The Joy of a Solvent Holiday Season

We here at Priestess of Finance are grateful to have this amazing community, filled with the courage to do things a little differently than the societal norms.

We’re wishing you a super magical, abundant, awe-filled holiday season that is brimming with all good things and a little more.

And what’s ‘the little more’?

It can be doing the holidays while having peace of mind with money.

Because spending in alignment with what you have, while sharing joy and generosity, is one of the best things ever!

Spending in line with how much money you have available, is solvency.

In other words, not needing to use debt to bridge a lack of money, whatever the reason.

And I’m curious what happens for you when you hear the word ‘solvency'?

The word itself can be a real yawner, right? Kind of like ‘sober’ or ‘budget’!

”I should be able to use credit cards like everyone else in the world, and take advantage of all those benefits” …our inner rebel may shout!

As a Financial Coach and Money Priestess, I’m constantly learning about money patterns and their impact on our financial success and well-being.

And there is one money pattern I see affecting more and more people in a significant way…

Unsecured debt.

It’s not the sexiest of topics, but it’s a very powerful area of finance that doesn’t get talked about enough. The patterns beneath why we get into debt.

Yes, that’s right, beneath the debt.

If you tend to find yourself in debt over and over, and like...

“How the hell did I get here again?”

Then there is most likely a storm brewing within you, that left unaddressed, will continue to wreak havoc on your financial freedom until it’s dealt with.

Here’s the thing: a lot of financial gurus focus primarily on wealth generation. And I do too.

However, what most people don’t realize is that without solvency, they don’t usually have the peace of mind they’re looking for around money.

Solvency means not using consumer debt to create a bridge between what we have and what we want.

So for example, many people use credit cards to gain miles or cash back.

Those things can be awesome to have — but if you find yourself not being able to pay those credit cards, the expense of them can really outweigh the benefits.

When we’re in a time of financial reassessment, as many of us are right now in the Bear Market, it’s always good to look at how we’re using credit cards, and their value and purpose in our financial lives.

As a Financial Coach, what I see is that a lot of time, there is no real clarity of intent or purpose when it comes to using credit cards.

Often, we can end up spending more than we actually have, because credit cards lend themselves to spontaneous purchases. We can easily think, “I’ll put it on a credit card and worry about it later!”

And it’s actually true. We do worry about it later. The worry of knowing we’ll have to pay for it at some point in the future, but not being clear on how, can create an experience around money that involves more worry than wealth.

So how can you start applying solvency to your financial life?

Solvency means not using consumer debt to fund our desires, but instead, using what we have in the bank.

And the first thing we can do is that if we use a credit card and make a purchase, we can pay it back immediately, within 24 hours.

And I don’t even recommend that.

If you struggle with debt, I actually recommend you refrain from using credit cards for a 3-month period, which is a very powerful financial practice.

This period of time allows us to look at our patterns with our credit cards, and whether we use them as a bridge between our means and our desires.

So what will happen once you commit to practicing solvency?

Let’s talk about the three biggest benefits of solvency:

1. Financial worry is dramatically reduced.

We’re not worrying about a credit card that needs to be paid in the future and how big that bill will be.

Rather, we use our current means to purchase what we want.

2. We spend less.

For the spender archetypes out there, living within our means can be a real challenge. When we use credit cards, there’s a disconnect that happens and it’s easier to spend beyond what we actually have.

By assessing how much money we have and what our spending plan is for each area of spending, we can make our financial decisions more conscious.

This helps reign in insatiable desires, and supports us to be more intentional and mindful as to where we allocate our money.

We align our spending with our values and with our spending plan, and the clarity we gain helps us make better overall financial decisions.

3. We’re not spending money on interest.

Interest can be very expensive. There are high interest rates on credit cards. And there are fluctuations in the federal interest rate/prime interest rate. If we have debt and those interest rates fluctuate and are tired to prime, our debt just gets more expensive.

As a solvency practice, start to look at the amount of interest you’re paying each year.

When I work with a client, I take them through a “Get Out of Debt Celebration Day’ process, and they’re able to oversee the payment of their debt, and how expensive their debt got over time — which can be in the tens of thousands of dollars.

It’s a very enlightening experience. And by using a progressive debt calculator, you can also see how much interest you’ll continue to pay over the debt’s lifetime if you don’t pay it off immediately.

So these are just some of the benefits of solvency!

And when it comes to having a solvency practice, I believe the first step is always to commit to taking a break from credit cards for at least 3 months — to understand your own beliefs and habits around using consumer debt.

You can use an app to count the days you’re not using credit cards, and it can be a very empowering experience. You’ll be far less likely to put things on credit cards if you’re counting days.

Again, the focus is to look at our whole mindset and internal drives from a different perspective.

I’ve seen massive progress when people start counting days. It helps people feel in integrity with themselves and their finances.

It’s also a huge celebration to step out of what our entire culture is doing, to stop being on autopilot, and instead, to create financial freedom and wealth for the long run.

If you need or want greater support in eliminating debt and becoming solvent to free your mind with money, sign up to get on our waitlist today.

And we do wish you the most extraordinary of holidays, where love and awe, and connection are abundant, and you feel the magic of money all around you.

— With Love,

The Team at Priestess of Finance