Money Needs Joy | Albania Espinal | Growing Money with Sean Trace

In this episode, I sat down with Albania Espinal to talk about a side of money that does not get enough attention: how to build a financial life that actually feels good while still preparing for the future. 

We got into why so many people are taught to obsess over retirement without thinking about what brings them joy right now, how financial stress often comes from avoidance and emotional patterns, and why self-awareness is one of the most important money skills you can build. Albania shared how giving your money a job, creating simple spending buckets, and being honest about your habits can lower stress and help you make better decisions without feeling restricted. We also talked about the emotional side of money, how family experiences shape the way we spend and save, and why taking one small step today can completely change your financial future. 

This conversation is for anyone who wants to stop feeling guilty about money, start feeling more confident, and create a plan that supports both peace of mind and real joy.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

We gotta pull the curtain and you often you have to look, right? Where is it actually going? Why is it that every time you feel you get your paycheck, you may have enough and by the end of the week, enough for what? Nothing left, right? So you have to peel back the curtain and actually look at where is the money going seeing if is actually is it adding value to you, right? Other than the necessities, shelter, food, right? Running utilities, all that fun stuff. Once that's squared away, where is the rest going? And sometimes it's if there's even anything left, right? Rent, skyrocket, utilities, all of that here in the US is always inflation adjusting, right? Climbing. So making sure that there is a balance there. I used to speak to some individuals where maybe shifting where you spend or making a quick phone call. I say quick, but it might not be quick, to your phone carrier. And asking to see what other options are out there. More often than not, you can actually get bills reduced. So it's when you peel back the curtain, you start to see where the bills are. And with the software that I use with my clients, I get to look at that with them. And I know clear examples of where they can go to cut their utility costs. It's if they if the utilities, if the essentials are the ones where the expenses are too high, we think that that's it. That is our only option. The bill is what it is. Not always. You can always reduce most bills. You can actually reduce your mortgage, right? If you have insurance in there and property taxes and all of that, there's ways to reduce even a little bit those primary bills. And then from there, you're free, you've already freed up a little bit more. If we can do that, when we pull back the curtain.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

Welcome everybody back to the Growing Money with Sean Trace Podcast. I have an exceptionally awesome guest today. Now, would you like to introduce yourself and tell people who you are and a little bit about what you do?

SPEAKER_02 2:12

Sure. Uh hello everyone. I am Albania Espinall. I help individuals, professionals, women through their finances. I help to alleviate the stress that comes sometimes is associated with it. Try to make it simple, create a roadmap that you can follow and help create confidence as you make decisions, primarily with the goal of driving joy in your life. Joy now, right? Planning for now, tomorrow, and in the future.

SPEAKER_00 2:42

I love that. I actually love that balance too, because there are a lot of people I talk to, and it's just like retirement, retirement, retirement. Like, and the goal is all retirement. I'm not saying like it's great. It's important to have retirement, but like a big one.

SPEAKER_01 2:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

You know, how do you balance that? Because, you know, it's like the the one of the things that I always sit there and and think about is like how people can balance thinking for the future while also, you know, like get control of your spending now without living like a monk, you know, in a bear room and have no joy at the present moment. Because this, and I I won't throw the the fire movement of the bus. What they do is awesome. Like it's I mad respect for what they do and the discipline they have, but not everyone can pull that off, you know?

SPEAKER_01 3:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

And so finding that balance is is really interesting. And I love that you talk about that.

SPEAKER_02 3:36

Yeah. It's not necessarily an easy thing to do because it means reshaping how we think, right? So many of us have been trained to if you can save, save, save for the future. Retirement is the biggest one. A lot of the financial institutions focus on okay, what's your retirement strategy? You're 30 years old, you're 50 years old, however old you are. Let's talk about your retirement goals. And yes, it's a big one. We should save for it. Um, however, what's tomorrow gonna be, right? Tomorrow we don't know what's gonna happen. It isn't promised. Um, I spoke to a client last week who her primary concern was preparing her errors for when she's not here so that they don't have to be burdened with figuring out everything, right?

