How 'Net Worth' Can Transform Your Financial Health

Whether you're an employee or business owner, finances can be challenging.  They hit a whole new level of risk and uncertainty when you run your own business.

All of us struggle with money mindset issues.  Our conversations about money are often negative and reactive.  We might not even realize what we're making until the year-end W2 or P&L.  We judge how well we're doing by what's in the bank account that day.  We're worried about student loans.

In short, we're stressed about money!

And this really isn't correlated with how well you're doing financially.

In this 'sode we teach the most powerful tool we've found for creating financial confidence: the net worth calculation.

If you're a business owner, we would recommend doing this monthly.  And at least quarterly.  Quarterly is also a good cadence if you're an employee getting a regular paycheck.

It's one number that shows the totality of your financial health. 

We know it can be scary.  Sometimes it's negative, especially with student loan debt.  It feels intimidating to have to find all the different accounts and passwords.  But it will absolutely help transform your relationship with your finances.

Check out all the details in the full 'sode!

Business Accelerator Program

If you're looking to take your business to the next level, make sure to check out the six-month coaching intensive for pelvic rehab practices: The Business Accelerator (www.pelvicptrising.com/accelerator).  We've now taken more than 200 business owners through this.  They've grown in both revenue and confidence, on average adding more than $50,000 per year to their business through the program.  Get on the wait list so you don't miss the next cohort!

About Us

Nicole and Jesse Cozean founded Pelvic PT Rising to provide clinical and business resources to physical therapists to change the way we treat pelvic health.   PelvicSanity Physical Therapy (www.pelvicsanity.com) together in 2016.  It grew quickly into one of the largest cash-based physical therapy practices in the country.

Through Pelvic PT Rising, Nicole has created clinical courses (www.pelvicptrising.com/clinical) to help pelvic health providers gain confidence in their skills and provide frameworks to get better patient outcomes.  Together, Jesse and Nicole have helped 500+ pelvic practices start and grow through the Pelvic PT Rising Business Programs (www.pelvicptrising.com/business) to build a practice that works for them!  

Get in Touch!

Learn more at www.pelvicptrising.com, follow Nicole @nicolecozeandpt (www.instagram.com/nicolecozeandpt) or reach out via email (nicole@pelvicsanity.com).

Check out our Clinical Courses, Business Resources and learn more about us at Pelvic PT Rising...Let's Continue to Rise!

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

In the last 10 years, our field has gone from an unknown specialty to a household name. This brings unprecedented opportunities, but we need to rise up to meet them and give our patients the care that they deserve. In order to help others get better, we need to be better. This podcast will help you to become more confident with your patients, more successful in your practice or business and a leader in pelvic health, and we're going to have some fun along the way. Join us as we rise together. We're Jesse and Nicole Cozine, founders of Pelvic Sanity Physical Therapy and the creators of the Pelvic PT Puddle, and this is Pelvic PT Rising.

Speaker 2: 0:53

Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of the Pelvic PT Rising podcast with Jesse and Nicole Cozine. Hey, nicole, hello. Well, if you guys are listening to this on the day of jobs, we are probably hanging out in a wine bar with some of the most awesome CEOs from all over the country.

Speaker 1: 1:08

Unless you're listening to it on your way to work and it's in the morning, and then we definitely are not in the wine bar yet.

Speaker 2: 1:14

I might be in the wine bar. I'm just scouting it out, just making sure, I'm just taste testing everything, making sure everything is going to be perfect for our folks tonight. Nicole.

Speaker 1: 1:21

It's very exciting. This is always such a fun time. We have two retreats. This year, when we revamped all of the Pelvic PT Rising business mentorship programs, we made a distinction of these CEO badasses and so we're going to have two retreats this year so in a couple of weeks and we have other people coming out from the veteran are one-on-one rising mentorship program, and so we're just really stoked. It's always so great to just be in the room in person with a bunch of people that are passionate about business, passionate about public health, passionate about serving patients the way that we know we can. That's why we went to school for and that's what we want to be doing and being community pillars and all of the things. It's just so great to spend time with these folks, really excited.

