Automate Your Finances: Stress-Free Money & Mindset ft Laura Ann Moore

In this episode, we explore the benefits of automating your finances and focus on the mindset shifts needed to embrace this approach. Laura Ann Moore, a money mindset expert, shares insights on the emotional hurdles surrounding financial automation and practical steps listeners can take to create a healthier relationship with money. We cover:

• Understanding the concept of money on autopilot 
• Importance of mindset when managing finances 
• Overcoming fear of losing control through automation 
• Steps to set up (and revisit) automation effectively 
• Encouraging open money conversations in relationships 
• Embracing a positive financial mindset for long-term success

Chapters

• 0:00 Automating Finances for Less Stress
• 11:29 Setting Financial Goals for Success
• 21:28 Open Conversations About Money

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey guys and welcome back to the Penny Spans podcast with your host, kia, and this is a podcast where you're able to dispel your myths, simplify difficult financial jargon and rectify your own personal problems. Happy Monday, everyone. It feels amazing to be back. I know I've had a mini hiatus from Christmas, but it's good to be back. On your earwaves Is that even the word your radio waves, I don't know but however you're or watching, it's good to be back. I'm very excited to bring you an incredible episode today, and I know I said that a lot, but this is genuinely incredible because we're going to be delving into how we can automate our finances to take away the stress and put ourselves in a good money mindset for this coming year. And I have an amazing guest, a friend of the podcast, who's been on. It's been a couple of years now and I don't think we had visuals when they came on, but they're coming to grace the podcast and to give us all of their knowledge. Guest, who are you?

Speaker 2: 0:53

Hello, my name is Laura Anmore. I am a money mindset expert, speaker, educator, podcast host all of the things you do everything, laura.

Speaker 1: 1:02

You do everything and we love it. So I want to ask you, first and foremost, how was your 2025 going?

Speaker 2: 1:10

do you know what my 2025 is given? It's giving, it's really given. Yeah, I've come in with. I try not to, you know, subscribe to the whole um new year, new me too much, but I also do like the energy of a new year. It's that thing of it's dark, it's cold. I try not to push myself like, especially when it comes to things like exercise and, you know, like rest, but on a work capacity, I am locked in. Locked in. Good things have been happening, but it feels like you know, when you work lot, sometimes it feels really draining because it's a bit misaligned, but sometimes you're like I could literally work every hour under the sun and it's flowing, it's energising. That's amazing.

Speaker 1: 1:53

It feels really good. I feel like there's a lot of rhetoric going around about locking in and I'll be honest, I've joined the crew because I've locked in, like you, and my productivity, my outputs, my workload, all of that has transformed. Yeah, and I feel good about it because, like you said, rest is important. So I'm also kind of like okay, but if I don't feel up to it today, let me just take some rest. Yeah, and now I feel even better tomorrow and trying to force myself today, and then you don't do anything tomorrow either yeah, so I like that for you.

Speaker 2: 2:21

I have. I worked the two weekends ago. I woke up and I was feeling the vibes. It was Saturday. I planned to just be at home and I was like I want to work. I was really excited about a couple of projects, got my laptop out, worked all day Sunday, all day Saturday, all day Sunday. But woke up on Monday and I was like I'm feeling good, but Monday I was like didn't have as much to do, so I I was like didn't have as much to do so I just took a bit of a chill day, like did a little bit, so it was nice. I think that's the nice thing when you work for yourself.

Speaker 1: 2:48

You get to like, pick. You get to pick and choose. That is a good one. Oh, that's a really good one, laura. I'm excited we're going to be talking about how we can automate our money, and I thought a good way to phrase it is money on autopilot, right? So I want to ask you what does that even mean, and how does automating stuff like bills and savings and investments help people to feel less stressed about their finances?

Speaker 2: 3:14

So with that phrase, which I love, I feel like there's two ways you can look at it the mindset side and then the practical side. As you know, I always like to put a mindset spin on things.

Speaker 1: 3:25

I love it, we love it. That's why you're here. We love it.

