Magical Money
I’m reading three books about money right now.
Book 1 is about the science of spending.
Book 2 is about the energy and emotion of money.
Book 3 is about the mindset needed to make lots of money i.e. get rich.
One of my clients is embarking on a new project, a passion project. Together we’re building an online space for her work with money. She’s a financial advisor (among other fancy credentials) but her soul calling is to empower people to live more fulfilling lives by sharing knowledge and inspiration around money and the limiting beliefs we hold that keep us small.
It’s a topic that’s pushed a lot of my buttons.
I wonder to myself:
how am I keeping myself small?
what money beliefs do I hold that aren’t working for me?
what other beliefs do I hold that are keeping me down?
what IS the true nature and meaning of money?
I’ve always been fascinated by money. And it’s probably the reason that while running Story Envelope Media, I’ve ended up working with so many financial advisors.
I have an interest in their topic.
As a kid, I remember reading the investment pages. Back then, you could open up a newspaper and read all the listings of stocks and how much they were worth. I would read through the listings and try to figure out what the company was based on the acronym. When I could find a company I recognized, I’d wonder WHY they were at a certain price.
Who decided the value of a company?
And by what black magic did the value go up and down!?!
I wanted to know. But there were no answers in sight.
—
Legend has it that my Great Grandmother was a whiz at investing.
Apparently, she made a lot of money trading penny stocks. I’m not sure if this is true, but I was always fascinated by my Great Grandmother. And her legendary investment acumen piqued my interest in the markets.
Enthusiastic about the idea of investing, I trundled down to Meryl Lynch with my mother when I was about 12 or 13 years old and invested $1000 (of my own earnings) in a mutual fund.
Then, for the next few years, I watched that mutual fund go down, down, down, down, DOWN, and then down.
Until—at the age of 18—I sold it.
I’m laughing to myself as I write this because I recognize now that I had no idea what I was doing. It was a mystery.
In reality, I’d wanted to buy stocks—shares in a company. But I was dealing with a small-town advisor at a big-name brokerage firm. This guy probably thought a 12-year-old girl was ridiculous for wanting to invest $1000. And he probably thought my mum was even more ridiculous for letting me do it. And since advisors earn money as a percentage of their clients’ holdings, having me there in his office with my $1000 was costing him money.
So I got shuffled into a mutual fund, and that was the end of that.
Rather than beginning a delightful adventure in the markets, I got scared.
I didn’t invest again until I hit my early 30s. And I had to trick myself into doing it. I started with a sum so low that if it magically disappeared into the investment ether, it wouldn’t matter.
I set up auto-investing so that this tiny sum would come out of my account every month, no matter what.
It took me a year from reading a massive stack of books on investing to actually forcing myself to open up an account with Tangerine and buy $100 of a low-fee mutual fund.
Since then, I’ve read even more books on money and investing. But it still feels like there’s a missing piece.
Actually, let’s be real, it feels like there are quite a few missing pieces!
As I’m writing this, it occurs to me that maybe one part of the missing piece is that I’ve never DONE the thing I wanted to do when I was 12.
Buying a stock.
Like most newbie investors without heaps of cash, I’ve invested in low-fee mutual funds. I have investments with Wealth Simple and Tangerine. But I’ve never forced myself to buy individual holdings of a company.
It seems too scary. Intriguing—but scary.
Every investment book for beginners warns you away from buying and selling. They want you to buy and hold, which is sensible advice. They want you to buy index funds, then sit and watch them grow. When they go down, you’re supposed to take a deep breath and let it go. They’re going to go back up eventually; no need to lose sleep over it.
Again, good advice.
You’re rarely encouraged by personal finance books to buy individual shares in a company. This is probably because you’re more likely to lose money if you choose wrong.
But what if this FEAR of being an investor in the truest sense is holding me back?
A true investor doesn’t just buy a mutual fund full of pre-picked bits and bobs. They do the research and due-diligence, and they invest in companies that appear to be on a growth trajectory—based on the data.
They don’t risk everything on an investment tip from a second cousin. They do their research, and spread out their risk. It’s no different from being a business owner. You don’t risk everything on a business idea that seems rickety at best. You do the research, check out the market, and then if it seems like a solid bet, you take a calculated leap.
Unless you’re a madman, you don’t put every asset you have into your business.
You don’t mortgage your home to start a business. You don’t sell all your investments to start a business. You act conservatively, knowing that any new business can fail.
___
In the 26 years since I bought that ill-fated mutual fund, I’ve grown a lot.
I’ve learned how to earn more money. How to charge what my work is worth. How to assess the value of an offer. How to spend money in a way that is aligned with my values. How to manage my money so that I’m rarely afraid or worried about it.
I know that I possess a valuable skillset, and I’m quite good at helping my clients make more money and grow their businesses.
Yet, something is missing.
If I’m to believe the triumvirate of books that I’m currently reading, I need to do three things to be more empowered with money:
Spend money in a way that adds to my happiness and life enjoyment.
Heal any wounds around having money and earning money so that I can always possess happy money.
Have a RICH mindset. Be okay with being rich.
So what’s my action plan for finding the missing pieces?
Finish reading these three books.
Write down my takeaways.
Try on something new from each book. You don’t grow by doing the same things over and over again!
Buy a share in a company for $1000. I think it’s time to bring that story full circle and close the door on that particular fear.
Embark on my client’s money project with an open heart. No project is an accident—there’s always something to learn from every new undertaking.
Excavate the landscape of money fear that exists in my mind.
I want money to be free of any dark emotions or ideas. I want it to be weightless. Energized. Happy!
Money can be magical.
It can suddenly show up in ways you never expected. It seems to have an energy all its own. It flows to those who appreciate it. When you spend money with love, more money seems to come back to you.
When you let go of fear or expectation, money will suddenly show up in your bank account.
I’ve had quite a few magical money experiences, but I’m still no expert.
I can’t write a conclusion about this topic because I’m still in the messy middle. But I feel happy knowing that at least I’m in the game. I’m not on the sidelines, and I’m not stuck in paralysis analysis.
I’ve put on my runners, I’ve got my racket, and I’m ready to hit a few more money balls.
-Colette Nichol-
