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Nycklendyme Syndrome

Nycklendyme Syndrome

Symptoms, Causes, and Coping with Nycklendyme Syndrome

Nycklendyme Syndrome is a disease I’ve struggled with first hand and in recent years got worse, before it got better. In this bold article, I’ve decided to break the silence and share from my heart for the benefit of others suffering this terrible syndrome.

I may have had a few run-ins with it before I had children, however having children exasperated this particular diseases. I consulted with my physician on the matter. Dr. Google agreed that in most cases, Nycklendyme Syndrome is caused by having children.

Fantastic! I can add Nycklendyme Syndrome to the long list of “Things Children Give Us” rivaling amazing cheerio art and stretch marks.

I first realized I was experiencing these symptoms when I opened my bank account and saw all these small transactions.

“The Oompa-Loompas are at it again!”

I declared, out loud, in a Wicked Witch of the West cackle, staring at my online banking account, sipping my coffee, plotting my revenge.

You may find yourself having outrageous outburst toward your online banking account! Don’t be surprised if you find yourself talking like Dr. Evil, Cruella DeVille, or Donald Trump – just know that these are usually the first signs Nycklendyme. Symptoms also include the “feeling of being broke and having no clue where all your money goes!”

Your account may look something like this: (WARNING: PHOTO NOT SUITABLE FOR YOUNG CHILDREN, NAGGING PARENTS, SPO– USES THAT LIVE IN A BUBBLE, PREGNANT WOMEN, AND PEOPLE WITH HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE!)

Nycklendyme Syndrome

As I mentioned previous, this can be a very serious disease, usually brought on by “cute kids” that you just can’t say no to. If you have “cute kids”, you may want to check your bank account and see if the Oompa-Loompas have gotten to it as well.

They say 9 out of 10 people with children have some form of Nycklendyme Syndrome. The 1 out of 10 people who do not fall prey to this HORRIBLE disease has what we refer to in the industry as a “budget”. This is another type of disease altogether, and these people usually have the magic powers of putting people to sleep at cocktail parties.

This disease progresses slowly. As you age, your income usually increases, and instep with your increasing income, so does Nycklendyme. It may start out as innocently as Medium Timmy’s Coffee and maybe a quick trip to the dollar store. In its final stages, it looks like a university degree coupled with a Venti Skinny Vanilla Latte from Starbucks twice a day, and a Coach Handbag or designer jeans for good measure. It definitely gets worse over time.

Another sign that you might have Nycklendyme Syndrome is that you occasionally may look like this:

Nycklendyme Face

 

or this…….

Anxiety Image

NOT TO PANIC!!!! There is a solution – and no it is NOT a “BUDGET”. We already decided we weren’t going to be “those people”.

There is a super easy way to rid yourself of Nycklendyme Syndrome. You will need to meet up with your local Certified Cashflow Specialist for your prescription.

However, if you can’t make it to your CCS today, then start with this simple tip.

Take out your allocated spending amount for the week in cold hard CASH and keep your cards at home!

This will instantly alleviate most of the Nycklendyme Syndrome and make sure you aren’t mindlessly overspending.

BOTTOM LINE: Nycklendyme is a real disease that affects millions of people and millions of dollars every day. Please help us put an end to Nycklendyme – make sure to know where your money is and where it’s going, before it affects you too!

Coach.

The #1 Lesson I Learned My First Year of Business

Happy Birthday Ellements Group

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY ELLEMENTS GROUP!

I had a lightning bolt moment a few months back. Probably around month 8 in my first year of business. I realized I was not selling anything. Totally frustrated because I have not made any money online, then I realized (because I am the genius that I am)…… I have nothing to sell. No, seriously, I actually have been running this business now for a year, and I have really nothing to sell!

Last year when I was in New York launching this business, I made a bet to myself that in a couple years my business would be cash flowing over a mil a year.

Guess what!?!

When you don’t have any products to sell, it’s going to be KINDA hard to make a million.

Okay, so before you think I’m a total dipshit, I must clarify, I do have many “products/services” to sell, just haven’t totally finished them yet….

