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I absolutely love hearing people’s stories about how they came to do, what they are doing. These stories are absolutely fascinating to me because there is so much that happened in that person’s life that led them to where they are now and there is so much depth, struggle and passion that happened along their journey.
I often get asked, “how did you become a financial coach?” Which to me, makes total sense to be asked, because it is not something you commonly hear of. You hear of a financial advisor, but a financial coach is very uncommon.
I Grew Up With a lot of Financial Stress
I grew up on a farm outside of a tiny town in Saskatchewan. My siblings and I grew up with our parents doing the best that they could. I remember feeling stressed and anxious about money ever since I was a kid. Every time that I needed to ask for money for school or 4-H, I waited in my room for a while before coming out to ask my parents, because I knew that it was going to cause them stress wondering how they were going to be able to afford it.
On a daily basis I heard “Mandyy, get a good, secure job that pays you well.”
I knew that I wanted to live a different life and that I didn’t want to be worried about money all of the time, so I did just as my Dad told me. I went into Power Engineering, because that was one career that I knew, you did make a good wage. I studied very hard and when I graduated, I was hired by an amazing company. I worked there for 4 years and I truly loved the people that I worked with and I enjoyed what I did.
Click here to download my Realistic Budget template!
Earning More Money Didn’t “Fix” Everything
I was earning 6 figures in my early twenties, which was more money than the people I knew in my life were making, even 20 years older than me. Even though I was doing really well for myself and managing my money exceptionally well, I still felt immense stress and anxiety around money. I was an incredible money manager, but I never felt like I had “enough.” I was so worried about being back in a situation like I was growing up, that I literally played every single scenario out in my head of losing my job, on a daily basis.
I worried ALL the time about money. And I was ashamed that I was worrying about it. I felt like I couldn’t talk to anyone about this “big secret” that I had, my financially scarce mindset, which did not match my financial situation. On paper, I was doing incredible, but internally I felt like I was dying. Society tells us that talking about money is “taboo” and that’s how I felt too.
I thought if I told anyone about what I was feeling, that they would a) think I was ungrateful for my 6 figure career (which was not the case at all, actually the complete opposite) and that I was out of my damn mind considering I was making really good money AND I was managing it well, I didn’t have any debt, but yet my anxiety from my scarcity mindset was through the roof, I could have powered a village with it.
I developed the coping mechanism of binge eating when my anxiety got really bad, which only made me feel 1000x worse about myself.
My constant worrying led to years of digestive issues, insomnia, brain fog and adrenal fatigue (burnout).
At this point when my health was its worst, I realized that working shift work, I wasn’t going to be able to really improve it and that I needed to do something where I wasn’t constantly throwing my body off. So I decided after all of my health problems, to study Holistic Nutrition.
I also started working with a Holistic Nutritionist on my binge eating and when I finally opened up about what was at the root of it, my financially scarce mindset, it was like an anvil was lifted off of my chest. I began working on my mindset around money and my health started to really improve. I was able to overcome the plateau that I had hit. My anxiety dropped right off, my bingeing made significant improvements, my digestive system was the best it had ever been and my brain power was back. I had received a second chance at life and I got my health back.
Click here to download my Realistic Budget template!
Financial Stress Affects Our Mental & Physical Health But Not One is Talking About It
When studying Holistic Nutrition, what I loved the most was learning about the connection of the unmanaged stress in our lives with our mental and physical health. I knew how my health improved from reducing my stress around money, but now I had the science to back it up. It was like the biggest lightbulb went off in my head.
I had to share what I had learned and my personal story with the world. No one else was talking about the connection of financial stress to mental health, anxiety, binge eating, digestive problems, to how it truly affects your relationships. And I knew, that I needed to be that person to talk about those things.
I had been managing my money really well ever since I was young. I studied money, read 100’s of books and took courses on how to improve my finances and my money mindset.
I believe everything happens for a reason and that I went through the struggles that I did, for a much bigger purpose. I was put here on this earth to help other people through the struggles that I have been through, so they don’t have to suffer as much, so their health and quality of life doesn’t have to suffer as much as mine did. And for that, I am so grateful for every experience that I had.
I became a Certified Financial Education Instructor and I started my business helping women and couples to manage their daily finances. I also took the Financial Coach Academy which is specific training for financial coaches taught by an incredible financial coach, so I could increase my knowledge as a coach as much possible, to offer my clients the best experience. I didn’t become a financial advisor because I didn’t want to help individuals with investing, but to manage their everyday money. To learn how to become more aware of their spending, to learn how to budget, how to not struggle paycheck to paycheck, how to feel more abundant with their money, how to pay off debt, how to save money for their goals and to learn how to implement daily money habits and skills.
I have clients who have come to me with $30,000 in credit card debt and during our time together, get down to $14,000. I have helped individuals to pay off $7000 in debt in 40 days. When I receive these messages, it truly feels amazing. But the best part is when someone says they feel less anxious, they aren’t constantly stressed, they can finally breathe, their relationship has come back to life, their eating habits have improved and they can sleep better at night. Receiving those messages are the reason I do what I do, so other people can experience how amazing their life can be when they attend to their biggest stressor in their life, their finances.
Click here to download my Realistic Budget template!
Frequently Asked Questions about Financial Coaching
If you want some more tips for getting your debt paid off quicker, download my free “4 Steps to Pay Off Your Debt” E-book, this gives you more in detail, the step by step actions to take, to get your debt paid off much quicker than you currently are right now.
If you are at the point where you don’t want to struggle anymore and you want to reduce your overwhelm and anxiety around money, check out my Financial Services that I offer. I work one on one to help individuals and couples manage their specific financial situation and to improve their lives by walking them through HOW to change their financial situation, step by step.
If your finances are a constant state of anxiety and stress for you, focus your energy on improving your finances so you are actually able to reduce this stress instead of living the rest of your life with it. If you are struggling with credit card debt, work with a financial coach, who can walk you through step by step, for improving your financial situation, so you feel less stress and anxiety.
Other Content You May Find Helpful:
- How to Improve Communicating about Money with Your Partner
- 10 Ways to Reduce Your Anxiety About Money
- 4 Things to Do to Get Your Debt Paid Off
- 7 Tips for Increasing Your Credit Score
- 11 Ways to Save Money on Groceries
- How to Plan Your Finances For an Entire Year (in under a couple of hours)
- How I Saved Thousands of Dollars so I Could Leave My SIX Figure Career
- How I Made Over $9000 Just by Selling Things I Already Had in My House
- 9 Things You Are Spending Way More Money on Than You Think
- Top 8 Best Books for Overcoming a Financially Scarce Mindset for Women
- How I Lost 10lbs from Working on My Money Mindset
- How to Have Better Sleep so You Can Make More Money
- Frequently Asked Questions about Financial Coaching
I am very active on Instagram, follow me here for more financial tips & tricks: http://instagram.com/mandyythomas (@mandyythomas)
Do you have any questions or anything to add? Leave me a comment in the comments below and I will respond back to you!
