Hi All,

I’ve never been much of a resolution’s person, but I totally get the appeal. It is incredibly intriguing to think that one day we can wake up and truly, meaningfully change our lives. The problem (or one of the problems) with resolutions is that they assume that everything is in our control -- that our lifestyle choices act as the sole lever in the quality of our lives. Unfortunately, there is a lot that is out of our control, or at least a lot that we can’t impact super quickly. So, if you are a resolutions person (or you want to try it out this year), I would like to encourage you to first determine what you can actually control and only focus on making changes that impact those limited things. 

So, for example, if your resolution is to increase your business revenue, then you need to determine which revenue inputs you can impact. Can you increase the number of clients you have or the number of hours you work per week? Can you increase your prices? Remember to be realistic and pragmatic. If you are already working 50+ hours a week you may not have time to increase the number of clients you work with. If you know that your prices are higher than most of your competition, then you may not be able to increase prices very much. 

Or, if your resolution is to decrease your personal spending, then you need to figure out what your spending habits really are and which of those you can and want to decrease or eliminate. Don’t forget to track your transactions so that you know exactly how much you actually spend! It is easy to estimate incorrectly, especially because prices are higher now than they were a year ago. 

Regardless of where you fall on the resolutions spectrum, taking some time to be practical and thoughtful in your financial decisions is always a good idea. I’ll be reflecting on some of my plans over the next couple of weeks and will share that thought process with you in an upcoming newsletter. 

As always, I’m rooting for you! 

XOXO

Hi All,

This time of year is often financially stressful -- there are gifts to buy, inconveniently timed travel, and emotionally charged family obligations. There is part of me that wants to tell everyone to simply opt out for the sake of their bank accounts, but, for many of us, that isn’t really feasible (or desirable!). Instead, during this time of year I try to focus on a few tips with clients: 

1. Unsubscribe from marketing emails, especially those that come from companies that you don’t like. This can feel like a never ending game (or nightmare), but the way I make a dent in my inbox is by spending those inevitable “waiting around” times (think: the doctor’s office, the Post Office) going through my emails and hitting unsubscribe. It’s actually kind of cathartic once you get in the swing of it! 

2. If you are on social media either as an individual or if you lead a company account (or both!) unfollow accounts that stress you out. This could be that friend from high school who always goes soooo above and beyond on all things holiday or that business that you follow for “market research” purposes, but just makes you feel jealous. No need to inundate yourself with extra negative thoughts!

3. Re-ground in your financial goals, whether for yourself or your business. It is really easy to get off track during this time of year, especially by overspending or by forgoing debt/savings plans. I get that! Instead of beating yourself up when things go awry, remind yourself why you have financial plans in the first place. Sometimes just refocusing on the why can help you make more day to day decisions that are aligned with your goals and values. 

If you’re in it right now, I’m rooting for you! 

XOXO

Hi All,

I can’t believe it is already almost the end of 2022. How does time keep flying by like this?! 

Since I last wrote a lot has happened and I’m really excited to share with you all. I have two lovely little children - Ozzy & Vidalia - my family and I moved to New Orleans, and I am slowly learning how to be a human as a mom in this new, bonkers world. I’m not sure how to identify what in my life has changed because I’ve had two kids and what in my life has changed because the world has changed, but either way the last few years have felt monumental and I am only just now really beginning to understand myself in this new space.

One of the many things that has changed for me is the lack of control I have over my schedule. I used to live by my calendar and, for the most part, I was really good at that. However, when things went awry it would completely throw me off - I would have a hard time emotionally recalibrating and often got really frustrated, angry, and sad. I hated having to reschedule things and would often feel like the day “was a wash” when I had to change course.

Now things go awry all the time (who knew that when you add two more humans into the mix things get unpredictable?!) and I’ve had to create systems to deal with that. It means I have a lot more flex time in my schedule and when something is especially time sensitive I even schedule it into my calendar twice in case the first time doesn’t work out. This means that when something comes up last minute my calendar can usually handle a little disruption, which is good. I’ve also, simply put, had to become less rigid. I love when my days go as planned, but I no longer expect that. I pick 1-2 things per day that absolutely have to happen and as long as those things get done I feel like a superstar. When they don’t get done I feel frustrated, but I remind myself over and over and over again that this is just how life works and tomorrow I get to try again. Some days I do a better job of rolling with the punches than on other days and I try to be nice to myself about that too. I’m not perfect and that’s okay. 