And, no, I’m not a procrastinator at all, I’m just your regular entrepreneur with a gazillion ideas, and go in a million different directions at once.

Now the real miracle here is how I stay in business after one year with ZERO profits. Well, that’s easy. My regular financial planning biz pays all the bills on this biz. However, technically Ellements Group would be at least $20,000 in the hole this year (versus being at a flat zero, like it is right now.) if it wasn’t for my other business that I’ve built up over the last 16 years.

I’m happy to admit this. I am in great company by the way. 15% of all start-ups fail in the first year, and 50% of businesses have hit the hay before year five in Canada anyways. YIKES!!

So, if you’ve been reading my blog this last year, don’t be surprised if this year I try to sell you something, which will most likely be my book that will be out in a few months, among other amazing financial stuff I’ve been busy creating.

To let you know how much work goes into a website like this, let me tell you. I have spent over 1000 hours (for free – love child) on this website, building my platform, images, logo, back office, my entire WordPress site from scratch and all the lovely plug-ins, material, e-books, advertising, online courses and the list goes go on and on because I have done this puppy myself. By the way, this is HUGELY satisfying and I’m extremely proud of myself.

Last year, I mastered this whole online thing. This year, I’ve thrown myself into the self-publishing world. I like to play with the big dogs (which is really more like throwing myself to the wolves!) Go BIG or go home, right?!

Again, I’m not a total idiot since I do have an effing brilliant business plan and platform I am creating. I do realize this stuff doesn’t happen overnight. Writing a book alone and self-publishing it has taken over 3 years and thousands of dollars.

In case you were wondering – Yes, it is hard to run Ellements Group in my spare time after I’m done dealing with the demands of clients, kids and life. Luckily, I have lots of amazing help with all of this.

There’s also something I will tell you and the biggest most important part of this story. I’m not giving up.

YOU CAN’T GIVE UP ON THE PASSION AND DESIRES THAT HAVE BEEN GIVEN TO YOU FOR A REASON.

Quitting would be like dying. Stopping would be like stopping to breath. It’s a part of me. Sure, it may change shape and form a million times over, but it’s always a part of me, the biggest part of me and why I’m here.

Furthermore, I’ve poured every extra dollar into this business or my book, it’s okay. I made it through. Honestly, there’s something to be said about making it through your first year of business virtually unscathed. I’ve failed at many ideas this year and they are just leading me to what will work.

So, with that said, I’m going to take my amazing assistant out for lunch today, and we are going to celebrate with cake – but I will tell you right now, Ellements Group petty cash won’t be buying! 🙂

BOTTOM LINE: You gotta sell something. You gotta sell something!

P.S. I’m just getting started….

Coach.

How To Fly

How to Fly

“How do you keep your feet on the ground when you were born to fly?” – Sara Evans

I’m learning this. I have had my wing-trainers on, figuratively speaking, and have been a FIT (Flyer-In-Training) since I was 20. I know it takes pilots like 1,500 hours or something to become a professional pilot, however, I’m in hour 12,387 and I still have yet to leave the classroom or take off.

It’s like I’m missing the secret or I was sick they day the handed out the magic wings at school and have been left in the pixie dust ever since.

I was asked to give an empowering talk tomorrow for some amazing ladies. After doing my research, I realized that I know how to fly, but I’ve kept myself grounded for all these years.

Me. Myself. All my fault. All my responsibility.

I thought the secret to flying was persistence. I thought it was repetition. After all, it took Edison over 10,000 times to create the lightbulb, right?!

I have that! I have persistence and I work very hard! However, Edison and all the people flying around my head had something I didn’t.

It’s actually way easier than how crazy hard I’ve been making it out to be all these years.

It’s about trust.

It’s about trusting your gut.

It’s about trusting your instinct.

It’s about trusting your intuition.

It’s about TRUSTING YOURSELF!

ALWAYS!  FULLY! 100% COMPLETELY!

