[00:00:00] Linzy: Hello and welcome back to another Feelings and Finances episode of the Money Skills for Therapists podcast. These are our short and sweet Friday episodes where we dig into a question from listeners like you, the lovely therapists and health practitioners and coaches who listen to the Money Skills Therapist podcast.

[00:00:17] And this episode today wasn’t actually supposed to happen. We were at the end of a season and I was planning to end our season with our wonderful conversation with David Frank about debt repayment, but then the election happened, and we’re at a moment in time where everything is feeling scary and uncertain and there’s a lot of things being said about what the new administration is going to do.

[00:00:43] And I’m Canadian,which means I watch these things with a little bit of distance. But even still, I’m freaking out a little bit. I see the folks in my courses in Money Skills for Therapists and Money Skills for Practice Owners freaking out.

[00:00:57] I know there’s lots of folks in my courses and in my community who are queer and trans and marginalized in all sorts of ways that this administration is actively threatening. So let’s talk about what money means at a time like this. How Do you manage money in uncertain times? What can money do in uncertain times, like the times that we are entering into for the next four years?

[00:01:25] So when we come into a time of political uncertainty, potentially instability, the first thing that money can do for you is it can help to create stability for yourself. There’s very much a piece here with money that is always important, which is putting on your own oxygen mask first. Right? It’s really hard to take care of others and to give and to show up when you yourself do not have stability, right?

[00:01:55] So creating financial stability for yourself as much as possible is foundational to allow you to show up in all the different ways that you’re going to want to show up. So that means starting to create some breathing room for yourself in your finances, whether it’s at home, creating a bit of a buffer, starting to try and experiment with different ways of putting money aside if that’s a challenge for you, if you find that money always disappears.

[00:02:23] What can you do to start to create more financial stability for yourself at home so you see yourself becoming more stable and more secure rather than maybe going further into debt, or seeing yourself kind of break even. Does that mean not using credit cards for a while, only paying down credit cards, not putting any new balances on credit cards.

[00:02:40] Does it mean paying off credit cards every week? Back to, you know, whatever your baseline balance is and then paying them down to see yourself having your debt reduced. Does it mean creating a savings account and putting aside money every single week, even if it’s 50 bucks a week? So you see that 200 a month build up.

[00:02:57] Some of this is very practical, you know, when we have more money, obviously we are covered when things come up and if we have less debt, then that debt costs us less money. There’s lots of practicality there, but also emotionally it feels good to see ourselves moving in the directions that we want to move, and to see ourselves becoming more stable and more secure, even if in amounts that are small enough that they’re almost symbolic, that doesn’t really matter. You’re seeing that you can make an impact on your life; you are seeing that you can build stability from yourself.

[00:03:30] That can allow you to bolster and sustain yourself through hard times. The next question to think about is how can your money support you in nurturing yourself, caring for yourself. There’s a mindfulness factor here of when things are more uncertain, more stressful, letting your money take better care of you is strategic, right?

[00:03:56] How can your money help you feel healthier? Is it that you put some money towards slightly better food, right? Is it that you prioritize time off so you have more time to rest and rejuvenate and connect with yourself and the people that you love? Money can do that for you, you know, by managing your practice finances strategically. Because ultimately when your money is in a place where you can be grounded and solid and it’s not a stressor, it’s not keeping you up at night,

[00:04:27] then you can move into the place where, I think is the place where a lot of folks are going to be for the next four years, which is, then you have the money to actually support the causes you really care about to show up powerfully, for yourself, for your community,

[00:04:42] to give to communities that are going to need additional support. When your practice is actually stable and profitable you can have pro bono spots. You can run groups at a really low cost or even free. You can volunteer in your kids school, you know, for their queer collective like there’s so much that you can do when your needs are taken care of, right? And money is so powerful. Money allows things to happen in the world, and when you have that stability around money emotionally, when you have clarity on where it needs to go, then you can choose to put your money towards the causes that really matter to you, right?

[00:05:22] And see the money that you are generating making a difference in the world.

[00:05:27] And this is really the space that many of us are going to be in for the next while, which is asking ourselves questions of where do I need to show up? How can my money help me show up? What are the fights that I need to fight? How do I make an impact in this world? And you being well and having your money supporting you so that you are solid and okay, and you’re not staying up at night worrying about your own survival,

[00:05:56] is foundational to that. And also being able to direct your money, knowing that you can give 500 to this cause, or that you can see this client for free, or that you can run this free group at this local community center, or you can take time off to go to this event or to speak at a political meeting, like a town hall or whatever…

[00:06:19] All of these things are powerful ways that you can show up in the world when times are uncertain, when your values might be under threat, money is a support that allows you to do that. So some food for thought for all of us, as we’re sitting in this uncertainty together,

[00:06:39] Right now, as we’re in this kind of limbo period before things really start happening and settling in, I really encourage you to think about how money can take care of you at this time. What do you need? How do you nurture yourself? How do you give yourself the connection and the care that is going to allow you to, uh, you know, be ready to do whatever it is that you need to do to take care of yourself and the folks that you love in the coming years.

[00:07:08] So sending all the good feelings to our American listeners and audience members, Canadians too. We’re all holding our breaths a little bit. And I look forward to connecting with you all on the next season of the Money Skills for Therapists podcast.