Speaker 2: 2:11

And they're just awesome people, by the way. So I mean, like it can't be, I could not literally be more excited for everybody coming out. If you guys are looking to kind of get into our business coaching world, make sure that you check out our accelerator program. We've had more than 200 people already go through that. We have another cohort that's going to be starting in late June July but you can find out more about that at publicptrisingcom. Slash accelerator and get on the wait list and we'll send you guys all the information. Make sure it's a good fit. But that is our six month coaching intensive. That is where everything starts with us in the rising program. So, nicole, we're talking about something that I am really excited about and that you are less excited about.

Speaker 1: 2:51

I know. So, jesse, is actually to your credit address. You are extremely passionate about this topic in all of our mentorship groups. You are adamant about making people do this one thing in order to improve their financial literacy. And what is this thing?

Speaker 2: 3:15

It is. And you know I am so excited about this, nicole because not because it's like intrinsically exciting I think it's not for most people, but I think all of us live with this low level anxiety around money. We feel weird about all of this stuff. Our feelings are highly correlated with like, oh my gosh, I checked my bank account today and I want everybody who's in one of our programs to be able to feel financially competent, to know that they're paying themselves, to know that they have enough. That's the fundamental baseline of having a successful business. You cannot be running a successful business and feel good about it and be doing all of the right things if you're constantly worried about whether or not you're going to be able to make ends meet. Like you just can't do it, and that's one of the reasons that I'm so excited about teaching about this stuff.

Speaker 2: 4:04

I don't think there's anything else that's as transformative and, nicole, I know you would argue with me about like clinical excellence and how amazing that is, and that's why I think we make such a good team with this stuff. Clinical excellence is certainly right there, but for me, it's the financial confidence, it's financial literacy, it's understanding this stuff, so that we're not feeling like we're in the dark and we're always struggling to make ends meet, and one of the best tools that I teach with this is calculating your net worth, and so here's the analogy that I love using. So imagine, nicole, that there is one single metric or marker that could perfectly encapsulate your health, like your BMI, your cholesterol, your stress, your genetic history of cancer, your strength, your pelvic floor, like all of that stuff. If there was just like one magic number, you could just step into this capsule and it would run all the things and it would spin out a number.

Speaker 2: 5:02

Wouldn't you want to know that number?

Speaker 1: 5:04

I would Right.

Speaker 2: 5:06

Maybe we wouldn't, depending on when it was right, Like a couple of months ago. I probably wouldn't have wanted to know right around Christmas time, but you keep your numbers to yourself. But that's what net worth is for financial health.

Speaker 1: 5:19

A biomarker, if you will, of financial health.

Speaker 2: 5:22

Exactly and it encapsulates all of the things. It encapsulates how well your business is doing. It encapsulates how much student debt you have, which I know is intimidating and scary for a lot of you guys. It encapsulates how well your significant other is doing. It encapsulates your retirement accounts. It encapsulates everything and it looks at all of that stuff and ultimately, the reason if you're running a business, the reason we're working even if you're not running a business.

Speaker 1: 5:48

To be honest, with you.

Speaker 2: 5:48

I think this is so important, for if you guys are working for someone else, I don't care where your situation is. Ultimately, the reason we're going to work each day is to put ourselves in a better financial position, right to be able to do what we want, to be able to support our family, to be able to provide for future generations, whatever the immediate goal is, the reason we're working is to put ourselves in a better financial position, and yet we're not ever seeing if that's actually happening. And so most people we talked to are stressed about money. Most people only have negative money conversations oh shit, my tire burst and I'm going to have to buy new tires. Can we afford 800 extra dollars? Oh no, this thing happened. There's a leak in the roof, Like right.

Speaker 2: 6:32

Most of the time, we're really reactive and negative about money.

Speaker 2: 6:36

Most people judge how they're doing by what's in their bank account, and if you guys have had this feeling, especially as a business owner, where you open up your business checking account and you either feel great because if you see the number in there, or you feel really bad and it's like ultimately, what does it matter when?

Speaker 2: 6:54

Oh, I checked it the day after rent got taken out and payroll was run.