Speaker 2: 3:28

So from a mindset perspective, the autopilot side is like a lot. You know, we spend 90 to 95% of our time on autopilot, having the same thoughts, not being as mindful. If you know, that's kind of the space that you're in and we have a lot of the same thoughts. So it's like when it comes to your money, what autopilot thoughts and feelings are you having Like? Are they positive, are they negative, are they helping you, are they hindering you? I think when it comes to money, because it's so emotional you know the way that you think and feel about it is how you behave. So you can have stories and thoughts about money that are so on autopilot and always have been for so long that sometimes you don't realize how they're actually impacting your behavior. So that's like the mindset side.

Speaker 2: 4:16

On the practical side, I see it as being on autopilot with your money, or putting your money on autopilot is like how do you automate and set up systems with your finances to be successful? So, example, I'm a big believer of having multiple accounts one for your bills, one for your spending, one for your saving. You know, one day you get paid, what do you do with that money? You have automation, so direct debits standard orders set up to move. Okay, I know I need this much.

Speaker 2: 4:52

In my bills account I'm going to move X amount onto my spending account, which is my general spending outside of my fixed expenses. This much goes to savings, debt investments, and it's all done in one day. You then don't have to think about it. You don't have to think, oh, maybe I'll save a little bit later in the month or maybe I'll just pay the minimum of my debt. You know, it kind of removes the emotional part of making decisions in that moment, maybe because if you're feeling not as on top top of it or you're not feeling as good, you might make decisions with your money that aren't actually aligned with your goals and values. If you automate it and it's on autopilot, it kind of takes that part away. So I think it really sets you up for success in that area.

Speaker 1: 5:40

I agree. I think our emotions play such a big part that people don't realize. I think we can all acknowledge that our emotions play such a big part that people don't realise. I think we can all acknowledge that our emotions play a role when it comes to maybe eating or exercise or lack thereof, because you know, when you're sad you might go into the freezer and grab some ice cream out. When you're happy, you might say right, I'm going to be fighting fit and I'm going to eat clean today. Same comes with exercise, but we don't really consider it when it comes to our money. But that directly influences how we spend. Obviously, I'm a lot better now, but I know when I was younger and I didn't really understand, that if I was upset I'd be like I'm gonna go out shopping because shopping makes me feel better and I think a lot of people are in that mindset.

Speaker 1: 6:16

But it is kind of just understanding. You have that and ways that you can unpick it, like put your money on autopilot. Yeah, so we've said this, and I love automating as much as you do and I'm a big believer, like you, of multiple accounts. But I know that for some people listening and watching automating finances can seem quite scary, quite daunting, because it's almost that fear that you've you're losing control of your money because you're not actually physically doing it every month, right? So what are some emotional hurdles that you think people might face when it comes to setting up their money to work for itself?

Speaker 2: 6:52

So I think it's really interesting the conversation around the fear of losing control of your money, because in this instance, I am such a big believer that automating your finances allows you to be in control. It's actually the opposite, and it's a little bit like the narrative around a budget. I prefer to call it a spending plan because it feels more positive, whereas people associate budgets with being restrictive and tight and frugal, and that's why people avoid budgeting. But actually having a budget or a spending plan is the thing that helps you do everything you want. You're mindful about where your money's going, you're working towards your goals, and it's the same with automation.

Speaker 2: 7:37

I do think it is slightly easier to automate your finances when you have a regular paycheck, because you know when you're getting paid, you know how much you're getting paid, you can sit down, do the work, set up the automations hands off, all you have to do every month and payday.

Speaker 2: 7:55

You know, you wake up, your automations have happened and you're able to then literally just be mindful about your spending account. If you have an irregular paycheck maybe you're on a zero hour contract, maybe you're self-employed it might feel more sticky and a bit harder, but I do think that it can still really help. It might just take a little bit more work to set up, but I think this fear of losing control, the automations allow you to say I've decided already exactly where my money is going. If you go the other way and you're like you avoid budgeting, you're not thinking about it, your money will do what it wants, it's going to like it's. So. How easy is it to walk out of the house and be like you get home at the end of the day and you're like I've literally just spent a hundred pounds and I don't know how.

Speaker 1: 8:41

Especially if you live in a big city like Ireland.

Speaker 2: 8:42

Do you know what I mean?

Speaker 1: 8:43

Oh my, gosh, you step out of the house, you take one big breath and you've spent £50.