I’ve had to adapt more of a “roll with the punches” attitude with my personal finances too. I’m still mindful about what I spend and am very aware of what is happening in my accounts, but I rely on my systems more than on the active management approach that I preferred pre-2020. Moving to this mostly “set it and forget it” approach has taken time and energy, but now that I’m here I spend less time and headspace on my finances and that feels great! 

I’m curious if others have had similar experiences over the past few years. Do you feel like you’re re-learning who you are? Are you realizing that you need updated systems? Or, are you having the opposite experience? 

XOXO

I have historically not been great at taking breaks from work, but I’m proud to say that I’m getting better at it. Taking maternity leave last year was a game changer because it showed me that everything truly would be fine even without me working all the time. Since then I’ve stopped working on the weekends. Yes, there have been one or two instances where I’ve hosted a weekend workshop, but other than that I haven’t worked. I haven’t even checked emails! 

And you know what? Not only does it feel incredible to have weekends again (I’m not actually sure I’ve ever had them outside of childhood), but I’m more productive during my work hours. Having set work times that cannot bleed into the rest of the day or the rest of the week means that I know that I have to get done what I need to in that limited time. I use the time wisely and I am more ruthless about my priorities. 

I think the same lessons can apply to our money life as well. If you know exactly what your priorities are and you are clear about the timeframes that you have to reach those goals then it is easier to actually follow through. The things that tend to hold us back are: 1) figuring out our priorities in a clear way; and 2) determining the best path for reaching our goals. If you’ve been struggling with either of those action items, reach out! That’s what Verdi Advising is all about. Marguerite is a pro at helping people figure out what they truly want and then determining the best way to get there AND she has a couple coaching spots open for August!  

XOXO

This is a follow-up to my post a couple weeks ago about investing in crypto. I’ll start this article the way I ended that one: Open an IRA first 👍

Day trading has been popularized by apps like Robinhood, which offers $0 trades and no minimum account balances for its entry-level offering. I love that it gets more people interested in investing and taking their money lives into their own hands! But after doing more research into the pros and cons, I’m pretty fired up about the injustice of Robinhood.

Before I get to the fiery stuff, let me address the brass tacks: people should be investing in retirement. I can’t overstate this: you should invest for the long-term. If you have extra cash after maxing out your retirement accounts, great! But most people don’t. I’ve run through Verdi’s retirement needs calculator with a bunch of clients and so far only two of them felt good about their standing. These were people who had been contributing regularly to retirement since their 20s and are now 50+.

If you’re in your early 30s and you make about $80k and want to live a lifestyle spending 25% less than you currently do, you’ll have to save just under $1.9 million dollars between now and your 70th birthday. Moreover, retirement accounts are tax-advantaged whereas day trading stock accounts are not.

Maybe the strongest argument against day trading is that an algorithm that runs a mutual fund or exchange-traded fund (ETF) statistically always yields a higher return than a human - even most highly specialized traders with years of experience. This means, according to the studies, investing in retirement accounts will earn you more money than day trading.

The drawback of investing only in retirement funds is that it’s very hard - nay, impossible - to reach that $1.9 million when you don’t have a 401k and can only invest $6,000 a year in your Roth/Traditional IRAs. So if that’s you, check out SEP IRA options and ETFs from respected institutions (Vanguard, Ellevest, TDAmeritrade, even E*Trade) and leave your money there for at least eight years (want to learn how to do this? Join the VMC!).

So now the injustice.

The big thing is that, although the trades are free, they’re not always the best prices - and they’re not exactly free. Robinhood uses payment for order flow (or PFOF) as one of its revenue streams. If you want to know more about how this works, check out this article, but basically they sometimes give their customers a higher price than what’s available in order to bring in more money for the company. This goes against their fiduciary duty to the consumer and lines the pockets far more thickly of the already-rich than the prospectively-rich - the exact opposite of its purported mission. The educational side of the app leaves people in the dark and the gamification (hello, confetti graphic for each trade) encourages people to make frequent trades and raise their risk on a subject that merits careful thought.

