The #1 Money Move to Make Before 2025 Ends
===
[00:00:00] Welcome to Intentional Money Moves Live with Leah Hadley. This episode was recorded live and is brought to you in audio form so you can take it with you wherever you go. Each week Leah tackles the money topics that matter most to women who are ready to build wealth with purpose and confidence. From investing in retirement planning to navigating finances. Through some of life's biggest transitions. No topic is off the table. Now let's get into it.
Hey everyone. Welcome to the very first episode of Intentional Money Moves Live with Leah Hadley. I am so glad that you are here with me now, for those of you who are new to my world, I'm Leah Hadley. I'm the founder of Intentional Wealth Partners and Intentional Divorce Solutions, as well as the Watch Her Thrive community, and I have spent.[00:01:00]
Almost 10 years. Next year is our 10 year anniversary in business. But I've actually spent almost two decades helping women to take control of their financial lives. I am a certified divorce financial analyst. I'm an accredited financial counselor. I am a master analyst and financial forensics. But my most important job, I'm a mom of three and somebody who is deeply passionate about helping women to.
Build financial confidence and really get what they deserve, not what they think they deserve, but what they actually deserve. So this show is really all about real talk when it comes to money. So no jargon, no judgment. We are focused on practical strategies that you can actually use to make intentional decisions about your finances.
So every week. We're gonna dig into topics that matter to you, whether that is investing, budgeting, mindset, navigating big life transitions, or. [00:02:00] Maybe just trying to figure out how to align your money with what really matters to you. I would love for this to be an interactive space. So if you are watching live, please do drop any questions that you have in the comments, and even if you're watching the replay, I will absolutely come back and respond to those questions and comments.
So tell me what's on your mind as it relates to money. I want this to be a space for you too. We are kicking off the show at the perfect time, right? It's December 30th, today. So we are literally two days before the new year. And I don't know about you, but this time of year always has me thinking about fresh starts.
And what I've learned after being in this industry for as long as I have, is that a lot of people do like to make New Year's resolutions around money. And unfortunately they don't usually stick. And it's not because people don't have [00:03:00] good intentions, it's because most of us don't have a clear system in place for making those intentions a reality.
So that's what I wanna talk about today, how to actually set yourself up for financial success in 2026, not just to hope for it, but to actually set yourself up for success. So let's start just, I wanna be honest with you, most people do set financials. On January 1st and have already abandoned them by February, and there are several reasons why this is the case.
First, a lot of people set goals that are just too vague, right? Save more money, get out of debt. Those things may sound good. They don't actually tell you what to do when you're sitting there on Wednesday morning trying to make a decision, right? Second, there's no real understanding of your current starting place, so it's hard to create that roadmap if you don't know what your starting point is, right?
Most people avoid looking at their full [00:04:00] financial picture. Because, let's be real, right? For some people it can be overwhelming. For some people, it can be scary, whatever the case. And third, and this is the big one, that there's no support system in place. We try to do it alone in silence, maybe feeling a little shame about where we are, and that isolation actually makes it a lot.
Harder for people to follow through. So if you have set money goals up for yourself in the past and they didn't stick, I want to make sure you know that is not a character flaw, right? The system may have been set up for failure from the beginning. So here is where real change starts, and that is with clarity or awareness, not judgment.
Not judgment, clarity, right? Before you can set meaningful financial goals, you want to know three things. One, you want to know what is coming in and what is going out. And really know it, not just have a general [00:05:00] idea, but I want you to really look over the last three months of spending and really get a sense of your patterns.
And this, again, this isn't about judgment. This isn't about shaming yourself, but this is about being clear about what is actually happening. Okay? Second thing is want you to be clear on what you own and what you owe. So that's your full balance sheet. Assets, what you own, your bank accounts, your vehicles, your home liabilities.
Those are your debts. That's what you owe. That's your financial snapshot. And it's important to always have a sense of what that looks like. So I encourage people to update it quarterly. When we're working with clients, we use a financial planning software tool that just updates it regularly.
That can be really valuable. And the third thing is, what do you actually value? Now, this is the piece that most people skip, and I think it's the most important. So what matters to you? [00:06:00] Because money decisions, we want them to be in alignment with your values. Or if they're not you're gonna feel conflicted about them, right?
So when you have clarity on these three things specifically, everything else just gets a little bit easier. You're not guessing anymore, right? You are making informed decisions based on real information and based on what actually matters to you. So the clarity piece is something that we talk a lot about in the Empowered Sisterhood.
The Empowered Sisterhood is where I share the intentional money method that I've created and the Intentional Money Method. The very first pillar of that method is clarity, right? That's the framework that we work with. And clarity is just what we talked about, knowing where you stand, not just in terms of your numbers, but who you are, what you value, what matters to you, right?
But we do have another pillar that is specifically about values, right? 'cause we really want to have our values be [00:07:00] a big driver of all of the goal setting and decision making that we're making. The third pillar is mindset. So the stories that we tell ourselves about money have a huge impact on our financial decisions, and a lot of times the stories that we tell ourselves about money are not serving us.
They're not helping us to achieve the goals that we've set out for ourselves. We really wanna get clear on where is our mindset and are there blocks that we are creating that are interrupting the path from where we are to where we wanna be? All right. Strategy is the fourth pillar. Strategy is about creating a plan based on your unique situation and goals.
