69: Time To Break Out Of Your Comfort Zone

Carolyn: [00:00:00] You're listening to Elevate Your Paycheck, the podcast that is dedicated to transforming your financial journey. I'm Carolyn, your host and money coach that will guide you out of that paycheck to paycheck cycle and onto a path towards financial independence. Are you ready? Let's do this. 

Hey, welcome back to the show. I'm Carolyn, your money coach, and I am a day late and a dollar short. That is just a saying that my mom used to say when we were younger. I come from a Jamaican background, so there were tons of different sayings and you kind of had to decipher them and figure out what they meant, but.

What I mean today is that normally I release this episode on Thursdays, but today it's going out on Friday. It has been a whirlwind of events over the last few weeks. And yeah, I [00:01:00] just couldn't get my act together and have it out for you guys on Thursday. So don't worry, I'm going to make it up to you.

And part of it also was because I was debating on what the topic should be today. I wanted to firstly say thank you for those that came out. to the webinar, series. I had three sessions and it was all about, boosting your credit scores. So I hope that you gain lots of information and, came away with knowing exactly which things you should tackle to really move the needle when it comes to your credit score.

And also, I announced the open enrollment for Simply Paid Off. Now, if you don't know what that is, I recently created an online digital course that specifically addresses paying off debt, because I've heard back from, you know, you as the listeners from people in my community and Instagram, and even the talks that I do.

The number one thing I hear is I got to get rid of this debt. And no one [00:02:00] seems to know exactly how to do it. So I put together this digital online course, and it really goes step by step through the different things that you need to know to tackle the debt and come up with a strategic plan to get rid of it.

But the best part is not just to get rid of it, but not to accumulate more afterwards. So it's a six. module course and we release it week by week, one module at a time. Each module has about four to five lessons within it and I come on live, you know, and do a lesson every week and there's time for Q& A questions and it's really going to be a good time.

It launches on February the 12th, so if you want to jump in. It's open until February the 11th, I believe, for you to enroll. And I will put the link in the show notes. If you missed the webinar and you missed the presale that I had of this course back in November, [00:03:00] then you've missed out on some of the bonuses that I've included.

So I know you guys are faithful listeners. So I'm going to do a special bonus just for you. But we're going to talk about that at the end of this episode, so why don't we just head into it. So if you follow me on Instagram, I had a little bit of a revelation, the other day when I was driving, and I did share a bit of it on my stories, but I thought, you know what, why don't I go a little bit deeper here on the podcast?

It was about change. My husband and I were having this conversation. He was driving, I was driving different cars and we're just talking about things. And he's telling me about his day at work and how, they're individuals that are doing a particular process a certain way. And I'm saying to him, well, why don't they try doing it X, Y, and Z way?

And what he kept saying was, you know, they're just resistant and, you know, they don't want to make any changes and this is the way it is. And I'm like, Why? If there's something [00:04:00] more efficient, if there's a better way to do something, why not just move over to that way? And then I thought to think about it.

Why is it that people don't want to change? And having said that, even my webinar, there were a lot of people that signed up for that webinar. But not everybody showed up. And so I thought to myself, well, why, why would you sign up for something that's educational? It's going to give you more information about your financial journey and then not show up.

It's weird, right? To me, it was weird, but. I think I realize it's because people want to make change, but they actually don't want to do the work to get there. But change is part of the process for growth. And if we dive a little bit deeper, there is really a fear behind it. So let's kind of understand where this fear comes from.

The first thing is that there is a fear of the unknown. [00:05:00] Nobody knows what's on the other side. And that can cause a great. deal of fear. And so doing things the same way you've always done means that you're always going to get the same result. Then there's the fear of failure, right? It's like trying and then failing.

I think our human nature is kind of programmed to be afraid of failure we want to do it right. We want to have like, there's this, um, bit of a perfectionist in all of us and, trying something new. could mean that we're going to fail at it. And it's actually probably highly likely that you will.

But it's the repetition and the persistence that's going to make it better and improve over time. And then finally, there's a loss of control. When you don't know the variables of what's going to happen, you feel like you're kind of out of control. You don't have a handle on the situation. And so that can feel unnerving as well.

And then there's the good old comfort zone. You know that zone where [00:06:00] you're just everything is good. Let's not rock the boat. We're all comfortable. It's like you're in your pajamas. You're under the covers. You're watching your Netflix. It's all good. Right? Don't rock the boat because everything is very comfortable right now.

