What Happens After a 30-Day Money Challenge_ Honest Results & Next Steps
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[00:00:00] Welcome to Intentional Money Moves Live. I'm Leah Hadley, and 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, I tackle the money topics that matter most to women who are ready to build wealth with purpose and confidence from investing and retirement planning to navigating finances through some of life's biggest transitions.
No topic is off the table. Now. Let's get into it.
I am so happy that you are here with me today. Thank you so much for joining me. This is where we are every Tuesday at noon. We're talking about real money, real life, and real questions, and I want. You to have a space to answer your or ask your questions and get real good professional support and guidance.
So please share in the chat right now. I can tell you the chat isn't loading for me just yet, so I'm gonna pull it up on my phone while we're talking. And then hopefully I'll be able to see your questions and [00:01:00] answer them in real time. 'cause I think that's really important. If you are tuning in for the first time, I wanna welcome you drop a comment.
Let me know that you're here, where you're tuning in from. I always like to see who's here. This is really for you. I really have designed this show for you. I'm gonna share some reflections today. I love to hear, I love the interaction, so please comment, ask your questions as we go. If you were part of the 30 day challenge that we did starting in January let me know what shifted for you in the comments.
If you're just hearing about it now and you're curious, feel free to ask me anything. No worries. This is a conversation. Okay. All right. Now let me just get this going. Evidently, I'm having trouble multitasking, talking about it and doing it at the same time. But essentially. Today we're doing something a little bit different on the show, and that's what I wanna reflect back on our 30 day challenge and talk really about what worked well and what some of the difficulties were and really the kinds of progress [00:02:00] that I saw people making.
Because I think that's not only valuable, but it's motivating and inspiring and might help you get started if you're having a hard time getting started. All right. Oh, that's so weird. Look at myself on the screen while I'm doing this, but now I have my my comments so I can see it. Thank you so much, Jennifer, for being here and for commenting.
So I can see the comments are working on my phone, which is great. I'll check it, I'll check back there every so often as we go. So the biggest thing that I wanna say about the challenge is I was just so impressed. So impressed by how vulnerable people were, how willing people were to show up and to share whether that was, they shared, privately in the dms or they shared publicly in the Facebook group.
Sent me private emails, however you showed up. I just want. To just acknowledge and appreciate the vulnerability, because I know that's really hard. And that's really [00:03:00] what moved me most honestly from the start. Even before we started the challenge, I had people sharing things with me that honestly, I think they had been carrying in some cases for months, if not for years.
And so this was a safe space for them to just acknowledge some of these things. Things like, just completely avoiding looking at bank accounts or investment accounts. One woman. Said, she was really scared to total up all her debt that came under $50,000 when it all up. And she cried.
But you know what she shared with me that was so fascinating and absolutely we talked about that. But the thing that really fascinated me so much was that she actually had a tremendous amount of relief and being able to not only acknowledge exactly how much debt she was carrying, what the interest expense look but most importantly, having a clear plan on how she's gonna eliminate that debt, which is so powerful, [00:04:00] right.
We had one woman share about how she had really been using money as a coping mechanism I should say, spending as a coping mechanism. And that she realized that as much as she spent it wasn't doing what she was hoping it was gonna do, but it brought this awareness around this, right? So that way she could make some shifts which was really nice.
Now. One of the things that I thought was really interesting, I mentioned earlier how people shared in different ways throughout the the challenge. Lemme just see if this is working now because I know like partway through last time it started working. It's actually much easier for me if I can see the chat on the screen here than on my phone.
Nope. Okay. Where the shot. All right. Anyway so the, one of the things that I learned was that and I guess I shouldn't say I learned it, but I, it is that people need different levels of safety to do this work. Okay? What's feels safe and looks safe. It's different for different people.
Some people really thrive in that group setting, right when they see they're not [00:05:00] alone. I know some of the women in the group shared with me that they had joined the challenge with somebody else, either a family member, friend, neighbor, coworker, what have you, and having that support what that person they were going through the challenge with was incredibly powerful in helping them to stay accountable and staying engaged with the challenge.
