Welcome back Money Talk With Tiff listeners! In this milestone 150th episode, Tiffany dives deep into the critical importance of making meaningful changes in our financial lives. Often, we find ourselves stuck in patterns that don't serve us, and Tiffany is here to break down how to recognize those patterns, why change is essential, and actionable steps to transform your financial journey.

Every Tuesday, Tiffany answers one of your submitted questions. To submit a question for an upcoming episode, visit here: https://www.moneytalkwitht.com/asktiffany. 

Key Takeaways

The Necessity of Change

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results. Tiffany emphasizes how crucial it is to recognize and change self-sabotaging financial habits.

Get Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable

Growth happens outside of your comfort zone. Tiffany shares personal anecdotes and motivational insights to encourage listeners to embrace discomfort for the sake of progress.

Tips for Financial Change

• Savings Challenge: Join the free savings challenge with Copper Vibrations. Save amounts ranging from $1 to $100 in a dedicated envelope or account.
• Track Your Money: Start tracking daily expenses to become more aware of spending habits. This awareness naturally leads to saving.
• Budgeting: Create and stick to a budget. It’s not about restriction; it's about finding financial freedom and clarity. Whether you call it a budget, money management tool, or cash flow statement, the goal is the same.

Foolproof Your Finances

Implement strategies to safeguard your savings, such as using online savings accounts that are harder to access or physically removing credit cards from easy reach.

Mindset Matters

Positive self-talk is essential. Believing that you can save, make more money, or achieve financial goals is half the battle won.

Community Awareness

Tiffany addresses the spending habits within communities and highlights the importance of collective awareness and responsibility for financial growth.

Throughout this engaging episode, Tiffany calls listeners to action, encouraging them to take control of their financial destiny through intentional, consistent changes. She asserts the power of knowing oneself and leveraging that understanding to create a healthier financial future.

Resources Mentioned

• Savings Challenge with Copper Vibrations
• Online savings accounts
• Budgeting tools and apps

Connect with Tiffany

• Website: moneytalkwitht.com
• Social Media: @moneytalkwitht

Don't Forget to Subscribe, Rate, and Review!

Support this Podcast

You know what it is. That's right. It's time to talk money with your money

nerd and financial coach. Now tighten those purse strings

and open those ears. It's the money talk with TIfF

podcast.

Hey, y'all. Alright, so I was having a

conversation this morning and one of the things

that I needed to say was

if you want things to be different,

you have to do things differently. The definition of insanity

is doing the same thing and expecting a different result. It's not going

to work. You're going to keep doing the same thing and getting the same

result. So, for instance, if you know

that you are a spender and or you know that

every month you're struggling to make ends meet,

then you have to do things differently. You

can't keep doing the same thing and expecting a different result. It's not going

to work. So when I say do things differently, you

have to challenge yourself. You have to be comfortable getting

uncomfortable because that's the only way that you can grow and that's the only way

that you can change, is if you get uncomfortable.

There's growth on the other side of that.

You can't be fearful

of making things different. You can't be

fearful of making changes. Because a lot of times if we're

fearful of something, it could be the best thing that ever happened to us.

So let me throw out a few tips and maybe just a

few, because sometimes we just get stuck and we just like, you know what?

I hear you, Tiffany, and I want to make changes, but I just don't know

how. I don't know how to make that change. So here's

one thing that you can do, okay? So if you know

that you are a spender or you know

you're horrible at saving money, go ahead and start on that savings

challenge that me and my friends over at copper vibrations got going on right

now. Okay? It's free. We did it because we wanted to do it

for ourselves, but we also wanted to help other people as well.

And the premise is simple. All you do is take one

amount, one amount. And it ranges from one

dollar to forty nine dollars or $1 and $100. You just take one

amount, you put it in an envelope or whatever vehicle

you want to put it in, and you save it. That's an easy

first step and it's very. Anybody can do.

Anybody can take a dollar and put it in an envelope and not touch it.

Anybody can take a dollar and put in a savings account and not touch it.

You just have to believe that you can do that, okay, so

that's one change that you can make and you can start immediately. I'm sure you

got some change somewhere around you right now if you just look

close enough where you can start on that. Now, the second thing

is, just start tracking your money. Just start

seeing where it's going. Because a lot of times,

we don't know where our money's going, and that's

when our money is doing whatever it is it wants to do, and

then we're not reaching our financial goals. So you have to

track. That's the first step to anything. And I tell people all the time, if

you start tracking, you will automatically start saving money.

