[[:encoded, "Today we have a very special guest. Our guest today is Belinda Fuchs. Belinda is a Financial Success Coach and CPA who is changing the money game. Belinda is the founder and president of OwnYourMoney.com, a financial coaching and education company teaching individuals, couples, and business owners how to make personal finance and small business success rewarding, manageable, and profitable. Belinda hosts the TV show “Money On Your Mind” and radio show “Own Your Money: Financial Intelligence for the Modern Woman.” She’s been called on as the financial guru for Boston’s ABC and NBC networks, Yahoo! Finance, SmartMoney.com, Inc.com, The Saturday Evening Post, Today’s Financial Women, The Boston Business Journal, and even the Encyclopedia Britannica. Belinda has a passion for helping people appreciate their self-worth and realize their financial goals. \n\nToday, Belinda is going to talk about Building Your Dream Team. She will share 3 Steps to Maximizing Your Time and Your Money. \n\nEnjoy the interview with Belinda.\n \nMy hope for our time together is that you got value and an idea or two that will help you be even more successful – personally and professionally. Take advantage of the complimentary special report on Keys to Working Less, Making More Money, and Having a More Balanced Life by going to www.AccountabilityCoach.com. To help keep you focused on these activities that produce the results you want, subscribe to The Accountability Coach Blog at www.AccountabilityCoachBlog.com. Invest in the 30-day Goal Achievement program so you can begin achieving your goals in the timeframe you want so you can have the life you desire. Get started by going to www.AccountabilityCoach.com and review all the resources and tools available to you. \n\nAim for what you want each and every day! \nAnne Bachrach\nThe Accountability Coach™\n\nAuthor of Excuses Don’t Count; Results Rule and Live Life with No Regrets. Get your copy today."]]
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I’m the author of many books, including, Excuses Don’t Count; Results Rule, Live Life with No Regrets, No Excuses, The Guide to Stopping Procrastination, The Power of Visualization, My Gratitude Journal, the Work Life Balance Emergency Kit, and The Roadmap To Success with Stephen Covey and Ken Blanchard, and more.
Aim for what you want each and every day!
Anne Bachrach
The Accountability Coach™
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(upbeat music) - Hello and welcome to the Accountability Coach podcast, where we will discuss topics, ideas, questions, and issues related to having a totally balanced and successful life. This is Anne Bakrak. We are honored today to have a very special guest. Our guest today is Belinda Fuchs. Belinda is a financial success coach and a CPA who is changing the money game. Belinda is the founder and president of our ownmoney.com. A financial coaching and education company teaching individuals, couples, and business owners how to make personal finance and small business success rewarding, manageable, and profitable. Belinda hosts the TV show Money on Your Mind and Radio Show Own Your Money, financial intelligence for the modern woman. She's been called on as the financial guru for Boston's ABC and NBC networks. Yahoo, finance, smartmoney.com, ink.com, the Saturday evening post. Today's financial woman, the Boston Business Journal, and even the Encyclopedia Britannica. Wow. (laughing) Today, Belinda is going to talk about building your dream team. She will share three steps to maximizing your time and your money. Welcome, Belinda. We really appreciate you joining us today. Thank you so much for having me, Anne. Well, when you refer to building your dream team, talk to us a little bit about who is likely to be in that. Well, it's such a crucial topic for business owners to be thinking about. And actually for individuals too, I don't address it from both aspects of it, because all of us, even as business owners, we have a personal life too, right? So we need to be nurturing that as well. And when you think about who you want to be, including in your dream team, look at what needs to get done and who's best at doing it. So, for instance, from the business and particularly financial services side, given that I lead Own Your Money, right? I assist people at getting their money mindset or money management down. I would suggest people such as this, an accountant, a banker, a financial coach, a financial advisor. And I say that knowing that many of our listeners may be financial advisors, but even if you are, and especially if you are one, consider having somebody independent from you that can be on your dream team. Also consider an attorney, a realtor, a mortgage broker, an insurance agent. Because if you have this team, then you have people that you can call on when you need something, when you want to be considering refinancing your mortgage, when you may need to sell your house, when you need to make something a shift in your investment portfolio, and you know who you can go to. And it's funny because a lot of times people think that, oh, I have to be paying to even have these resources in my Rolodex. And the reality is that you don't necessarily, but you're considering them in your resource network. So, you know, let's take the accountant, for instance, or your banker, you know, you'll want to have them so that you can pick up the phone and ask them a question. And say, is this relevant to my situation? And then if it requires a further conversation, then you can discuss where you want to go from there and what safe the easy accountant may charge. But usually for one-off questions that can really make a difference in your