Not to mention it has 1.15 stars (out of 5) from the Better Business Bureau due to sorely lacking customer service, people being blocked from accessing funds, and thin safeguards on sensitive personal info.

The idea of passive income is exciting, and I believe everybody should have access to it - that’s a big part of why I do this job. If clients want to dig into stocks and have a hands-on experience, I support them in that. But there are far safer, less exploitative ways to grow your money than by using Robinhood.

This was a lot, but there’s so much more to talk about! We get into it in the Verdi Money Club, but if you have a question or comment for me, I’d love to hear from you.

XOXO

It may be because of the nature of our work, or maybe it is just because we’re human and on the internet, but Marguerite and I get bombarded with money advice from “experts.” Honestly, it often starts with decent sounding advice:

• Save some money

• Don’t withdraw from your 401K 

• Live within your means

Well-intentioned money blog posts call this “good money management”, but here’s what usually happens next: 

• You save some money but you don’t know how much exactly so you go back to dip from your savings funds (whoops), 

• Money becomes tight, so withdrawing from your 401K is looking extra juicy right now, or

• You live in an expensive city so how can you possibly live within your means?,

So you cry when the thing that worked last week doesn’t work this week, and all that money is gone faster than you earn it. 

And the cycle repeats itself over and over again. 

We don’t blame you. In fact, we’ve both been there! The problem isn’t you or what you’re doing, the problem is that the aforementioned advice you are following doesn’t take into account who you are or your unique goals. 

Here at Verdi, we’ve discovered that learning about money can be fun if it’s approached through the lens of forgiveness, love and empowerment AND if it is personalized. We know what it feels like to be stuck on the hamster wheel of money stress—it’s why we love leading the Verdi Money Club. 

...to give you a repeatable formula for setting money goals that are achievable in less time than you think, and

…to eliminate the guesswork and make dealing with money feel stress-free! 

In the 5 week group coaching Verdi Money Club, you’ll get a personalized step-by-step framework for spending and budgeting, debt management and elimination, credit, saving, and investing. 

All we’re asking from YOU is: 

❑ 90 minutes once a week to get the training

❑ Implement on-the-go (this is work you’re *already doing*, you’ll just be doing it better)

❑ Come see us when you get stuck—we’re everywhere in this program, you’ll know where to find us

That’s it. 

Limited spots available since we want to keep this as intimate as possible.

XOXO

More and more clients have been asking me about investing in cryptocurrency - many know someone who bought crypto at the right time and is now sitting on a stack of money - and they want to know how they can be like that friend.

For better or worse, the advice I have about crypto is the same boring advice as for most investments: do your research.

But what does that look like?

First, it’s important to know your risk tolerance. Do you have a large margin of wealth (do you have wealth?) that you can afford to lose? Does the appeal of making a lot of money outweigh the possibility of losing it? 

Second, Warren Buffet’s advice to invest in something because you believe in it applies to crypto as well as individual stocks and businesses. Many early adopters of bitcoin invested because they believed in a decentralized economy. For some of those pioneers, a loss would have been offset by the knowledge that they were putting money into an idea that felt right to them. 

Third, the advice “buy low, sell high” is very simple but rarely easy, and maybe the hardest element to research. The basic principle of buying something for cheap so you can sell it at a much higher price means you have to have some measure of certainty that it will be worth more in the future. 

But how can we know that? Which crypto will be the next hit?

If I had the answer to that question, I would be one of the aforementioned people sitting on a huge pile of money, but I can point to a couple of questions that everyone considering a high-risk investment should probably investigate. 

1. How do other people feel about the cryptocurrencies that exist or will be developed? If people are feeling good about it, it will gain more value because a large group of people will decide it has value (the true mind#### of money). 

2. Do you believe in it, whether philosophically or purely financially?

3. Can you afford it?

4. Can you see an inherent and unique value in it? What does it do that no other currency does?

One big way crypto investments can vary from individual stock investments is that the former offers mining as a way of earning a portion of the currency, but that in itself is a complex process that may or may not be accessible to you, dear reader, and that I don’t have space to write about here (yet)! So, if you’re interested in mining, I’ll refer you to the top of this post by lovingly saying, do your research.