Speaker 2: 6:59

Of course it's lower than it was two days ago, but that influences how we feel about this and most people honestly don't even realize what they're making in their business until the end of the year or what they're making at their position until the end of the year. They look at this once they get their W-2, or they run their P&L at the very end of the year for their accountant in order to do taxes, which is all coming up for all of us, and you're like, oh, either great, I had a good year, or ooh, that was less than I thought. It's like one data point and I think that it is just such a myopic way to deal with finances and money and I think it's one of the biggest challenges for business owners because no one teaches this, no one talks about this. It's not something you learn in school, it's not something you learn in your doctorate level education, it's not something that you can pick up anywhere. Honestly, it's like this is just a huge challenge for all of us and then it's magnified for business owners.

Speaker 1: 7:53

So how did you learn about it then, if you don't get taught it? I mean, did they teach you this in business school? No, jesse did go to business school, by the way, I did go to business school Totally worthless.

Speaker 2: 8:04

don't do it. Highly not recommended.

Speaker 1: 8:07

Do not recommend.

Speaker 2: 8:08

My two-star Yelp review right. I have learned about it because I was always super interested in personal finance. And why? Because it directly impacts the kind of fucking life you're gonna have, like, what is more important than that, like I am.

Speaker 2: 8:23

Just I'm shocked that and I understand all the negative emotions around it and, to be fair, my parents did a really great job. My mom was an entrepreneur, so like there was an interest in it early on. My mom talked to me early on about investing and brought me into those conversations, so I credit her for doing a fantastic job with that and kind of igniting that fire. But I honestly can't think of anything that's more important to your long-term success in future than having a handle on financial literacy and financial confidence. I'm so passionate about it and it's one of the things that I just see missing and it's the thing that I feel like for business owners especially is the greatest tragedy are people who are doing well in their business and they don't feel like it.

Speaker 1: 9:06

Yeah, I definitely see that that can be such. It's so sad. It's just like, oh, you just wanna, you know if we're on a Zoom call or something. It's like you just wanna reach through the computer and hug that person because you're like it's okay, like it's okay, you're doing great.

Speaker 1: 9:20

You're doing great, you're actually doing great, and then they don't believe you when you tell them that, and they don't even believe it when you show them that, which is just so. It just so gets so ingrained and embedded in that negativity. So I yeah, I hear you on that. Your face was so funny, you guys. I wish you could see his face. It's so funny. It must be like how my face is when Jesse asked me like to explain something that I think is so, just like fundamental to pelvic health, and he like doesn't, you know, like I can't even understand, like I don't even understand the question that you're asking because it's so fundamental. That's how he just looked when he was exploiting network.

Speaker 2: 9:54

Yeah, like, why do you care about that so much? It's like what? Because because it's everything. It's. It's like the water we're swimming in, but you're you're right, nickel, and you know with business owners, that's the sad part about that is that when you're doing well and you're not feeling like you are, you don't feel confident in paying yourself or you don't really know how much you're making. All those things. No amount of extra success is going to make you feel better about it.

Speaker 2: 10:17

That's the thing that everybody gets wrong. It's like oh man, I'm making $100,000 in the business in revenue, but I don't feel like I'm making that much and I feel like I'm scraping by. But if only I can make 150K in revenue. It's like what the hell are you talking about? You're going to feel exactly the same because you don't have an objective measurement. You're moving the goalposts every minute in your business and you're always going to be miserable about it and feeling strained and stressed about it until and unless we get this dialed in.

Speaker 2: 10:46

And this is the single best tool that I have in terms of making that happen. So I'm going to lay it on you guys, and this is also one of the things I will tell you. We get a lot of pushback on Not like, oh, I think it's a bad idea, but like, oh, yeah, I'll do that later. Right, a lot of times. And if you guys are in our rising mentorship groups, I know, I know I hear it all the time like I'm going to do that, yes, some time, some day. Or I did it once, right At the very beginning, when you told me to, and I haven't done it since.

Speaker 1: 11:13

Well, I think, to everyone's credit who feels like that because that was also me when I was like first learning about this it feels super daunting, Like you don't even know where to start with. How do you even figure this out? And if all you're used to to your point, Jesse, is looking at your bank account, then looking at other things that have to do with finances also seems really intimidating. Like, and logistically, you don't even know where the account numbers are, Like you don't even know what things you have, you don't even know. It's like, oh, this company acting as this company, and it's just like seems like, oh my gosh, I don't have time for this bullshit. And then you call and it's like some other person that also doesn't know what's going on, and so it's just like it just wanna be like an ostrich about it and put my hand in the sand and just not worry about it, because I can just look at my bank account.