business, it's so important to have these people on hand. And now, personally, you also don't want to think about your dream team as including like-minded owners, like yourself, and when I say owners, I mean, people who are really taking responsibility for their financial future. But also consider your spouse or your partner, your family, your friends, your boss, or maybe your board of directors, employees, coworkers, all of these people can be on this, what I call dream team, but this is your team to make your life as successful as possible. And if you look at these people as somehow adversaries, or you become nervous to call them, or there's some fear involved in that relationship, then that, in effect, hold you back from achieving what's possible for yourself. - Wow, that was great. And I totally agree with you, even if you are a financial advisor, you should have another financial advisor really advising you and helping you do your own plan. We even have financial advisors I know who on their dream team have a person who they call the car dude. So whenever anybody needs to buy a car, at least a car, have any questions about cars, they have this person on the dream team. Would that be someone also you would suggest? - That's a great idea, actually. If you can even board me that information for your car dude. 'Cause I, funny enough, I just got a question yesterday about somebody getting out of a lease. And a lot of what I do as a financial coach is give people access to trusted resources, such as what you're mentioning, when I mentioned this now, board their dream team if they don't have them themselves. You know, and help them be an advocate and even interpret the information that they may be getting from these other sources. But being like the hub in the wheel and then helping people get to all the folks that they need to. - That's great, and you mentioned that. That's kind of where I'm going with my next question is, you know, where do we really start? I mean, you mentioned a lot of different resources and people so, you know, if I don't really know where to begin, where would you tell me to start with this? - Thanks for that. You know what, when we get to, okay, we know we want to be building our dream team and we've titled this three steps to maximizing your time and money. So why don't I give you the three steps right now? The first one would be assessing where what you are best at. So what do people pay you a premium for doing? And really look at, okay, that's your primary skill set. And I'll give you a very personal example to demonstrate that. So even though I've been a CPA and I have 17 years in accounting and finance, I make a choice to not do my own taxes. So I have an accountant on hand because that's not my specialty. And I have a financial advisor to be looking at my investments and making sure that I'm properly diversified and making one I can in the market. And so some people might say, "Well, but you could do it yourself." Well, I have the skill set to be looking at the big picture, to be looking at, okay, do I, you know, have I considered how am I maximizing my time and my money? And I know that it's better for me to have somebody else do these individual things. I even have a bookkeeper who's handling my books and I suggest that people have separate books for both their personal finances as well as their businesses. And I have a bookkeeper that handles that and handles those two companies separate in QuickBooks because the value that I deliver and what I get paid for is even greater than what I'm paying somebody else to do at these other things. And part of it is also thinking about, okay, how much, what do you make an hour and could you be making that service in clients instead of spending a lot of hours doing some of these other tasks when people who specialize and then we'll do them even faster. So that's why Step 1 is really assessing what your best at. And then Step 2 now is to look at what needs to be done. So make a very complete list. And once you sit down and you make that list and oftentimes they find that people do a lot of procrastinating and they put it off, put things off when it comes to handling their finances, particularly their personal finances. And so what I would encourage you to do is literally while you're listening to this podcast, pull out your calendar and just schedule in 15 minutes, maybe half an hour to make up this list for yourself. Like what are the things that you know need to get done that if you did it, it would really make a difference for yourself. Both emotionally, sleep better at night, plus financially. You know that you would be making more money, you'd be saving more money by doing it. It's sad, but true. Oftentimes people, especially couples, will come to me with a two-year to-do list. You know, we've been meaning to do this, this, and this, and we've never done it. Whether it's canceling subscriptions, canceling membership, refinancing their house, betting them separate accounts, getting a bookkeeper to handle their books. And the key thing, though, is that when they're not doing that, they're literally throwing money away. You can consider it like you're flushing money down the toilet. You know, why would you ever choose to do that? So in the second step, when you're assessing what needs to be done, make that complete list and then sit for a day or two on it. And then go back and look at that list and add to it based on where you're spending your time. Because you may find that there's other things that you're spending time on that you actually could leverage to somebody that's better and faster at that effort and likely cheaper than what you could be making in an hourly rate or in more clients elsewhere. And then step three, the culmination of all this, is using the 80/20 rule. I'm not sure, Anne, do you ever refer to the 80/20 rule in your work as well? - Oh, absolutely. - Absolutely, so how I think of it in this regard is looking at it as follows. 