This means: DON’T LET THE OUTSIDE WORLD TELL YOU ANY DIFFERENT!

This means: DON’T LET WELL MEANING PARENTS, SPO– USE, KIDS, SISTERS, BROTHERS, COACHES, COUNSELLORS, BOSSES, CO-WORKERS, and FRIENDS TELL YOU ANY DIFFERENT!

This means: YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE WHO NEEDS TO APPROVE AND TRUST AND BE IN LOVE WITH YOUR IDEAS for your business, for your body, for your life, for your money, for your investments, for your relationships, for your education, for your travels, for your home.

And trust me when I say this is HARD because the world will still throw out their opinions on your life, even when you have not requested they do so.

Are you trusting yourself or relying on others for their opinions about your life or your choices?

When I started writing my book, I had to trust myself without doubt. I was told by a few people not to do it for various reasons. One well-meaning friend told me that she wouldn’t be able to watch me ridiculed or criticized by other people in our industry. I haven’t had to deal with the ridicule or criticism yet but welcome it when it comes my way. I’m also super good with my book, because I didn’t write it for other professional advisors – I wrote it for people who didn’t know the first thing about money or financial planning and want to get their financial life in order – and after you read my book, you will realize, it’s really not a money book at all (spoiler alert!). And even if the whole world hates it, ‘my book is better than the book you haven’t written.’ (I heard that line yesterday and totally loved it!)

So how do you fly? You have to trust yourself beyond question, beyond all doubt. You have to trust yourself day in and day out and never give up on yourself and the ideas, dreams, and plans you have made for yourself.

Don’t give your personal power to the opinions of others – no matter how well-meaning. 

BOTTOM LINE: If you look at your life and your dreams right now, do you think that the only thing holding you back from letting those dreams, ideas, goals, plans take flight is TRUST IN YOURSELF?

Coach.

4 Things I Learned From Running the Race

Run the Race

On Saturday, June 4, 2016, I ran a 10km race.

Poorly. Unrefined. Awkward. Flailing. You get the idea.

However, I walked away (okay, so it was more of a crawl) from that run with some great insights on life that hit me in the face, kinda like the pavement at the end of the race… so I share:

1. You Have to Keep A Leader to Follow

I can’t lie. I was in a bad mood before I started the race because they said the participants could not wear headphones. I freaked out. THAT IS MY SECRET SAUCE to running long distances: Music. Getting lost in slow country songs. No, Yeah, I’m weird. But I’ve learned high vibe songs wear me out super fast, and after all, I’m running longer distances, so I listen to slower paced, deep feeling and deep thinking songs, usually about lost love, lost dogs and lost trucks. It works for me, helps me keep the pace, and above all, helps me not hear myself breath. Yup, that’s the real secret. Music loud enough that I can’t hear myself be out of breath which tricks my brain into thinking that I’m not actually working hard or out of breath. Naturally, having to run without music was crappy; I had to improvise. So, I picked a lead. A leader to follow with my eye who was just about 5 feet ahead of me that I could keep up to and follow and if that leader dropped out or fell behind, I picked a new leader.

Life is similar that way. You have to have AMAZING leaders in your life every day. Someone to follow. And now, with books, audiobooks, podcasts, blogs, etc.  You really can have amazing, brilliant, successful leaders speak into your life all the time.

2. You Have to Train

Not only do you have to train, but you have to take responsibility for your training or lack of training! Let’s be real. Last year, I ran a half-marathon and this year, I can barely run 10 km. Yup, you got it. Lack of daily training. Somewhere after my half-marathon, I stopped training and running. Use it or lose it, right?! And so, you have to keep on keeping on, even when you forget one day, you gotta get back on the horse. I take full responsibility for my lack of training and probably came in close to last. So, next time, I need to up my game and keep training.

Life is similar that way. You have to keep doing the small little things every day to maintain continuity and grow. It’s the small little consistent actions that you need to take every day to achieve results with your business, your health, your relationships, everything – including your finances!

