069 A Hot Date with Your Money

Whether you are making a whole lot of money, or very little money, it is really important to do an annual money review. You need to bring attention to your money. Look at it. Face it. Review it, in order for things to change and grow.

My friend, Susan Hyatt, says one of my favorite things which is, “Turn towards your money.” I love that idea. Turn towards your money, y’all.

Welcome to the Hello Seven Podcast. I'm your host, Rachel Rodgers, wife, mother of four children, a lover of Beyoncé, coffee drinker, and afro-wearer, and I just happen to be the CEO of a seven-figure business. I am on a mission to help every woman I meet become a millionaire. If you want to make more money, you are in the right place. Let's get it going.

It’s time for your annual money review, y’all. Yay. When was the last time you scheduled a hot date with your money? Just you and your finances, candles, rose petals, red wine, maybe some Marvin Gaye or whatever music gets you in the mood. Maybe Baroque classical music does it for you. I don’t know your private business.

Just like you set aside quality time for the people you love, and you set aside time for the projects and causes you care about, it’s important to carve out time to focus on your money as well. I’m recording this episode in December. It’s the end of the year. Which means right now is the perfect time to do your annual money review.

“So, what is an annual money review?” you might ask. Exactly what it sounds like. It’s where you sit down, you look at your money, you go through a set of questions, and you review what happened over the last 12 months.

So, you might be wondering, “Why should I bother doing this?” Because if you want to make more money and build wealth, then you have to look at your money. You have to look at it. You have to measure it. You have to know what’s coming in and what’s going out. You have to spend time reflecting on your decisions and learning from your wins and mistakes.

You cannot bury your head in the sand and ignore your money and expect to magically have more. It just doesn’t work like that, my friend. And I do want to emphasize that everybody needs to do an annual money review. Yes, everybody. And that means you and your momma and your aunties and all your friends as well.

If you’re a woman and you want to have more money then you need to do this. No one is excused from this assignment. No hall passes and no exceptions.

And I know some of you might be thinking, “Well, okay, Rachel, if I was a millionaire like you the I would definitely want to do an annual money review. I would love to count all my coins, pet my money, look at it, play with it, frolic in it. If I were in your position, this would be so much fun.”

Listen, let me remind you, once upon a time, I was so broke that I literally crossed my fingers and prayed to the angels every time I swiped my debit card. I was hoping I had enough cash in my checking account to cover my salad or sandwich or whatever thing I was trying to buy with the little bit of pennies in my bank account.

I remember that long uncomfortable pause with knots in my stomach, waiting for the machine to say card accepted or declined. And there were many declines, y’all. I spent years living like that. I come from a low-income family. I was not born wealthy. I know how painful it feels to not have enough. It freaking sucks.

So, how do you break out of the cycle of financial scarcity and stress? By focusing on your money in a new way, by putting new behaviors and new systems in place, by doing things like an annual money review. If you want to change your situation and achieve things you’ve never done before, then you have to try things you’ve never done before. And that is why, whether you have a million dollars in assets or negative-$23 in your overdrawn checking account, you need to do an annual money review.

This is an important non-negotiable date, regardless of how much you currently make. And maybe you’re just not sure how to do an annual money review. Maybe you’ve never done this before. Good news for you, my friend, my team and I made a beautiful guide for you. And in this episode, I’m going to walk you through it.

By the end of the episode, you will understand exactly how to do your annual money review. You will see that it’s really not as scary and as complicated as you might think. You will have a set of specific questions to answer. And we’re even providing a workbook and a checklist for you. I will explain how to download those materials in just a second. It’s free and you will love it. And who doesn’t love a nice tidy checklist, am I right?

And look, I’m all about practicing what I preach, so I’m not just going to explain to you how to do an annual money review. I’m going to do it right along with you. Throughout this episode, I’m going to share my own information and numbers and realizations as we go along. We’re going to do this together, boo. Yay, togetherness.

So, whether 2020 was a fabulous financial year for you or really painful and difficult, do your review. Take stock. Like they say, knowledge is power. It is empowering to know where you stand so you can get after your goals and create what you want next.

Okay, y’all, let’s start working through your annual money review together, step by step. Like I mentioned earlier, an annual money review is a chance to look at your money, think about your money, snuggle up to it, love on it, and have a date with it. It’s an opportunity to reflect on how the last year went and take a moment of gratitude for the money you’ve got, even if it’s not that much yet.