Speaker 2: 8:48

You hear your app go off and it's like I didn't do anything. So, like, automating it, I believe, helps you be in control. So some of the emotional hurdles. I think, if it's fear, it's like you want to get under the hood of what is the fear. Is it the fear of not having enough? Is it the fear of not being able to do all the things that you want? Is it, you know, like everyone is different and it shows up differently, but I think the key thing when it comes to that is the awareness piece, like okay, let's say you're like, oh, if you're listening to this podcast and you're like, yeah, do you know what?

Speaker 2: 9:19

Maybe automating my finances is good, and that's when some of the thoughts and feelings come up. Just notice, what is it? What are the thoughts saying? What's the feeling, what? What is that?

Speaker 2: 9:30

You know the fear, the worries, because that allows it's just data, it allows you to go okay. This is what I need to do and I do think, with automating your finances, it's not the first thing you should do. It's like a second or third step, like and I'm sure we'll get onto this in a minute but really being able to go okay, that can be part of my plan and when it comes to the emotional side, if you're noticing things that are maybe holding you back negative thoughts you can literally start by being aware, changing your language and just being more mindful throughout your day, because that allows you to come up with ideas about how to fix it. If you're in the noise and you're in the busyness and oh, it's this and this and this, it doesn't allow any opportunity for like creative ideas of ways to make money, ways to save, ways to budget. You want to like free up, kind of free up your mind to call that in. So I think, yeah, awareness first and then using that as data to come up with ideas.

Speaker 1: 10:23

Absolutely. I love that. I think it is so important, like you say, to be in tune with yourself and I've said it recently, I put it on my story recently about this whole reframing things. So there was a point not too long ago where I was kind of like oh, I don't know how I'm going to make this money or how I'm going to do this and do that, and instead of doing that I know a lot of people might feel the same you know kind of where we're at at the moment in the economy. But instead of kind of saying like I've got no money, maybe it's reframing it, and saying, okay, money's tight, but this gives me an opportunity to figure out other ways to make money that can fit into my lifestyle.

Speaker 1: 11:08

So I think it is like is a big part of our lives that you can feel very overwhelmed and say, oh my gosh, like I don't know what I'm doing. And it's a lot of fear when you almost when you feel like you're giving up that control. But, like we said, you're not doing that. Yeah, so you touched on it a little bit there but like, what plans should people be looking at when it comes to their finances? So I agree, automating is probably not step one, because you should have done a few things before that. So what would those steps look like to get to automation?

Speaker 2: 11:26

so I think so on a mindset basis. It's really understanding, like, how you think about money, maybe why you've behaved the way that you have, by looking at the past. I'm not a big believer in like focusing too much on the past and being like that's why I did this, and it can be helpful to say oh, oh, interesting. You know with me, I always remember my parents or my dad saying things like money doesn't grow on trees. I want never got. Yeah, oh, maybe that's why, when I was 16, I became a total money hoarder and I was scared to spend it. Maybe that's why, when I was you know how old, was I 25. And I wanted to go self-employed but I was too scared. There was, you know, you're able to attach it to go huh, interesting. But I don't grip onto that story and be like you know, poor me. This is why this is the situation you got interesting what? How would I like to feel about money? What is my ideal relationship and what is one thing I can do to take me closer? And that kind of you know mindset element is you can be on a money mindset journey for the rest of your life. Like that's kind of the exciting thing. So look at that, it's not a one and done, it's a pay attention. Ask yourself some questions. Then I that it's not a one and done, it's a pay attention. Ask yourself some questions.

Speaker 2: 12:38

Then I think it's really important to get to know your numbers. I speak to far too many people and it's understandable with the, the way that we're not taught this stuff in school and you know not necessarily from your parents, but really understand where is my money going right now? Where has it been going? What choices have I made? Not myself just using it as data, what are my bills? And just getting a really clear overview on, like, the savings you have, the debt you have, and making a plan off the back of that.