Speaker 2: 12:01

Right. But then when you say that out loud and you realize you don't know where your money is and you don't know your account numbers and you don't know your passwords, doesn't that give you like a low level of anxiety? It just gave it to me for you.

Speaker 1: 12:12

Yeah, it doesn't, though, because it's like we don't know what. This is me speaking prior to my life. Now, because it doesn't give you anxiety, because I think that this is the biggest point, and is that it doesn't give us anxiety because we don't know what we don't know. That's the biggest problem with this net worth calculation is that, if you're not doing it, you don't know what you don't know, and so it seems like you're doing all the responsible things by listing off all the things that Jesse was saying. You're checking your bank account, you know what your revenue numbers are, you do know some things about how well you're doing, but you don't know the context in which you are doing these things.

Speaker 2: 12:54

Okay, so let me lay it out and give you the really practical how-to version of all of this stuff. The other, yeah, but we get a lot is especially because I know you guys have been to mostly doctoral level programs. You guys are probably in student loan debt, if you're listening to this, and it can be intimidating when you're gonna be adding this stuff up and it's a negative net worth, just like when you've been Slacking off a little bit on all your health routines and you don't want to necessarily step on the scale right that minute.

Speaker 1: 13:20

Yeah, totally. It's exactly how it is and it's like I know enough to know that it's negative $250,000 from Stupid PT school. So why am I going to do this?

Speaker 2: 13:32

Right, because we need to know where we're starting from right and we need to be able to see and create momentum and positive direction and going in the right direction as we go forward. We can't do that if we don't know where we're starting. So, nicole, let me go ahead and define some terms here. So net worth is the total wealth of an individual, taking into account all financial assets and liabilities, so this is the entire picture of your financial health.

Speaker 1: 13:58

Okay, can you please define further financial assets and liabilities?

Speaker 2: 14:02

Yes. So assets are going to be anything that you have sitting in a bank account, anything that is in a retirement account, anything that you own in terms of property. If you own a home, that goes into the assets. If you own a car, that goes into assets. If you own a gold mine in Tanzania, that goes into your assets. Right? Liabilities exactly opposite, right. So anything that you owe so credit card debt goes on, that student loan debt goes on, that mortgage goes on, that car payments or car loans that you owe go into your liabilities. It's a fundamental picture and for those of you guys who are business owners, it's basically like a P&L for you, for you as a human instead of for you as a business.

Speaker 1: 14:45

Right, so, but I just heard you say some people, if you're paying attention, so your home can be in both an asset and a liability.

Speaker 2: 14:53

Absolutely, nicole. Keep up. The value of your home is an asset and the mortgage you owe on that home is a liability. So if you have a $500,000 home, it's worth that. That is a $500,000 asset. But you've got a mortgage for $400,000, the $400,000 is a liability. So the mortgage goes on the liability side. The value of the home goes on the asset. Same thing with a car right.

Speaker 1: 15:17

And where do you get the value of your home?

Speaker 2: 15:20

I mean that goes a little bit beyond the purview of what we're talking about, if you want, but this is a really good point.

Speaker 1: 15:25

Nicole, actually, it is.

Speaker 2: 15:27

What do you think the really good point?

Speaker 1: 15:28

is yeah. I don't know why don't you tell me what good point I just had.

Speaker 2: 15:31

The point is don't get too granular with this stuff. A lot of people start asking questions like what Nicole just asked and said. Well, I can't tell you the exact value of my home down to the penny right now, so I'm not going to do this exercise.

Speaker 1: 15:44

Or Zillow says one thing and Redfin says another, and I had to call my realtor. And then they're guessing too Right? This is exactly what I just did. What did you buy it?

Speaker 2: 15:52

for If you bought it for in the last like five years. Just use that number, right. If you know it's going up, get kind of close, but don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good when you do all of this stuff and that is going to be some kind of guess. Come as close as you can, right, and don't make it unreasonable. Don't do anything crazy like oh well, you know, it's probably gone up by double since I bought it six months ago. No, it probably hasn't right. So if you're in doubt, use what you bought the house for and then you'll be pleasantly surprised if and when you ever sell.