And open an IRA first 😊

XOXO

Last week on instagram I posted about an article that has really stuck in my head. The basic premise is that the best food related things you can do for the environment are eating less mess (especially beef) and throwing out less food. I don’t eat a lot of beef so ✅  ✅  ✅  for that, but I have recently noticed that we’re throwing out more food than we used to. In the past (i.e. pre-baby and pre-pandemic) my husband and I would always “shop in our kitchen” before going to the store. We meal planned and we prepped things ahead of time. It felt very organized and, to be honest, pretty easy. I remember doing a video walking through my process with the Verdi instagram community and having so many people reach out telling me that it was simpler than they thought.

And yet, here I am, two years later throwing away some terrifying looking carrots that I unearthed from the back of my fridge crisper drawer. If it was so easy I wouldn’t be doing that, right? 

It turns out that things are easier when they are at the top of your priority list (duh). When my husband and I were rarely throwing out food we were also spending a lot of time focused on meals. My husband was cooking a lot and I was regularly training for marathons and therefore focused on getting as much good, healthy food back in my body after runs as soon as was physically possible. 

Now, my husband’s work schedule has changed and he’s cooking less. I’m enjoying short runs, but have no interest in running for 4 hours at a time anymore and we both are focused on spending time with our daughter. Food prep has decidedly moved down the priority list. 

That being said, I still want to waste less food than we do. Part of that desire is based on environmental reasons, but part of it is also financial. Every time I throw moldy food in the trash (or in the compost bin) I see dollars being tossed in with it. Throwing out food is throwing out money, plain and simple. 

Here’s what I’m trying:

• I will make detailed grocery lists and will only let myself go “off list” a little bit (I mean, I’m not going to stop myself from trying those new almond butter covered almonds at Trader Joe’s if I want!)

• Related, but not the same, I will never go shopping without a grocery list. That is asking for trouble 

• I will also stop talking on the phone at the store. That seems to cause me to go into a black hole and emerge from Sprouts with ice cream, yogurt covered raisins, and fancy olives, but zero vegetables or really zero ingredients for any meal other than dessert and/or cocktails. 

• Before making a list I’m going to review what is in my fridge and cabinet and make a note of what needs to be eaten pronto

• I will loosely plan meals (as in I’m buying things for a couple options, but not deciding what day I’ll do what) based on that “about to go bad” list

I’d love to hear your thoughts, advice, or encouragement! Do you already have a good system in place that keeps you from throwing away food? Do you worry about the money that gets wasted or the environmental impact? Just hit reply to this email to let me know! 

XOXO

High Yield Savings Accounts (or HYSAs as we often say at Verdi) are amazing, and not just because the interest rates are better than at most banks. But, before I get into those other, less obvious reasons, let me explain the math.

The national average savings account interest rate is about 0.07%. That means that if you deposit $1,000 today you’ll have $1,000.70 on May 26, 2022. You gained a whopping $0.70! On the other hand, if you use a high yield savings account (check out the Hot Tip Corner if you want to know which ones are our favorites), you’ll have $1,005.71. You gained $5.71! I know, I know...that isn’t actually a lot, but over time it can really make a difference. If you deposited that same $1,000 and then contributed $100/month for two years you’ll end up with $3,424.62. Of that, $24.62 is interest. Again, not a ton of money, but it is so much better than the 0.07% that you get at most banks. (Note: If you want to play around with the interest rate math, we like this handy calculator)

There are a couple other reasons we love HYSAs though (since the math on its own isn’t always convincing): 

1. When interest rates start ticking back up, HYSA interest rates are going to go up. Your regular bank interest rates likely won’t. Or won’t go up by enough for you to notice the difference...

2. HYSAs are usually at institutions that are separate from where you do most of your banking. This means that you can keep your savings out of sight, making it more difficult to dip into them. You’ll be forced to wait a couple of days before you access the cash, which is perfect for those of us who may need a few extra roadblocks in place to keep us from financial self sabotage (🙋‍♀️)

3. And the math. I know it isn’t amazing, but $24.62 of free money is better than $3.01 of free money.

XOXO

HOT TIP CORNER: Our current favorite HYSAs are American Express and Vio. 

