Wise Monkey Blog

Wise Monkey Financial Coaching

Spring clean your finances

Spring clean your finances

With the weather warming up and days getting longer, now's a perfect time to get yourself motivated to make some changes. So, here’s a simple springtime challenge for you...

Pick one of these 10 suggestions and decide to take action on it. If it helps find a friend or partner, pick a task you both need to do and do it together. Sit down one evening, open a bottle of Malbec and browse price comparison websites together. Or take turns to help sort each other’s paper mountains over a packet of chocolate biscuits.

Do whatever you need to do to make the tasks more palatable and then decide on one action - one small sweet step at a time. Never underestimate the power of doing what you say you’ll do…I guarantee it will put a spring in your step.

So, are you ready...?

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Don’t let your Chimp take charge of your money

Don’t let your Chimp take charge of your money

Right now in the UK there’s a frenzy of drivers queuing for fuel. Whilst there’s no actual shortage of fuel – just a shortage of HGV drivers to transport it to petrol stations – people are responding emotionally to the Government telling us “don’t panic buy” and the contrasting media coverage of queues at forecourts. This has inflamed the situation and we’re seeing similar results to the lockdown stockpiling of March 2020.

The emotional reaction of many people to this situation makes me think of “The Chimp Paradox”, a concept created by Professor Steve Peters in his bestselling book of the same name. The concept aims to simplify complex neuroscience (the activity of different parts of the brain) into a framework that’s easy to grasp. I frequently use The Chimp Paradox when I coach people on their decisions around spending, saving and investing.

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What drives our emotional relationship with money?

What drives our emotional relationship with money?

In my role as Financial Coach, I have the pleasure of meeting some incredible people - clients and colleagues alike. Jane Thurnell-Read is one of them. In her 70s, she embarked on a big new project – an international membership website for healthy ageing  – www.upliness.net. The idea was to offer a more positive view of ageing, inspiring people to become happier, healthier and fitter as they age.

I really enjoyed my conversation with Jane as a guest on her membership site. In this video, I explained what Financial Coaching is, what drives our emotional relationship with money and how we can shift our money mindset. I also shared more about the community we're creating and the Financial Coach Practitioner Certificate training we offer. 

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Turning passion into profit

Turning passion into profit

So many of us have things we’re passionate about, but assume we have to fit in around the edges of sensible, earning lives. But over the last year or more – with Covid and Lockdown – everybody’s routines have been disrupted. And some of that disruption has proved really fruitful.
 
We’ve been forced to stop, and look at what we’re doing.
 
One Lockdown success story is Hanri van Wyk’s. Hanri, a long-term client of mine, has....

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