SPEAKER_01 4:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:33

So that's a primary goal that's hopefully down the line. So we talk about that, but then we also talk about, well, what does this year look like for you? Work, you know, the usual. All right. Well, what else do you like to do? What does your family like to do? What are the people that are important to you like to do? So part of the reason I love what I do is because I get to essentially turn on into like a therapist or a coach, right? Because the whole financial concepts and the terminologies, all of those things are can be, you know, inner can be interesting, I guess, to some people or make you seem knowledgeable. But at the end of the day, if you don't really understand what it is all for now and what you can actually do with it now to help set you up for that next step, then what are we really living our life for? I truly do believe that we should sprinkle, and I use the word sprinkle intentionally, right? Because not always are we able to live lavishly, go on a trip. I mean, if I could stay on vacation forever, I would. I say that knowing that I'm sure it gets boring after a while. Um, but I haven't done it. Every time I go on vacation, I wish I could stay. I actually have one coming up soon, but I I always say I wish I could stay. I wish I could live this kind of life longer. But when I get back home and I get in front of my clients, it reminds me that this is also a vacation sometime. There's tresses that come with it. But um, it's a great thing that we get to do, I think, in our in our field.

SPEAKER_00 6:10

One of the things too, first of all, I think that like I I'm not a financial advisor. And yet I I see a lot of videos and content people make, and I just would like, you know, I would prefer, I would probably trust someone more who's like, hey, my name's Tom Jones, and I'm here to tell you how not to make stupid decisions with your money. I'm like, that's actually pretty much the guy that I want to be talking to. Um, but one of the things that that that I think about is um I try to frame everything in the mindset, because this is all a podcast I started because my daughter was asking me about money. So I try to like simplify things down for what a 10-year-old can understand, you know. And it's like, I think about it this way like, if I told my daughter, you want to go to Disneyland, Disneyland's expensive and it's far away from us. So we're gonna save up for two years and we're gonna put all of our money for two years away, and we're not gonna spend anything on anything that you want. There's no candy, there's no books, there's no, uh, you wanted to go to get those water balloons. We're not doing that because we're saving for for Disneyland. And then suddenly something comes around and Disneyland has uh shuts down for the month, you know, and we're we're supposed to be there and we can't go to see it. And like all those two years, we just had the no great experiences versus if along the way, into I mean, obviously, we're not going to like Toy Store every day, you know. Um, you know, but we're we're sitting there going, hey, I want to do this thing. We're gonna have these little experiences together while we still have a goal, you know. It can be out there, we can work towards it, but if you're not intentionally living, my wife and I are trying to do that. We try to intentionally place in family experiences, you know, and like my wife's culture is really big on food. They love to eat together, big meals together with family is a core part of what we are. And like originally for me, that was really hard. I was like, why do we spend money on these meals? But you know, she sat me down once and she's like, these meals are a cornerstone of our bonding, they are a foundational piece of of bringing us all together. We're all busy, we all have this going on, but when we get together for these meals, it kind of ties that family bond together. And that was something for me that I was able to reframe because you know, I was like raised, you know, let's let's is there an ROI on this? Is it, you know what? If you're if you're framing everything through those lenses, eventually you're gonna be overwhelmed. But you know, for me, it was what was helpful, most helpful, was when my CFP helped me put a bucket method into place. Like as long as I was hitting the different buckets, this bucket over here was the money that I had to live life and to sit there and go, wow, you know what? I've been wanting a new camera, but I saved up and I've got that extra money in that bucket that is sitting there for joy, you know? And I'm gonna get that because I I I'm a photographer and I love taking pictures. And I was able to buy a film camera, which had no business purpose and nothing else, because I love it. And it was something that I had budgeted for. It made me sit there and go, we really need to be need to be talking more to people about finding that joy day to day as well.