Things are finally opening up! People are going on vacation, seeing friends, eating out, and doing all the things (or at least moving in that direction). It is exciting, but as a financial coach, it also makes me a little nervous. Over the past 14 months or so a lot of us have dramatically changed our spending habits and, for many, that meant that they were spending less overall and saving more (yay!). Now that things are opening back up I’m seeing lots of clients start spending in very different ways. This is not necessarily bad, but the sudden change does give me pause.

I made a little checklist that will help you make sure your new spending habits aren’t accidentally sending you off in a bad financial direction:

• Can I afford this? (i.e. do I have the money available to pay for this without going into debt?)

• Does it align with my values?

• By buying this will I need to not buy something else? Am I okay with that? 

• Does this help me with my lifestyle and financial goals? 

  • If not, does it take away from my lifestyle and/or financial goals? 

As long as you can afford it, it aligns with your values, and it either helps you reach your goals or doesn’t take away from that progress, then it is a-okay to spend that money! But, if it actually pulls you away from your goals or forces you to go into debt then take a pause. I know it feels like we have to do all the things now, but we don’t. Even if that specific swimsuit isn’t available in June, something else inevitably will... 

XOXO

We get a lot of questions about childcare costs from clients and, since having a child of my own, I’ve gotten a whole lot more questions, many of which imply that whatever I’ve chosen must be the correct financial choice. Unfortunately, child care, like most financial decisions, isn’t a one-size-fits-all kind of deal. 

First off, childcare of any kind (even the free kind) is expensive. Here are some averages for Los Angeles:

• Full time nanny: $4,300/month

• Full time daycare at a center: $2,000/month

• Hourly babysitter: $20/hour

• Family babysitter: Free? Potentially monetarily free or less expensive, but often comes with other strings attached or emotional complications

Some other places may be less expensive, but it isn’t “cheap” anywhere. 

And in some ways maybe that’s okay. 

As a parent, making sure that your child is safe and cared for is the most important thing you can do, right? So, paying a fair amount of money for good care makes sense. 

Except it doesn’t. 

As a society we decided that educating young children (elementary - high school) is important enough that we’d provide this service “free of charge” paid for by property taxes (so not free, but not a direct pay-for-service model). If someone chooses to send their child to a private school they still pay the property taxes that support the public school options in their neighborhood. I have LOTS of feelings on this system and will happily get deep into them in a future newsletter if you request me to, but for now, let’s just leave it there: we’ve decided education is important, so we created a public good to provide it to all children. 

Early childcare is a little different in that we aren’t as clearly educating babies and toddlers to become productive members of society. However, we are socializing them and laying the foundation for early elementary education. And, early childcare, like elementary and secondary school later in life, allows for parents to work outside the home. I don’t think working outside the home is inherently good, but the fact that many parents (namely mothers), don’t feel like they have a choice in the matter is inherently bad. This problem is even more clear after a year of disrupted schooling and childcare. Over 2.3 million women have dropped out of the workforce since February 2020 (as of February 2021) and only 57% of women are participating in the workforce -- the lowest number since the 80s. Check out this article for more bleak statistics. 

I’m happy that the current administration is moving towards supporting families in more substantial ways, but there is a very long way to go before parents don’t feel punished or pushed into a corner by deciding how or if they’ll pay for childcare. If you’re feeling that way, please know that you are not alone! As described in this article, working families with kiddos under 5 years old, spend an average of about 10% of their income on childcare. That is 40% higher than the US Department of Health and Human Services’ definition of affordability. This problem is huge and one that, in my opinion, has been largely ignored because childcare responsibilities tend to fall on women. If you agree, I highly encourage you to reach out to your elected officials and share your thoughts. It isn’t glamorous, but until the powers that be really see the problem (or rather, hear about the problem), they won’t have the incentive to make any changes. 

XOXO

P.S. Because sharing personal money decisions is kind of our thing, I’ll let you in on how we handle childcare in our household. While I’m working our daughter is in daycare at a lovely place in our neighborhood. We love the school and she loves her teachers and little friends. It isn’t cheap and I wish that it was a public good, but it does feel like the right fit for our family.