20% of your efforts are yielding 80% of your results. This is the Pareto principle. So look at how can you be doing more of the high payoff, 20% activities and leveraging the rest? And the rest can include everything on that list that you're not great at and you're not getting paid a premium to do. And then what you do is this is how you can grow your business by doing it. And literally, just as somebody called me this morning, she's a realtor and she said if I could get organized, I could literally double my business. But right now, and part of that organization comes with leverage and we already started to talk through what some answers are, because right now she's both actually holding herself back and a little bit of self-sabotage. Like she doesn't wanna grow too fast, knowing that she doesn't have the mechanisms in place to handle the growth. So the impact, she's not growing, right? So you think about this and you take a step back from it by following these three steps and you're like, oh my gosh, this is how I'm holding myself back in growing my business and creating the life that I want because I haven't been willing to take a look at this, to consider how I can be leveraging myself better. And it's interesting, this whole realm of me as financial coach is one that I feel like I'm basically creating and have created in the last couple of years because people understand the concept of financial advisor say, they understand account and they even understand business coach, but they never really had somebody who can help them with both the business side and the finance side and the holistic approach, let's say, to looking at all of this. And this is how we make more money for people. - Absolutely, and I think what you're talking about is leveraging resources which I fully believe in and I coach my people on. And I think you can also add to that that you're somewhat really an accountability coach also. I mean, could you help hold these people accountable to what you're actually coaching them on as it relates to their money? Wouldn't you agree? - Absolutely, and I think that's probably part of what you and I had such synergy from the beginning (laughs) because when people, let's say I have this couple, right? And so they came to me with this two-year to-do list. And this is the true story. And so what we end up doing is that we sit down in the first session and we add to the list, we make sure it's completed, we set the goals moving forward. And then every two weeks when they'll either come in or we'll have a phone call, we'll look at what are the next steps that they need to be doing to completing those items that have been on this list forever. And what's so amazing is literally in the first four months, their bank account increased $18,000. - True, wouldn't that be nice? - Absolutely, and they just recognize, you know what? Like, we're doing all the things that we know we could have been doing before and we never did 'cause we never had anybody that cared. We never had anybody that we were held accountable to. And we all know how much better we work when we're held accountable by somebody else versus to ourselves. - Absolutely. Well, we just talked about you came up with three great things of where someone could start. How do these three things, let's talk a little bit about be more specific. How do they relate to really managing finances? Can you give us a picture on that? - Definitely. So I see it in two key areas. One of them will be the automating side of things. So people may have their way of doing it. Okay, I've been writing our checks for a while or I do some online banking or a mixture of all of the above. And what I recommend you do is really look at how can I be automating and creating systems so that I can maximize my time? So I would rather see you spending less time on writing out the check and more time at looking where is my money really going and reviewing the statement saved for the credit cards and not just in that step of writing the check and mailing the check. So look at it when it comes to things like bill paying, look at it in terms of having everything go to just one or two credit cards. I sometimes people have a lot of cards that they use and all it does is create more work for them. So I literally just have a different card. I have one for my business. I have one for I own some real estate. I have one to handle that and one for my personal expenses. And it's so much easier because then I know that everything goes to those specific places. And I even have my utilities going to my real estate card. And then that way I'm not writing all these utility checks even, I'm just reviewing the statements and I know that they're going to get paid through my one credit card. And even looking at how you can be automating using QuickBooks or other online resources like that too. And I mentioned before, make sure though that you're separating your business and your personal, whether it's in separate credit cards, separate bank accounts, and even separate QuickBooks and online tracking. So that's one piece that I want to mention. And then the second piece is this idea of leveraging and outsourcing when it comes to managing your finances. Especially for the detailed bookkeeping. And actually recently I just brought on a bookkeeper onto my staff because I kept finding that there were so many people who were making great money, not saving what they could, not