SPEAKER_02 9:21

Mm-hmm. But you said it, I think, perfectly, right? The buckets. Because when that thought came through, it wasn't, oh no, I don't have enough. Right. It wasn't, that's not even in my radar. I can't do that. It's I have this. And that's exactly what we what our whole I think field is for, is to help almost confirm that yes, you can do this, right? In my business and with the types of clients I work with, I get to say, yes, you can do this more often than I say no, you should pause and put the brakes on this. Those are tough conversations, and I have had to have them, to have them. But you can also get to tell give people permission. Sometimes that's all they want to know is can I actually do this? Because you can ask your friends, you can ask your siblings, and more often than not, they're gonna be the ones that are gonna advocate for you and say, yes, do this, do this, do this, but you're still unsure because you know they don't know the full point, the full picture. They don't actually know how you're gonna cover your mortgage or your rent, or if you're can afford anything else, while at the same time you want to buy a camera or you want to buy a fancy toy, having these buckets, planning for it, right? Aligning and seeing where your dollars are actually meant to work for you gives you that permission that says, yes, I can actually afford to put that down payment I wanted in that condo. Right. Or I could actually treat my wife to a nicer dinner. Um it's the the peace of mind, right? The alleviation because uh I work with with primarily professionals who are busy day-to-day decisions, especially if you have a family. All you're doing is decision for this. Do I wear, do I put this sock? What outfit does my kid wear? What do I wear to go, right? Little small decisions and then the big ones at work, and then you have to think about your money. That's fatigue. Right, right. What happens when we're fatigued? We get stressed. And a lot of times uh you make no decisions, right? You're stuck and you delay, delay, delay. I'll think about it later. And then we do nothing, and we miss a lot of opportunities because of it.

SPEAKER_00 11:38

I I love the the idea of like, and too, you know, I the spending bucket, but I I think I'm gonna rename my bucket account the joy bucket, just because like I I love the idea of, you know, finding things that bring you joy. I I don't know where she went. I absolutely loved her when she was around Marie Kondo, you know, the whole minimalism, but she's like, does it bring you joy? I mean, because that and it's I I wish someone would reframe some of that philosophy for finances, you know, because if you can cut, aggressively cut the fluff and then find out what actually brings you joy. Because it's like the other day, my daughter, um, we were leaving school, and um right out in front, this is like literally the best, uh, the best product placement ever. The guy sits in front of her school with like a um cotton candy machine and selling cotton candy. I was like, nope, nope, we're not doing the cotton candy right now. And she's like, why not? Because I said, because I know that at home your mom bought you some really nice, delicious chocolate that's gonna be like some nice fine chocolate. And we can't do cotton candy and chocolate. That's just like way too much sugar, you know. You've had way too many cavities recently. But we can do one of them and and and find a way to have that joy. But you know, it's like I I think that um if people were able to do that, because I know that I lived in stress for a long time with my finances. And the the when I started getting that that joy bucket, it dropped my stress levels a lot.

SPEAKER_02 13:17

Yeah. And the word joy, it's I love it. And Marie Kondo, I think it might have influenced it in somehow indirectly, maybe, but truly, I mean, the name came from one of my favorite places in Puerto Rico. Um, but the name of my form, my firm is Allegre Wealth Management. Allegre translates into joy or joyful in Spanish. That's awesome. My family and I are originally from the Dominican Republic. So it's a culture like your wife where community, right? Being around each other, that's typically where joy comes from. Music, dancing comes from camaraderie, just being together, the large meals I could definitely relate to. There are never leftovers. I mean, they're not leftovers, there are always leftovers, actually, because we cook too much. We cook too much. Um but the fact that we have to find a balance, it takes a little bit of discipline, right? Because it's not easy to say, no, you can't have that cotton candy because we have chocolate at home. Well, why can't I have both? Right? And especially explain, yes, it's difficult to explain it to, let's say, a 10-year-old, but it's also difficult to explain it to an adult. If you've been used to always spending, spending, spending, my paycheck comes in, my paycheck goes out, goes to all the bills, and then I spend the rest. Most often individuals don't ha don't pay themselves as part of the bill. They don't make that a bill. And that's where it's like, okay, what do I have left? I have a good paycheck, or I thought I did, I'm living like I have this large paycheck. But at the end of the two weeks or whenever your pay cycle ends, what do you really have left without the discipline, without a roadmap, and without really sitting and thinking through, which takes effort, you're not gonna go anywhere. You're gonna keep paddling, paddling, paddling. And if you're lucky, you might have a retirement plan at the end of it. But then what, right? A lot of individuals where I used to work, um, the focus was always retirement, retirement. I'd ask them, so what do you want to do in retirement? What are you looking forward to doing? I don't know. They never stopped to think what they enjoyed. Maybe I'll do this, maybe I'll do that, but they never really thought, well, what do I like to do? And a lot of what I do with my clients now is spending time to figure out what do you actually like to do? They know it. They know now. Just have to give them the space to think about it, give them some guidance along the examples.