We do these Day in the Life of my Wallet posts on instagram pretty regularly and they’re always popular. I think people like them because as a society we rarely talk about money or spending and we definitely don’t tell people the exact amounts we spend. Here at Verdi we are working on breaking down those taboos one super vulnerable moment at a time.  

So, here goes my first DITLOMW (woof, that’s a mouthful) via newsletter! I chose a weekend day because it was more exciting. Yesterday’s was verrryyy boring. A whole lotta $0s. 

May 2, 2021

$7 - cupcakes at the Montrose Farmers Market. Yum!

$29.73 - kiddo books from Once Upon A Time Bookstore. We love reading to little Vidalia and the usual rotation was feeling stale. Got a few new ones, including “The Hungry Hungry Caterpillar” and “No, Not the Armadillo” to spice things up.

$94.85 - Trader Joe’s. Mostly reasonable groceries, but also chocolate babka just because.

$331.79 - Splurge!! New sheets and pillows from The Company Store. All on sale and I’m SO EXCITED. There is nothing like crawling into a wonderful, perfectly comfy bed.  

$463.37 - Grand Total

XOXO

As some of you may have noticed, this newsletter didn’t go out at the normal time last week. That’s because my brain seems to have fallen out sometime over the past couple of weeks and I’m only just now putting it back where it belongs. Maybe you know the feeling?

I’ve known for a month or two now that how I’m handling work and my business isn’t quite working for me anymore. I decided ages ago -- before I was pregnant actually, that I wanted to work part-time while my kids are young. I planned for it -- I saved up for maternity leave, my husband and I worked together to make a plan for how to budget for the family on one and a half incomes, and I thought I had it all figured out. 

Ha.

Turns out when you’ve been used to building a business for years, scaling back to part-time is not as easy as it seems. I said yes to things I shouldn’t have because I am so used to always saying yes. I let myself muddy my boundaries and ended up trying to work at times of day that I had promised myself I would reserve for me and for my family. 

It felt terrible. 

I still haven’t quite figured out how to manage part-time and I’ll be working on that balance over the next few months (slash, maybe the rest of my career?), but I have figured out a few things that are really helping get my brain back in place:

1. I postponed the Verdi Business Money Club. This decision was incredibly hard. I’ve been working on the curriculum for well over a year and a half and I am SO EXCITED for the club to start. But, when being honest with myself, it became clear that I don’t actually have the capacity to lead a group right now.

2. Marguerite is taking on new 1:1 clients (yay!) and I will be supporting her with that work, but I will not take on anyone new for a little bit. This means I can dedicate the time to focus on the wonderful clients I have and on making sure that Marguerite has all the support she needs. 

3. I am scheduling time in my calendar for deep thinking and reflection. I need this time and space to be able to figure out what makes the most sense for me, my family, and this incredible business that I’m so passionate about.

Transitions are hard and are often so much more complicated than they originally seem. I’d love to hear your insights! Have you gone through a similar transition? A totally different one, but one where you similarly felt like your brain was falling out? If you have any advice, thoughts, questions, or comments, I’d love to hear from you. 

XOXO

Ah, financial projections. Basically my favorite thing about getting a MBA and one of my favorite things about my work now. I get to lean into my love of spreadsheets for this one so I’m all in! That being said, I’ve recently heard several business owners tell me that they need projections, but when I follow up with asking them why, they struggle to articulate the reason.

Financial projections are super powerful. They are mathematical representations of potential scenarios and, if used correctly, can tell you a lot about the way you should use your time, money, and other resources. But, if you don’t know what questions you want them to answer then they will almost certainly be a big ol’ waste of time. 

So, what kind of questions are a good fit for financial projections? 

• Which of these two pricing models will earn me more money? 

• How do I make sure that I don’t work more than 40 hours/week while still earning my goal amount? 

• What is the right number of wedding clients vs. commercial clients in order to reach my revenue and work/life balance goals? 

• What will my expenses be over the next year if I start investing in marketing? What will be my return on that investment? 

• Can I afford to hire an employee? Can I afford not to?

Want to learn how to make your own? You may be a good fit for the Verdi Business Money Club! 

