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How a Multiple 6-Figure Financial Coach Manages Her Money

Curious how I manage my money as a financial coach?

How I Pay Myself as a Self Employed Person

I pay myself twice a month from my business, on the 1st and 15th of the month.

It is super important to me to actually get paid personally from my business on a consistent basis, not just to randomly take money. This supports my mental, emotional and physical health and allows me to show up for my loved ones, friends and clients as the best version of me because one of my basic needs are always being met.

I Save Monthly for Self Employment Taxes

I also make sure that I save on a monthly basis from my business to cover my income taxes. A percentage of my net income is transferred each month. I have a separate savings account that all I put in there is money for taxes. I also have to pay GST in my business, so I file & pay that on a quarterly basis. This makes it so paying taxes isn’t a scary thing that makes me want to rip my hair out.

I often see entrepreneurs struggling with taxes (it’s one element I help my entrepreneur financial coaching clients with when it comes to managing their personal & business finances) and what ends up happening if you’re afraid of taxes and they cause you a lot of stress, often you end up earning WAY lower because you feel so dis-empowered around them. I love helping my clients to feel safe paying taxes and paying more in taxes, because they are actually turning a profit!

I’m not going to dive too much into how I manage my business finances because this post is already long enough, but I want to share a graphic of how I manage my business finances and how I help entrepreneurs to manage their money as well. If you like graphics like this that are easy to understand about personal and business finances, join me on Instagram @intentionallywealthyco and you can “save” my graphics to come back to later on!

My Expenses Are Automatic

All of my personal expenses are set up on  automatic withdrawals. I want everything streamlined and I want to spend my time and energy on the most important tasks. I don’t want to be paying my fixed expenses each month which actually takes up a lot of precious brain calories as well as bandwidth that can be spent making more money or enjoying my time more.

All of my personal expenses are set up automatically to come out of my account on the 2nd and 16th of the month, so right after I am paid, my fixed expenses are paid and out of my account.

It’s really important to get the money out of your account right after you’ve been paid and to have it going to the places it needs to go. This really helps to reduce “accidental overspending” that can really contribute to you living paycheck to paycheck.

I Save Monthly for Bigger Upcoming/One Off & “Surprise” Expenses

I save on a monthly basis for my upcoming bigger, one off and whammy expenses. Automatic transfers set up on the 2nd and 16th of each month that transfer this money out of my chequing account into my individual savings “bucket” accounts. This helps me to even out my monthly expenses and it makes it so I feel really prepared for variable expenses. For example, I have separate savings accounts to save for:

• Travel

• Vehicle Maintenance & Repairs

• Vehicle Fixed Costs (yearly license & registration, etc)

• Clothing

• Gifts

• Personal Grooming, Health

• Miscellaneous Yearly Expenses (gym membership, dental, etc)

• Home Maintenance & Repairs

• Pet Vet Bills
• Horse Fund, etc

The way in which I figure out exactly what I need to be transferring each month is by sitting down and figuring out what the next 12 months will look like as well as take a look at what’s coming up in the pipeline. I plan for what I think these expenses will be and give myself a buffer for the ones that are more flexible. I take that yearly amount for each category and I divide it by 12 and that’s the number I have automatically transferred to my “savings buckets” accounts.

Then, when these types of expenses come up, I pay for them via my credit card or debit card. I transfer the money from my “savings account” to pay for it. This helps to even out my expenses from month to month so there’s not such a big swing. There’s WAY more consistency, which also means less financial stress!

These expenses are ones that totally throw people off and cause them to feel frustrated! That’s why it’s one of the very first things that I help my financial coaching clients to have clarity around. I help them figure out exactly how much money they need to be saving each month for these expenses for their personal situation.

I’ve saved WELL over $40,000 alone just from paying big expenses in full and not paying them on payment plans.