SPEAKER_00 16:02

I I I do think so. And I think that we need to uh adults need to play around with that more, play around with our imagination a little bit more. Like I had um, I used to teach children, and before I started my company, I I was doing that part-time, uh teaching English, and then I was doing media part-time, but now that I've got my company going, it I'm a bit busy, and you know, there's a finite amount of time that I can have, but I I love teaching kids because kids look at the world in a different way. And you know, I would have this uh activity, and I would say, okay, I would print out a check, like uh you know, dating it, but I'd explain first of all what a check was and to kids, and like they used to know, now they don't. And I was like, all right, this is an amount of money, one million dollars. You get one million dollars, and for a kid, that's like insane amount of money, you know, like for done forever, you know. Uh I was like, what would you do? Mr.

SPEAKER_02 16:57

Beast money, as they would say.

SPEAKER_00 17:00

That's 100% what they would say. And so, and I actually did print like when I was a teacher, I put a little Mr. Beast logo, and I would tell them, Mr. Beast just gave you a million dollars. What would you do? And they were just like, Mr. Beast money, you know, freaking out. And so and but you know what was interesting is they would immediately be like, I'm gonna spy this, this, this, and this. And then I was like, Well, what else are you gonna do? You know, and it was interesting because kids at first they talk about all the stuff they're gonna buy, but then they start thinking thoughtfully, you know, like, well, I would like to do this and I'd like to do this. But as adults, we don't think about that, you know, and especially with with retirement, people sit there the whole time and they like, I'm working towards this thing. And when it comes, they don't even have a concept of what that might look like. You know, I respect one of my uncles because they had a clear path laid out in front of them and they they had these steps that they transitioned to it because they started living the life that they wanted in retirement before retirement, like putting pieces into place so that when retirement came, it was a smooth transition. And it was just like now they've got a place and a house and a place they love that they go into gardening and they have this purpose every single day. And I asked him once, I was like, Would you like to do this? And he's like, No, I'm kind of where I'm at and what I'm doing, what I love. And he's like, I I prep I prepped for this. And I just like I'm so it's I think it's so awesome, you know?

SPEAKER_02 18:20

Yeah. More people need to be like your uncle.

SPEAKER_00 18:23

Right? He's awesome. Well, let me ask you this because for someone who feels like money just disappears every month, what's the first step to actually getting control of that spending so they can be intentional? Because sometimes you gotta pull those horses back before you start making those moves.

SPEAKER_02 18:41

Well, you gotta pull the curtain and you often you have to look, right? Where is it actually going?

