Money Mindful Moms

2022… what a year!

I sat on my couch the other night and told my husband it is weird thinking about what 2023 is going to look like for us because, for the first time, I know with certainty that it’s going to look entirely different than any other year. I recently closed a chapter in my career and, while I feel confident on what the future holds for us, on paper it looks unclear.

A couple of months ago I made the decision (with the full support of my husband) to take a step back from a leadership role in my company that I’ve held for 11 years. I felt like it was time to close that chapter and make space to fully pursue my passion of helping moms with their own financial goals.

With that comes a pay cut. During a time when most would say it doesn’t make sense to take a pay cut.

But I don’t see it that way. I see it as slowing down to speed up. I see it as not wasting time working towards something that no longer fits the way it used to. I see it as realizing how short life can be, and I don’t want to spend my days not feeling aligned.

So here we are, a couple months in, and here are 3 lessons I’ve learned so far:

Having savings makes it so much less stressful to take a pay cut

Years ago we went to a single income household overnight without savings and the one income we had was commission based. I wanted to be the superhero that pulled our family out of a tough spot, but there was so much more pressure on me then because we didn’t have any savings. This time around we have money saved so I can show up each day to work with serving others at the front of my mind instead of stressing that I need to make sales to feed my family.

So if you are not in a pay cut season, I can’t stress enough that now is the time to prioritize building your emergency savings if you don’t have one already. You will be so grateful you have it when you need it.

Fear can be disguised as making a “smart choice”

I realize now I probably should have made the decision much sooner but I wanted to make the smart choice. Making sure you can take care of yourself and your family is important of course, but sometimes we’re just afraid of making a leap and we tell ourselves and others we’re doing it because it’s the smart thing to do.

Only you know the details of your situation but if you find yourself faced with some tough choices, really do some digging to see if fear is in the driver’s seat.

When you’re in alignment you’ll find evidence you made the right choice all around you

I could go on and on about all the little nudges from above we got after I made my decision. I started getting messages from people asking me if I’d take them on as a client to help them with their budgets. I made connections with the perfect people to help me move forward with my goals. And, as silly as it sounds, the littlest things like getting a good deal on something we needed to buy, or the grocery store giving us an extra gallon of milk on our pick up order by accident, were all reminders that we will be just fine.

A mentor of mine used to say that one of the best skills you can develop is the ability to make a decision. If it’s a bad one, you’ll figure it out pretty quickly and be able to pivot, and if it’s a good one, then great! But not making a decision keeps you stuck.

I hope these lessons encourage you to get unstuck. Life is too short.

Cheers to being aligned in 2023!

<3 Krista