I liked this picture because I think of taking care of your finances as similar to taking care of a garden. It takes discipline. It takes time, patience and some work but then you get to see your money grow and blossom.

Thinking about discipline yesterday got me thinking,
“What does financial discipline mean?”

So, here is what I quickly came up with for my top 10 list for financial discipline / healthy financial habits:

1. Pay yourself first – Save something every month

2. Pay your bills on time

3. Pay your bills in full

4. Decide on an investment plan (asset allocation) and stick with it

5. Re-balance your portfolio 1-2 times per year. Think of it as your annual financial physical.

6. Organize your finances so you know what you have, what is changing, and where you are headed

7. Have a will declaring guardianship for your children.

8. Know how you are spending your money and align it with your values and what is important to you

9. Know what is “enough” for you. (Do you really need 25 black sweaters even if you can afford it?)

10. Prepare and plan for the worst with proper insurance – life insurance, disability insurance, home and auto insurance.

Slow and steady wins the race with regards to finance.

The most important key to financial discipline and financial success is living within your means.

Most of the top 10 list above is specific ways of paying attention to your money and financial picture.

No one can afford to ignore money or be on autopilot.

I used to think of being disciplined as a negative.

I am not sure why. I did not want to be called disciplined. It sounded boring.

I thought if you were disciplined you must not have any natural abilities and discipline made up for that fact. So, the only compliment people could give you would be to say you are disciplined. Or if you had enough natural talent you did not need discipline.

The older I get the more I appreciate and value discipline in myself and others. Now I view discipline as a characteristic that ENHANCES your natural talents and abilities.

I recently read Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. This book talks about what it takes to become an outlier – super successful at something.

One aspect of becoming an outlier is Practice – as in 10,000 hours of practice or preparation according to this book and other studies.

“The emerging picture from such studies is that ten thousand hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert—in anything.” —Neurologist Daniel Levitin

The book goes on to say that having talent is usually not enough. There are plenty of talented people that do not make it. Practice was required to make it to the next level along with other qualities (luck, opportunity, nature, cultivation, and culture).

I am a disciplined person. I have come to like that about myself. I no longer view it as an insult. It helps me stay on track with what is important to me – my workouts and achieving goals.

I remember when I was writing my master’s thesis in Chemical Engineering. I did NOT want to do it. I had to force myself to sit down and write for at least an hour or two a day. I promised myself I could get up at the end of the hour. The hour of work felt manageable and doable. I only had to do the hour. I did not think about anything else I had to do beyond that and it helped me finish my thesis with lots of baby steps.

For me it is interesting to think of the areas in my life where I am disciplined and those where I am not…

Men and women are not created equally. We are very different in many ways.

There are significant differences between “men and money” and “women and money.”

Here are two statistics from Financial Finesse that stood out for me:

Only 36% of women say they regularly pay off their credit card balances in full, compared to 61% of men.

40% of women say they have a general knowledge of stocks, bonds, and mutual funds versus 73% of men.

What is wrong with this picture?

Unfortunately, women are often taught and treated differently with respect to money from a young age.

There is a common assumption that money is the “man’s” responsibility so women are not taught or included in many financial decisions or discussions.

I have worked with many women who blindly trusted first their father, or brother and then eventually their husband to take care of their investments. And then when they were unfortunate enough to go through a divorce or become a widow they feel overwhelmed and completely ignorant of their financial situation and what to do.

A marriage is a partnership. Yes, there can be a division of labor but you both NEED to know where you stand and know what is the plan to acheive both of your financial and personal goals. There must be communication about this.

I get so frustrated when I see or hear of only the man coming in for a financial planning meeting. (I don’t allow this.) They say their wife is not interested. How can that be? She should be involved even just to voice what is important to her and know where they stand.

Couples spend so much time, money and energy on their wedding yet they do not spend even a fraction of this time, money or energy on their finances. Your finances affect every part of your life and without a doubt WILL affect the future you live.

Money is THE number one topic couples fight about most.

I also know plenty of single women who just ignore their finances. They are not sure how much credit card debt they have. They do not balance their checkbook. They bury their head in the sand and avoid dealing with their money completely. These are smart cabable women who just hate dealing with it, so they don’t.

