Cultivate an abundant money mindset using lessons from the four seasons.
Video summary below, Danielle Howard, Certified financial planner, produced by the Healthy Life Project
1. Plant | Spring
Spring is a time to plant.
What are you planting with your money habits, attitudes and belief systems? What money messages have you cultivated over time, and what money messages need to be addressed or rewritten?
- Plant seeds that will serve you well over time.
- Plant a mindset of abundance, giving and sharing.
- Plant a mindset of bringing money into your life with integrity, competency and care.
Take Action
Plant an abundant money mindset:
Use a journal and write down one thing that you are grateful for daily.
2. Cultivate | Summer
Summer is time to cultivate and nurture your soil.
Examine your money mindset:
- What financial tools are you using?
- What tools do you have for retirement, such as Roth IRAs or traditional IRAs?
- What kind of businesses are you growing?
- How are you using other resources in your life?
- How resourceful are you, and how does that play out financially?
- Are you creative?
- Are you cultivating community relationships?
- How are you enjoying your resources?
- How do you decide how much you will spend and how to spend it?
- How do your spending choices align with your values?
Take Action
Cultivate an abundant money mindset and reconnect to your assets:
Determine what your resources are both financially and other. Use a spreadsheet or journal to list your assets, and how they are positioned, such as life insurance, bank accounts, retirement accounts.
3. Harvest | Fall
Fall is a time to harvest.
Think of your assets from accumulation to distribution. How do you want to pull money out of the different accounts to maximize what you have?
What is your attitude towards your money? How much is enough? We tend to get caught up in what the world tells us we need to have, and may lose touch with what is most important.
- What’s enough house?
- What’s enough car?
- What’s enough vacation?
- Are there things you need to let go of in your financial life?
- Is there a belief or thought system to you need to get rid of?
Take Action
Harvest an abundant money mindset:
Write down a money memory where you have been hurt. Crumple it up and let it go. The only thing it is hurting is you.
4. Prepare | Winter
Winter is a time to prepare for the next season. In your financial life, winter can be a time to educate yourself.
- Examine areas of your life where you’d like to learn something new
- Prepare for the next generation
- Take a look at an estate plan
Take Action
Prepare an abundant money mindset:
Create a traditional Will, a medical power of attorney, a medical directive, and any other financial and legal pieces of your life. In additional to financial preparedness, think of creating an ethical Will, which is your legacy of values and dreams for your family.
Take a look at what seeds you want to plant for future generations and the best tools for doing that.
Danielle Howard
Certified financial planner
Danielle Howard is a Certified Financial Planner®, author, speaker and personal finance thought leader. Her 24 years of client and financial experience has led her to become a catalyst for change. With a whole-life perspective on money mindsets and financial decisions, she guides people on the journey to financial wellness.
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