XOXO

I get this question a lot and at least 75% of the time my answer is no. Don’t get me wrong, I get the appeal of going ahead and creating a legal entity for a new business -- it makes it official and that’s exciting! The problem with making it official is, well, then it’s official…

In the early days (or months, or sometimes years) of a new business you are often still trying to figure out your value proposition, what your offerings or products are, and how you are going to make revenue. When those things are unanswered it is best to spend your time and energy on that instead of on creating a legal entity. The legal entity itself isn’t necessary for you to have a business, but once you create one you’ll need to stay in compliance with your state’s rules and you’ll have to pay additional fees each year. Instead, I usually recommend that young businesses start out as sole proprietorships. And, on the plus side, you can be a sole proprietor for ages (note: a sole proprietor is an individual who works for themself and pays self-employment taxes)!

Once you have the business basics figured out, you are bringing in revenue, and you are ready to legally separate yourself from the business entity (this better mean you have separate bank accounts!) then it is time to make it official. 

• Want to know exactly when the time is right for your business? You may be a good fit for the Verdi Business Money Club. 

• Already have a legal entity, but not sure if you’re in compliance? You may be a good fit for the Verdi Business Money Club.

• Note: there are, of course, exceptions to this rule. Depending on the type of business you have you may need to create a legal entity in order to operate legally. If you’re in doubt, reach out! If I’m in doubt, I’ll recommend a lawyer to talk to :) 

XOXO 

I absolutely loved looking at the survey results from the newsletter last week. Thank you so much for participating! I wanted to  share a few of the big takeaways: 

1. Over half of you (55.6%) would like to get more newsletters! Maybe that’s a biased sample since you already read this newsletter, but it warmed my heart nonetheless

2. Two thirds of you (66.7%) love getting advice about dealing with money feelings

3. The newsletter posts on debunking manifestation were particular popular 🥰

4. 68.8% of you want to hear more business finance tips and tricks

5. 62.5% of you want to hear more personal finances tips and tricks 

Things I’m going to implement:

1. One of you suggested adding a tip section to the newsletter. I LOVE this and the first official “Hot Tip Corner” is in today’s newsletter (check it out below!)

2. I’m not sure I’ll be able to crank out more than one newsletter a week, but I will start adding more business tips and tricks and will keep up with personal tips and tricks as well

3. Since about 30% of you want to hear more about each of the following: Business Money Club, (Personal) Money Club, 1:1 Coaching, & Business Consulting (whew! This section did not narrow things down for me, haha) I will start sharing more details about what kind of openings we have for each offering. I tend to think folks know what is open and what options we have available, but that’s silly! I know because I’m in it day in and day out, of course you don’t know.

4. I got lots of comments back about wanting to join a business club cohort (woohoo!). If you are one of those folks, stay tuned! I’ll be following up with new dates ASAP.

XOXO

A lot has changed in my life over the last year and, probably not surprisingly to anyone but me, those changes have made me feel a bit overwhelmed. I was sharing some of those concerns with my husband the other day and started down a spiral -- saying that I should be able to handle all of these changes and not have any negative reactions. He stopped me and asked me what I would say if one of my clients said that to me. 

Woof. 

What a perfect way to stop me in my tracks. Of course it is reasonable that I feel overwhelmed with the changes in my life! Of course it is reasonable to not always feel on steady ground right now! Coach Me reminded Client Me that the important thing is to be kind to myself and give myself the time and grace to figure out how to create that solidity again (and recognize that full solidity doesn’t really exist). 

When a client is going through similar challenges I help them figure out how to step back from the situation and be realistic. And then I help them figure out what practices they need to help them feel less overwhelmed. But, if I’m being honest, I haven’t kept up with some of the practices that I know help me stay grounded. These are things like: 

• Going for runs

• Making time to read for fun

• Journaling

• Money Dates

I’ve gotten back into my journaling practice and I’m decent at going for runs, but I don’t often read for fun anymore and I’ve missed way more money dates over the past 6 months than I’d like to share. After I told all of this to my husband he immediately stopped me and sat me down to do a couple’s money date. We reviewed upcoming bills, we checked on a few pending tax forms, we discussed our savings goals, and talked about how our spending has changed since our baby was born. It took about 30 minutes and afterwards I felt like a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders. 

