Mini Episode 4: I Need to Get My Money in Order

0:00Dalene:Welcome back to Wealthy After 40, part four of the mini series. So if you've missed parts one through three, go listen to those after you finish listening to this one. They all have little bits of nuggets of information that's going to help you hopefully break through some of the things you've been thinking about money. This episode is about getting your money in order first, right? That statement, I need to get my money in order before I can get to retirement planning or before I can X, Y, Z. And while that statement sounds really responsible, it's often just a stall tactic, right? We're just prepping and prepping and prepping because it feels safe.

0:49Dalene:And taking that next step, we don't know, which I understand. We're going to talk about why, but it really keeps you in that safe, right? And you're looking at it and you're figuring that coming, you know, looking at your numbers continually or trying to consistently save continually that you're doing that good thing. But organizing your money and building a plan are two different things, right? Organizing your money does feel really productive. Getting things in order, kind of shuffling it around. If you think about reorganizing your house, kind of a disaster. Then you get things put back together.

1:35But was there ever a plan? A plan is the one that's going to move you forward. It's going to help you start making progress. Yes, you need to have your money organized to a certain extent to support that. But that's why I've changed the way I coach. We jump in both feet, getting our money system in place, which is our organization, and having that first action step, one or two, that is moving us forward. We're coinciding these together, really making progress, really doing things, and the system become supportive of the actions we're taking. We see the connection sooner than later.

2:23Dalene:So how do you know if you're this person, right? How do you know if, well, am I just getting things in order? This is someone who has spreadsheeted, researched, reorganized, done all of those things and still doesn't have a plan, right? Particularly a retirement plan at this point, but even just a money plan. What are you headed towards next? My client who came to me early this year, she was this person, right? She had spreadsheet after spreadsheet of her expenses from last year in any different view you could ask her for. She had them set up. She was still doing it because it was safe for her.

3:10I like to look at it. She feels productive seeing that. But what she didn't have was a system, yes, but she also didn't have a plan. So we are building her a system alongside her planning for retirement so that she can begin to see how those pieces connect. But more importantly, the system is going to show her progress. Is she making progress to the things that she needs to do and wants to do? So I want you to ask yourself, are you in organization mode or are you actually making decisions? right organizing as i said is going to be trying to be consistent with something trying to get your debt paid off first you know trying to do something with your money but it's not making intentional decisions right as you're doing those are they in tandem with a decision about retirement That is when we know we've arrived outside of that organization and into active planning, active progression.

4:33right? So we've got to leave organizing behind, even though it feels safe, even though it looks pretty, even though we feel like that saving and that budgeting or that debt is the problem, we need to figure out how those pieces connect to retirement and what is the best decision with those pieces to get you to retirement sooner. So if you're ready to simultaneously get things in order and create a retirement plan, I'm running a free live training next week that is going to help you create a roadmap to retire in five years. So head over to elevatefinances.us backslash webinar, where you can learn more and get registered.

5:22We will be diving into organization but we're not stopping there. And there's action steps within that organization before we get to the end result of what does this mean? And what do I need to do next? And that's where you need to get to quit working on one thing and organizing one thing when you can actually see that you're making progress to retirement. So I hope you'll join me and I'll see you in the next episode.

5:53Dalene:Thank you for spending this time with me. If you're not already following the show, be sure to hit subscribe so you don't miss what's coming next. And I'd love to stay connected with you between episodes. So come join me inside my Facebook community, Retirement Ready Hub for Gen Xers. It's where we're having real conversations about money, sharing wins, working through challenges, and building a clear path toward retirement. And remember, retirement isn't just a dream it's a plan and you get to make it possible