go in and make the updates and where I end up bouncing around, I end up feeling this pull to do more, to control more. I can look at the numbers. I’m like, oh, I’m in the travel, and then I’m doing the tax projections, and then I’m doing like, oh, we need to spend in this area. And, oh, well, if I move this over here, I end up hours in there because I’m a monster in some ways, because that’s not a hobby. Paying your bills is not a hobby. Not a sane one, so.

Neela [00:21:42]:

I did find myself talking to an aunt over the weekend, and she was complaining about forms. And I was like, I don’t know, Patty. I sure love a good form. And I was like, oh, my God, nobody says that. 

Mary Beth [00:21:58]:

I will say my husband, bless his soul, he gathers all of our tax documents on an annual basis. So that is the best thing, because the gathering and the downloading and the organizing isn’t as fun for me. That’s not. But he’s got that checklist, and he’s on it every year and beautiful. Amazing. How about you? What’s your non resolution? 

Neela [00:22:17]:

Yeah, my non resolution resolution. So we’re finishing up our home renovation, and at some point I’m going to stop writing checks for that, which I’m very much looking forward to. And I think just for us, is really taking a look at our emergency fund. And what does that look like? We ended up paying for our renovation in a way that we did not expect to because interest rates went higher, which cut into my own safety cushion, which also, then, to your point, triggers me in other ways of a lack of security. And so, taking a look at what do I actually need to feel secure? What is that security coming from? Is it covering something else up? And then also, in general, pulling back, as many of you know, that I am a big online budget tool user. Mint.com is officially gone. 

Mary Beth [00:23:10]:

Oh, no. We’re two weeks in. What are you doing? We didn’t even check in. I am so sorry.

Neela [00:23:15]:

I have a blog coming out. No, it’s okay. I’m okay. I’m working through it. I do have a replacement, and I have a blog coming out that chronicles my journey to a replacement for Mint.com. But I will say the shift has taken me. I’ve taken a step back from the way that I use mint.com. I’m not using the replacement software in the same way. And so I’m using it as an opportunity to, like you were saying, stop looking at it and stop touching it and stop using it in this default way that I was using it before. I’m still in there, but I’m trying to change my relationship with it so that it’s not such a big player. It shouldn’t be my first love. That’s weird. 

Mary Beth [00:23:56]:

I know. You’re preaching to the choir. I don’t know. I was going through our spreadsheets tabs recently, and I love them all. And I was like, they’re beautiful. 

Neela [00:24:07]:

They’re babies. 

Mary Beth [00:24:08]:

We need to lay some of them to rest. The conversation we had over the weekend where I was like, these ones have to go. Because now it’s all getting cluttered. But they all hold a special place. 

Neela [00:24:16]:

Which what we’re both sharing is that there have been things that we have done in the past that have been highly adaptive and helpful. And at a certain point, some behavior and some tools and some ways that you’re approaching your finances become maladaptive because there’s an emotional cost that you might pay. So I think as we look forward, it’s, what is the price you’re paying? Is your plan working in every aspect of your life? 

Mary Beth [00:24:43]:

Right. That’s exactly it. And we’re financial planners, and this is what we do. We admit that we maybe spend too much time in these areas. And it is. It’s about adapting along the way and seeing, in terms of the emotional impact and the mental health impact, too, in some ways, of spending all of your time in these areas. And yet my need for control. Where does that come from? And what am I trying to solve with that? And it goes back to, like you said, the security. I think it hits us both in security in different ways. And so how do we find that or fulfill ourselves outside of the numbers? Right. So just kicking off the year with a little deep emotional check in for you all. 

Neela [00:25:18]:

A little vulnerability of see, we do this. We’re certified financial planners. We’ve been doing this for a combined 30 plus years. Nobody’s perfect, and there’s no system that is universal. And so it’s important that you’re making progress according to your game. Play your own game. 

Mary Beth [00:25:38]:

Yeah. And I think going back to the financial psychology of it all, money and the psychology, they go together. Right? So understanding how money impacts you, and that could be even a goal for the year for anybody looking to understand. What are your financial triggers? What are the things that cause big feelings in you? What are your habits? What are the things you go to? Like, if you’re having a feeling, do you spend? Do you shut down? Do you say, and what is it all tied to? We speak to it a lot. Right? And we do our own work for ourselves and we see it with clients. For those financial psychology component, it’s actually about identifying habits and trends over the long term. So you actually have to pull back and start to observe and think about, okay, how’s this impacting me? How do I feel? Why am I making these decisions and sitting with it, which, again, takes more time, but it’s interesting and informative. 

Neela [00:26:20]:

It’s good stuff. And if you feel like it’s not something you can tackle on your own, there are a lot of professionals out there.

Mary Beth [00:26:26]:

Yes, definitely. 

Neela [00:26:27]:

We joke that we are financial therapists before we’re financial planners.

Mary Beth [00:26:30]:

Yes.

Neela [00:26:32]:

Because it’s all very connected.

Mary Beth [00:26:33]:

It is. All right, anything we missed?

Neela [00:26:36]:

That’s all I got. 

Mary Beth [00:26:38]:

All right, well, happy new year. 

Neela [00:26:40]:

Happy New year. Thanks for listening. Looking forward to a new season. 

Mary Beth [00:26:43]:

Bye.

Neela [00:26:46]:

Thank you for listening to today’s episode of if money were easy. If you’re looking for more information on how you can expand what’s possible with your money, head to abacuswealth.com. That’s abacuswealth.com for more analysis and resource created by our team. 

Neela [00:27:28]:

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