So, if you can relate and are feeling bogged down, may I suggest making a list of things that make you feel grounded and then pick one to do right now? Maybe your shoulders can feel a bit less heavy too.

XOXO

Often when having Get To Know Verdi calls (free 20 minute consults) with potential clients Marguerite and I realize that what a client is searching for, but doesn’t know exactly how to verbalize, is financial health. Financial health is akin to mental health -- one’s emotional and psychological well-being -- but is focused on two areas: 

1. Strong financial systems and metrics

2. Positive emotional reaction to money and financial decisions

The first aspect is usually what I think of as the nuts and bolts of our work. If we’re working on personal finance with a client that could mean anything from debt elimination to creating an investment plan. If we’re working on business finance with a client that could mean anything from creating projections for the next quarter to determining appropriate pricing for their products and services. This piece of the puzzle is about numbers. It is about making sure that the math works out. But, the numbers alone don’t tell us the exact path forward -- they definitely tell us what not to do, but they usually also show several good options. 

That’s where emotional reactions come into play. 

The second piece of the puzzle is less quantifiable, but is how final decisions are made. It is about making sure that your financial decisions are aligned with your values and make you feel good. This work is actually largely the same regardless of if we’re working on personal or business finances. It often means helping a client figure out the root cause of their negative emotional reactions to money and financial decisions and then figuring out how to create a replacement narrative that serves them better. For example, it may mean walking a client through a process to figure out where they first learned a negative financial behavior -- maybe from a family member or friend -- and then discussing how that negative behavior was emotionally reinforced over time. This emotional detective work is key to reframing and building new narratives that serve clients. 

Often this work is casually sprinkled in throughout our work together, but not talked about explicitly (i.e. I help a client figure out why she doesn’t want to price her products a certain way and then we figure out a pricing strategy that helps her reach her revenue goals while alleviating the emotional stress that the first option brought up). Sometimes it is really explicit. This could mean that either Marguerite or I notice a specific emotional block that comes up over and over and we address it head on or it could mean that creating a healthy emotional relationship with money is a goal in itself. Regardless of how we address this aspect of financial health, it is always part of our work.

XOXO

I have a lot of entrepreneurial clients (and I’m an entrepreneur myself!). They tend to fall into one of two buckets:

1. They get so caught up in the doing (providing the service or product, running the day to day) that they never take the time to plan for the future 

2. They get so caught up in the planning that they never take the time to actually run the business

Either way you’re missing out on a crucial part of a successful business! But I get it - there is so much to do and plan for that being able to do it all can feel impossible, especially if your brain just happens to like one focusing on one area more than the other. My brain, for example, loves the day to day, but has a hard time slowing down enough to do long-term planning. 

Sometimes something really simple, like knowing a few key financial metrics, can make a world of difference. That is why I love our newly updated Know Your Numbers template. It has tabs specifically for personal finance and business finance so you can keep your numbers separate and helps you see a few key metrics all in one place:

• Account balances

• Debt

• Net Worth

• Revenue Streams 

• Goals 

Plus, it is free! 

Once you have these numbers in front of you it is easier to see what needs to be done in the day-to-day and what you need to plan for in the future: Are you not reaching your revenue goals? Do you need to decrease expenses so you can increase savings? Is the balance on your company credit card slowly creeping up? 

The template won’t tell you how to make the changes, but it will help you see what changes you need to make. If you’re struggling with the how, reach out! I’d love to chat business finances with you.  

XOXO

P.S. This works great for nonprofit organizations too!

Last week I shared some about my recent experience with taking a break and this week...I’m doing it! Instead of our regular newsletter I’d like to share a few things I’ve been reading:

• ​This gem from a former VMCer on the business of manifestation

• ​This one explaining that many Americans are skilled enough to earn more pay, but don’t have the right check boxes on their resumes

• And this explanation of Biden’s plan to expand the Child Tax Credit

I'm tempted to keep writing (because I am always tempted to keep writing), but I'm not going to. Instead I'll sign off and go have a quiet cup of tea. I hope you do the same!

XOXO