And that prevents a lot of people from moving and taking steps forward. So how do all these reasons impact our financial decisions? Well, if you're going to avoid risk because change can come with some risk, you're potentially going to miss out on opportunities. Right? Because opportunities and risks are kind of hand in hand.

So if we take the example of investing, if you have a lower tolerance for risk, then there is likely going to be less growth, at least immediately. If you have a higher tolerance for risk, it means that you can be a little bit more, adventurous with your [00:07:00] money and it can go either way. You can make big wins or you can have big losses.

So if you stay on the camp of let's just avoid all risk, we take the example of locking your money into a GIC, which right now it's around six or seven percent if you put your money into a GIC, but, you know, maybe there's potential for greater gains if you were to put it in something a little bit more risky.

So, that fear of change in the result of avoiding risk can really make you miss out on financial opportunities. And then let's talk about that comfort zone, right? The comfort zone in your finances is complacency. And what I mean by that is paycheck to paycheck. You know, the money that's going to be coming in.

You know the money that's going to be going out and you just make sure you're kind of coasting you're doing the same thing week After week money comes in money goes out. You're not really making any gains whether or not you're not paying off debt You're not [00:08:00] investing in your future. You're not hitting your financial goals.

You're not making any financial goals Complacency is just kind of living in that comfort zone. I remember when we purchased our first home And, you know, I was a couple of years into, owning the home and the banks. We're offering us a line of credit and this is one of those home equity line of credits So I guess we've built up enough equity in our home to be able to access Something like this and if you don't know what a home equity line of credit is when you have a house or an asset and it appreciates in value higher than what it is that you owe the bank for the mortgage, there's equity built up there.

And what the banks will do is they'll offer you kind of like a loan or a line of credit in the amount of that piece of equity. Because they know that they have an asset to collect on if that debt is not repaid. So it's [00:09:00] actually a fancy new term for a second mortgage on the house, because now you're borrowing against that equity.

So in our case, they were offering us a home equity line of credit. Now my husband is a little more risk adverse than myself. And so I'm just like, yeah, let's go for it. We can do this, this and this. And he's like, whoa, whoa. Just wait a minute. Right. What are we going to use this money for? And, we had to talk about it, kind of plan out what we were going to do, because this is not just what you call.

a new credit card. This is, a significant amount of money and you don't want to be just using it for, clothes shopping or going on a trip. This is a tool to make more money without having to physically earn it. So it's all about the perspective, right? If we had kind of stayed in that comfort zone of what was comfortable, we were paying our mortgage, everything was fine.

Then we would have missed out on some [00:10:00] investment opportunities that the home equity line of credit allowed us to make. And so I'm not saying, that is for everyone. But what I'm saying is that you need to kind of look outside the box and not just stay within your comfort zone and don't be resistant to make a change.

So what are some strategies that we can put in place to kind of overcome this fear and then embrace. change. One of the things is education and literacy. And again, I know I'm preaching to the choir because you guys are listening to the podcast week by week, you're improving your financial literacy.

And I'm hoping that you're taking some of the knowledge that you're gaining and making informed decisions about your money future. But honestly, that is the main way to overcome fear. The more education that you have, it kind of dispels all of those myths. right? It dispels the fear of the [00:11:00]unknown. It dispels the fear of failure, because now you are educated, you have an idea of what's going to happen.

And education provides you with some control, because an informed decision is much easier to make than an irrational one. The next thing you can do is really set And if you Goals and plan. So if we go back to my example of when we decided to get the home equity line of credit, we really sat down and created a plan on what we wanted to do with the money that they had offered us.

We were determined that this was not going to be just spent and it was going to be invested. to allow for some of the other financial goals that we had for our family. And I've talked about, how to set up goals. I use a concept called SMART goal, S standing for specific, M for measurable, A for achievable, and R for relevant, and T for time bound.[00:12:00]

 You can go back to episode number four. I talk all about how to create those specific type of goals. And then with education and your goals in place, the next thing you want to do is just make an incremental change. Start with a very small manageable change that's going to help you to build some confidence.

As a money coach, I kind of watch my clients go through a metamorphosis. Right, they come to me very timid and embarrassed about their current situation. They don't really know where it is that they want to go. They just know it needs to be fixed. And I always say to every single one of them that you've done the hardest part and they're like, what?

I'm like, yep, you've done the hardest part, which is just reaching out for help. I think another human trait that we have is that we're a bit stubborn, right? You're like, no, I can do it on my own. No, I can do it on my own. I'm [00:13:00] good. And we find it very difficult to actually reach out for help, and psychologically in my community, mental health issues are very not talked about.