Speaker 1: 16:24

Yeah, man but these are the kinds of great points, but these are the kinds of things that I'm they do real people. Yeah, derail. People derailed me before. I was like teaching people how to do this Right. It's like this is a big problem, it's a stumbling block.

Speaker 2: 16:40

Yes, so here's how you're going to do this. You are going to either get a Google sheet or an Excel sheet. You're going to get one of those things. If that's intimidating to you, I'm sorry. You're going to have to just stumble forward and do it. And so you're going to go in and check all of your accounts. You're going to have things that are your liquid assets, so you're going to put those in one category.

Speaker 2: 17:01

So what's in your business checking account, your personal checking account, the money that you have saved under your mattress, all the cash that you've got sitting in there, the gold, the balloons you have buried in the backyard, whatever that is? You have another whole section for your retirement account. So if you've got a 401k from a past employer, if you've got an IRA, if you've got anything else in the retirement category, you usually put that in one section, just so you can kind of pull that out and see it. And then you have what? Any other random assets. You've got your house, you've got your car, you've got your boat, you've got the horse you own, whatever it is Right I'm trying to be inclusive to anybody in any part of the country.

Speaker 1: 17:40

How am I?

Speaker 2: 17:40

doing Great. Everyone out there who's not in California owns horses, correct, right? So anything that goes in that asset section, then you also do the same thing with your liability. So what do you owe money on? So mortgage is a big one for folks. Student loan, debt, credit card debt, car loans anything that is a liability, something that you owe to someone else, goes in the liability category.

Speaker 1: 18:04

I'm sorry, I blocked out a little bit. Did you say credit card debt?

Speaker 2: 18:07

Yes, credit card debt goes is a liability.

Speaker 1: 18:10

Guys, credit card debt goes as a liability. You can't just pretend that doesn't exist either, which was me, talking as my 25-year-old self.

Speaker 2: 18:20

And just please pay that off as quickly as possible, guys, I don't have time to go into all the implications of that, but get rid of your credit card debt as soon as you humanly can. So when you do this the first time, it will probably take you an hour to an hour and a half. You're going to have to do things like Nicole said Figure out where this stuff is. You forgot your password. You're going to have to reset it. It's not password anymore. Your password is no longer password. They're not letting you do that. You have to put all the exclamation points and all the things. It's going to be a little bit of a pain in the ass the first time you do this, but every time you do it after that it should really take 15 to 20 minutes. You'll have this stuff. If you're really savvy, you save it all into one bookmark on your browser so you can go through and check all of your stuff, and this is going to be so helpful for you guys as you go through and just see where things are, and I really recommend doing this at least quarterly for just about everybody, whether you have a business, whether you are an employee, whatever your situation, I really believe in looking at this at least once a quarter. If you have money mindset issues that you know are an issue, if you have stress about money, if you have a complicated financial situation, I would recommend doing this monthly.

Speaker 2: 19:34

Nicole and I do this monthly. We have a monthly meeting. We sit down and go through these numbers hey, what's changed? What's going well, what's going not, where are we compared to last month? Because that helps to offset that negative bias that we have toward money. It's like, hey, we just have a regular appointment on the first of every month. Like, hey, we're going to sit down for 15 minutes and talk about where we are financially. Stock markets sucked last month, okay cool. Like that did this to the numbers. Things were good at rising Fantastic, that did this to the numbers. But we sit down and get to have a positive conversation about money and it's proactive. It's not reactive and negative the way that so many of our conversations usually are around this.

Speaker 1: 20:17

Even if I guess too, I would even say that the more frequently that you do this, the more emotion gets out of it as well. So even just the said right then. Oh, we're trying to get positive conversations around money, which is true, and the more that you do it, it neutralizes it a little bit as well.

Speaker 2: 20:36

I love the clinical example here, nicole, and I'm probably going to butcher it, so correct how this works. But we always talk about wanting the nervous system to feel safe. When you're talking about pain and clinically and all of that stuff, you want to give it inputs of safety. Well, the same thing is happening in your financial health and your financial stress, and most of us only have one input and it's at the end of the year and you look back at your taxes and you're like, well, that was a good year, but also it's kind of marred by the fact that I have to pay taxes. So shit, I don't know. I'm going to go into next year still feeling conflicted and anxious and stressed about money. If you do this, you're getting 12 positive feedback things every single year about this. You're getting 12 safety things for your nervous system.