knowing where their money's going, and not sure who to trust, who to go to, and how to figure that out. And I would much rather see you use your time for that review process versus the detailed bookkeeping into a spreadsheet or even a computer program and you may be totally missing the picture. So the difference here is that you're creating a time for the review and the effective high pay off action that comes out of that review. So I'll give you another quick story. I just spoke with a woman last week who thought that she was tracking every nickel and she was very proud of the fact that she was looking at her online banking and physically writing out the checks herself. But she never looked at the bigger picture. And when we talked about how much she was actually spending, big picture, and how much she was actually bringing in because her business had gone down, her husband had been out of work for the last two years and then ended up taking another job and it was at about $50,000 less than what he's been making before. So he took it because they needed to start bringing some money in but they never really looked at how do the numbers work out. And the impact of that was that they're actually spending $10,000 a month and only bringing in $8,000 a month. Oh, I think a lot of people probably have felt that in this economy right now and are feeling that and have experienced that as well. - Right, and so what's happening is that she was so stuck in the detail and not looking at the bigger picture of, oh my gosh, we really need to be bringing in more income where we're taking ourselves into a hole. And I actually just have another couple that just came to me to do that as well. So this is couple number two, same numbers almost within the eight to $10,000 and they're coming to me with a lot of credit card debt now that we have to address because they haven't been looking at the bigger picture impact. So this really does cost people money every day, every month, every year by not addressing it. So by not paying attention to where your money is going and what I want people to get from listening to this is that there's a way that they can be leveraging the time that they spend. So that, 'cause I recognize that time is limited, that's just a fact, it's limited for all of us. And I could see them instead analyzing the results, creating an action plan and being able to generate more money and more savings by taking these steps after that accountability comes into and actually figuring out what the reality of their situation is. - Any other perspective on how you found this particular aspect to be important? - Well, I found it critical in running my own business and I actually underestimated it when I started because my background had been accounting and finance, how the CPA worked for large firms. And when I started my business, I didn't recognize that I needed to be separating my personal and my business in separate accounts and separate QuickBooks. And I can tell you that I didn't figure it out until I think it was midway through 2008 and my '07 and my '08 taxes were so much more painful than they had to be and took so much more time and energy. And now, in 2009, I have much better books and records to support my success. And I look at my QuickBooks on a regular basis, usually at least weekly, to take a look at what's going on and I've automated as much as I can so that I'm getting downloads in. And it's very straightforward to do. And oftentimes, people don't do it because they think it's gonna take so much effort. But I've found that having the information at hand and really looking at how am I doing, how do I want to be doing and what else do I need to do to get there has been monumental. And part of what I recognize is that I can deliver a lot more value when I'm helping others and when I'm reviewing my own stuff versus taking the time to do that detailed work. And it's made a huge difference for myself and I do a lot of practice what I preach. So I'm constantly calling up the companies, getting the best deals that I can and then finding them and recommending them to all of my clients and I send out money success tips in a newsletter as well. And your listeners can find that at ownyourmoney.com too. - Oh, excellent. Well, I appreciate you sharing that with them. So I hear you talking about obviously leveraging resources is really important because you want us to do what we're good at and hire other people who are good at something else that we need a service. This might be a stupid question, but for those of us that think we're better, faster and quicker than we are, should we do it all? Can we do it all? Why would we do it all? (laughing) - Ken is not a stupid question at all because people think that. People may listen to this and be like, "Oh, but I can do it." Everyone thinks that they're that unique special individual that they can handle it all and maybe other people can. But the reality is that sure, maybe you can, but what's the toll that it's gonna take on you? Like I said, what is it costing you to try and do it all yourself? You can, let's say, but I don't recommend it at all. Because oftentimes you're not getting a time with your family that you want. You're not saving what you can and creating a more secure financial future. And oftentimes this is part of what keeps people up at night. Sometimes I think of myself like a financial therapist as well. Helping people through their emotional blocks and baggage around money. And so oftentimes what holds us back from making some of these changes and looking at the leverage is trust is letting go. And oftentimes it's like we need to control it so much. But what I have found time and time again