Nearly 2/3 of Americans rate money and work as significant sources of stress in their lives, according to the American Psychological Association.

And because money is such a common source of stress, as well as a difficult or uncomfortable topic for many to discuss, we often tend to minimize the stress by avoiding consciously thinking of how we use money. (Just think about all of the cash-free forms of payment people use today). 

But people who don’t retain at least some awareness of their spending may subconsciously base their money decisions on other people's behavior, instead of consciously making choices based on their own personal values and priorities.

Hi, my name is John Gigliello, and I am a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ with the Albany Financial Group and you are listening to Invest in Knowledge, a podcast about all things financial. 

Happy New Year everyone and welcome to 2022!

As a financial planner, my goal is to educate my clients and listeners of this podcast, so that YOU can take control of your financial future.  My Mission Statement is simple: “Helping clients to live their lives by design and not by default”

You may be wondering, "Why is a financial professional talking about psychology and conscious and subconscious ways of thinking?”  Well as it turns out, there is a lot of psychology in how we make, save and spend money.

The lack of spending awareness can have a huge impact on your finances in both a short and long-term way.  What I’m about to present in this podcast could help you to make more mindful spending decisions and help ease the stress of managing your money.  

Now, a lot of what I’m going to discuss during the first part of this podcast is taken from an article written by Derek Hagen, Founder of Money Health Solutions, a financial therapy and life planning firm.  He discusses how folks can develop a Financial Purpose Statement to use that helps them examine their relationship with money and their most meaningful goals.

A  person who pursues goals and makes financial decisions that are based on other peoples' values, instead of acting on their own values, can result in living a life that the person may think they're supposed to live (as determined by others), rather than one that would actually be more likely to make them happy.

The number one regret for most people who are close to death is that they’ve lived a life that someone else wanted them to live, instead of the life they wanted to live.