Now, some people. Real, just are really not comfortable sharing in a pub, any kind of public, like even if it's a private Facebook group, right? They're just not comfortable sharing information about this, right? They just really feel that they need the privacy in order to feel safe. And that's a space to really work through any of the shame or fear.
Any of the overwhelm. Having that quieter space is really important to process through some of these things, right? So whether you are somebody who knows you need a group, you need support, you need privacy, you need whatever, the important thing is to know yourself, to build that awareness with yourself, so you're getting the support that you need to make the progress that you want, right?
All right, so let me take a look [00:06:00] here and see if we had any challenge part. Oh, Jennifer, I see you said that you switched to being more intentional with your budgeting and your savings during the challenge. That's fantastic. Great. If there's anybody else who participated in the challenge that's watching live, or if you're watching the replay, let me know that as well.
Okay. Also, be really curious to hear from you all who are watching. What was most challenging for you? Wasn't the actual exercises that you found challenging, was it facing like being vulnerable around your money stories or, dealing with your money? Honestly, like what, what was most challenging for you?
If you'd be willing to share that in the comments, that would be fantastic. But. The next thing I wanna talk about in terms of my reflections is that everybody showed up differently. Progress looked different for everyone. And I think this is fantastic, to be clear. So some of you came and you were ready to go.
You wanted to take that [00:07:00] massive action. You were like, give me the plan. I'm doing this right, and you crushed it. Fantastic. Good for you. You opened accounts, you set up your automations. Maybe you know, I know some of you have had conversations that you have avoided for years. That is fantastic. Okay, and then others of you move slower also.
Fantastic. Some of you may have just looked at your numbers for the first time. Maybe you identified one value that really matters to you. Maybe you named a specific money story that maybe has been running your life without your permission. Here's what I want you to hear. Regardless, that is still progress.
Even just building up that awareness, that is progress. So I don't want you to compare yourself to anybody else or what that experience was like for anybody else. If you were thinking like, I didn't do enough, or I fell behind, or I should have accomplished more, I want you to pause. Okay. I want you to pause and I want you to think about if anything [00:08:00] shifted at all for you, if anything shifted at all for you.
That is progress. And I have heard more than enough comments about the shifts that I've heard that you all have been experiencing. Sometimes even just from one reflection. Just from one reflection, starting to think about things and talk about things that we've never spoken about or talked about before.
That's fantastic. All right. Jennifer said hardest thing for me was keeping up with the challenge in a productive way gung ho to begin with, but life got in the way and I got behind totally normal, right? Jennifer is a common for all of us. I actually was very surprised. We wrapped up the challenge and I had maybe.
Three or four people directly either send me a message or an email letting me know that they're just getting started in the challenge, that they've saved all the emails and that they're just getting started. Wherever you are right where you're supposed to be, and that's fantastic. All right.
Now I do wanna be honest with you about what I learned that did not work as well as I had hoped. Quite frankly, doing the challenge, doing a free challenge. [00:09:00] For 30 days was too long. You just need more kind of scaffolding, support, guidance. What I saw was people coming in really strong in the first week, the energy being high, people doing the work, and then in the middle, day 12, 13, 14, some of that kind of started to drop off.
Life happened, just like you said, Jennifer. Momentum faded. Without more structured support, it really is hard to maintain the energy and the momentum for that full 30 days. And that is absolutely not a criticism of you. That's just reality, right? That is not a criticism motivation. It's a starting point, but it really doesn't sustain things, systems make the process very sustainable. Having community accountability, those things make it really sustainable. So for the future, I'm thinking about and I would be interested to hear, your input for those of you who did experience the challenge. But I'm looking at doing something that's a little [00:10:00] shorter.
Maybe like a one week challenge, a five to seven day. Try to get some people, some real wins within that time and really focus on developing that engagement and support interaction. Because, and I know, and I talked about it before, and we have lots of ways that if you want that one-on-one private support you don't want to share in community, totally fine.
