MoneyMindful Blog
On managing your money
Personal responsibility through self-compassion
A guest post this time from a client on how self-compassion can lead us to increased personal responsibility. by Ileana Arganda-Stevens, LMFT, Therapist and Program Manager, Thrive Therapy and Counseling. Ever notice that taking responsibility can feel scary...
The avocado toast thing
There is a meme that if young people starting out would just spend less on avocado toast, they would be able to buy houses. I think for established folks, it is easy to look back on an experience and say “well, it worked for me, so it must be fine”, but I got to...
How to deal with overwhelm
Greetings from New York City! Thanks for everyone’s patience while I went through our move, it has been an interesting few months. Yes, I am still doing sessions! I also have the spiffy new scheduling calendar here - check it out if you would like to schedule (and of...
Cryptocurrency – where to start?
I’ve been hearing from several people recently that they would like help with investing in cryptocurrency. Usually I refer to investment advisors for these kinds of questions, but all my usual advisors said that cryptocurrency is not their expertise. One of them...
Friggin’ Amazon and other budget problems
I’ve been hearing a lot from people recently about the Amazon problem – “friggin’ Amazon”, someone called it. Another said “so I’m normal to have problems with this?”, someone else at least got some use out it by using the boxes for moving. Amazon is a challenge (and...
A relationship with your money
How is your relationship with your money? Have you spoken to it recently? Are you on good terms, or perhaps not so much? The interaction with money really is a relationship, and it can help make some things very clear if we look at it that way. There’s a lot that...
The big goals – 3 steps
The big goals - retirement, saving for a house or for kids’ college – can feel a bit daunting. One human instinct (I can vouch!) can be to just avoid them for now, and figure that perhaps it would be better to deal with them later. I’m sure you can imagine where that...
Post-pandemic?
I hope that I’m not getting ahead of myself, but it looks as if we may be coming to the end of this particular tunnel, at least in the U.S.. Here in California businesses are beginning to open, travel is starting to book up (leading to interesting problems with rental...
Six ways not to beat yourself up
Paying attention to our finances can bring up some difficult feelings. There’s a reason we avoid this stuff – looking our finances straight in the face can be scary. But in truth, often the scariest thing is the judgement that we bring to it ourselves. Life is a...
A New Year, thank heavens!
A new year, thank heavens! We get to give it another shot. May this be an easier one for all. I have a couple of things coming up to get us started. January, of course, is a perfect time to plan the year ahead. (Which doesn't mean that things will go the way we...
Don’t pay off the car!
There seems to be an instinct, as soon as we get some extra money, to pay off the loan on the car. If this is you, don’t do it! It’s an understandable instinct – that payment shows up in the bills every month, and it would be nice to get it off the books so that your...
Stuck with investing?
It’s been interesting times for investing this year. I have been wanting to get to this topic, because people often ask me how to get started with investing, and the roller-coaster of the last few months has brought it even more into focus. The question can come from...
In it for the long haul?
It is looking as if this thing is going to be with us for a while. Anyone else getting tired of the inside of their own four walls? (Not to mention the inside of their own psyche…) The shutdown has obviously been particularly hard on the people who have lost their...
Coping with uncertainty
One of the most difficult things with the current situation is that there is so much that we don’t know. In the financial realm, this spills over into income particularly. In a way, this is very similar to being self-employed – income can be irregular, so...
Resources for the economic shutdown + a free call
What a week! Things are changing so fast that it is hard to keep up. As we navigate the significant changes and economic impact of the coronavirus response, please remember to take time to be with your feelings. A disruption like this is going to create a lot of them,...