SPEAKER_01 18:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:48

Why is it that every time you feel you get your paycheck, you may have enough, and by the end of the week, enough for what? Nothing left, right? So you have to peel back the curtain. Actually look at where is the money going, seeing if is actually is it adding value to you, right? Other than the necessities, shelter, food, right? Running utilities, all that fun stuff. Once that's squared away, where is the rest going? And sometimes it's if there's even anything left, right? Yeah. Rent, skyrocket, utilities, all of that here in the US is always inflation adjusting, right? Climbing. So making sure that there is a balance there. I used to speak to some individuals where maybe shifting where you spend or making a quick phone call. I say quick, but it might not be quick, to your phone carrier. And asking to see what other options are out there. More often than not, you can actually get bills reduced. So it's when you peel back the curtain, you start to see where the bills are. And with the software that I use with my clients, I get to look at that with them. And I know clear examples of where they can go to cut their utility costs. It's if they if the utilities, if the essentials are the ones where the expenses are too high, we think that that's it. That is our only option. The bill is what it is. Not always. You can always reduce most bills. You can actually reduce your mortgage, right? If you have insurance in there and property taxes and all of that, there's ways to reduce even a little bit those primary bills. And then from there, you're freeing, you've already freed up a little bit more. If we can do that, we pull back the current. And then we build that strategy that says we're gonna automate the savings because we uh are fortunate to have free will to an extent. We're fortunate to have it, right? Right. And because of that, we are at times subject to making decisions that are when, right? I'm hungry, I'm gonna buy this meal that costs more. We also have food in the fridge.

SPEAKER_01 21:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:05

Knowing when it's okay to do that and knowing that it is okay can be very alleviating, can be very empowering too. Simple decisions like that. Versus, well, I really should just eat what's in the fridge. Yeah, you should know if that's the you should if that's what you should stick to versus do you go out? Do you go out somewhere nicer than usual, right? Can you treat yourself?

SPEAKER_00 21:32

Right.

SPEAKER_02 21:33

And the but knowing, right, that that pulling back the curtain, seeing where everything is, seeing where you have flexibility can make can allow you to, when you're making those decisions, not be stressed, like, oh no, I just spent this much, I shouldn't have done that. It removes the regret and it gives you the freedom to actually enjoy the full experience that you give yourself.

SPEAKER_00 21:58

Yeah, I I love that because if you're you know it's all areas of life if you're trying to be healthy and you're not aware of what you're eating if you're trying to you know do your money you we have these different areas where like awareness is the first key step and you know and I I know I right and and like people it's the hardest and it's like you you get someone who's like always guilty about their eating and it's like well actually you're okay today you did right you matched your budget you know you matched your diet and but we we have these negative connotations around the word budget around the word diet because everyone sees them as this this painful limitation but the reality is it's just a plan and it's just like you know I I you know for me and I think it's about finding that plan that works for you you know I know that I have um friends that hate hate like I can't do with the the zero sum budgeting like that makes me crazy I am not good at that you know I but I am really good at the bucket method like I immediately allocate everything out and I'm really careful and then I kind of follow a bit of a uh I set myself a daily spending limit for my my joy account I'm like this is kind of a like if I were to like spread that over the month this is what I have each day and then I stick to that and it allows me to have that productive thing. And then obviously at the end of the month I I I look and I track and see what I'm doing but it's like oh well I spent a lot right there. That's something I don't want to do doing but I just am so ADD that some other methods are hard for me. And I think that that's something that people can should realize is there's a lot of different methods that you can embrace and there's not just one way to do it. You can find something that works for you.

SPEAKER_02 23:38

Yeah. That's why trying trying to get to know people, helping them become self-aware if they aren't already um sometimes you you will be having regular simple convers, what I think are simple conversations and you'll see a light bulb go off for people, right? It takes setting aside the time and actually having the conversation it's not a difficult conversation. It's just you actually have to get into that mental space. If you're trying to have a conversation while you're watching TV with a partner if you're right with a friend you're eating you know conversations go all over the place. If you have it focused this is what it's gonna be about you start to actually sit there and think oh okay what we do isn't difficult I don't think right um it just takes time it takes dedication and it takes information right so you want to make sure you're looking at the right kind of information knowing in this digital world there's so many avenues and so much misinformation but there's also so much good information that's harder to find um it you can do this right yeah we can we just need to dedicate the time have the right resources and you can give yourself that peace of mind when you're trying to make a decision, when you're trying to figure out what do I do next?

