3 Tales of a Mindful Money Mindset

Getting Past the Messy Money Mindset to Achieve Financial Goals

When most adults think about finances the topic often triggers feelings of FEAR. 

Often we are even unconscious of our own limiting beliefs about money.

And while most adults strive for financial security, many often do not have a system in place to manage money. Our attitudes or behaviors towards money management might have been influenced by how we were taught about money from a young age. 

Maybe we witnessed our own parent’s relationship with money, which might create feelings of scarcity. 

Money management is in fact often messy. Often as adults, we require healing from our dysfunctional relationship with money. Learning how to mindfully manage money can feel overwhelming.

But does it have to be this way?

Is your approach to money that of a miser or one that struggles with the flow of money?

Can we unlearn our poor approach to money management? Is it too late to learn to have a more mindful approach to money even as adults? And can we teach kids about mindfulness and finances from a young age? 

When it comes to money management who isn’t seeking a sense of freedom, joy, and balance in our relationship with money?

This begs the question, is money really the goal?

Per Deepak Chopra, in his book “Abundance: The Inner Path to Wealth“, our consciousness instinctively motivates us to seek out more of life. However, the source of what fulfills us does not start with money.

The podcast guests for the month of May include an Entrepreneur, a Teacher, and Financial Planner. Each offers insights into money management systems that can be integrated with your children as a lifetime skill.

Their stories illustrate that when we set our life goals towards pursuing that which fulfills the heart, such as serving as an educator, then the money follows.

This month’s podcast series teaches us that we are never too old (or too young) to cultivate mindfulness in our relationship with money. 

Each guest personally practices some form of mindfulness ranging from simple body movements to get your physical energy flowing, journaling, to meditation. 

Listen to the tales of three souls who share their life journey in relationship to money.

And read their mindset tips, money management structures, and holistic approaches to cultivating a mindful approach to money.

Mike Michalowicz: Author of My Money Bunnies

I first became aware of Mike Michalowicz, through an entrepreneurial forum I belong to called “spi” (short for ‘Smart-Passive-Income‘).  In late 2021, a member of the forum, Eevi made a post,  in the forum that piqued my curiosity. It just so happens that Eevi is a USA Today & WSJ Bestselling Author & Founder of Children’s Book University, and her post shared news of the release of a children’s book called “My Money Bunnies”.  

The topic of money and mindfulness is of particular interest to me.

Recognizing that often there is a void in early education to teach finances to children, I had recently signed up my 9-year-old son, Omni, with a program through FUNancialfreedom.com which is geared towards teaching children finances. 

Just imagine, learning about money management as a child. And imagine overcoming the FEAR of finances through fundamental knowledge you’ve gained before you are even an adult! 

Needless to say, when I heard about Mike’s book, I immediately knew I needed to read this book with my son, Omni! 

This book is based on Mike’s book “Profit First”, which hundreds of thousands of companies across the globe use to drive profit. 

Mike’s Tale

Mike’s entrepreneurial rise to success came with many life lessons that have taught him humility and helped him cultivate wisdom about money management which he now shares with other aspiring business owners. 

Early on in life Mike founded and sold two multi-million dollar companies. By his mid-30 he became a small business angel investor. Unfortunately, he had not yet cultivated a money-saving system, and as a result, he lost everything – including his home. 

Mike recognized that while he had the skills and talent to amass success, the wealth he gained was easily lost without a solid money management system. 

He had to start over again, and this time he was determined to research better money management strategies and was driven to find better ways to deliver innovation and grow financially healthy companies with impactful entrepreneurial strategies.

Mike’s First Lesson on a Money Management System

As Mike researched ways to improve money management he realized that the money management system he observed his mother apply was still applicable as an adult. 

Mike recalled that his mother would tuck away money for fun occasions in an envelope labeled “fun” as a child. 

That was his first lesson on money management: divide up your money for different uses before you use it.

A Void in our Early Education: When do we learn to mindfully manage money?

Upon reflection, Mike realized that even as an adult none of his childhood friends were exposed to a money management system that he had learned from his mother. 

He was surprised that personal finances weren’t taught in grade school, high school, or college. And he was further surprised to realize that most of us are left to figure out how to manage finances on our own!

That void became the reason Mike wrote the book “My Money Bunnies“. He felt compelled to create a  foundational financial framework that will serve kids for a lifetime.

Mike believes that there’s nothing more fundamental that we can teach our children than financial responsibility, and how to mindfully manage money. 

This book addresses a gap in early childhood education regarding finances. In his podcast, Mike shares wisdom about how to be mindful of money management in a way that even adults can apply. In this podcast, he discusses a money management system with my son, Omni, and my podcast partner in awareness, Tanya’s son, Tyler. 

Creating Balance in Money Flow

Mike recognized that without an effective money management system the energy of money flow can get out of balance.

Mike shares that money is like breathing. There is a risk of accumulating money, not using it, and becoming a miser. He goes on to share that he believes we are all fundamentally good with money. If you know how to earn money, and spend money, then you are ready to master mindfully managing money. All you need is a system to channel that behavior in an effective way to create balance. A balance between saving money while avoiding miserly behavior, and creating a flow of money rather than living paycheck to paycheck. 

