In a fast moving and fast spending society, Lavinia D Osbourne, founder of Butterfly Wealth Creation, explains how applying Money Mindfulness to your life and finances will enable you to make the most out of them in a practical and purposeful way.
Personal finance amongst women around the world is generally lacking. The world of financial planning, investing and wealth management is still overly masculine and cloaked in complexity and risk; as such many women find dealing with their personal finances overwhelming and intimidating.
For many they deal with their finances out of necessity – following a divorce, a death or a change in life circumstance. Money is emotional and these circumstances simply add to it. Even so, it does not have to be like that and neither should it be.
The biggest mistake people fall into regarding their personal finance is the myth that money is hard to master and therefore they have to abdicate responsibility to someone else – a professional – to manage it for them.
With a better understanding of financial education and money mindfulness this belief can be changed for the better.
What is Money Mindfulness?
Mindfulness, in and of itself, is being conscious of what you’re doing, purposeful in how you do it and being present whilst doing it. In the context of money, this is broken down into four parts – money mind-set, money mastery, money management and money mission.
Money Mind-set looks at the importance of being aware of how you think, feel and what you state about money? Does what you say think and feel about it serve your higher good or supress you to be more, do more and ultimately have more?
Money Mastery looks at the art of adapting your behaviour and emotions so that you can always be positively bigger than your situation.
Money Management looks at the process of knowing where and how you are spending your money.
In doing this we look at the five key areas of personal finance – Savings, Budgeting, Investing, Planning and Debt. Download our infographic for more information on this for free with a “tweet” by clicking here
Money Mission looks at how purposeful you are with your money and whether you have a plan for it and how you feel about that plan.
There are a number of tools and apps out there to help you be more mindful in managing and mastering you money in a fun, personal and practical way. This is important because we are living in a time and age where the banking and financial services industry is rapidly changing thanks to advance technologies and social media.
Additionally, there are many way to engage with your finances with money in a social way be it online or in forums or attending meet-up events, which promote financial wellbeing, such as Butterfly Wealth Creation’s monthly event Wealth Consciousness and Investment Meet-up.
Why is Money Mindfulness?
With more women earning more than ever before and the emergence of the she-economy, there is no time like now to get in tune with your money, understand what it means to you and how you want it to represent you in the world.
Even more so, because in a recent Fidelity Investment Money FIT Women Study (February 2015) 92% of women said they are eager to learn about financial planning, but 8 out of 10 confessed to refraining from having financial conversations. Whilst only 47% said that they are confident talking about money and investments with a professional. That is a huge 45% difference between those wanting to take action and those actually taking action.
The best way to change these numbers is by being mindful of your relationship with money as money mindfulness does matter and makes a difference.
By understanding and applying money mindfulness to your life, and the fundamental points of money mindset, money mastery, money management and money mission, it will enable you to have a more balanced, happier and wealthier experience with your personal finance and create a financial plan that serves your true values.
For further information on how to apply Money Mindfulness to your life go and watch our FREE PRESENTATION ‘Money Metamorphosis thru Money Mindfulness’ by clicking here.
@ButterflyWealth @LaviniaOsbourne