Let's put it that way. And so reaching out for help. is been something that has always been difficult in that particular facet of life. And I think the same goes for money. People are ashamed and embarrassed about the way they've made decisions and things that have occurred to them in the past that have led to their current situation.

And because they're embarrassed about that, they will not reach out for help. They figure that they can just figure it out on their own. And like I said, It doesn't have to be this way, you know, education wasn't provided to us as easily when we were younger, and most of the time we just learned by accident.

So the mistakes that you've made, [00:14:00] you know, technically, they're not even your fault, because it was just trial and error. And so reaching out for help about your money situation is the hardest part. For me in particular, as a money coach, I offer so many different it's, Ways that I can help, I have this podcast which is providing you with lots of free Financial strategies that you can implement I have free guides and resources that I offer from time to time whether it be for budgeting for debt repayment you know all sorts of things and then now there is the course and One of the main reasons that why I developed the course was to make it accessible to all It is at a price point that I think is reasonable for the amount of information that you're getting and the hands on help from myself that it's well worth the [00:15:00] cost.

And then finally, there's this, the money coaching, right? The direct one on one sitting down, talking about your personal financial situation, creating a plan and working through some strategies to overcome the hurdles of the past. So in my coaching program, we do a little more deeper dive, obviously, because it's one on one.

Number one, we do an assessment and reflection of your current financial situation. There are various formulas and indicators that I use to determine where you are currently. And that kind of guides us and gives us a direction of what we need to to change and to fix and to alter. Then we head into a plan, right?

We create a very detailed plan that addresses financial goals, and that's including budgeting, saving, and reducing debt. After we do all of that, that's where the fun stuff comes in. That's when you can talk about investing and, you [00:16:00] know, going beyond just the day to day money management. But you gotta have the first part down.

And so we really developed a plan, making a strong foundation for a budget, savings, and reducing debt. And then we embraced technology. Right. We use all the tools that we can to make this easy for us, right? There's the apps. There's budget tools. There are so many things. And with the coaching program, you actually get the budgeting tool that I created.

I call it track it and really it's just a glorified, spreadsheet, but it is very powerful and shows you so much detail on how to develop and sustain a budget. So that comes with the coaching package as well. And to be honest, the best part of that is you have a cheerleader that's always on your side.

I celebrate. Every milestone that you make, I follow up, I'm sending you emails and motivational things so that you are [00:17:00] keeping your eyes on the prize. Sometimes it's hard to go through the journey and make the changes, right? But when you have a coach that's cheering for you and making sure that they want the best result possible.

It makes life so much easier. And so to me, that's really the best and the most fun part. So in essence, change can be challenging, but it is necessary and essential for financial growth and personal development, right? So I really encourage you to take the next step towards change, no matter how small it is.

Now, remember, I had mentioned that we just launched Simply Paid Off, and I'm going to offer a bonus for podcast listeners only, and that is to receive one on one personal coaching session. From me. Now you can use that session at any time throughout the six weeks of the course. So if you enroll in the course [00:18:00] before closing, which is on the 11th of February, then I will include the one on one personal coaching.

And to be honest, it's a great way to complement the course because not only do you have this. the question and answer period, but we can really dive into some of your personal issues and I can just lead you to the information that's within the course that's going to be specifically relatable to those issues.

So I highly recommend that you take advantage of this bonus. The cost of the entire course, including the bonus lives and the Q& A sessions. is 197 Canadian. So I hope you can see now how affordable it is to jump into something like this and the impact that it's going to have is immeasurable. And by me throwing in that personal coaching, the value just goes up tenfold.

So that offer again, will be [00:19:00] available to you only up until February the 11th. And if you also want to do the personal one on coaching kind of on a regular basis and pick up the coaching package. if you buy the course, then I just count the coaching package by 20%. So lots of, ways to kind of get involved and make changes to your own personal financial situation and create that path or start the journey towards your personal financial goals.

So again, I am so sorry for releasing this episode a day late, but I hope I made up for it with the tons of value and bonuses for you to make that next step in your financial journey. So I do plan to see you same time and same place next week. Take care guys. 

Thanks for listening to the elevate your paycheck podcast. If you love this episode and need deeper support, head to [00:20:00] thefinancialmoment. com backslash support to see how we can support you no matter where you are at today. We help our clients organize their finances, create savings, eliminate debt and create a roadmap to their financial goals, which makes them more in control than they ever dreamed possible.

So head to thefinancialmoment. com backslash support and make this the next step in your financial journey. 

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