Speaker 2: 13:08

So, getting to know your numbers, then creating what your goals are. So like, what do you actually want to work towards? Because if you sit down and go, right, let's go, let's automate my finances, how do you know how much to put in savings? How do you know how much to clear off debt? How do you know how much to invest you need to go? What is it I'm working towards? And then you can kind of reverse engineer it to say, oh okay, well, if I want to save, you know, six grand in 10 years. Okay, that works out to be x amount per month. You can work out the numbers. That's a savings example, but I think that's really important and then you can get on to more. Yeah, that's, that's the order I would say I agree with you.

Speaker 1: 13:48

I think that is a good way to go, especially with the goals. Yeah, I'm sure you're the same, but how many people do I speak to all the time who say, right, I really want to say we want to invest and I, okay, but what are your goals? Tell me your short-term and long-term goals, and they're like I don't know, just have money.

Speaker 1: 14:01

But, that's directly going to influence how much you put in, like you said, and also the level of discipline you have towards your money, because we know how easy it is to just say I will save, I've saving up for a reason, or I'm investing for a reason. That money's staying in there, unless it's a massive emergency, I need to take it out. I'm not going to take it out for a pair of trainers or because I wanted that top but it's on sale. Yeah, that's not the reason I'm taking it out. I'm taking it out because I've either reached my goal target or like you said, it's a big emergency or something like that.

Speaker 1: 14:33

But other than that, those steps, I think, are a great way to kind of put together that plan for you and your money can I as well?

Speaker 2: 14:41

just touching on the goals, because I'm a, I know I see your content. We have very similar around the goal stuff in life, in business and finance, a couple of things. I think sometimes people are scared to set financial goals because they, if they've always been bad with money. The thought of saying I want to save 10 grand in two years, that part of your brain, like you, can't girl, you haven't even been able to save you know, five pounds so it can like turn you off right.

Speaker 2: 15:09

But the great thing is that focus, that motivation, the emotional side to be able to go. I decided I wanted something, I set my heart on it and it allowed me to change my self-identity and see myself as a saver. It allowed me to set up systems and automations to get there. It allowed me to have feel like I'm working towards something. And you know, I think sometimes in general people fall into the camp of I want more money. I say what does that look like? Like if you just have five more pounds? Is that okay? Is that good enough? So really getting clear, so you know how to track your progress, so you know whether you're on target, off target, and you can celebrate yourself and or to be able to go I know where I'm going wrong. Or you have the side where people go oh, I don't really know like what I'm working towards. I just want enough to kind of like pay my bills and they like undersell themselves.

Speaker 2: 15:57

And I think it's actually less in this instance about having a massive savings target and more about being able to say I want more for my life than just paying my bills, like, yeah, I go to work. Yes, I have to pay bills, but what bigger, exciting things do I want? Because we're always that's never going away, like when I say 15 grand when I was 19 with the plan to go to drama school and then last minute didn't go to drama school and went traveling. If I didn't have that money I would not have gone or it would have been very different. I would have had to borrow money, I would have had to get a job whilst I was away. I did not have to do that, but you're always going to need money. So I think that and I know we're referring to kind of like savings and investing goals, but goals are never a bad thing no, they're never a bad thing and I think the bigger the goal, the closer you'll get to them.

Speaker 1: 16:49

And the reason I say this I was talking to my dad the other day. Like you say, you and I have very big goals and I'm massive at home. I get all my family to think about whether they care about or not, we're all gonna put goals into place and we'll talk about goals.

Speaker 1: 17:00

And, if you didn't know, my dad's a content creator. He does diy renovations. So he had, he had a goal and he told me the goal. It was quite a small goal. He's like yeah, I want to do this. And I said, but what about if you just doubled it? What if you double the number? He's like no, no, no, I'm never gonna get that. So just just double the number, right. He's like no, no, no, no, no, no, I'm never going to get that.

Speaker 1: 17:17

I said just just double the number. Right. And actually this is what I told him last year. So beginning of last year I said just double the number, let's just see how close you get. Right. And I think his goal was he initially he wanted 50. We got to the end of the year he got to 40 and I said to him see, if you didn't make it 50, you might not have gotten to 40. So even though you didn't reach the big goal, it pushed you closer than you would have been if your goal was 10. You would have been telling me oh, cool, easy, you know, yeah but that bigger goal made you push and push because you went.