Some of the Big Expenses I’ve Paid in Full for Are:

• Paying for school tuition (for both programs I’ve taken)
• Business expenses, coaches, programs
• Wedding
• Travel
• Paying 2/3rd’s of my brand new vehicle in cash
• Vehicle Insurance
• Horses, horse training
• Gum grafts, mercury filling removal (can find out more about this on my health Instagram @mandyythomas), all health costs
• Etc

Click here to listen for free to the Intentionally Wealthy Podcast (on Apple iTunes, the “Podcast” app and on Spotify)

What to Do Before Investing

When it comes to investing, I think it’s SUPER important to understand that, you shouldn’t invest money you won’t need for 10+ years. Investing is about the long game. You don’t want to be investing money you might need right away, or you can lose a lot more than you could gain if you have to pull that money out at the wrong time.

I have an emergency fund that is 6+ months worth of my expenses that I have saved. As a self-employed person I believe you need to have more than someone who has a stable and consistent income. If you are thinking about investing, make sure you have an emergency fund first that is truly just for emergencies before you start putting money into investments. This is NOT a savings account that you dip into for expenses and when you want to buy stuff.

Where to Keep Your Emergency Fund

A great place to keep your emergency fund is in a high-interest savings account. By moving my emergency fund into a high-interest savings account, I was actually making a little money off of my emergency fund versus just having it in a regular savings account. Most regular savings accounts you make a sad 0.15-0.2% in interest (which does not keep up with inflation), but some high-interest savings accounts you can make up to 1.5% interest (the one I use Eq Bank is 1.5% interest at the time of me writing this). You’re not going to be making bank off it, but you will be earning more.

If you have any questions such as whether they pull your credit score, how they go about their verifying your identity, information about depositing/withdrawing funds from this account, time frames for withdrawing money, you can learn more about EQ Bank if it’s the first time you’ve heard about it, etc, you can click on the “FAQ” at the top to read the answers to these questions and more!

How I Set Up My Investments

I have a set amount of money each month that goes into my investments because I want to take advantage of the most important thing- TIME! My money needs to make me money, so I have it automated to put money into my investments each month. Dollar-cost averaging for the most part for my investing strategy is my preference.

Because of how I’ve been managing my money for years, I made $10,000+ in interest from two of my investing accounts in eight months. No- this wasn’t because I picked the “right” stock. It’s because I made it a huge priority of mine to put money into my investments as soon as I started at my first job out of college. And I didn’t just put in $50-$100/month. I had 10-18% automatically come off of my paycheck so I never “saw” that money, therefore, it never felt like I earned that extra money that I wasn’t seeing on my paycheck. And each time I received a raise, I would increase the amount I was setting aside for my investments, so I didn’t just increase my living expenses and have lifestyle creep holding me back from achieving my goals.

If you want to find out more about how I saved $250,000 by age 26, click here to listen to me sharing 14 things I did to save that much money, on the Intentionally Wealthy Podcast 🎧  (episode #2).

I Personally Don’t Use a Financial Advisor Anymore.

I changed my investment strategy and switched my portfolio to hold investments such as low-cost index funds through Wealthsimple.  I’m really liking this change. I’m so glad I did because it’s saving me a ton of my hard-earned money. If you want to learn more about investing and the differences between a TFSA and an RRSP, click here to read this blog post of mine.

Wealthsimple has a really nice dashboard and I am a fan of it. It makes it super easy to understand and actually helps to educate you versus other platforms I’ve used before that gave you such minimal information and didn’t do anything to help increase your financial knowledge. I am big on transparency- especially in the financial world and when it comes to investments. I’ve had investments with companies where it was so hard to find anything out and that made it very difficult for you to see your investments. I don’t have those investments anymore.

If you choose to sign up for Wealthsimple, they have 2 different platforms, one where you can choose from pre-made portfolios and the other one where you are putting together your own portfolio, investments, stocks, ETF’s, etc. If you want to use their pre-made portfolios and have more of a hands-off approach, you will want to choose the “Invest & Cash” section of their website (as it can be a little confusing).

