I’m sitting here on the train from Seattle, WA to Portland, OR. I spent an extra $17 to get a Business Class ticket and it was way worth it. Nice leather seats. Wireless. Plenty of leg room. Luxury.

I finished the first draft of my book, Money: A Love Story (Hay House 2013) this week.

The great thing about teaching something is that it nails it in to your own consciousness. As I’ve written about money as a reflection of what we value, I’ve taken a long, hard look at how I spend my own money. The great thing about being on the path to being more awake is that we can always refine and enhance our process. So I’ve been walking my walk!

I’ve stopped spending money on things I don’t value. When I feel weird during a financial transaction I stop and reassess. I’ve made returns, left the check-out counter, and put things back on shelves. I’ve also opened my wallet to shell out some dough for things that I truly value that bring me joy. 

For example, I felt funny about a transaction buying some shoes. It just didn’t feel good. I loved the shoes but I decided to return them because the circumstances around buying them felt “off” for lack of a better description. They were not brining me more value. They were detracting from the value in my life instead. Conversely, yesterday I spent $42 on a cab to the suburbs of Seattle to go visit a dear friend I hadn’t seen in over a year. We spent the morning giggling with her 3 year old twin nieces and having some profoundly delicious catch-up time. I left feeling nourished, uplifted, and totally energized. That was money well spent and brought more value into my life.

I’ve got two things cooking right now, both of which have an expiration date:

The Foxy Bod Program:

This program guides you to learn how to eat in a way that eliminates sugar and carbohydrate cravings. And it has the added benefit of changing your body’s shape (which often means losing 5-15 lbs.) and helping you fall more deeply in love with yourself. If you value your body and you’re wanting to feel more at home in and more in love with this gorgeous form of yours, come on over and check it out. 

The Foxy Bod Program closes its doors today and most likely won’t open them again until the end of 2012 or early 2013. So this is your last chance to join us to shimmy off a few pounds, lose your sugar cravings, and celebrate the foxiness of YOU. Click here to find out more and register.

My Mentoring Program:

This is my inner circle where I work with people one on one and in my team, The Freedom Family.

Many people ask me if I’ll coach them or work with them one on one. I’ve considered it, but the truth is I’m deeply committed to financial freedom and residual income (income that you get paid on over and over again for working once – like book royalties or real estate rental income.)

I know I could charge people in exchange for an hour of my time. But I value freedom and trading hours for dollars, even at a high price per hour, doesn’t create freedom. It’s linear and there’s no leverage, no scaleability. 

So the only way you can work with me one on one right now is by joining my Mentoring Program and The Freedom Family. I’ve had some criticism for this, but it’s in alignment with my deep value of freedom. So I’m sticking with it.

I’m offering a special enrollment cash bonus for those who apply to my Mentoring Program and are accepted today, so head on over and apply. If you value your time, you’re sick of trading hours for dollars, you’re ready to go to yoga in the middle of the afternoon and wake up when you’re done sleeping, my Mentoring Program and The Freedom Family may be for you.

Click here to find out more and apply to my Mentoring Program.

Values are a very personal thing. Next time you open your wallet, ask yourself if what you’re buying is adding value to your life. Is it in alignment with what’s really important to you? Is it bringing you closer to the way you’d like to feel? 

Ask the same questions about how you spend your time. Are you receiving abundant compensation for your time? Are you ready to look beyond trading hours for dollars? How can you make your time more leveraged, more scaleable?

We use money to exchange for things that we’ve decided are worth a certain amount. Choose to spend consciously on those things that you really value. And as much as possible, spend your time in the same way. You have the choice to create a life where you receive more value (and give more value as a result.) And it starts with your time and your money.

Grab your spot in The Foxy Bod Program before the doors close tonight.

Apply to my Mentoring Program. 

And I’m making stock. (Yes, I have been cooking non-stop since Mike and I settled into our new home for the next five months. My inner Susie Homemaker has come out in full force. I’m just as surprised as Mike is.)

Part of my taking stock has involved going through all of my “stuff”, digital, physical, and mental, and deciding what to do with it. More on this in a future post when I tell you why I’m obsessed with Getting Things Done by David Allen. In my process of diving into my notes and bits (it’s amazing how much you can accumulate while living in a car) I found a note I’d written to myself sometime this year entitled, “Here’s what I know.” I don’t have a clue when I wrote it, but I know that when I read it it made me feel good.

Here’s hoping it makes you feel good too.