In a nutshell, Mike’s system strategically teaches children (and adults!) how to overcome ‘lost subversion’ which is the behavior often seen when fear of losing money results in clinging on to it. Mike’s system is practical and it frees one from a fear mindset, as we learn we can do what we want with money, and when we want, as long as we learn to work within the parameters of his suggested system. 

Mike’s Money Management System: Money Jars Concept

Mike’s book playfully teaches children fundamental concepts of saving money. Through the lens of a young girl named Sophie, the book teaches the basic core principles of Profit First.

Mike masterfully integrates mindfulness and kid finances, through storytelling and introduces a framework that helps children like Sophie, learn to save money while still enjoying life experiences through their funds. Essentially, Mike’s system encourages setting an intention as to how money earned 

will be saved or spent, and dividing the money into different “jars”. 

Insights from Mike on Money Management

Learn to Earn not Grant

Mike believes that a big part of approaching the concept of money with kids is to teach kids about earning money rather than granting money. He encouraged his own kids to learn the business of running a household, by having them earn by doing chores. Early on his kids chose how they would like to contribute to the home through various chores, e.g. taking out the trash.

Apply Mike’s Money Bunnies Money Management System

Mike’s system offers a framework to bring behavioral balance between money-saving and spending. This system is essential in knowing how money earned will be divided up for its intended uses. Mike warns that for this approach to be effective a child needs to learn to make this system their own. In the My Money Bunnies book, the character Sophia divides the money into 3 jars. Mike shares that the likelihood that your kid will maintain his suggested system is greater if they define how they’d like to divide their money. So your child needs to upfront decide how they intend to spend their earnings. 

Mike Today

Today, Mike is a successful entrepreneur who leads two multi-million-dollar ventures, a speaker of innovative entrepreneurial topics, and the author of many other books including Get Different, Fix This Next, Clockwork, Surge, The Pumpkin Plan, and The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur. To learn more about Mike, his books, podcast, events, and his various resources click here.

Erin Krupsaw: Lifelong Learner & School Teacher

Erin Krupsaw is my son Omni’s 3rd-grade teacher. Recently Omni had the pleasure of debuting his first podcast in which he conversation with his teacher on the topic of Mindfulness and Money.

When it comes to the concept of money management, Erin attributes her parents as strong role models in how learned to manage money.

Erin carries those lessons and values into how she now teaches her students about concepts like money management.

Erin’s Tale

Erin is a native of San Carlos, California, located on the Peninsula of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Erin’s early childhood was shaped by her positive and influential teachers who inspired her and her two sisters who are now school teachers.

While her dad had a difficult upbringing, he made sure he was a strong supporter of all of his daughters, and other kids.

Erin’s dad spent years as a collegiate coach. He really became a mentor for other kids, which influenced Erin to teach so that she could also mentor. Another impactful experience that later led Erin to focus on helping kids with specific learning challenges, was based on her own early childhood challenges as a dyslexic.

Erin would go on to graduate from Chico State University with a degree in Liberal Studies.

Directly following graduation, Erin entered a dual certificate program earning her Multiple Subject Teaching Credential with an emphasis in English Language Arts and a Masters’s in Education from National University in San Jose, Ca. After completing her student teaching and her graduate studies, Erin married her college sweetheart, Seth Krupsaw, and moved to San Diego County. She began to substitute teach in several districts around the county for several months. Mrs. Krupsaw was hired by the San Marcos Unified School District in 2021. 

Insights from Erin on Money Management

Learn to Earn as a Kid

Being the youngest of 4 kids early on Erin’s parent’s stressed the importance of earning her own money. Growing up Erin would take a variety of jobs from wrapping presents to babysitting – anything to earn money. This taught her the value of the hard work it took to earn money, and she learned to spend money more cautiously. She also learned to earn continuously and create a nest egg.

Learn to Save Early as a Kid

Erin learned to save early in her childhood first by placing money in her piggy bank. Eventually, Erin would learn to put a portion of the money she’d earn in a Saving Account created by her mom who worked at a bank. When it came to making purchases with her money, she would keep a portion of her earned money at home for purchases. And she learned to set goals on how to earn the money for big-ticket items.

Learn to Count Your Earnings as a Kid

One very influential money management skill her dad taught her was how to count money. Back when Erin was a kid, banks would provide paper wraps to collect coins. Erin’s dad would have her and her siblings count their collected coins and roll up those coins the paper wraps.

This approach taught Erin to recognize that once money is counted the actual amount becomes clearer. When she and her siblings would look at the rolled-up coins it revealed the actual dollar amount, which felt like a lot less once counted in terms of the dollar amount.

Erin Krupsaw Today

She has taught grades kindergarten through third grade at La Costa Meadows Elementary School in Carlsbad where she has worked for the past twenty years. In addition, Mrs. Krupsaw has been a part of countless committees as a leader and representative for both the San Marcos School District and La Costa Meadows Elementary School.