I recommend setting aside one or two hours to do this. Give yourself enough time to settle in so you don’t feel rushed. Pour some coffee, light a candle, play music to set the mood, clear your desk and clear your mind, bring your undivided attention. Make this moment feel inspiring, like a date with someone you care about.

There are lots of different ways to do an annual money review. I’m going to walk you through my personal process. It’s a set of 10 questions. I will walk you through the first five out of 10 questions right here on this episode. For the last five questions, you can download our free annual money review workbook and go through those on your own.

To grab that free workbook, go to helloseven.co/review. Again, go to helloseven.co/review to download the workbook which contains all 10 questions plus a checklist for you. It’s there for you right now, so go and grab it.

Okay, let’s get into it. Here is question number one. What is one million-dollar decision you made in 2020? What is one million-dollar decision you made in 2020? A million-dollar decision is any decision that generates more money, expands your life, creates more options, or brings you time, energy, peace, power, and joy.

A million-dollar decision could be launching a new business, hiring a personal assistant, or getting a haircut that doubles your confidence and makes you feel like a boss. Think about your favorite million-dollar decision from that last year and write it down.

If you made tons of million-dollar decisions this year, amazing, even better. Make a big list. Celebrate all of those wins. Personally, I think my favorite million-dollar decision from 2020 was buying a big-ass ranch.

I went to see this ranch in February of this year, I think it was February 4^th was the date. And I came to check it out. And I was just curious. And I really had no intentions on buying a ranch. But I was like, I need to see this because something is telling me that I need to see this.

And so, I went with my husband. And I mean, we weren’t on the property for more than five minutes and my husband whispered in my ear, “This is a must-do.” That’s what he said; this is a must-do.

And so, over the next couple of months, there were lots of conversations, there were meetings with the sellers and realtors and meetings with all of the finance people and this was not an easy thing. This wasn’t like simply just buying a house. This is a 53-acre ranch. And of course, there was a pandemic in the middle of it a month later that hit. And we had to go back and really ask ourselves, are we ready to make this move? Particularly when we’re in the middle of a pandemic.

And we said yes. And we fully committed. And we closed on this property in early August. We did two months of renovations to make it our own, which was another million-dollar decision; committing to not only buying the property, but really doing what we need to do to really enjoy it.

And we moved in in October, and so, we’ve been here for about a month and a half already and we are absolutely in love. it has brought me so much joy and created so much opportunity for my family. And I’m so excited about all of the ways that we are going to be able to invite people to the ranch and give all kinds of people, especially Black people and people of color who don’t have a lot of access to horses or properties like this.

Did you know that less than 2% of farmland in the US is owned by Black people? And that’s down from 14% is what it used to be in the 20s. And so, this is a place for me to really enjoy with my family, for me to create opportunities for my children, for me to feel like a boss-ass bitch, to be totally honest, that’s a piece of it too.

And it’s also a place where I’m going to be able to have new adventures and invite people in for incredible experiences. And one of the things we’re working on right now is getting horses. So, I feel like buying the ranch was a big-ass million-dollar decision and there were probably a bunch of small million-dollar decisions built into it. But that was my favorite million-dollar decision from 2020.

Okay, let’s move onto question number two. What is one broke-ass decision that you made in 2020? Let’s be honest, y’all, a broke-ass decision is the opposite of a million-dollar decision. A broke-ass decision is any decision that costs you money and eliminates options, makes you feel stuck and trapped, steals your time, depletes you, or just makes you feel like crap.

A broke-ass decision could be agreeing to work with a disrespectful client who drains your energy, undercharging for your services, or working for free, or allowing your kids to interrupt you constantly while you’re trying to get that paper.

Did you make some broke-ass decisions this year that depleted you financially, emotionally, or both? Write them down. Make a list. And yes, even millionaires occasionally make broke-ass decisions.

When I reflect on 2020, one of my broke-ass decisions was waiting too long to expand my team. That was probably the most painful broke-ass decision that I made. And what happened was that my business grew a ton in Q2 of 2020. So, from about April through June, probably even July, we had a huge amount of new clients join The Club. And we grew exponentially. Our audience grew massively. We started getting a lot more press and opportunities. And as I mentioned, we had a lot more clients.

And so, what I did – also, you might remember that June was our million-dollar month. That’s where we made seven figures in a single month. And that was so much more money in a month than we were accustomed to making that I was like, “Well, let’s see what happens next. Who knows if we’re going to keep having million-dollar months or how much money we’re going to have on the other side of this million-dollar month? So, let’s wait and see. And then we’ll hire more team members once we know that we’re going to keep growing at this pace.”