We want to be an efficient plan from a tax planning perspective in terms of optimizing investments, all of that. Action is the fifth pillar. Because at the end of the day, the plan's only gonna work if you implement it right? But a lot of times people want everything else to be in place before they start taking action.
And we [00:08:00] really encourage people to take action because action is actually a huge driver of building that financial confidence. And then our last pillar is support. Having people in your corner who get it and who can help you stay on track. So those six pillars. Really work together in helping people to be intentional about their money, be intentional with their goals.
And when you work through all six pillars, we really see some incredible transformation happening. So how are we gonna make 2026 different start with what I talked about before, and that's that awareness or clarity. I want you to get honest with yourself about where you are. Identify what you value and then create a plan that's realistic for your life.
Not some perfect, Pinterest worthy Instagram version of financial wellness, but your real life [00:09:00] with your real responsibilities and your real goals that matter to you, not to your neighbor, not to your mom, not to your kids. But what's really in alignment for you? So from a practical standpoint, what does that look like?
It looks like in January maybe you're gathering information, you're getting clear, you're looking at your spending, you're updating that balance sheet. We talked about all about really thinking through deeply about what matters to you, what's important February and March. Maybe you're working through your strategy.
What needs to change, what's working, where do you wanna be by the end of the year? And throughout the year, taking consistent action. And adjusting as you go. And I want you to remember always it's about progress, not perfection, right? And so let's say we fell off a wagon, maybe we had a particular spending and plan in place and we bought something that was outside of that plan.
It's very easy for people to say, oh, I give up. I screwed up, right? But what we really wanna do is focus on the progress, focus on the [00:10:00] habit, right? And not. Not give ourselves a hard time about making those mistakes, but acknowledging that it may not be in alignment with where you wanna go right now. I want you to know you're not doing this alone, right?
You've got support. You've got accountability, and if you don't have people who support you and surround you, provide that account accountability. I do wanna share something that I'm very excited about. This is the first time we're running this challenge. So starting January 4th, right around the corner, I am hosting a.
30 day financial reset challenge. And that challenge is really designed to walk you through exactly what we've been talking about today, right? You are gonna get complete clarity and awareness about your current financial situation. You get clear on those values and really what do you want your money to support?
We are going to very directly address any mindset blocks that may be holding you back. And we're gonna create a [00:11:00] realistic strategy for moving forward. But here is what makes it different from other challenges that you may have tried in the past. You're not doing it alone. You are gonna be part of a community of women who are all working on the same thing.
We have daily guidance that I'm gonna provide via email. You're gonna have accountability, you're gonna have support. And if you're thinking, you know what, I just don't have time for this, I get it. And that is exactly why I designed it the way I did to make it very doable. So we are talking less than 20 minutes a day in some cases, just a few minutes of reflection.
You can do it during your lunch break, you can do it after the kids go to bed, whatever works for you. I just wanna encourage you to participate and to stay in the room with us. If you do the work, this could be the thing that finally shifts your relationship with money. So if this is something that is of interest to you, I will absolutely include the link in [00:12:00] the description.
You can just head to the Watch or Thrive website, watch thrive.co. It's right there. There's a link on the homepage. Again, the challenge starts January 4th. I'd love to have you join us. So that's what I have prepared for you today. I don't see any questions that have come through yet, but I will hang out if there are questions.
I am absolutely happy to answer any financial questions that may be on your mind right now. Or if there are some goals that you have already set for yourself in the new year, maybe you want to reduce your debt by $10,000. Maybe you wanna increase your retirement account by $20,000. What goals are you setting for yourself?
Maybe we're looking more at the habit and we just wanna increase the amount we're putting into our 401k. By one percentage point every single year, right? There's a lot of small changes that you can make that really add up dramatically over time. So if there's any goals that you've already set for [00:13:00] yourself and you wanna pop 'em into the comments, happy to support you and help you to reach those goals, remember that financial success, it's not about being perfect, not about being perfect, right?
It's about being intentional. It is about making decisions that align with what really matters to you. And I just think having the support to follow through is invaluable. So much pressure is put on us to figure things out on our own, to do it on our own, and. There's so much value in community, right?
Whether it's just being with people who get what you're going through, understand that something may feel shameful or feel difficult, right? Knowing that you're not alone in that is so powerful, right? So that accountability piece, that support piece is so valuable. I hope that you'll join us for the 30 day reset in January.
But [00:14:00] regardless, be sure to comment below and let us know what some of your 2026 goals are. If you have questions, we'd happy to provide resources or if we could just celebrate you along the way, we're happy to do that as well. I wanna thank you for being here with me for our very first episode. I am really looking forward to doing this every week.
I wanna encourage you, if you have a topic that you want me to talk about, go ahead, drop that into the comments. Anytime there's something you're struggling with, is there something you wanna learn more about? But regardless, I hope to see you next week, same time, same place, and have a very happy new year.
Thanks for listening to Intentional Money Moves Live. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to hit follow so you never miss one. Wanna join the conversation live? Tune in every Tuesday at noon Eastern time on YouTube. And if you're ready to take the next step in your financial journey, head over to watch her thrive.co.
To learn more [00:15:00] about how my team and I can help you build wealth with purpose and peace of mind. I'll see you next week.