3. You Have to Keep Going

When all else fails, and you feel like giving up, you need to keep going.  Tell yourself whatever BULLSH*T you need to to keep going, but keep going. Don’t give up, don’t stop. When you are in the middle of the race it feels like you will never see the finish line, but then magically it appears. You will reach your goals. You will finish the race. You will be stronger for it. This week in business, and even during the race, I had moments where I felt like throwing in the towel. I think we all do, but obviously, the people that make it across the finish line (the WINNERS) kept going.

Life is similar that way. Keep going and finish the race strong. Reaffirm daily, hourly, moment-by-moment positive affirmations to make it through the inevitable SH*T SANDWICHES you will have to eat to get to where you want to go. (Read more about Sh*t Sandwiches in Elizabeth Gilbert’s book, Big Magic – best book for any creative soul!) P.S. The same goes for your finances, you have to keep going!

4. You Have to Show Up

Not everybody shows up to the race. As a runner in the race, you feel like it’s you and the whole world. Truth be told, just for showing up (even if you walk the WHOLE WAY 😉 ) you are a FREAKIN’ WINNER! Why? Becuase most people are too lazy to get out of bed on a Saturday morning to put in the effort to get their butts to the race and actually run the freakin’ race! (Clearly, you can see I’m passionate about this point, more so in real life than for actually running, however, I do know that if I can do this, so can you!)

I was running the race and even though I was not in first place – or even close – I didn’t care. I felt like a million dollars that day. My body loved me. I was running on a gorgeous sunny day, taking in my town, with a BIG SMILE on my face, and I was proud of myself. I could have stayed home on the couch. I could have slept in.

Life is similar that way. It’s true when they say 90% of success is just showing up. In my town of 26,000 people, 400 people showed up to run the race. That’s 1.5%. Okay, so I’m not really saying everyone is lazy, but I’m trying to prove this point: the ladder of success really isn’t crowded at the top! (Thanks Napolean for that quote!)

My point is this: even though it feels hard, and feels like “everybody” everything is competition, it really isn’t that way in reality. Just remember there is no real competition in the world. The sooner you embrace that, the sooner you know that everybody can win. The world can really be a win-win-win-win-win ad infinitum place to live and thrive and everybody can cross the finish line to the race they set out to win.

BOTTOM LINE: Find a great leader to follow, don’t forget to train, never give up and keep going, and don’t forget to SHOW UP!

Coach.

Kiddies Business

Kids Money Business

On the weekend, we had 25 family and friends over for a beautiful Sunday afternoon BBQ. My oldest daughter decided she would take this opportunity to make a quick buck and became quite the entrepreneur (the whole apple/tree thing!) and was charging people to take a tour of her messy room! So after my initial horrified laughter (parents know it well), I was told that she was charging $1 for a single tour and if you paid her $2 you received a “Forever Pass” to tour my daughter’s bedroom for the rest of your days. Seems fair right?! Again, horrified laughter. Taking money from our guests kinda goes against everything I believe about hosting a party! #parentfail

Although, I really do have to say, I was impressed with the upsell – I can probably learn a thing or 2 from my daughter. A) Sell relentlessly! Kids really are great at this – they always seem to get what they want. B) Once you sell, then upsell.

I also have to admit, my daughter made more money than me this weekend, so that made me proud, to say the least. I totally encourage all forms of commerce, even if it is robbing our guests of ALL the change in their wallets. YIKES! I wonder if anyone will ever come over to our house again?!

BOTTOM LINE: Making money is easier than you think. Don’t get in the way of yourself. Don’t overcomplicate it. Keep asking for the sale!

Invest.

Why You Need A PPM

Let’s call a Kate Spade a Kate Spade. Most of us only have time for work, a glass of wine with our girlfriends, chocolate, shopping and the occasional Netflix binge. Anything else just does not make it into our schedule (or we at least wish it didn’t make it into our schedule).

This lack of time (and let’s be real…for most of us…lack of interest) is why you need to have a Professional Portfolio Manager (PPM) and team. Typically the bigger the fund companies are, the better they can research the crap out of companies to find the price discrepancies, anomalies, or flat out to take advantage of stocks that are mispriced to bring you value as an investor.