We have ways to help you with that. But for so many people, that space is just so transformational, right? And for those of you who you know do want more, maybe you want the community, you want the accountability, the continued learning. And honestly like the access to a financial planner who has all of this very highly specialized education and helping people through the divorce process, that really is what the Empower Sisterhood is designed to be, right?
It's only $59 a month. It's crazy ridiculous as far as the price goes, and you get access to me. You got a monthly coaching call, you get weekly community coffee [00:11:00] chats. You get a monthly masterclass. This month is. All about getting yourself a better budget, one that you can actually stick with.
It's really a container that you can be in while you're building the habits, so we're experiencing this transformation. We're creating the systems and the support. It can just be so powerful. So the third thing that didn't work as well as I had hoped is we just didn't have as many people convert into that ongoing support container as I thought we would.
And I think that really, honestly, that has a lot to do with the challenge itself because we didn't have this sort of consistent momentum through the 30 days. It's everybody's in a different space, right? So here's what I know. I definitely know that the biggest shifts. We're not the ones who just did the challenge and stopped.
I know that the biggest shifts, just in my communication with y'all, happened in making decisions about how you're gonna move forward. So whether [00:12:00] that was a habit that you've really committed to and created some accountability for yourself around, certainly for those of you who. Have chosen to, to join a community like the Empowered Sisterhood.
It's all about lifting you up and really increasing your financial literacy. And I know some of you have decided you really want that one-on-one support. You're really committed. You're really, wanting to do this for yourself. And I think the wonderful thing is, we can help you in different ways based on where you are.
We have a wonderful team here. The change isn't something that's going to happen and end after that 30 days, right? Reality is that it happens. Over time, it happens with support. It happens with repetition and sometimes it happens when somebody's reminding you that you said something mattered.
Reminding you that you said something mattered when life gets hard, when, what did they say when life starts at Lifeing? But I will tell you what, the last six weeks, my life has been Lifeing quite a bit and sometimes and [00:13:00] I'll tell you, that's why, for any of you who have been following my fitness journey, that's why I've been so successful and being able to consistently work out is because I have that support, accountability.
So even when life is life thing, I know somebody's paying attention, right? All right, so let's talk about coming. What is coming up? What's coming up next? Because I'm not done with this work and I don't think that you are either. First, obviously I'm here. I'm here every Tuesday at noon. This is not going away.
So I always wanna invite you into this space for real conversations about money. Bring your questions. Definitely working on trying to get out some of these kinks with the technology. I'm not sure why I'm having so many challenges, but regardless, I am here and I'm happy to answer your questions This Thursday.
We're doing that masterclass. I talked about it on last week's live show, so if you missed that one, be sure to check that one out. It's all about how to make sure you're really optimizing. Your 401k retirement account or any employer retirement account for that matter just to make sure that [00:14:00] you're using it well, because we see very consistently when we're doing our full comprehensive financial plans for people, part of that process is reviewing people's employer retirement accounts.
And so so often we find people in. Funds that have very high expenses that are just unnecessary. We find people whose allocation is really inappropriate based on their goals and their risk tolerance. We find people that are missing out on part of their employer match without even realizing it in some cases.
The things that I'm talking about may sound small. When you do the math on them, they can easily add up to tens of thousands, if not over a hundred thousand dollars as you're saving for retirement. That's money you need in your retirement. So that's why I'm so passionate about this week's masterclass, making sure that you're really optimizing that 401k account.
If you haven't registered yet, there's still time. It is Thursday at 1:00 PM Eastern Time. And I would love to see you there. We offer a. [00:15:00] And I can't remember if I talked about it on last week's live show or not, but we do offer a just a one-off. If you want us to review your 401k for you, make sure you're getting your full maxed, make sure you are minimizing your investment expenses and that you're optimizing your investment allocation based on your goals and your risk tolerance.
We do offer that it's just 9 97. We can get it done for you in just a couple of weeks as long as we have all the necessary information. It just actually very quick process. So if that's something that would be beneficial for you, always shoot me. I'm happy to talk with you about that.