Speaker 1: 21:25

Right, but I will push back a slightly on this. What happens? If it really is actually a shitty situation, then you're doing this and it's not safety.

Speaker 2: 21:35

I would rather know what your situation is than have that looming dread of whatever things are going, because if things aren't going well and I would say this, most people are negatively biased on this Most people get this wrong in the negative direction. So I would guess very few of you guys, if we track this month over month, are going down in net worth. You're having to dip into your savings consistently. You're losing money. I mean it just doesn't really make sense. Now, sometimes that does happen and shitty things do happen, shitty circumstances happen. So if you're in that, I'm sorry that sucks. That's a bad feeling, but I would at least rather know where that is.

Speaker 2: 22:15

But most of you guys are in a position where you're steadily marching forward. You're gaining momentum, but you're not seeing it because you're not actually looking at this stuff, and so you're still feeling stressed and strapped and frustrated and scared and confused about your money. But in reality you're marching toward the right thing, and the thing that everybody forgets about finance is it is compounded by time. You're not going to hit the lotto and just win all of the money, nicole. Stop wasting money in the fucking lotto.

Speaker 1: 22:45

I do play lotto.

Speaker 2: 22:46

It's a tax on idiots.

Speaker 1: 22:48

I am gladly buy my ticket.

Speaker 2: 22:51

Right, so you're not going to get rich that way, probably, unless you do.

Speaker 1: 22:56

And then we're going to listen to this podcast and I'm going to be like fuck you. I'm not sharing.

Speaker 2: 23:02

I'm going to the heady right. But it's multiplied by time. It's good habits, times, time, and so Seeing growth in that direction, seeing you going in the right direction.

Speaker 1: 23:12

It's the same way that you want your patience to see positive Outcomes to see, to get that positive, I think so I think the the nervous system analogy would be by doing this, just the simple act of doing this, equals a positive thing, regardless. That it's like a process driven situation instead of a results driven situation, like just by doing this, regardless of what the number actually is and all the stuff. By doing that, it's a positive input to the system.

Speaker 2: 23:45

Yes, right, it's like when you guys give a bladder diary. It's not like you're worried that the patient's gonna roll a center. Realize that they're peeing all the time, like they know. They're peeing all the time. They're worried about their perfect, they're peeing all the time, but it's giving them a baseline to be able to grow and get better from that. It's the same thing with this.

Speaker 1: 24:00

Yes, I like that. That analogy is really great.

Speaker 2: 24:03

I stumbled onto a good one three attempts in so appreciated guys but I hope this has been helpful for you guys. As a business owner or as an employee, I Honestly think that it's one of my passions. I would love for everybody listening to this to feel more financially confident, to know you're on the right track, to know you're you're making steps in the right direction and know that you're gonna be able to retire someday and live the life that you want to live and do the things that you want to do, and Not just wait until retirement to do that, but be able to have positive experiences as you go through and have a more positive relationship with money. It's one of the things that I am really passionate about in our coaching and I think this is one of the biggest tools in our toolkit. So I hope that you guys take this into consideration. Those of you guys in the rising program I am talking directly to you in another Getting another chance to tell you guys like hey, don't ignore this place.

Speaker 1: 24:59

Yes, also, since Jesse is not super active on Instagram, I would not encourage you to DM him. You can DM me if you found this helpful or you can shoot Me an email that I will forward on to Jesse. It's Nicole at public sanity comm if you found this helpful. If you would like to know more about this, please let us know, because we have lots of ideas in our year of abundance to Put out some free resources for you guys on this and stuff like that. So please let us know if this is something that interests you, if you think it's been helpful. I know Jesse would love that feedback. Just to understand, like is this even something? Is anyone picking up what he's putting down?

Speaker 2: 25:42

Right, are you guys? Like you know what I really much prefer being an ostrich? It's actually quite nice here in the sand, which fair enough if it is. So, guys, always appreciate you listening. Hope this has been helpful for some of you guys. As always, we'd love to hear from you.

Speaker 1: 25:56

Keep this conversation going and let's continue to rise you.