Automating my savings and investments has been huge for me! There are many things that went into me being able to save/invest $250,000 by the time I was 26 and this was definitely one of those strategies!

I have also started diving in deeper to optimize my investments more and have them more custom to my specific goals and my risk tolerance even further. I am now using the “Trade” side of Wealthsimple (as shown in the image above) where I have put together some of my own portfolios and I’m enjoying learning even more about investing.

Ready to stop living paycheck to paycheck and finally get ahead financially? I would love to work with you as a financial coaching client, click here to read more!

My Favorite Books to Learn About Investing:

• Millionaire Teacher
• Unshakeable

How I Make Money Using My Credit Cards & Have Over a 800+ Credit Score

I use my credit card regularly because I earn cashback (and never pay interest because I pay off my balance in full each month). For the recurring expenses that I have come off of my credit card, I have automatic payments set up that transfer money from my chequing account to pay my new credit card charges automatically for me.

Any new purchases I make on my credit card that aren’t recurring, I pay them off right away (I typically pay my credit card 2x a week depending on how many things I purchased that week). It is important to me to keep my credit utilization ratio low which is why I pay my credit card off often.

This also helps support my credit score because I am keeping my “credit utilization” ratio low by paying my credit card many times throughout the month, versus just paying it once at the end of the month.

I highly recommend if you don’t know what your credit score is, to find out here, it’s totally free!! PS – you checking your own credit score does NOT negatively affect it, onto when other people do.

I get an email every single month telling me my updated credit score and my score is always above 800+! It’s SO helpful knowing what your credit score is. It’s not just for vanity metrics, but I also use it to help me tell if there have been any potential issues with fraud. If my credit takes a big dive, it tells me that I need to immediately look into it and see if someone has taken credit out in my name. This allows me to deal with the issue as quickly as possible, versus having that affect me for years if I didn’t check it.

I teach all things credit scores inside of my signature program Cash Flow Confidence.

If you want more tips about how to improve your credit, I highly recommend checking out the posts I’ve written about it.

• 7 Tips for Increasing Your Credit Score

• Why You Haven’t Been Able to Get Your Credit Cards Paid Off & How to Change it so You Can

• Using Your Credit Cards This Way Is Harming Your Credit Score (and costing you thousands more in interest)

• 17+ Ways to Save Money

• How to Budget with a Variable Income

I Don’t Pay Bank Fees

I bank using a no-fee bank because it’s one of the easiest ways to save money. Honestly, if you’re still paying bank fees, I’d encourage you to switch to a no-fee bank. It will be worth it! I did the math for one of my financial coaching clients to show her how much her “little” monthly bank fees were adding up over the long run. Over 10 years she paid $5460 in bank fees! I know what you’re thinking, “Shut the front door!!” I paid $0, nada, nilch in ten years and she paid $5460!! Just think of all the better things she could have put that money towards. Simplii Financial is a great no-fee bank that I am a big fan of & personally bank through.

Managing my finances this way really streamlines things for me and allows me to spend more energy focusing on more important tasks!

I Spend in Alignment with My Values

I believe it’s really important to identify your top 3 values, so you can ensure you are spending in accordance with them to live your life the way you want to.

My Top 3 Values Are:

• My Health
• Freedom
• Growth

I deeply understand what my values are, so I put money towards the things that align with them. I don’t put any (or little) towards the things that go against my values. Everyone’s values are unique and personal to them. How I spend money might be completely different from how you spend your money.

Because my top value is my health, I spend a lot more money on supporting my health than a lot of other people do. I was really sick in the past and I never want to experience that again. Therefore, I prioritize and intentionally spend more on things related to supporting my health, which other people might consider crazy!

