17 Nov The TRUTH About Your Finances

Last week I did a 4 day anniversary Lifebook session in Chicago with an AMAZING group, deeply thinking through my Lifebook, my life vision and everything that matters in my life. Ironically I found myself cutting and deleting more than adding. Overall, the theme was simplification.

A very powerful process but one that would have been doomed from the beginning if I hadn’t done one simple thing first.

I had to figure out where what I was starting with.

In terms of financial intelligence and wealth there’s no more important question to ask then, where am at right now?

It’s fascinating to hear friends and clients tell me how stressed they are financially. When I ask them why so stressed, the answer: “because I’m working 80 hours a week and barely keeping up.” I ask why and they say because I have to, I have responsibilities. Sound familiar?

So what do you do? Start with these 2 questions…

First, you have to figure out how much you’re spending on your lifestyle today. Truth time. Track it and categorize everything. Split your spending between wants and needs.

Second, how much cash do you have and how much residual income do you have coming in? This gives you your freedom number. From this we can figure out the GAP and how much Runway ™ you have to quiet the lizard brain. (we’ll get into this in a second)

Freedom number: If you have $12,000 in cash and no residual income and you’re spending $6,000 a month on your needs you have a two month runway til you blow up. Even though it’s a small buffer, a short runway, it’s honest and gives you the clarity to create a strategy to manifest your vision.

The reason this is important is because anytime you’re trying to envision a future different from today your lizard brain will automatically activate the fear zone of “don’t do anything that could kill you.” If you’re not crystal clear on how much runway you have, (that is, the cash to keep you going while you’re building something new), your brain will initiate anxiety around the change and paralyze you into maintaining status quo, all in the name of keeping you safe and stuck in your current situation.

However, if you get clear on what is really true, TODAY, then the brain and your amygdala (your lizard brain), will relax and let you vision, plan and execute without a panic attack.

So if you’re like most people and have money flying around left and right, thousands coming in, thousands going out and some investments and cash piled up you really have no idea how much Runway you have, now much freedom you have and where you are.

If you get very honest about where you’re at you’ll have the ability to make rational, intelligent decisions in terms of real strategy to manifest your financial vision.

Here’s a story of how the truth can set you free. One of my doctor friends was working 5-6 days a week and making about $400,000 a year. I asked him what he really wanted and his vision was more time but all he was doing was working to make more money.

When we explored his financials, the truth was crazy. I found out he was working 2 days a week at his clinic that resulted in about $300,000 a year of income.  The other 3-4 days he was working each week was moonlighting at the hospital. That hospital paid $100,000 a year.

The reality became clear when we went deep, that 1/3 of his work was generating 75% of his income.  He wasn’t improving his lifestyle at all with the extra $100k but was in fact destroying his quality of life and limiting his ability to put energy into new opportunities for residual income, pursuits, hobbies, relationships etc. by giving up the 3-4 days a week.  All for more money.

He was too close to his own situation and was going so fast he didn’t even realize how simple the solution was. In his case, as is often the case, less was truly more.

The only way to calm the chaos of the mind is to figure out what is TRUE today.  Then you can work out a strategy that bridges the GAP between today and your future vision.

Interested in your financial truth and clarity on the numbers? Drop me an email: Damion@clearfinancialoptics.com