Why do we not make more time for this?

We all know money is important. It is not rocket science. You do not have to know everything. You can get help from other people.

What would convince you to take some action and get your finances organized?

What are you afraid of?

What are you waiting for?

You must take responsibility for your actions and choices. Don’t ignore your problems.
I believe in baby steps.

What is one small action you can take today to help get your finances under control or organized?

If you go into overwhelm of even what one small action would be — here is a very quick list of ideas to choose from:
*Figure out your net worth
*Start balancing your checkbook
*Track your money coming in and out
*Start an automated savings of $25
*Create your wills and estate planning documents (especially if you have children)
*Talk about your retirement ideas with your husband – When do you want to retire? What do you want to do?
*Start looking for a financial planner
*Have a financial plan done
*Check or change your retirement plan contributions (do once a year)
*Decide on a plan or talk to someone about getting out of credit card debt
*Open a Roth IRA

As a life coach, I believe it is important to pay attention to patterns in our life. Patterns of all kinds are important — thoughts, words, actions, situations, and results.

I have noticed a pattern I do not like in my own life.

I would love to blame it on other people or things but I have to take responsibility for the fact that this situation has happened before so I do not think it is a coincidence.

Since I do not like this pattern, I want to figure out how to change the pattern or re-write a new ending.

Often times, things keep repeating until we learn a lesson from it.

It may be important to figure out WHY a pattern is happening if that helps you understand and make the change(s) — but understanding the WHY for a pattern is not always necessary.

I am trying to dissect this pattern and get clear on what I really want instead. What is the different ending I want? What does it look like? Then, what can I change and do to create this new pattern that I do want?

We must take responsibility for the patterns in our lives. There are many ways to change a pattern.

What are the patterns in your life?

What are you doing to change the pattern?

For me just recognizing the pattern and taking responsibility for it feels like a big deal right now. It is the first step.

I will let you know how it goes and would love to hear comments from others on the patterns in your life.

How are you doing on your goals for the quarter or for the year?

We all need to remind ourselves – progress not perfection!

If you remember, here are some of the goals I set for myself for the last quarter of 2009:
1) Try yoga
2) Find a new coach
3) Organize our joint finances and set financial goals for me and my new husband
4) Improve my posture
5) Post to my blog 2-3 times per week

Here is my status…

1) I had my first yoga class last Tuesday
and I have my second one today. I have heard from so many people how WONDERFUL yoga is and how much I am going to LOVE it.

My first yoga class was just OK.
I am trying not to pass judgement and give it more time. It was only the first session. I had no idea what I was doing or how to do anything so it was pretty stressful for me.

There are approximately 20 people in the class and many of them seemed experienced. I was pleasantly surprised that it is almost as many men as women since my hubby is taking the class with me and I was worried he was going to be the only man in the class.

The number of men in the class may have something to do with the instructor being male. I erroneously expected a woman teacher. Obviously, all kinds of pre-conceived ideas going on here!

2) I have hired a new coach and an accountability partner.
I have had two sessions with my new coach. I am hopeful and excited to make some significant progress with regards to my business and my own self growth.

Yesterday, I was SUPER grouchy! I am not sure why but every single thing seemed to bother me and get on my nerves. Thankfully my coaching session went well last night and seemed to help get me out of my funk.

3) Organize joint finances
The first step for us in this area was to set up a joint bank account. We decided to go with my husband’s bank, TDBank. Unfortunately, we went in to do this a few days after a software conversion.

After many phone calls and trips to the bank over the past 2 weeks, it was finally decided our paperwork was permanently lost and we both had to come back in to add me to his account again.

TD Bank is supposed to be known for their great customer service. I have had a horrendous experience with them over the past 2 weeks. I am still waiting to hear if I have been added to the account.

We also signed up for www.mint.com to start tracking our spending. I will let you know more about this in a future post.

4) Improve my posture
I am not sure I have made any real progress on this but I do think about it more often which I guess is the first step.

5) Post to my blog 2-3 times per week
I have not done well with this one but I am working on it!

Remember – Progress, not perfection…