Speaker 1: 17:50

I was talking throughout the year trying to say I need to see if I can push more and I can better my content and all of that that's just content. Wise, but you can relate to anything.

Speaker 1: 17:56

100 but a bigger goal not, not gonna say you're gonna save a million in the year but the the bigger the goal and the more you think oh, I'm not sure you'll push yourself and you'll get closer than you would have if it was a more conservative goal, I would say so, I love that I think it's really, really important. Life happens, laura, it does. Life happens. Things change, people change and people move houses, change jobs, relocate all those kind of things, so their priorities may change. Talking about that, then, how often should we revisit our automations to make sure that they still fit our goals?

Speaker 2: 18:34

I think if you've set up automations and you've got money moving into savings and investments, I still think it's important to regularly check in with your money. You know have a money date check. Is the payments that were meant to go out? Did they go out? Is there any changes in my bills? How was my spending Like? It's still important to be on top of that. I also think it's great for you tracking your progress, to check in with it and be able to go great, even though you know I set up an automation to move 250 pounds a month into my savings and you know it's happening still nice to go into a little chart or, you know, tick off closer to my goal, because it keeps that motivation. But when a big life thing happens, I think that's a great opportunity to have an overhaul and really sit down and go.

Speaker 2: 19:21

Okay, I live at home right now. I know that I'd like to move out. What does that look like? Do I need to save a bit more? Maybe I actually need to stop my saving because I'm going to need some money more money in this moment, because I know next month I've got to pay for you knowvers, whatever, if you are changing jobs, getting a new job and your salary is going up or down 100%, you've got to sit down.

Speaker 2: 19:45

So I think big life changes. That is a perfect moment to really sit down and like look over it. Um, and if you've been doing some, if you've kind of like been doing some of the work, you've been doing some of the money mindset work you've been doing some. If you've kind of like been doing some of the work, you've been doing some of the money mindset work you've been doing. Your budgeting, having your money dates when a big life change happens.

Speaker 2: 20:02

What's amazing is you don't go oh my God, I've got to sit and look at my money. Now I'm forced to look at my money. I have no choice. You're like I've already been doing some of the work. So I know that maybe I need to rearrange some things, maybe, you know, whatever, I've got to change my automations. But you can enjoy the process of what your big life change is. It's not tarred with the fear or the stress of the money problems because you've already been doing some of the work. That's the great thing. So, instead of being forced and then the whole situation being like, oh God, I wish I'd been sorting my money out before. Oh no, you got, I already been doing it. Yeah, this is great and you can enjoy and be present in the process of whatever that big life changes.

Speaker 1: 20:48

Absolutely. I love that. That reminded me as you were talking.

Speaker 2: 20:53

I have friends who, even though they know better and I've done it before- where you know you don't do anything for half the year.

Speaker 1: 20:59

Then all of a sudden you've got a massive holiday come up and you're like right, I'm in the gym every day twice a day eating nothing but protein.

Speaker 1: 21:05

Right and realistically. When that comes and you're like a month out from your holiday, you're panicking. Yeah, because you might say I need, I need somebody in a month and it's not realistic. Yeah, to be able to get you might get closer, but it's not really it. Whereas if you've done small bits of exercise, then you just went for a half an hour walk every day and you've done that. Now your holiday is here. Well, imagine, you just booked holiday. We're going into three weeks.

Speaker 2: 21:25

You're like okay, cool. Well, now I can just kind of up that a bit because I've been doing the work.

Speaker 1: 21:28

So I think that all kind of relates making those small steps first, so it doesn't feel overwhelming to do it all in one go, because that is quite daunting because it's that thing of you know, I'm a massive fan of james clear and atomic habits one of my favorite books.

Speaker 2: 21:41

Yeah, and I always remember the one percent better every day, like marginal gains. Yeah, no matter what, if we apply it to finances, you're always going to need money for something, like we just said. So if you can just do a little bit here and there, you build your way up to being in a better position, and I think that that is really key, like same, you know, I've even been in a position where I've been amazing with my money, like doing all the things saving, and then I've had, you know, like 2024 for me was not a financial year for me.

Speaker 1: 22:10

Okay, I'm gonna be honest.

Speaker 2: 22:11

I I had one of the best years. I was traveling loads, loads of holidays you know, like, but my business and my finances. I did a little bit of financial progress. I'm not gonna lie.

