It happened overnight. My eight year old daughter woke up with a lot of questions: How much money do you have? How much money do I have? How can I get more money? What do I do with my money? So began the conversations around regular chores, extra paid chores, allowance, and bank accounts. Honestly, I am making it up as I go along, but here's what's working so far.

Even intelligent, highly educated people can make unwise decisions when it comes to money. Every adult I know has either paid a bill late, lost money, bounced a check, given too much away, sacrificed health and relationships for work, gambled, overspent or regretted something in their financial life. No wonder money is one of the biggest sources of stress for Americans. Yet, many people don’t realize that money related anxiety is directly related to how our brains actually think, feel and operate. 

According to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, in the United States women still earn less than men. This gender wage gap has been getting worse in recent years, with women making about 83 cents for every dollar earned by men for comparable work. This means that women have to work an extra 39 days to make what men do in one year.

Most of us grew up in an environment with pervasive misconceptions about money. Families tend to treat children as separate, different and in other ways that make the topic of finances difficult, even though money plays an essential role in adult life. There is also a common belief in our culture that girls and women, in particular, don’t have to worry about money as much as their brothers and fathers do. Young girls are encouraged to marry someone with money from the outset in books, tv ads and shows, movies and recess conversations. Barbara Stanny Huson debunks this myth in her outstanding book, Prince Charming Isn’t Coming.

SF Money Coach started with humble beginnings. When I officially became certified as a financial coach back in 2010, all of my appointments were house calls. I would meet with people in their living rooms and at their kitchen tables. Driving around house to house, dealing with parking in the city and normal household disruptions became too much. Looking back, I can see that while I did the best I could with what I had at the time, I was deeply entrenched in a long-standing habit of people pleasing and codependency (placing others’ needs ahead of my own). Something had to give.

I’ve been grappling with my home improvement want list. I’ve been living in the same house now for five years, a record for me. As you can imagine, merging households with my mother in law has been a slow process. I am very much a "do it now, closure, impulsive spender” type person, so it’s hard to wait. It’s really hard to wait. This year, we built a new office for me once my husband and I realized we could no longer share our home office (a bedroom) during the pandemic. I want rugs, art, plants and dishes for that space alone, not to mention many other empty walls and several large projects like flattening walls, landscaping and replacing the deck.

I used to ignore my finances and existed for many years in thick money fog. The sum of negative consequences finally caught up with me and something had to give. My journey to becoming vigilant with my money was not a straight line.

I recently took a true vacation and experienced many benefits to time off: connection with nature, feeling embodied, easy communication, perspective, deeper relationships, physical, detachment from the news and social media, freedom, mental and emotional healing, art of receiving, deep sleep, letting go and gratitude.

My mom died two years ago and while I miss her immensely, I still feel connected to her on a daily basis. Even though my mom chronically overspent all her life, she was a great role model with money. Here are the best money lessons I learned from her.

Everyone’s lives have been impacted in subtle and overt ways since the pandemic struck and the world events around racial justice. Even amidst all the upheaval, people are finding gifts, blessings and silver linings as well as a lot to be grateful for.

Patterns in behavioral finance are not always universal. You may relate to some but not all of the following taxpayer traits on the healthy or anxiety-prone side or you may experience challenges…

Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) offers this model for integrating the rational mind and the emotional mind. Here are the four levels of the financial wellness process and guidance…

Money is a naturally confronting topic, so we need to take extra care of ourselves (and others) when dealing with it. There are numerous simple, yet powerful exercises you can use to …

As a result of COVID-19, you may have lost your job, received a decrease in salary, been furloughed or perhaps, nothing has changed income-wise. The following case study is a true story…

The hardest part of staying on top of your personal or business finances is the set up. Realistically, initiating a new system to track and analyze your spending, saving, and earning can take…

Even for families with two full-time working parents, after childcare, the mortgage payment, student loans, a busy family life with small children and monthly credit card bills, it can…

Money avoiders believe they are undeserving of money or that money is bad. They often practice noble poverty and believe that wealthy people are greedy or corrupt. Because of their…

1. Unsubscribe from marketing email lists. This includes: all stores, conglomerate sites like Gilt or Groupon, vendor sites like eBay or Etsy and any other flash sale site.

Saving is the fastest way out of debt. Time and time again I see men and women in debt keeping themselves in deprivation mode saying things like, “I can’t buy new clothes until my debt…

Keep a bridge job. It’s critical to be able to pay your bills and live your life while you start a business. It is possible to maintain low to no overhead in the beginning. Before rushing out to rent the…