Erin Champions Values Teaching About Money Management

Just this past month Omni completed a project on managing a budget to start a ‘Taco Shop’ business. The kids in his class were asked to pair off into teams and using the budget provided allocate money to run all facets of this pseudo business. When the project was complete Omni shared what it was like to plan the business details including thinking through how much they’d charge to make a profit, strategizing on how to allocate portions of the funds to key business needs, and how to collaborate with his partner. 

This fun project demonstrated that kids can learn about mindfully working with money, while collaborating with others, at a young age. 

Julie Murphy: Author of Awaken Your Wealth

Julie Murphy is an independent Certified Financial Planner, who stands out from most financial professionals as she is all heart, giving hope to millions to create a new life through a heart-centered mindfulness approach to awaken one’s relationship with money. 

Her recent book, “Awaken Your Wealth: Creating a PACT to Optimize Your Money and Your Life” is a #1 Amazon bestseller and came into my “sphere of consciousness” through a social media news feed.

I was immediately drawn to her energy, ordered her book, and invited her to have a conversation with me on my Podcast. 

Julie’s Tale

Julie’s journey to becoming a successful independent financial planner author and media expert came after healing her own relationship with money.

Julie grew up in an Irish Catholic family, as the second eldest of 12 children. She was inherently involved in helping raise, take care of, and help pay for household expenses from a young age. Her siblings and her parents grew to be deeply dependent on her help.

Throughout her teens, even though she earned income starting from the tender age of 6, she continually experienced her family’s perpetual financial struggle.

By continually living in survival mode, she developed a scarcity mindset that resulted in a financial pattern where the money would be promised or spent before it was even received.

Early on Julie recognized that she had developed financial issues that required resolution. So to better understand herself she chose to study money management and financial planning. After considerable challenges in her early years in college, she made a commitment to succeed.

After graduating college, at the age of 22, she launched her own financial planning business.

Once she realized she didn’t have to live under the shadow of those old childhood beliefs about money, Julie created a life plan of her own choosing—one based on sound investment strategies and proven emotional and mental tools and techniques.

Through the process of healing her own limiting beliefs and dysfunctional money-relationship patterns, she created her signature money management system, PACT.

PACT is a unique four-step heart-centered approach to wealth management. 

She works with each client to uncover his or her ” relationship” to their assets. Her time-tested program, PACT (P: Picturing Yourself, A:  Accepting Reality and Awakening, C: Choosing to Change, T: Taking Action) has transformed countless clients’ lives. 

Julie’s process is holistic – physical, financial, mental, emotional, and spiritual – as it helps others bring life balance while navigating from healing to action. She goes beyond the focus on the mind or finances like most financial advisors and emphasizes the energy of the heart.

She believes there is a correlation between one’s health and wealth and offers this quote from the Dalai Lama.

Her inside-out approach emphasizes that by placing your heart front and center, the money will follow. 

Insights from Julie on Money Management

Learn to Assess Your Energy About Money & Shift Your Mindset

Everything is Energy

Julie believes that money is a form of energy. She suggests that the key to financial success is changing our relationship with money.

Start by assessing your energy level around money. This requires becoming familiar with your innate body intelligence. When topics of money are brought up what emotions do you feel? Do you feel anxious? And where in your body do you feel that emotion? 

Julie suggests that once you become aware of your energy or emotional feelings about reactions, you can harness and shift your energy thereby seeking solutions or focusing on what you want to manifest.

You need to transfer your energy away from things that you do not want to attract or no longer serve you.

By shifting your mindset you learn to consciously shift forward and seek solutions to get from where you are to where you want to go. 

Julie’s PACT process utilizes heart-centered emotional energy to help her clients see and move past self-limiting beliefs. The PACT approach is holistically to help clients dream big in all areas of their life, which reveals choices and action steps to help those dreams come to fruition. 

Follow Your Heart 

The energy of the heart is deeply powerful. Julie encourages keeping your heart invigorated. 

Julie suggests looking into the research of Heart Math, Gregg Braden, and Bruce Lipton.

Follow your heart, and the smarts will follow explains Julie.

If everything is vibration. When your heart feels awakened, the energy to attract and align increases, and the money flows. 

Bottom line: Dare to be adventurous with your dreams.

Julie Today

Julie has led a financial services and wealth management firm in Chicago, Illinois, for more than 25 years. Like many others, she had been affected by family beliefs about financial struggle.

People call Julie a financial healer and money therapist. After transforming her own upbringing of scarcity into a life of abundance, she’s on a mission to financially heal the world. Her approach, first expressed in The Emotion Behind Money: Building Wealth from the Inside Out, bridges the emotional right brain and the financial left brain to help people release old beliefs that limit them from achieving greater financial security.

With an open heart and upbeat personality, Julie lives to share her story and healing energy with audiences far and wide. Her appearances on CNBC-TV, Lifetime TV, Oprah & Friends Radio, and her YouTube channel (EmotionBehindMoney), Instagram (@AwakenwithJulie), LinkedIn, and Facebook page (Awaken With Julie) have alerted thousands of people to their emotional connection to money. She has also been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes.com, The Chicago Tribune, Associated Press, and other publications. Join the conversation about emotions and money at www.JulieMurphy.com.

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