Speaker 2: 22:22

I've spoken about it online, um, and I'm able to kind of say, huh, isn't it funny because, actually, whilst I have no regrets because you learn as you're, you're on the job and as you're doing these things, you go. Oh, I see how, actually, if I'd have maybe just done that one thing every month or, um, saved a little bit or done, you know, set my automations up, it would be a very different situation, and I think it's so good to learn from experience. Sometimes, because you're able to go, I see the impact that that has. We are always going to be forced at some point because, like, say, life happens, you might have babies, you might get married, you might decide you want to set up a charity, you might decide you want to go traveling, like whatever it is being able to go at least I've been doing a little bit every day, or a little bit every month is the best way to do things absolutely, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 23:09

And it's great to hear that from you. I mean, like you have shared before some of my setbacks, because I think, even though we are educators online and we are people that obviously they follow us, listen to what we put out, we are still humans 100%, and I was remind people the fact that we are still very young as well. I want to enjoy and live life. You know, I'm not in my 50s and 60s where you know you might have been working for a while. You're like, okay, cool, I make smarter decisions. I'm kind of like I will look after my finances, but I also like to travel. Yeah, because for me, I'm still in my 20s and I want to just travel when I want to see the world and I want to go out here and I want to treat myself every so often because I've been working a lot, so let me just treat myself within reason.

Speaker 1: 23:45

Obviously, we've made a plan, yeah but you know it is kind of nice to be reminded of that fact. Yeah, I want to bring it back because, whilst we all have money, I think everyone could always do some more money. Money is often the source of many arguments, whether that's within families, in couples, even in friendships, because many people don't see eye to eye when it comes to money. So how can automating finances help to reduce that tension and encourage money conversations between different relationships?

Speaker 2: 24:19

So I think in relation like couple relationships, it does look different if you are a new couple and you're not living together. You know you're both living your independent lives but you're together versus living together, being married, that kind of thing. Everyone manages their finances differently, but I think either way, having money conversations can be so empowering and being able to say, hey, this is what I do with mine, you know what do you do with yours. And I think it's twofold with the arguments around it. I think one is the actual problem at hand. Right, you manage your money like this, I manage mine like this. We're not aligned, and it's the practical stuff. But then it's if you yourself are having money worries, money stresses you're not really sure what's going on and we all know like can keep you up at night. It can make you feel awful. That energy gets carried into the relationship, heightening arguments, making you more likely to pick at little things. So it's kind of twofold. So by being better with and automating your own finances and knowing what's going on, not only does it help your nervous system calm and allow you to think clearly, be more present, it also allows you to, you know, lead by example and say, oh, these are the things I'm doing.

Speaker 2: 25:32

I do think that with like friends as well, it's really great, like I know for me, with my friendships, we all talk very openly about money both the challenges, the setbacks, but also the positive stuff and it's had such a big impact on my whole friendship circle. You know, I see my friends going out for pay rises and going up for promotions, but then also at the same time, I'm so sorry girls, I can't come out for dinner because I'm saving to buy a house and it's really important, girl. But I'd love to you know, should we all go for a walk? Can we do something within this budget? No one's like, oh for god, if you're at that cost, like yeah, yeah, because you understand that we're all having those healthy conversations, and I think the automating side is someone's got to learn about it first.

Speaker 2: 26:16

So if you're the one listening to this and you're able to implement that and then share the love, share the podcast, but also say this is how it's working for me, and I think that it like anything, the more you talk about something and you're able to be vulnerable and share, it's not about having it perfect or having it right. It's about being able to say I'm aware of something, this is what I'm doing, this is what works, this is what doesn't work. You know any tips? What do you think? Um, and I think it just uh, takes the pressure off because there's so much shame and like silence around money, especially in the uk absolutely.

Speaker 1: 26:51

But don't you think it's so freeing what you said with your friendship group especially? I've got the same thing with my friendship group and I think it's so freeing that no one in my friendship group ever feels this type of way in a group to be like, oh actually, guys, mine is a bit tight. Or oh actually, do you want to just come around? Instead we're like, yeah fine, absolutely fine, if anything, that's probably a bit nicer.

