Getting out of your own way financially

Listen to my interview with Stacey Shipman, host of Back to Your Sense's Podcast, about the 4 step process I use to empower professional women to make peace with money and earn more.

The four steps are:

1. Your financial "her"story: Discovering your thoughts and beliefs about money that impact earnings
2. The Stages of Financial Change: Understanding these stages and identifying where you are in relation to your current money goals.
3. Setting Your Personal Wealth Intentions: What do you want the future to look like in terms of revenue and lifestyle
4. Your customized wealth building system: Setting up a system to achieve your financial goals

What gets in your way financially?

Are you one of America's 15,000,000 Shopaholics?

According to April Benson, Ph.D., author of the new book, To Buy or Not to Buy: Why We Overshop and How to Stop, we are a nation of shopaholics! How do you know if you are one? Answer these questions and find out:

1. Do you use shopping as a quick fix for the blues?
2. Do you spend more than you can afford?
3. Are some of your purchases unused or hidden?
4. Do you feel guilty or ashamed about this behavior?
5. Have your attempts to change been unsuccessful?

If so, then this book and one of Benson's many group programs may be for you.

I recently had the honor of talking with April on the phone and learning more about her work with compulsive over shoppers. Her warmth and passion about helping women with this problem was clear from the beginning of our call. We talked about the tight economy and how some of us have stopped excessive shopping while others have not. It is those of you out there that have tried but feel compelled to do the behavior that need to read this book.

Just like any behavior with the help of a trained professional (and Dr. Benson has many years and credentials to prove she is not only highly trained but a ground breaker in this area) you can change.

In my work as a money coach, I run into professional women who make more money so they can shop more. If you are making money only to spend it, then it is time to look at your money scripts and do some internal work around the purpose and meaning of money in your life. It is a perfect time with what is going on in the world to examine your relationship with money, shopping and figure out if your retail therapy habit has gone too far. Got to Dr. Benson's website and learn more about the path to recovery. She has a developed a 12 week program that really works!

Do you know someone who is a compulsive shopper? How has it impacted your relationship with this person? Only by talking about how we use and abuse money can we heal as a nation. Feel free to share anoynomously if that helps you take the risk in opening up about your shopping habits.