I've had two events recently in my personal life that have taught me about clarity. One is a personal civil war, the other a household chore.

 

My personal civil war is with the blackberry bushes. The uniforms of the two sides are easy to spot. One is scratches, bleeding gashes and torn clothing. The other is gawd-awful thorns.

 

It felt like me against the blackberries. They really do multiply in the dark (actually in the sunlight) and they've had many years to get very aggressive and feel like this was their land.

 

Strangely enough, I feel like the land is mine, so the civil war began. It started last year when I was in one of these blackberry thickets trying to pick berries. I got the berries, but not without giving a pint of blood and ruining a pair of jeans.

 

So this year, my friend and I thought it would be strategic to eliminate some of the enemy holdings, and get the bushes into a much smaller territory. That's when the war began.

 

My clarity came in knowing that the thorns are going to get me, even with leather gloves, long pants and heavy shoes. But I will win with the reduction of enemy blackberry territory. Okay, I can live with that.

 

The second piece of clarity was just that...I was cleaning windows. It seemed like the windows hadn't been cleaned for some time, because I found paint spatter from when the house was last painted - several years ago. I was armed with utility razor, step stool, cleaning products and determination.

 

If you've ever tried to clean windows by yourself, you find that it is a back-and-forth prospect because you can't see the streaks and missed spots until you look at it from the other side. And then there are the gruesome screens that need cleaning and never seem to go back in the way they come out.

 

It took me hours to get two-thirds of the windows clean on the ground floor.

 

Here's the clarity: it was SOOOO worth it. I didn't realize how dirty the windows were until they were clean again. It brought the beauty of the summer outdoors right into the house.

 

So here's why I'm mentioning clarity...the second money gremlin that I'm talking about in today's article below is the Gremlin of Vagueness. This is another example of how you don't know what you're missing until you see it clearly, like with the window cleaning exercise I went through above. I hope you find something useful in these tips for gremlin extermination.

 

A note to all you Facebook enthusiasts: I'm still looking for 100 likes on my Brossmoney page. If you happen to be on Facebook looking at posts and pictures, please take a minute to scoot to my Brossmoney page and click Like. I made the 100 likes a goal and would love your help in achieving it. Thank you.

 

And thank you to all my new subscribers. I appreciate your readership, and I trust that you'll be able to find the pointers you're looking for to improve your money life however you want it to change. If I'm missing an arena of information that you're interested in, please let me know.

 

So, back to window cleaning and nasty blackberry thorns. I hope your summer is providing you with many windows of clarity, too.

 

Until next time,

 

By Susan Bross, Financial Counselor and Money  Coach 

This disarming gremlin is hidden in the wrappings of vagueness. "You don't know what you don't know"...how could that be a problem?

 

That's just what The Vagueness Gremlin wants you to think. But there are unmistakable symptoms of this gremlin at work in your life. My clients describe consequences like missed bills, late charges, higher interest rates, overdrafts, grumpy spouses and a lingering sense of discomfort and anxiety about their finances. Since I believe that finances don't need to be stressful or struggle-laden, I see these as significant signs of the gremlin of vagueness at work.

 

The other interesting this about this particular  gremlin is that it can be subtle. I hear from clients that they have their money on Quicken or Quickbooks or mint.com or some other recording/tracking mechanism, and it still doesn't seem to work.

 

I also hear that their money worked fine until the bonus didn't get paid, or the commission was paid late, or that there are only three months a year when it doesn't work but that seems to throw off the rest of the year. Yes, this gremlin is subtle and cunning.

 

So how do you outwit the clever and sneaky Vagueness Gremlin? Here are some thoughts:

• If you are using a recording or tracking mechanism, it will only be of value if you analyze it. Are you spending what you think you're spending? It helps if you have the items well categorized, so you can see your total food costs at a glance, for instance, rather than groceries in one location, then restaurants in another, with snacks on its own at the bottom of the list.
• Most people know their fixed expenses pretty well, but are a little vague on the flexible monthly expenses and the more irregular/non-monthly expenses. One of my clients, Beth (not her real name), was vaguely aware of her kids asking her for money all month long. We were talking about allowances, so I asked her to track the $20s she was handing out for a month. She was shocked to find that it was over $300. That's an amount of money that can throw off one's sense of discretionary income.
• You'll find you need to walk through your fear about knowing. The last client I heard this from, Peter (pseudonym) said that he was afraid that if he looked he would find he couldn't do anything "fun" again. The reality was that because of not looking he was paying late fees and accelerated interest rates which really were stealing the "fun" money. Looking gives you time to find the best solutions. Not looking leaves you with "a rock and a hard place" because by the time you deal with whatever it is, the choices have diminished. The power is in knowing.
• Look to see if victimization is a part of this. If you don't feel powerful or in charge of your money, the habit of not looking at it in a timely manner is a set-up for victimizing yourself in your own wallet. This is probably not a conscious intention, but it can be operating below the surface. You work hard for that money. You can be its master not its victim.

The most powerful steps are to unmask this gremlin by choosing to track your expenses and deal with what you find. If that isn't a natural thing for you, or if you want to have company in that particular Gremlin's lair, I am an expert at detangling and revealing the facts and figures about your finances with compassion and excitement.

 

The compassion is because I've been there. I too have been a victim to my own finances. The excitement is about knowing how much better being masterful about your money feels. For me it changed how I viewed the world and how the world viewed me.

 

Call me. Email me. I'm here to be your guide and  support to create a stress-free and gremlin-free money life.

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