Speaker 2: 27:14

It's cold outside yeah, and we can all bring something yeah, we'll bring something around when we come to yours.

Speaker 1: 27:19

I think being able to have those conversations makes it so much easier that no one's thinking, oh yeah, you've got no money. It's like, no, I've got different priorities, or actually they haven't got extra money to do this thing at the moment because I budgeted for everything that I thought was coming up. So this was kind of a surprise meetup which I'd love to see you guys, but I hadn't accounted for this financially. So can we do something else? Be nice, so nice. Yeah, this is the year to kind of encourage that more.

Speaker 2: 27:42

Hopefully, if you listen to this, you feel inspired and you're like right, I'm just gonna talk about money more to my friends, yeah and when one person has the confidence and the vulnerability to say really sorry, it's not that I don't want to hang out, it's not that I don't want to see you guys, it's not that I don't care about our friendship, but my priorities financially are x, y and z. So let's I offer an alternative. When one person does that, it it actually makes everyone else have that moment. Okay, if you're able to think, that means that when I have that, that situation, I feel more confident to say that. And I also find that if you are in a position where you are dating or it's a new relationship, again, everybody is different.

Speaker 2: 28:25

But to be able to say that and be able to say I really want to see you, are we able to do X and z? This is where I'm at. If you're entering a new relationship, that I do think. The sooner you can have money conversations and you don't need to tell them exactly how much you've got saved or invested if you don't want to, but just being able to say I'm on a budget or um, that's not my plan, but I'd love to see you, can we go do this, this and this? And I think there's so much. Um, there's a lot, there's a huge narrative, especially in society, around dating who pays the bills, what you should be doing, how that make, what that makes you look like, what their opinion, all of that kind of stuff. So being able to say that is so freeing absolutely, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 29:05

I agree. And one thing to everyone listening and watching is a lot of people do a lot of talking online but in actual relationships, when you meet people, when you actually get into relationships, don't be stressed out because as long as they're older, I think young, young women, you know, in their late teens, early 20s, might still adopt that mindset because it's online. A lot of people do a lot of this online and then we actually see their dynamic.

Speaker 1: 29:26

It's nothing like what they look like because they pay for everything, and then you find out that they're doing 50-50 at home, which is nothing wrong with it, but I'm just saying don't take it in and think a man's got to pay for everything, because that's not realistic. You don't pay for everything, so you can't expect one person to, unless you're marrying a multi-millionaire live your best life.

Speaker 2: 29:42

Let them do that.

Speaker 1: 29:43

Live your best life, but regular people have figuring out your own medium. Yeah, laura, this has been incredible, but before we round off, I want to ask you what is one piece of advice or one actual step that you'd like to leave our listeners with when it comes to cultivating a more positive money mindset?

Speaker 2: 30:04

I think one of the most powerful things that you can do is make a conscious choice to know that, no matter what situation you've been in up until now, you can change.

Speaker 2: 30:14

I love that Taking accountability for whatever situation you're in now being able to say I trust that I can change my mindset, I can change my behavior and not just writing yourself off Like this is how I've always been, this is what, this is what my parents were like, this is what I'm being able to really just go. I take accountability and I commit to changing. Whether it takes me a month, whether it takes me two years, that is the most powerful thing you can do, and all the other things you can learn on the way. But being able to, in your head, make a contract with yourself to say I want the best life for myself. Finance is for myself. Finance is a huge part of that. If I can change my behaviors and habits with the gym and with healthy eating and I can do the same with my money, because then it just creates this beautiful platform to reframe how you view saving and budgeting and all of the things, and obviously I'm a big believer that everything for your financial success starts with your mindset. Absolutely.

Speaker 1: 31:07

Laura, thank you so much. This has been such an insightful episode for everyone listening and watching. Where can they find you?

Speaker 2: 31:14

uh, where can't you find me? So I'm on. My main platforms are Instagram and TikTok um, where I'm Laura and more, and I also have a podcast called Mind Money Soul.

Speaker 1: 31:25

I'm also on LinkedIn for the corporate, laura, thank you so much and to everyone listening and watching, thank you for tuning in and we're back again next week with another episode. Bye, guys, bye.