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There’s a saying “Before enlightenment: chop wood, carry water…after enlightenment; chop wood, carry water.” Get support materials and tools that Grace and Todd have found useful as they live with money. Once you do The Work, where do you go from there?
Debt Repayment Snowball Game
You Need A Budget
Estimated Taxes Spreadsheet
Making Money Brainstorm
Debt Repayment Snowball Game
Create a blank spreadsheet in excel, numbers, google sheets or wherever you have a program for spreadsheets.
From left to right, place in each column the total amount you owe and the minimum monthly payment for each.
Sort the columns so the debt with the smallest monthly payment is on the far right, with the largest monthly payment on the farthest left hand column.
Place these in order from largest to smallest, and, you can make exceptions if you have a debt you’d prefer to pay off sooner than later.
For example, you’ll see Grace’s payoff game plan below has the debt to her sister in the third column because after the first two credit cards were paid, Grace wanted to pay off her sister as soon as possible, even thought the monthly payment to her sister was larger than the next debt to payoff.
Continue to make all the minimum payments every month.
However, on the smallest monthly payment–the debt column on the farthest right–you are going to double the payment. Pay No extra to any other column. If you have any extra money left over each month, pay it towards only the farthest right-hand column.
When this debt is paid in full, you will then delete that column, and move to the next column in line. You will now take the same total you were paying monthly to the previous debt, and add it to the minimum monthly payment of the new column. If you are able to double the payment of the new column, go for it. If that’s too high, just add the first monthly payment amount to this new column minimum.
You’ll be amazed at how much fun it is once you eliminate an entire column. You begin to discover you’re able to do this, that it’s not impossible.
Grace had calculated she would take 20 years to repay her debt, NOT including her current mortgage. It took only 4 years total, and she is now working on her mortgage. Her mortgage has been the only debt she’s ever had since 2013. It seems like a miracle!
You Need a Budget (YNAB) App
Todd has been using the YNAB app since 2013 and he loves it! He likes to say it has been as helpful in managing money as The Work has been in managing stressful thoughts. There is a lot of free training available on the YNAB website that can transform the way you plan and work with money.
Todd introduced Grace to YNAB and now she’s a big fan! Grace realized she didn’t know day-to-day what truly was flowing in and out with money. Something was foggy and every year at tax season, there was lots of reconciling, time spent, and surprise discoveries in all directions (surprises at how much or how little was spent or made). Using YNAB makes the clarity of what’s really happening come into focus, joyfully. It can be stressful to not know how much you have available, or how much will be needed later for a spending event. This is a lovely way to allow data to offer confidence and peace to the present flow in and out of money.
In summary this app helps you spend your money consciously, save up for what you want, get out of debt, and get ahead with money instead of living paycheck to paycheck. It can change your whole relationship with money. Todd and Grace can’t recommend it highly enough. https://www.youneedabudget.com
Planning for Estimated Taxes Spreadsheet
If you have your own business or have sources of income other than a regular paycheck, it can be tricky to estimate how much you own in taxes. Here is a worksheet that Todd created for himself based on the rules for income tax in Canada and in his province of British Columbia.
Use this spreadsheet as a starting point to create your own. Or bring it to your accountant and ask him or her to create something similar for you. We recommend checking with your accountant before fully trusting the spreadsheet you make based on the one below.
Here’s how to use it:
- Download the spreadsheet here.
- Go to File > Make a copy to create a copy on your own Google Drive. Or go to File > Download to download a copy to your computer. You cannot write on the original.
- Enter your income so far this year in the green cell (B4).
- Enter any tax installments you have made in the blue cells (B17-E17).
- Find out how much you need to pay on your next income tax installment in the purple cell (B19).
Here’s how Todd uses it. Each week, he checks his Quickbooks and runs a profit and loss report for his business since January 1. He then uses that number to enter in the spreadsheet (B4). He then takes the resulting number (B19) and adds that amount to his estimated tax budget in YNAB. When a tax installment is due, he has the money saved up and ready to send off.
Making Money Brainstorm
Take a blank page and start writing all the ways you could make more money right now. Start by looking for specific things you could do without taking further training, without building something long-term. How could you earn more money starting today?
Brainstorm and write down EVERY idea that comes up even if it only would help you earn one dollar. Get creative. Spend some time on this. You may be surprised at what comes up. Allow yourself to collect this list and keep adding to it over a few days. Notice what you see in the world around how people make money, receive money, get money. Don’t edit anything. It’s OK, for example, if one idea on your list is “win the lottery”. Keep going, however, to bring your attention to what has far better odds for you.
Allow yourself to write this list without judgment. If you think, for example, of the idea “clean houses” write it down. You may notice thoughts immediately come in that say “I hate cleaning, I don’t have the energy, I don’t have cleaning supplies, I won’t be able to get customers” come back to simply writing down thoughts of how you could make, receive, acquire money. If you think of the idea “help organize peoples’ closets” and then think “why would they hire me for that, I have no experience” once again, let those thoughts be there, and continue with your list. You might notice thoughts like “rent a room in my house to someone” or “sell the antique wardrobe I inherited from my parents”. Wonderful! Write these down. These are ways to make money. Hold these thoughts with a neutral energy. Just because you write them down doesn’t mean anything in the present moment. We are simply opening the mind to “brain storm”. Let it rain!
As you continue to add to your list, and you move about in the world, notice places, locations, ideas and people you feel drawn to. If you’re in a store where you love the decor and the color of the walls, notice. They have people who work there. If you have a neighbor who has a job at an organization you’re curious about, notice.
Ask friends and family members, co-workers, anyone you can think of to help you with the brainstorm. Start a shared google doc and invite friends to support you with this. When Grace had no more money, and rising debt, she got the courage up to ask a man at her gym with whom she had short conversation sometimes, if he would be willing to read her resume and give her feedback. She knew he was retired and had lots of money. He agreed and she got his email and sent him her resume. She didn’t get a job from this exchange, but she asked for and received positive feedback about her resume, and this brought greater confidence in enlisting the support of humanity to help her make more money.
Now that you have a list of ways you could make, receive, acquire money, look through them and circle or highlight ideas you find interesting. You don’t have to know “how” you would get there, or if it is possible. The most important piece is noticing what looks interesting, what you feel even a tiny bit curious about.
Only when you have exhaustively brainstormed ideas of how to make money starting right away, then you can add ideas for long-term growth of income.
Look over your list and identify some ideas that you would like to try and try them. What’s one small step you could take that would create greater connection or movement towards what you’ve written down? Are there people you could ask to see if anyone knows anyone who works at that organization you find appealing? Are there family and friends who care about you who have suggestions or advice? Listen with an open mind.
If you notice resistance thoughts to doing something, do The Work on them. This is a tremendous opportunity for doing The Work. For example, Grace wrote down on her brainstorm list “work at Starbucks” which was one block away from her house. She then had images of having to wake up at 4:00am, having to mop floors and stand on her feet for hours, and suffer. But she had no idea if that was true. Why not apply? After Doing The Work and feeling willing, she was aware there was no danger in applying. She could find out what was involved, later, and she would know to say yes, or no, based on gathering all the new information that was not even available to her yet. Barriers were only in her imagination. Then, just thinking about Starbucks, she remembered an acquaintance who had worked at the local Starbucks, become a manager, and then transferred to working at the corporate office. Grace reached out to this acquaintance to ask about jobs in the corporate office, which sounded more fun potentially. She also filled out the application for the local store one block from her house and turned it in.
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