If you want to learn more about how I support my health, you can follow me on my health Instagram @mandyythomas

Some of My Health Expenses Are:

• Vitamins & supplements
• Acupuncture
• Chiropractor
• Massage & cupping
• I’ve had an “infrared sauna blanket” for a couple of years now and I am in love with it! My functional medicine doctor recommended I go for sauna sessions 5x a week and that would be really hard to schedule in as well as would add up, so I decided to purchase a “sauna blanket” because it doesn’t take up a lot of room. I absolutely love it and I do it when I’m watching my favorite show (Vampire Diaries – hello Ian Sommerhalder). It was very cost-effective!
• Reflexology

Health Insurance is a Non-Negotiable

I know this may not seem completely financially related, but, it is. It’s also very important to me to have health insurance. I grew up in a family who had/has many health complications and I realized from a young age how important it is to have health insurance. For health insurance, I pay on a monthly basis, and this gives me a lot of peace of mind. It also helps to protect my financial situation so, if something happened, it wouldn’t completely drain me. I often see people not valuing health insurance. This makes me so sad because I know how quickly things can change in the blink of an eye as well as how much it can change your financial situation.

Freedom is a Top Value of Mine

This is why I spend a lot less on housing and vehicle costs, than the majority of people. A vehicle payment doesn’t feel good to me. I prefer to save up and purchase used vehicles that are still in great condition. Someone else has paid and had it depreciate, therefore, it’s holding better value when I purchase it.  I am currently saving $150/month in a TFSA which I am going to use when it’s time for me to get a “new” to me vehicle. I can totally see myself having the vehicle that I have right now for the next 5 years. Therefore, I plan on saving approx $150/month. When it comes time to buying another vehicle, I already have that money saved up in cash. But, instead of just leaving it in a savings account, I have it in a TFSA to earn some additional interest in the meantime.

We sold our bigger & newer house two years ago and moved to a much smaller and older house. Honestly, I couldn’t be happier! When I was younger, I thought I valued having all this extra space, but, in fact, it just meant there was more to clean! This reduced my energy and frustrated me. I am so much happier in a smaller home AND much lower housing costs really support my value of freedom!

I also don’t have hardly any subscriptions as I personally don’t see value in them.

 Subscriptions I Don’t Have:

• Cable
• Amazon Prime
• Disney Plus, Hulu (just Netflix)
• Satellite Radio
• Spotify, Apple Music
• Subscription Boxes
• Any Monthly Apps

I’ve also saved a lot of money, over the past 12 years, because I don’t drink alcohol anymore. (It definitely adds up!).

I’m Thinking About the Future & Protecting My Legacy

It’s so important that we aren’t just taking care of what’s happening right now, but also thinking about what kind of legacy we want to leave behind.

Even if you don’t have children or don’t plan to have children, this is really important to not just think about ahead of time, but to have a plan in place for when you do pass away.

Think about how you want others to feel after you’ve passed and all of the ways that you can make their lives better, by having a will in place and making arrangements ahead of time.

One of the things that is really important to me is having my wishes outlined ahead of time, having my beneficiaries listed on all of my accounts so when that happens (hopefully not for a long time, but it’s important to have this already prepared), I want to make sure that my beneficiaries receive what I’ve left them in a very timely manner and that it doesn’t get tied up due to not having any of this prepared ahead of time.

I had a will created and it was super easy, it was really quick (I was able to do all of it in one sitting online) and it was super affordable (it cost me $132 with tax).

Here’s where I created mine as a Canadian, if you want to check it out as well!

 

If you are struggling with having enough money to invest or you need help with paying down debt and building up your saving and emergency savings, I would love to help you. You can find out more about my Cash Flow Confidence program where I help you to do exactly this, so you have a lot more money available to invest because you’ve paid down your debt!

Are there any parts of my strategy that you found really interesting and want to implement with your own finances now?!? Comment below!

I Share a TON of Financial Tips on Instagram, join me there! @intentionallywealthyco

Click here to download my Realistic Budget template!