Your Fall Financial Reset: Building a Personal Money Map That Reflects Your Values, Not Your Feed

Sep 12

It’s been a quiet few months for this newsletter, though not a quiet season overall.

Since January, I’ve launched my financial coaching practice, led workshops for creative and professional communities, begun experimenting with video content, and started working with my first coaching clients. The work has been deeply fulfilling — and, admittedly, it hasn’t left much room for writing.

But one unexpected gift of the year thus far has been paying closer attention to the emotional texture of people’s financial lives: the pressure they feel, the expectations they carry, and the quiet ways consumer culture shapes our identity, progress, and self-worth.

Consumer culture – one where our purchases, both of things and services, come to define what we value, how we present ourselves to the world, and ultimately who are we– is pervasive and hard to escape.

And it seems most difficult to escape in the summer, when it feels like everyone is on vacation and you want to be too (FOMO is real and your Instagram algorithm definitely knows it).

While everyone outwardly bemoans the end of the long, loose days of summer, I am also getting a real sense among clients, friends and colleagues that they’re secretly looking forward to getting back into their fall routines (and pumpkin spice lattes). Putting everything on a credit card and not worrying about the outcome was fun for a while, the thinking goes, but won’t it be nice to feel in control of our schedules and money again?

This comes easier to some of us than others. Most of us know what to do – and not do – with our money. But knowing is one thing; doing is another (just like with nutrition and exercise). I completely agree with Katie Gatti Tassin’s latest essay in which she argues America’s so-called “financial literacy crisis” is not the most important factor in Americans’ generally poor financial outcomes, but she points out: “Still, central to the ethos of the ‘financial literacy crisis’ is the belief that information—which is to say, the knowledge that a particular financial decision is stupid—is the most effective antidote. This can lead some pundits to the conclusion that the answer to both the weak test scores and the growing precarity is heaping on even more financial literacy…”

This is the biggest reason I have not set out to become a financial content creator or influencer: more financial information does not change people’s behavior. So what does? And what actually leads to better financial stability and the ultimate goal of financial resiliency?

Gatti Tassin argues, “it seems to me that those who typically build the most robust financial fortresses—the biggest emergency funds, the satiated retirement accounts, the lowest credit card bills—are often not those with the most technical proficiency, but those who possess a few totally unrelated characteristics. For this countercultural group, it’s as though whatever little consumer pulse throbs longingly inside most of us, tugging us around by the soft underbelly of our desire, is demagnetized, defective. They don’t respond to the same stimuli, and as such often express confusion about why everyone else’s Discover statements are so high. It is not knowledge but disposition that seems to make the most meaningful difference. They seem curiously immune to whole swaths of American culture.”

I would take this one step further: these traits are not inherent in people; they are cultivated. No one swims against the current alone – that is, without a solid support system – and no one who largely opts out of much of American consumer culture does it in a vacuum. Setting intentions to yourself and your community and holding yourself accountable, and letting your community hold you accountable – these are behaviors and habits that can be consciously adopted and cultivated, and they can lead to real financial stability.

Some of the most powerful financial decisions I see people make aren't about optimizing or upgrading. They're about opting out of pressures and expectations they never consciously agreed to in the first place.

When someone says to me, “I don’t want or need this expense anymore,” I know we’re starting to make progress. This is often accompanied by using what works, keeping what fits, repairing what you can, and opting out of the constant pressure to upgrade your life.

It’s a quiet practice, usually unseen. It’s not flashy and it doesn’t announce itself at dinner parties. It doesn’t feed the social algorithms. It’s a far more subtle leaning into what you already have, what still works, and internalizing that what you wear or the bag you carry is not a personification of who you are.

I tell my clients, remind yourself, “their journey is not my journey” and “I don’t have to opt into any of this”.

We often embrace old routines or build new ones in September, making it a good a time to check in with your finances. Ask yourself, what’s in my bank account? What have I been spending on? Do I know where my next paycheck or income source is coming from? Am I spending and saving according to my dreams – or someone else’s?

💰What’s Next: Build Your Personal Money Map Workshop

Do you have a plan for your money this year?

If your answer is “nope!”, “maybe?” or somewhere between, join me this Tuesday Sept 15 at 12pm ET for a free workshop hosted by Freelancers Union. We demystify budgets (not a dirty word!), talk about how a money map can bring more joy into your life, and make a plan to put your money towards the things most important to you.

The workshop is free, and you don’t have to be a Freelancers Union member to sign up (though once you look them up, you may choose to join). If you can’t make this day or time, or if you need to leave early, sign up for the workshop anyway, and you’ll receive the recording the next day.

📖 ICYMI: “How Freelancers Can Build a Debt Payoff Plan that Actually Works”

In the spring I hosted another workshop for Freelancers Union about debt payoff planning for folks with inconsistent income, and wrote an article to accompany it, which you can read for free here. The guidance is applicable to anyone with debt, with key considerations for those who make their living as freelancers or consultants and have to juggle inconsistent income with very consistent expenses.

Read it now: How Freelancers Can Build a Debt Payoff Plan that Actually Works

📆 September Coaching Availability

I have availability to take on two new clients in September, so if you’ve been thinking about how 1:1 coaching and accountability support can help you get your finances on the right track, now’s a great time to reach out. Learn more about how I work and schedule a free discovery call.