I do believe there is a place for passive investing, or in other words index funds or Exchange Traded Funds (ETF’s) which follow an index for a reduced management fee, which we will talk about another week (I know – you just can’t wait!). However, there is always going to be a place for active management, meaning real people on the ground doing the work and face to face research of the companies they are investing in, versus just following what the market crowd is doing.

I think this chart demonstrates the simple value that professional portfolio managers offer.

The Stock Universe
See the mountain of stocks in the world? Did you even know there are over 48,000 stocks one would have to sort through? However most people (no, not really most people, but the people in the industry or part-time investors), media, funds, etc, focus on the top 275 – 500 companies in the stock world and to be sure every bank and almost everyone in the money world has researched the bejeebers out of the top 500 companies. Trust me, the market is very efficient, and to make up alpha (meaning to make returns over and above the market) on those companies is very difficult. Money is made when markets are inefficient, or when a company is growing, adding value, and no one has really noticed yet, or there is some underlying factor that has kept its price low. A good PPM will find these opportunities and exploit them on your behalf.

We know time is money and money is time, so it does pay to have a fund company with the capital to do this research and that includes the people, the eyes and ears on the ground in countries around the world doing research on the other 48,000. This is where you typically get your biggest bang for your buck. Historically speaking, small and mid-cap stocks (meaning smaller and medium sized companies) have out preformed most large cap stocks, although they can be very volatile (go up and down like crazy…if you don’t like roller-coasters – you won’t be able to stomach these for the most part!)

Who has time to research 48,000 companies? So this is why you hire a team of people who do the research for you and pick up those trades you don’t have time for.

BOTTOM LINE: You need to hire a professional portfolio manager so you can live the life you were meant to live and not be stuck at some desk doing boring ASSets research work and do more important things, like drinking wine with girlfriends!

Money Mindset.

24 Must Ask Money Honey Questions

This is it! The love gods have spoken. It’s time you and your ‘lovey dovey’ get serious about where you are heading financially – and this is the hardest conversation to have with your partner!

So, I’ve created the Money Honey Talk!

CLICK HERE and download these 24 Must Ask Money Honey Questions for Couples!

I do advise you go through these questions slowly (like one per day or per year if emotions flare) or if you don’t want to sit down and have a hard talk, then just do what I do and randomly throw these questions into everyday conversation, such as:

Honey, can you pass the chicken, and tell me how you feel about our money situation?

And BOOM!  A colourful dinner conversation has begun.

Don’t be hard on yourself if it takes you 50 years to get through all of these! 😉

WARNING: IF YOU DO WANT TO GO THROUGH ALL THE QUESTIONS IN ONE SITTING, YOU MAY WANT TO DO THIS IN A PUBLIC PLACE – JUST TO BE ON THE SAFE SIDE!

PS.  If you want more great money tools for FREE, check out Wealthy Woman Insights!

WEALTHY WOMAN INSIGHTS {FREE}

Invest.

Markets Go Up!

What's Up

Last weekend, I attended what we in the industry call a “due diligence conference”, and although that may be code (and is) for fantastic wine and fine dining, which could only rival my eating and drinking my way through Europe at 18, I was not there for the food or the wine this time. (Not after my last conference fiasco eating and drinking extravaganza, which you can read about here!)

I sometimes (mostly) sit at meetings and find myself totally bored, usually because there’s a certain type of personality (or lack thereof) that is called into this business of numbers, and I think it usually has more to do with the flat monotone sound that my ears aren’t accustom to and I find peacefully soothing – this after coming from a house of screaming kids. So, naturally, one can find themselves after an entire day of these types of meetings in a zen type zone…..

However, this time, that was not me! I took more notes than ever before because we are in a super interesting financial time. So I want to go back to some of these basics over the next few weeks to help frame up some crazy misconceptions that go on in our heads about the global economy, equities (stocks), mutual funds, and the bottom line on some basics that keep getting distorted from our various media outlets, be it social media, news media, print media, etc. At the end of the day, you need to always sort the facts from the opinions, and trust me, when it comes to markets and investments in general, it is all opinions. We trade on opinions. We make money and lose money on opinions. And the sooner you can learn that and remember that, you will be better off in the long run!