And of course, if you or somebody you know, really wants that one-on-one, personalized financial planning, a comprehensive plan, ongoing portfolio management, someone who's really in your corner, making sure your money is working as hard as you are. That's what we do with Intentional Wealth Partners.
So we absolutely have that as a possibility. If you wanna see if we're a good [00:16:00] fit, you can always schedule a call. We can talk about that. So I just wanna continue, or I just wanna encourage you to continue. Showing up here on Tuesdays, doing the work on your own, asking questions, ask your questions.
Remember, one of my big soapbox issues is that if we are not breaking down the barriers around communication about money. We are never gonna be on even footing. It is imperative that we break down these communications, that we can have these conversations that need to be had. We can ask the questions that need to be asked.
This is so important, and it truly is the mission behind the Empowered Sisterhood. All right, so here's what I want you to do. Nothing. No. I don't want you to let that momentum from the last challenge evaporate. You really did work too. Too hard for that. Even if the next step is a tiny one, just setting a calendar reminder to, to watch the show [00:17:00] every Tuesday, or to pay a certain bill or to make an investment. That's really at the end of the day. In order to keep going, to keep moving forward, things are gonna continue to evolve and change, and that's okay and that's good, but that's also why support is so important. Okay, so I'm here for a few more minutes.
If any of you have questions about what happened in the challenge, maybe you missed the challenge and you're curious about it, you wanna ask about it. Or if you have questions about our masterclass later this week, and actually I forgot to mention, and I will make sure to include this.
Completely unrelated. But several years ago, I wanna say like 2019, I wrote a book and published called when it's Just Not Working, A Practical Divorce Guide for Stay at Home Mobs. I actually just did a, an entire revision. I've been doing this work a long time now, so I really was able to take a lot of what I've learned over the last several years and make the book even better so it's available.
On Amazon the ebook [00:18:00] completely free for the next five days, so I'm gonna make sure that you have a link to that if that's something that you're interested in. It's called When It's Just Not Working. A Practical Divorce Guide for Stay at Home Moms completely free for the next five days. So make sure you take advantage of that if something.
If that is something that would be valuable for you, and even if it's not, it's honestly it is very specifically geared towards stay at home moms. But maybe that's not your situation. You know it with somebody else's. You might just wanna share it with them. So they can take advantage. A lot of really good resources in there.
All right, so let's just go ahead and wrap this up. Oh, thank you for the question. Jennifer asked how long the Facebook group will be live. I haven't made a decision about that yet. It's a great question. I think that if we decide to do additional challenges, we will probably host it in that same Facebook group.
So I may just leave it live for now, but as of right now, we're gonna leave it open and we'll see where we go from there. Yeah, thanks for that question. All right, so today's takeaways. First and foremost, you did the [00:19:00] work, however much you did. Wherever you are, you showed up, and that's what matters.
Okay? Two, I really wanna be clear. Change takes time. Okay? Change takes time. Do not beat yourself up if you're not where you wanna be yet you're building something, stick with it so you really get to see the results. And then third. You don't have to do this alone, right? Whether it's this show, it's the Empowered Sisterhood, it's one-on-one financial planning.
Maybe you wanna join us for the free masterclass on Thursday. There are always ways to get support. And speaking of Thur, Thursday, just one more time. As a reminder, that is your opportunity, completely free masterclass, where we're gonna deep dive into how to optimize your employer sponsored retirement plan accounts.
So 4 0 1 Ks, 4 0 3 Bs. Make sure that we are getting those. Optimized one o'clock Eastern time on Thursday. So if you haven't signed up for that [00:20:00] one make sure you sign up. And then next Tuesday I will be back with a brand new topic. But when I was working on my schedule I actually got the dates a little bit mixed up, so I'm not a hundred percent.
Next week's topic yet, but you are gonna be very pleasantly surprised. I have no doubt, regardless. I will see you next week. Thank you so much for being here. I wanna just encourage you to take whatever that next step is. Go on.
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 about how my team and I can help you build wealth with purpose and peace of mind. I'll see you next week.