SPEAKER_00 25:05

What don't I do next it's so much self-awareness. Like there is so much self-awareness that has to come in and you know I I I am curious um uh for someone who's trying to figure this out we're talking about this like what does being financially self-aware actually look like in real life though?

SPEAKER_02 25:25

It's knowing what your money is putting your head in the sand yeah not putting your head in the sand absolutely um it is look it's uh taking I I don't know if it means saying taking the risk of actually looking right jumping because people get scared I don't it's also not wanting to know it's avoidance I don't want to know if I don't know then I can keep overspending if I don't know then I don't have to come to the reality that I need to put in a little bit more work in this um so avoidance which is a natural a natural human trait um can get us in the hole really quickly right so it it is being uh what's the word brave right it's being brave and honest with yourself when you look at the numbers when you look at your bank statements when you look at your credit card when you look at what you have or don't have saved um it's sometimes a tough reality check other times with my clients it's a surprising um confirmation that you're actually not too bad so you don't need to keep beating yourself up and thinking that you need to do more and more and more no maybe you need to be doing more and more now because you've done well on the later part.

SPEAKER_00 26:57

I love that because it is it's just waking up it's like being awake for the first time you know and maybe you've been asleep for years and you've been just coasting but it's like you looking at where you're at and getting this you know this clarity of of um this is where I'm at that's where I want to be you know and I mean the other day I was I was uh I I I feel that I'm a pretty active person but I started my company and I just was not doing what I needed to be doing for my own health and I was not taking care of my own health the best way I could and I realized you know what I need to do this differently I need to be setting things up differently I need to be changing things because it was not looking the way that I wanted it to look it was not yeah I was not going the the right path for my own wellness and that was a place for me that it was like you know this aha moment but it was something that I realized that I I needed to start recognizing my own money patterns and I have a very much a like look away type of a of a tendency in my own life you know to like let's look away because I this is this is stressful for me right now. But the reality is just because you look away doesn't mean that the stress is going to disappear it's still there you know but it's gonna grow and it's gonna spin and you're gonna have to sit there and go, well, you know, how can we deal with this? Because if you deal with it suddenly you're headed in the right direction. But if you don't deal with it you will have problems in the long term. But like how can someone start to recognize their own money patterns before those patterns start to control them.

SPEAKER_02 28:49

You don't have you shouldn't wait for an instance right some people are I'll wait until this happens and then I'll look or I'll wait until this delaying deferring is an avoidance method right so the more we say later tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow no well what are you doing right now? Just just look so my piece of advice would be just do just look right start by looking and my question to you is going to be like how did you how get to that aha moment about your house right it could be you saw something someone told you something rarely I think is it that someone told you something because we know we are smart people. We're smarter than we allow ourselves to think I like to believe um but we absorb so much information and we don't take action what's the purpose of just saying I know what I need to do I know all of this I know all of this well you didn't do anything. So I would say do it meaning look look at your bank statements look at where your money's going right look at how much you're saving or you're not saving and look at what's causing you stress. Actually sit reflect I'm a fan of writing um physically write pen and paper um but whatever your method of getting it out whether it's music right whatever your method is to help you center and focus do that and open up your statements open up and look at where the money's going I can't think of any other method of getting to that aha moment other than just do it just look I am a I've I mean I've fallen to it right I know I look at all these things about how to make sure you have a smart educated well fed toddler I I say I'm gonna do this, this and this when I I'm done working the moment I step into the living room or I get home or working out of the office whatever it is I said I was gonna do completely out the door and I go back into whatever my routine is chasing him around playing with him figuring out food all of that tomorrow I'll get to do this. And then that cycle continues. If I just remind myself no no no let's do this let's try it let's practice there's no other way to actually learn if something's gonna work or click until you just actually do it.