Well, that was a broke-ass decision, y’all. I was not planning for the growth and not – we already had the growth, right? We had a million-dollar month. What other proof do you need? But I was too afraid to really focus on growing the team. And I wasn’t paying enough attention to how much more work it would be to serve a lot more clients. And because of that, I waited too long to start hiring.

And we needed to hire a lot of people; like six people. And I think I started hiring for one or two roles, but I really wasn’t wrapping my mind around how this was now a much larger company. We started the year as a two-million-dollar company and we’re ending at a much higher number. And so, we needed to build the team that could support that and could support all of the clients that we now had.

And so, I didn’t do that. And as a result, my team has been busting their ass and working overtime to make sure that our clients are served at a really high level. And we’ve done it. And I’m super-proud of us and I’m super-proud of the services and products that we have put out into the world through our one main offer, which is The Club. And I think we did a great job. But I certainly overworked my team and I’m not proud of having done that. So, I think that was a broke-ass decision and I wish I would have made a different one at the time.

So, broke-ass decisions, they suck. So, I want you to reflect on your own broke-ass decisions, AKA B-A-D, or bad. Forgive yourself. Think about it. recognize it. See what happened there. see what caused you to make that decision. And then forgive yourself. Let it go and move on. We’re definitely not doing that again, right?

So, moving along with your annual money review, let’s look at question number three. How much money did you generate in 2020? Answering this question might take you a little time. You might need to log into your online banking or your PayPal account or Square, or whatever you get payments from clients and customers, or from your employer.

If you’ve done your bookkeeping this year, you might have nice, neat bookkeeping reports that you can look at and find those numbers. I want you to add up all the money you brought in the door this year; money you earned from your job or business, money you earned from investing, money you generated by doing a garage sale or starting a side hustle, any money you brought in the door.

What’s the grand total for 2020? And what’s the average per month? Okay, so I recently sat down with my team and we reviewed this together. My company Hello Seven has generated four and a half million in 2020 so far. That’s all the money we’ve brought in the door before subtracting taxes and before subtracting business expenses and employee salaries and all of those things.

And 2020 ain’t over yet. So, we’ve got plans to bring in more money before the end of the year. We can realistically project that our total earnings for 2020 will be just over five million. And one thing that’s really exciting is we’re not just binging in a lot of dollars. We’re also keeping our expenses relatively low for a business this size. And we’ve got really substantial profits.

And in my company, we do profit sharing with all of our fulltime employees. And that means, when we’re doing really well as a company, employees get a portion of the profits. It’s a bonus check every single month. And as the CEO, I’ve been able to send out a lot of bonus money to my team this year, which makes me so happy. It’s seriously one of the best feelings. One of our top company values is equity. And so, by doing profit sharing, that’s one way that we put this value into action.

Okay, so, back to your annua money review. Let’s look at question number four. What’s one area of your financial life where you feel messy, disorganized, ashamed, or just not very confident?

For instance, maybe you haven’t looked at your credit card balance in months because you don’t want to see that big number. Or maybe you don’t have a legit system for organizing receipts and tracking business expenses. You just stuff everything into the shoebox of shame and hide it in the closet. What’s not feeling good?

Okay, back in the day, five or 10 years ago, my answer to this question would have been, “Everything.” I was riding the hot mess express, y’all. I didn’t have a professional bookkeeper or accountant. I didn’t have solid systems for literally anything. And I had so much shame.

I remember feeling like I am a smart college-educated person. I’m a parent. I’m an attorney. I ought to have my shit together. But I did not. And it really made me feel like crap. When you feel ashamed and messy about your finances, it bleeds into your whole life.

It impacts everything. It makes you feel less confident when you’re pricing your services, less confident when you’re introducing yourself to potential clients or employers, less confident about dating or getting engaged or getting married because maybe you don’t want a romantic partner to discover just how messy your situation is.

There’s a whole ripple effect and it ain’t good. These days, for me, things are very different. I definitely don’t feel like a hot mess anymore. But even today, there are still areas of my financial life that aren’t as excellent as pristine as they could be.

Even when you become a millionaire, this work never ends because when it comes to your money, there is always more work to be done, always a new level you can reach. So, for me in 2020, one area of my financial life where I don’t feel 100% confident is philanthropy.

