My daughter recently started daycare gasp, I know! Some of you hate daycare while others love it! I think it can be a great place for children to learn how to be social and to be pushed developmentally, so for my husband and I, it was a great decision. I was a little naïve thinking we could handle taking care of our daughter between our moms and my husband’s schedule but that quickly got old. And so we started daycare. She did tremendous her first week and didn’t even cry. She was all smiles and giggles for them which made me feel so much better about our decision. I knew she could handle it and would thrive in that type of environment.
But at my office, I started working in a whole different way because every time I would get done with the task and wanted a break or just us look at the current news or shop online I would think: I am giving up time raising my daughter just to be here at work. I’m going to make the most of this time. Fortunately I’m at a job where I can get everything done I can pack up and leave, I have that flexibility or I can work as hard as I want to. So I became extremely productive at work, and I really wanted to get the best bang for my buck. I wanted to make the most of every minute I was at work and away from my daughter. Then when I would get home I’ll be completely with my daughter and fully present instead of just going through the motions. I’m a much better working mom than a stay at home mom.
I started thinking about prioritizing your time just like we have to prioritize our money and our goals with our money. We wish we can have it all NOW, but we can’t. We can have it all at different times, and we talk a lot about that in this blog. How to figure out what it is you truly want so you can prioritize and hit those goal: the house, college costs, get to retirement, weddings, and so on.
Same thing with your time and time is money isn’t it? So instead of going online to find the credit card with the best points or with the best membership program. Researching so much that you end up wasting hours of your time, think about what else you could be spending that time doing.
Are you taking time away from expanding your business, being with your children, or growing as a person? Are those extra credit card points worth it in the end? Is it worth all those hours you spend on it? Maybe it is for your life but for me it’s not. Those are hours I could be spending growing my business, helping my women. Those could be hours I spend with my daughter, my husband and my dog. If I hire a cleaning woman I could be put in that extra time into work or I could be sitting on my butt on the couch. But if I put the time into work to grow my business, help more women, and earn more money, then the tradeoff is worth it.
Make it your New Year’s Resolution to find the best way to help save time and money and potentially give you back time and your options with money or grow your time and money. How? If you find a better way to invest your money, it can grow and potentially create more and more money for you. If you partner with an advisor, they will take on your money frustrations and concerns saving you the time you worry about your money, researching answers to your questions, and trying to figure it all out yourself.
Are you finally ready to take the next step? Let’s talk and see if working with someone can help you organize your finances. All it will be is a conversation to find out what it is you truly want in your life and how someone like me could help. If not, no biggie but at least you’ll get something very precious in this world: CLARITY. You will hopefully know what your next move will be.
To help you gain clarity, here is
March’s Strong Woman Stronger Assets Action Step is:
What does money mean to you? When you can answer this simple question, all the noise and nonsense will start leaving your life. You’ll remember what you were meant to do, what your goals are, and how you are going to HIT those goals. Let me help you by giving you to exercises:
1. Which one of these resonates with you the most:
- Money is love.
- Money is time.
- Money is success.
- Money is freedom.
- Money is security.
- Money is respect.
- Money is a source of shame.
For me, it is money is love and money is freedom. My parents have always been very generous so I grew up with that mentality that giving is an expression of love. I love being able to give my family, friends, and charities gifts. Money being freedom means I don’t have to worry about the money aspect, which allows me to focus on helping more women.
2. If you won a $1 million, what is the first thing you would buy?
- Why?
- Why?
- Why?
- Why?
- Why?
For example: I would buy a vacation house.
- Why? So I can bring my family on vacations.
- Why? Because I have fun with my family.
- Why? Because they deserve to have fun and relax too.
- Why? Because I want to create lasting memories with my family.
- Why? Because I love them.