Why? Because it's awareness. It's awareness. You don't realize

how much you're spending on these little $5 here, $10

here, all these subscriptions and things you got going on. Whatever it

is, you don't realize how much money is flowing in and out of your

hands on a daily basis until you become aware.

And the way that you become aware is you start tracking it. You start seeing

where your money's flowing. And I will tell you from experience,

every time I've done this with people, they

immediately start saving money because they just like, dang, I didn't know I was

spending $300 eating out. I didn't know I was spending dollar 800

drinking, going out with friends, entertainment, all that stuff. I didn't know.

So you start building awareness. And the first step

to solving any issue, regardless if it's money related or

anything, is to have awareness that there is an

issue and to have awareness on where that issue lies,

then you can start. You didn't miss much yet. I'm gonna keep this on the

live so that way you can go back and rewatch it. Hey, girl.

So you can see where your money's going,

and you immediately give yourself a raise. I can tell you that from

experience, you immediately give yourself a raise. Now,

if you feel like you got that down and you want to take it to

the next step, go ahead and create a budget. Now, I

know the word budget is triggering for some people,

okay? So I don't care if you call it a cash flow

statement. I don't care if you call it a money management

tool or I'm just setting intentions. Whatever it

is you decide to call it, you still need it. And it

still needs to have the same function. It still needs to have the same

function. You have to know exactly how your money's flowing in and

how it's flowing out. Otherwise, you'll be on this continuous

hamster wheel of not having any money or having

money and not reaching your financial goals. And I can tell you from experience,

because I've been in both situations,

not knowing how your money's flowing is not fun. It's not fun

at all. It's not fun at all. It feels

very. It feels like you're being suffocated, at least in my experience.

It feels like you're being suffocated. Yeah, it's all fun and games while you out

spending, you buying this, buying that, you doing this or whatever. But then when you

look up and you like, dang, I'm not reaching any financial goals that I set

for myself, whether it's saving or whether it's investing or

whatever it is that you decide that you want to do. It's all

fun and games until you realize that I'm nowhere near close to

there. And then it starts feeling bad, and

then you have to go through the same cycle all over again. Then you spend

to make yourself feel happier because it gives you a dopamine hit and

the cycle continues. Back to my original point, you have to

do things differently if you want a different result. Okay? So like I

said, I don't care what you call it. If you think budgeting, if you think

budget is triggering for you, call it. I am setting my intentions

with my money. Call it. This is my money manifestation tool. This

is my money management tool. Whatever it is you want to call it, make

it happen. Because I can tell you and a lot of other

financial info, whatever they will tell you, that is the

foundation of everything. Everything.

You have to have it. And I can tell you from being

on the other side, too, that having one is

so freeing. It's so freeing.

It's not restrictive at all. Honestly. It's not

like, that's a misconception, how I

teach people when it comes to budgeting. I'm like, look, this is not

a tool to restrict you. This is a tool to give you freedom. This is

a tool. If you decide that you don't want to leave, if you don't want

to work at your job no more and you have a budget,

you can say, okay, I know that all I need is

x amount a month, all my bills will be paid and everything, and I can

flow just as normally as I would have if you knew that

information. Like, when I decided to quit corporate,

it was because I said, okay, I know my

budget. It only takes me $50 a day and I can

cover all of my financial obligations, $50 a

day. So then when I broke it down like that, I was like, $50 a

day. I could do that. What? Okay,

so I'm sitting here at a job. Let me premise. There's

no issue with having a full time job because

I solely believe in using other people's money to

make money. But anyway, I'm like, I'm sitting here for 8 hours out the

day when I could really only work hard for

maybe two or three and go on about my business. Cause $50 a day,

you know what I'm saying? So I'm like, this doesn't make sense to me.

And that's why I decided to make that decision. But it

wouldn't have came. That decision would have not even crossed my mind

had I not had a budget, had I not known how much I

needed to survive. Like, it's power in knowing

these things, y'all. There's power in this. There's power

and awareness. There's power in it, I'm

telling you. And even if you do decide that you want to work for other

people. Cause there's nothing wrong with that. If you have a budget, you can reach

your financial goals faster. I promise, I promise,

I promise. And you can hold me to that. I promise. If you

watch how your money is flowing, you can

do anything. Like, when I first started on this journey and

I saw $50,000 in debt staring at me,

I was like, dang. First of all, what did I do? But second

of all, I'm like, how the heck am I gonna get out of this mess?

Especially at the time when I was making ten dollar eleven an hour?