is that when you are actually in control on a bigger picture basis and you have access to the detail, you're much more powerful in what you can be delivering and the choices that you could be making and you do sleep at night. I definitely found that because a lot of that panic is from the not knowing and not feeling like you're really doing as much as you can. And so when you take that 80/20 rule into a fact, you look at how can I be automating? How can I be leveraging? And be any more efficient in the process. It's just a real release. And that's what most of my clients find once they get into the work with me is that it's usually a little bit of a step to take initially, to say yes, I want to take control of my financial future. I want to own my money. I want to do things differently. But that once they do, it's they feel so relieved and like they're on the right track and they just hadn't been able to feel that way before. And it's important for people to recognize that they can get help, that they don't have to be ashamed about it, that financial independence does not mean that you're doing it alone. And it can be such a powerful place to be when you recognize what we've talked about and how you can build your dream team and truly maximize your time and your money in this process. - Yeah, I totally agree. I have to say my mom was one of those kind of people who used to be an executive at a hospital and tried to do everything herself. And when she finally hired, just one aspect of what you're talking about a financial advisor, and she did say, you know, "I can actually sleep at night now. "I don't have to be up at night thinking about my finances, "my money, if I'm doing things right, "if I'm making the right choices." And she went through this whole thing about how she really appreciated this person and how she can sleep at night and how she can have a better life. And it actually brought tears to my eyes when she was telling me she finally, you know, gave up control. And she was able to experience some of the things that you're talking about, just even with one person added into her life to help her. And you're talking about a number of different people that could help us in a lot of different ways. - So I think-- - So true. I mean, there's so much comfort that can come from having the resources and knowing that you have that support. And it's interesting, actually, end up working a lot with financial advisors in terms of being able to support each other because they don't do investment advice. But I help people have enough money to give to their financial advisor, to be saving more. You know, and it's an interesting thing. And that's, for instance, why I've included them on the dream team. - Excellent, well, that's great. Is there anything else that you think our listeners should know today? - Well, let's see, there's certainly a lot more that we could talk about. - I know, there are a lot of things. - When it comes to the importance of managing your personal finances and managing your business finances, I'd love for your listeners to be able to just go to onermoney.com. And I'm actually offering several things that I have, the money success tips I mentioned, as well as some quizzes that I've just posted. Do you own your money or does it own you? Post a new video training program. So there's a lot available at onermoney.com as well as if they go to onermoney.com/gift, G-I-F-T. That HTML actually just posted up a telecost too. And I like to give that as an added gift and resource for your listeners to get to. And the key thing here is knowing that no matter what situation you're in, no matter what your financial path looks like, you have the power to own your money today and to proactively address your financial future. And that it's important that you recognize that there are all of these resources out there who are willing to help. You just need to call us. - That's great. Well, Belinda, we really appreciate you spending your time and your expertise with us today and helping us realize other ways that we can leverage resources so that we're more effective at what we do so we can have an even more balanced and successful life. - Remember to take advantage of Belinda's offer by going to www.ownyourmoney.com/gift. Or you can feel free to reach Belinda at info@ownyourmoney.com. That's info@ownyourmoney.com. Take advantage of the free personal and professional development resources available to you at www.accountabilitycoach.com. Review the 30-day goal achievement self-study course so you can discover for yourself how to focus on your highest payoff activities that produce the biggest results in the shortest amount of time so you can experience that feeling of true and total success and have a fantastic quality of life. Download the free 27-page special report, keys to working less, making more money, and having a more balanced life by going to www.accountabilitycoach.com today. - Begin enjoying the experience of an even greater quality of life and total life balance and aim for what you want each and every day. Until next time, make it a great day, today, and every day. Thanks again for listening. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)
[[:encoded, "Today we have a very special guest. Our guest today is Belinda Fuchs. Belinda is a Financial Success Coach and CPA who is changing the money game. Belinda is the founder and president of OwnYourMoney.com, a financial coaching and education company teaching individuals, couples, and business owners how to make personal finance and small business success rewarding, manageable, and profitable. Belinda hosts the TV show “Money On Your Mind” and radio show “Own Your Money: Financial...