SPEAKER_00 31:30

100% you have to to get in there and you got to get into the weeds you know and you know I I'm curious because you would close even a little bit and you'll see what to the excitement will come and you'll start to get momentum. There was a a a person that I I was talking to who was talking about exercise and he says one of the most important things that you need to do is just like he says if you want to go to the gym start by getting in your car. Like you know we we we have this like oh I need to show up at the gym get in your car for today. And if today your step was sitting in that car for 10 minutes and like going ooh that I got a lot closer today. That was a win. And we have to start like telling ourselves that wins are wins because you know if we're not giving us ourselves those wins it's really tough and it's really hard to know how to get ahead. But you know you had said that you were a bit of a therapist at times for people. Why do you think money triggers such strong emotions even when the numbers might themselves be fine?

SPEAKER_02 32:28

I think it's it could be a variety of things. I personally think it's more often than not experiences that we've seen through our family, through close loved ones typically that those are the patterns I see. It comes from my family did this or didn't do this and therefore I'm this way. Right? I don't know if it's cliche because when you go sit down in the therapist it's like it's oh it's a mother problem or a dad problem or you know trauma of some sort um but it is it is trauma rooted however you know I don't want to use the word trauma specifically for um the finances piece sometimes it is um one of the greatest experiences I want to say I had was with a client who had financial trauma because of her family and how they did not have anything to get buried with they didn't teach any good financial skills and this person she was in a situation where she came she was divorced the settlement she had received what to her was a large sum of money and she was frozen. She took that money put it in a bank account and did nothing she spoke to advisors along the way no one really that gave her the time of to actually allow her to process the experience she had the roadblocks she'd built herself and recognizing the fact that for every individual it's gonna be a different process like you said taking one step whether it's putting it in a better yielding money market right and then from there looking maybe at a C D zipping your toes into a simple index fund and working your way up right so it is those baby steps but a lot of in and individuals in our industry can't have the patience. They might want to but we're not allowed to time is finite you can only spend so much time with a person and you need to rush them off and move on to the next one so you can make a sale. Right? Um it's unfortunate and what is fortunate though about individuals like myself that get to have their own practice is we give ourselves the time we want to spend so that we can help our clients actually get to that mental space where they're ready to make a move.

SPEAKER_00 35:05

We have things that come up for us like my daughter did um does around this art competition and we simple things she draws all the time but you know when you feel the pressure um you know you get that additional emotion on top and I feel like that's so much like so with money too is we we have all of this emotion that's tied into things but when you start developing and understanding your emotional relationship with money it it gets easier. You know and I for me I had to change my relationship with money because I always told myself I was bad with money. I'm bad with money I'm bad with money but it was the fact that I just didn't have good money habits. And actually once I learned better habits, I realized I'm quite good with money. It just it takes you know figuring out what the correct habits are, you know?

SPEAKER_02 35:55

And that's sometimes what it is. It's more awareness really is what it is. And we get to sit in front of people and we get to have help them look at where things are and give them that clarity actually make them aware of the fact that you're not in as bad of a shape as you might have thought you are or again not often but it happens you're not in as good a shape as you thought you were but that's not the end of it.

SPEAKER_00 36:21

It's not a period it's an and here's how we can get you to where you want to be I love that I love that I love that I love that because it's like you don't have to be all doom and gloom like we're starting here and this is where we're going and this is what we're gonna be doing. Like you know a person comes in and they are wanting to make changes to their wellness. Well let's look at where you're at on that scale and then where you want to be and you know and the scale being scale of wellness not a weight scale like just you're you're here and you want to be here. All right cool well these are the changes we need to make but I I love it that you know I we would see people that would come into I worked at this wellness clinic and we would see people come in that were seemingly beyond where they thought they could be you know coming back from but yet they they turned corners and they made choices that brought them to a space of abundance. And again I also think it's so important to look at like how to get that abundance mindset because you know there is enough there is the ability for you to make change and yet I I think that like people use the term abundance mindset wrong. I think that they so many people use that like just keep spending and it's gonna keep coming back to you. But like at the end of the day an abundance mindset is not that an abundance mindset I think is the mindset that you have the ability to create abundance in your life it doesn't mean that you know I'm gonna open a bag and money's gonna flow in not always how it works. You know but do you have a mole tree in your backyard too? Yeah right geez I wish I wish I got right right it would definitely help you. You explain it perfectly it's you show up you take that first step you speak to someone or you do a self-assessment make sure you have the right tool so you know what you're looking at but you show up and that's where you first start that's how you can actually map where you come how far you've come or not yeah I I a hundred percent agree and I I I'm so curious um how how if someone came to you today and said I really want to make changes for my my finances you know and you're like 2026 we're heading in the right direction you're asking these questions what are three things they can do today to make a change?