But I said, I'm gonna go ahead and see how my money's flowing. I know

there's some holes I can plug. I know it is. I know it is.

And I did it. And then I decided, because

that was my big goal, I said, any means necessary. And that's

another lesson here today, y'all. You got to get

serious about your goals. You got to get serious about what you doing

on a daily basis. You got to get serious about this stuff

because nobody's going to work on your goals for you. You have to do

it. So if you have a big goal,

if you, let's say your goal is to save up an

emergency fund, okay? If you have that goal, what

are you doing every day to get towards that goal? What do you do?

Any goal you have, you should break it down and

make sure that your tasks match up to your goals. A lot

of times we'll have goals, and we'll make goals, but our

lives don't reflect those goals, or we'll have value or whatever you

want to call it, but our life doesn't reflect those values.

So then what are you doing it for? A lot of it. Honestly,

y'all is mental. It's mental. It's very

mental. And, oh, Rev, you said, what is the foundation? The foundation

is budgeting. And I was saying, it doesn't matter what you call

it. I don't care what you call it, but you have to have it. And

I was saying, you can call it a money manifestation tool, you can

call it a money management tool, whatever it is you want to call it,

but the premise is the same. You got to know what's coming in. You got

to know how it's flowing out. And you said, I need help. I can't save.

Now, see, here's the thing, too, that I've been tapping into a lot

here lately, is the self talk. Is the

self talk. Because like I said, this is all mental.

This is all mental. So if you

tell yourself you can't do it before you get out the gate, then guess what?

You're not going to do it. Booze. And you're not going to do it. But

if you say, you know what? I can do this. I

can say, I can make more money.

I can get this promotion, I can pass this test. I can go to

school. I can guess what you will. So a lot of

it is a mental game, too. And a lot of times we play

these mental games on ourselves and we talk ourselves out of things before

we even get started, before we even get out the gate, we're already telling ourselves

it's not possible when it is. So that's another thing,

too. You said I can. Then I spend it. I feel you, sis.

So, look, then you have to foolproof, right? So if you

already know, and this is part of awareness, right? So if you already know that

you a heavy spender, you love to spend, okay, then how do

you foolproof that in order to save, you know what I did? Because,

my. Y'all, I'm. Be real with you. I don't

really spend on much, but what I like to spend on is

technology. And usually my technology is very expensive

so that everybody has what they like to spend their money on,

okay? But here's how I foolproof that. And there's a lot

of different strategies and tips and things that I have, but I'm going to give

you one. Open up an account,

an online savings account or something that you don't have

regular access to. That's where I keep my emergency fund,

because I know maybe a new gadget or a new piece of

technology is coming out, and I'm like, oh, I want that. I gotta have that.

I know I can't tap into my savings account because it's gonna take me two

to three days to get the money. So I'm not even gonna go through the

whole process to do that. So you have to know yourself and

then figure out ways to

foolproof. Foolproof. Whatever goal you're trying to do,

it's really important to

acknowledge and be aware of

how your brain works. So that way, when

you're trying to go against your norm, you can

already build in some strategies to make it where you're more

successful. You know what I mean? So that's one tip where I have with

savings, okay, so another one, which

I've had people do, is don't leave your savings in

your account. Take it out. Take it out and put it

in an envelope and hide it in your house at a site out of

mine. You know what I'm saying? You can do that. You can do the online

savings. There's so many different things that you can do depending on who

you are and what you feel will work for you. But there's way to

foolproof. There's ways to foolproof anything,

regardless of what you think your struggle is. If you know that

you love credit cards and you love to spend on credit cards, take

the credit cards out your wallet,

don't take them with you. If you know you like to spend

on, remove the save payment methods on your phone. If

you like to online spend, remove it, remove

the saved cards, and then take your cards out your wallet or whatever and put

it up somewhere. So then you can't even be like, oh, dang, I want to

get this. Then you try to press the button, you're like, oh, dang, it ain't

even safe. Let me go get the car. Then you like, dang, where's the car?

You can safeguard yourself. That's pretty

much what you do, and it's safeguarding yourself. But all jokes aside, though,

there's so many different ways to make sure that

you are good at money management. And

really, at the end of the day, as a people, and I'm talking to

my people right now, I don't know who's watching, but I'm talking to my people.

We have a huge spending problem, y'all. We spend a lot on

a lot of different things, and a lot of times, it's for no reason. It's

just for us to feel better. I get it. I understand.

But at the end of the day, we have to start taking responsibility.

We have to start taking responsibility. Responsibility. And we have to become more

aware of what we're doing, okay?