While I do a lot of random acts of giving throughout the year, I’ve been wanting to step up my giving. I have a lot of ideas about causes that are important to me that I’d like to fund-raise for. But I’m feeling a little bit out of my depth on exactly the best way to do that.

I’ve thought about partnering with a specific organization throughout the year and committing to one cause on a deeper level. But I think I’m afraid of doing this wrong. And there are so many causes I care about that I’m a bit overwhelmed with where to begin.

Okay, let’s look at question number five. Think about the messy situation that you just wrote down. What are you going to do about this? What’s your plan? Whatever it is, you will feel so much better when you deal with it, instead of avoiding the situation.

So, what do you need to do? Do you need to hire a bookkeeper, an accountant, a tax expert, a business coach, a financial planner, a personal assistant, an attorney, or someone else? Or is there something else you need to do? A system you need to create? How are you going to grow up and glow up? Jot down your plan.

Like I mentioned, one area in my financial work that is not 100% awesome is philanthropy. And my plan to deal with this is to talk to a few friends who have set up foundations or have done major fundraising or partnered with nonprofits and start to get a sense of what steps I need to take to make this happen. I might read a few books on it as well. I’m also going to talk to my financial planner about this and see if we can put a plan in place to make this happen.

Okay, voila, we just did the first five questions of your annual money review. That wasn’t so bad, right? Again, there are 10 questions in total. We did the first five together just now. To see the complete list of questions, go to helloseven.co/review. That’s helloseven.co/review.

That’s where you can download your annual money review workbook and checklist. It’s all free. Go do that. You can download it and type right into the PDF or you can print it out at home if you want to do that.

We’re coming to the end of this episode. It’s time to wrap things up. So, here’s what I want you to remember. Whether you are making a whole lot of money or very little money, it is really important to do an annual money review.

You need to bring attention to your money, look at it, face it, review it in order for things to change and grow. My friend Susan Hyatt says one of my favorite things, which is, “Turn towards your money.” I love that idea. Turn towards your money, y’all.

If you feel nervous to do your annual money review because looking at your money feels scary and you just don’t want to do it, listen, I can relate. I have been there. take it from a woman who used to have $250,000 in student loan det, a 480 credit score, and constant overdraft fines. My net worth was like negative-300,000. I know how scary this can feel. And I know how important it is to move past those fears and just do it. When you start looking at your money, you are going to start to change your financial situation for the better.

I want to give you a message of hope. No matter how bleak things feel right now, no matter how bleak things feel right now, your future can be massively different from your present or past. Huge changes happen when you decide to go all in on your financial goals and put in the work. The more you look at your money and bring attention to it, the faster things will shift. The more attention you give it, the more you’re going to see new ideas and creative solutions to make more money and to solve some of the financial issues that you have going on.

You’re also – doing your annual money review is also going to allow you to celebrate those smart and awesome financial decisions you made and the great things that happen.

Doing your annual money review is an excellent place to start to change things. You can do this, my friend. And you will feel so proud that you did. Once you complete your annual money review, it’s going to be time to celebrate. So, go pop the bubbly, blast some Lizzo, and treat yourself to something you really want, whether it costs money or not.

The fact that you’re willing to complete an annual money review signals that you are serious about earning more money and you’re not afraid to put in the work. Congratulations and don’t stop now. Keep going. Keep making million-dollar decisions that bring you closer to the financial reality that you want.

One million-dollar decision you should definitely make is to join We Should All Be Millionaires: The Club. Are you a member of The Club yet? I hope you are. And if not, you’re missing out on all the golden money dust and amazing perks.

Your Club membership includes training to help you increase your income by 30% or more in the next year, master coaches who help you stay on track with your financial goals, exciting events like our 10K in 10 Days challenge to get you motivated and help you accomplish things you’ve never done before. And lot smore, including fun swag in the mail, like your Shmillionaire T-shirt, workbook, and gifts that you’ll love. We ship all kinds of goodies to your home and you will squeal with joy when your box arrives. It’s the best.

You can join The Club anytime, leave anytime. There is no long-term commitment, although you are going to want to stay long-term. We make it so very easy for you to say yes.

Go to helloseven.co/club to choose your membership level and join The Club. Hang with us in this club and you will make more money, guaranteed. Join now and consider this a year-end holiday gift to yourself; a gift that helps you generate more money and that pays for itself. Helloseven.co/club is the place to go. That’s helloseven.co/club. See you there.