SPEAKER_02 38:47

Well I think the first one they already took was showing up they made the decision to actually take action to take action that is the as you said before the hardest part is taking that first step realizing that I do need to take a look I do need to do something um next would be being open to making a change and to trying something new right um in the sense of shifting how you spend shifting how you save shifting how you invest so being open to trying something um lastly I would say is I think it's a two part it's either educating yourself or delegating that education to a professional in terms of you can only do so much. First show up realize recognize that you you want to look at where you are you want to understand where you are and compare that to where you want to be next you want to actually right be open with yourself and be open to those changes. And lastly it's make sure that you're following the right guidance whether it's to educating yourself through the right sources or delegating that to a professional that's going to be able to do that for you and hold you accountable because that's a lot of what we do is we're gonna put you know I I can't think of a better another you're gonna put your ass in the fire we're gonna help you change but in order to help you change you're the one that needs to do the work. I'm just here to guide you you choose whether if you don't do the work or you do it but I can't get blamed for inaction when the roadmap's been presented to you. So I would say those are the the three things they I feel like it's vague but taking that first step of actually recognizing I want to do something and showing up and say I'm ready to try is huge. The education I think is even more important because you won't know what steps to take and if you're listening to all the financial gurus online you might be steering in the wrong direction. You might make some steps that actually set you even backwards. So be cautious on who you partner with or what resources you what resources you use, but there are really a lot of good ones out there. So it'll take some time you can find them.

SPEAKER_00 41:33

I love that and I I think that it is uh about the education is so important teaching people how they can make the differences in their own lives and make those changes because if you take a little one step today you're gonna get there. You know I I I have a business doing content for people I help people sit there and you know business professionals like go I want to be more present on social media and I I work with them and I say great you want to make a podcast let's do it and they sit there and they come in with these grand ideas like I want to be this person. I want to be the biggest you know for this YouTuber of this or whatever. And I'm like okay great I love that motivation let's start out by making one video. That's so hard to make one video and I was like no it's doable but that's the whole point is like people have these visions but they the that next step seems like the hard thing but it's not if you can break things down into little steps and if you can break things down to these baby steps you can get there. You just have to be patient with the process you know and understand that it it's work in the process. You don't you know end up looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger by you know in his in his peak by just sitting at home. You get there by showing up day after day and and eventually you've shown up enough days where you start to notice a difference and and I think that that's that's the key is keep showing up keep asking the questions and when you need to get the help that you need to get because if you can get that help you know you're gonna be going in the right direction.

SPEAKER_02 43:15

I and the right help said it beautifully especially the patience part right be patient because getting to where you want to be does take time. It's unfortunate that some of us we've been programmed to think that it's instant right you win the lottery and you get there. You're a multimillionaire you you s you post the right perfect content the first time and you hit X amount of views and you you blew up right rarely is that it very rarely it's to because we typically see the Arnold Schwarzenegger we see him at his peak. We haven't No. Maybe if we watched his documentary, we would. But we don't know how long it took him to get there. Years typically.

SPEAKER_00 44:07

I love that. If people want to find out more about you, where should they look for information?

SPEAKER_02 44:12

My website, allegrawealth.com. Allegra is spelled a l-e-g-re-e wealth.com. That's where they can connect with me. They can learn more about what I do. And support me along boy.