Today, I want to share with you the first of these misconceptions.

Markets go up more than they go down, although, for so many investors, it FEELS like it’s always going down. (Usually for people who don’t really have a solid plan in place to let logic trump emotion.)

It really makes perfectly logical sense. Our world, the universe, as we know it, is always expanding. Life seeks to grow and evolve. No one wants to decline; no one wants to rollover and play dead. So, WE (collective humanity) live and grow and in doing so, so does our world, economies, businesses, and families.

So why do people think that the “stock market” is always going to crash and never recover? That means that we (as the people of the world who are the buyers and sellers of the companies we trade) feel that everything we’ve ever built on earth is worthless!?! It’s not going to happen! (Trust me, when the world does end you won’t care about your portfolio – I always say this to my clients. I’m very reassuring!)

Cycles will happen, but that’s because of other issues that need to be sorted out, and it’s really just the natural ebb and flow of businesses like life, with the ups and downs, doesn’t mean it’s all going to hell-in-a-hand-basket.

Check out this chart from Bloomberg. Markets go up three times more than they go down. Well, this is true of the S&P 500 anyways.  (The S&P 500 is the Standard & Poor’s (a rating/analysis agency) top 500 stocks in the American economy based on market capitalization (or basically the largest 500 publicly traded companies and based on a few other factors) which forms an index and benchmark we use as one of the leading indicators to measure growth, among other factors.)

Markets Do Go Up

 

BOTTOM LINE: Markets go up more than they go down. Also, another reason why you need to have a good portfolio manager to manage the downside risk, and stay invested for the long haul.

 

Invest.

High Frequency Trading Needs Wine

High Frequency Trading

Have you ever been on a wine tour and by your 10th or 20th ‘sample’ glass of wine, you totally forget you’re there to ‘sample’ wine? Then soon after things start moving fast, too fast, and you get a ‘headache’?!  (Yes, I know you have NO idea what I am talking about!)

Enter: High Frequency Trading

Similar to a room spinning outta control is High Frequency Trading.

What is High Frequency Trading?

Investopedia says it best I think:

High frequency trading is an automated trading platform used by large investment banks, hedge funds and institutional investors which utilizes powerful computers to transact a large number of orders at extremely high speeds.

Okay, maybe Investopedia is too technical for you.  Here is my definition of High Frequency Trading:

High frequency trading is a way for banks, hedge funds, pensions, or people and organizations with gazillions of dollars which have the ability to sneak in one or multiple trades in the time it takes you to hit enter on your stock trade to the time your order has been filled, usually seconds, using super high tech computers and servers, and capitalize on the slower-average computer trades. In other words, they have the ability to cheat the system in a legal kinda way by budding in line a few times before you get your order in.

So what does this mean for you?

If you don’t do online stock trading or investing at all, then this means absolutely nothing!

(You can quit reading, have a glass of wine, and pat yourself on the back for learning a new word today!)

If you purchase mutual funds, then you have the huge organizations moving tons of money with the aim to make money on your side and they are usually big enough that high frequency trading does not affect them (or honestly, some may be utilizing high frequency trading).

Good, bad or ugly, high frequency trading is a real thing, although what negates this whole conversation is if you don’t have any money invested or if you invest for the long term. In other words, if you buy and hold quality companies in your portfolio, then the high frequency trading really shouldn’t do too much damage to your portfolio, unlike people who trade personally and more frequently.

However if you do online trade, you need to be aware of this if you are placing market orders and learn more about it. (If you trade, you know what I’m talking about. I’ll save the stock trading course for someone else to teach!)

BOTTOM LINE: High frequency trading is something to be aware of if you are trading for yourself, however, if you are buying and holding stocks or quality investments long term, then it shouldn’t affect you over the long run.