Here’s what I know…

• Doing something for the money never ends up being worth it.
• If it’s not a hell yes, it’s a no.
• You are valuable because you exist. Period. (Or, full stop if you’re British.)
• You are enough. You always have been. You always will be.
• Your place of greatest ease and joy will also be your place of greatest service.
• It’s okay to sleep for ten hours or more a night from time to time. In fact, it’s critical.
• No accomplishment or moment of recognition will ever replace feeling loved, by yourself or anyone else.
• It’s not going to turn out the way you thought. It will be better.
• You know. You always know.
• The fact that it feels good is reason enough to move every day. The fact that it will tone your ass and make your waist smaller are mere side effects.
• Organizing your life around what feels good is the single wisest choice you can make.
• There is always going to be a small part of you that wants to please your mother, even if you’re not conscious of it, and that’s okay.
• Saying yes to someone simply because you don’t want to disappoint them is not only unfair to you, it’s unfair to them.
• Sleep, water, movement, greens, and a good cry cure almost anything.
• Anything worth taking seriously is worth making fun of. (Thanks Mom)
• Paying attention to your money is a profound act of self-love.
• It turns out that life is happening right now.
• Loving yourself more is the best place to start to solve any problem.
• You can’t judge and have an open heart at the same time.
• Nothing is random. Everything happens for a reason.
• Your body is wise beyond what you could possibly imagine. Listen to her. She will lead you home every time.
• Home is not a place.

Your turn!

What do you know?

What can you count on no matter what?

Tell me and remind yourself. Leave a comment.

I was inspired to write about female financial power this morning after reading a post from Lora Sasiela of Financially Smitten on negotiation and how our ability to ask for what we’re worth gives us a much better return on investment than minding our portfolios or becoming a stock wizard (though these things are important too.)  The article mentions certified financial planner and author of Women’s Worth: Finding Your Financial Confidence, Eleanor Blayney, who notes that women still earn only 77 cents on every dollar that men earn. She asserts that the difference may largely be due to the fact that men are much more comfortable asking for what they’re worth than women.

As I was reading the article a memory popped into my head of the first time I ever asked for more:

I was fourteen years old. It was a beautiful Maine summer. I had spent the entire day babysitting for three kids under the age of seven. I was exhausted after about ten hours of running around, feeding them every thirty seconds, cleaning up, and all the other fun stuff involved in taking care of kids. The father of the family drove me home at the end of the night and handed me twenty dollars. My heart sank. I smiled as I held back infuriated tears and got out of the car.

As soon as I walked in the front door I lost it. I was pissed. He had paid me two dollars an hour. How dare he take advantage of me because of my age and gender? What nerve he had to pay me a pittance for working my ass off running after his bratty kids all day!  After ranting about for a while, my mom suggested that I call him and tell him what I’m worth. What??!! I thought she was insane. In that moment it felt like it would be easier, and far more pleasurable, to stick a hot poker in my eye than to call a grown businessman at least thirty years my senior and tell him that he had majorly low-balled it and that he owed me money.

But below my fear there was another voice that told me this was a moment of critical importance. This was an opportunity to own my power and speak up for myself. This was a moment to ask for what I’m worth. (In actuality I don’t think those particular thoughts consciously crossed my mind. Really I was mostly just pissed off and wanted extra money for clothes or movies or whatever I was investing my precious pennies in at the time. But looking back thirteen years later, I know that voice was whispering to me on some level, urging me to value myself.)

I still wasn’t ready to make the call in that moment, though. I was scared shitless, to be honest. Plus, I was too angry to be adult and professional. So, I called a woman in the community who I also babysat for and who I trusted. I asked her what she thought I should do and she agreed with my mom (darn those mature, empowered women for being right). She told me that she felt he had grossly underestimated my worth and that I should tell him so directly (and sweetly, of course.)

So the next morning I mustered up the courage to make the call. I was nauseous. I was sweating. I was shaking. The phone weighed eight bazillion pounds. But my anger and desire to take a stand for myself made me dial the number. I told him, quite kindly and matter-of-factly, that my going rate for babysitting was actually quite a bit higher than two dollars an hour and that I would appreciate it if he would make up the difference. I apologized for not having told him my rate ahead of time, then told him that we would need to straighten out the situation. I thanked him for his time and hung up the phone.

He was stunned. I was stunned. I never babysat for that family again, which was more than okay. He ended up dropping off more money. I ended up feeling intoxicatingly empowered. My mom and my neighbor who I had called for support were really proud of me. I was really proud of me.

Since that time I’ve negotiated my worth on countless occasions. I’ve asked for higher pay and gotten it time after time. I’ve realized that generally speaking, unless you ask for it, you’re not going to get it. No one will value you unless you value yourself and are willing to take a stand verbally, in writing, or in some other tangible way. I’ve also learned that asking for what I’m worth is scary every single time. And yet, the fear that I feel when I ask for more money or anything else, is not enough to stop me from doing it because the feeling of genuine, profound power on the other side of that fear is worth it every time. Yeah, the extra money in my bank account is nice too, but it pales in comparison to the deep sense of personal worth that grows each and every time I negotiate on my own behalf.

***Tomorrow is my final Women & Wealth Seminar of the summer and possibly of 2010. Join the conversation about feminine financial power live in NYC Thursday, July 29^th, 7:00 – 8:30pm at the Giving Nature Center, 155 W 19^th St. Discover where your money blocks are, learn strategies for clearing any unconscious beliefs that are holding you back from creating wealth, and identify new ways to create wealth in your life. REGISTER HERE TO SAVE $5.***

When was a time you asked for what you were worth and how did it make you feel?

Have you ever gotten stiffed and not said anything about it?

How do you feel about negotiating in general?

What does feminine financial power mean to you?