Because we don't have an earning problem. I know a lot of

people that make a lot of money doing different things, from

being a custodian to being a professor to

whatever it is. But a lot of times we all have the same

thing in common. We all like to spin, we all like to impress other

people and all of that stuff. And you don't have to do all of that.

I learned that when I started working at the thrift store.

Because I used to be like, I would never like thrift what?

Excuse me. I need all name brands, everything. You know what I'm

saying? Then I started working there and I was like. I started seeing

doctors and lawyers and even the guy

that's his grandma is Kathleen Bryan. If you in

Greensboro, Bryan is everywhere. Okay? He used to come into the thrift store and

shop. And I'm like, so if

that's the case, my whole concept of

thinking was completely. It was

completely distorted at that. That's how I started thinking. I was like, wait

a minute. So you mean to tell me this is how people keep

money? But I bet you they spend

on what they want to spend on what they deem is important,

what aligns with their values, what aligns with their goals. You know what I'm

saying? So that's why it's important to know these things. You gotta know what

your values, your goals, all of that stuff is. So that way you can start

moving your life accordingly. And this goes far beyond money. This

goes with everything. Relationships, everything.

It all starts with knowing yourself, knowing

yourself. So if you don't take anything else from

this live, please

start learning yourself. Start knowing what makes you tick. Start

knowing what makes you fall off track. Start

knowing these things. Start knowing what self talk you do to yourself

on a daily basis. Start knowing, becoming more aware of how

you were raised and I what beliefs were predisposed

or whatever the case may be. Start understanding that

stuff about yourself. Because then that's the only way,

the only way that you all can make any changes.

And I had to learn it the hard way. I had to learn it the

hard way. And I'm still learning, don't get me wrong, I'm still learning more about

myself every single day. Every single

day. But that's the beauty of this journey called life.

The more you learn about yourself. The better of a person you can

be and the better effect you can have in this world.

So, anyway, y'all, I just had to go on that quick rant.

Don't pay me no neverminds, but really do, because I was dropping some gems right

there. But I just want us to do better as a people,

to be honest with you, that's the whole reason I do everything that I

do. I just want us to do better. I want us to be better

as not only as a people, but as a community, as a

nation. These are things that we need to know about.

Money is an energy exchange. Money is an

energy exchange.

I just want you to let that sink in. This is a way you exchange

energy. So you want to make sure that

how you're doing it and how you're showing up, how you're showing up in

the world is reflective of what you want to reflect.

You have to make sure that what you're doing

on a daily basis is moving towards what

your higher calling is. And money is a way to do that. We're

taught that money is the root of all evil, but

that's not true. Really. The saying is money. The love

of money is the root of all evil. You can

have a great relationship with money, and you should. You

should. Don't feel ashamed to talk about

money. Don't feel ashamed to feel like. Don't feel bad about

money. Because what does shame do? It makes you shy away

from it. When you're ashamed of something, you don't

confront it. And it's important to confront this thing. It's

important to talk more about it. So we have more conversations like

this, because if we're all just, we're all having the same

struggle, and we all in the same hustle and bustle, and we all in the

same journey called life together, we might as well share

our information so that way we can all be better as a

collective. You know what I mean? Anyway, that's a whole nother rant. But

thank you all so much for tuning in. And I'm like I said, I'm gonna

keep this live. So if you want to replay, rewind, whatever, feel

free to do, and please feel free to share with someone you love, because this

stuff is important, y'all. We have to make a change. We have to change

our trajectories for our entire community, for our entire nation. And

it all starts with us. Don't think you're ever too small.

Don't think you're ever too small. Because everybody big,

you see around here. They all started somewhere. They all started

somewhere. So if you have a piece of knowledge and you like, dang, this could

help somebody. Don't be afraid to share it out. Don't be

afraid to share it out. And don't be afraid to take that

leap. Don't be afraid to do things differently, because that's the only

way to affect change. You have to do things

differently. You have to be on a continuous cycle

of constantly being fearful and constantly

overcoming that fear to get the change that you want.

So anyway, I hope you all have a wonderful rest of the

day and I will see you soon. Bye.

Thank you for listening, joining and being a part of the money talk with TIFF

podcast this week. You can check tiff out every Thursday for a

new money talk podcast. But if you just cant wait until next week,

you can listen to previous podcast

episodes@moneytalkwitht.com or

follow Tiff on all social media platforms at

moneytalkwitht. Until next time, spend wise

by spending less than you make a word to the money wise is

always sufficient.