Meet Your Coach
Get to know Pam.the Backstory
How we got here.
I started investing in the stock market when I was 11. I worked (very) part-time in my parents’ car repair and parts shop, and 90% of every paycheck went into my investment account. I was so proud of the $3,000 I’d saved by the time I went away to college.
I majored in Finance thanks to that early introduction to financial management. At 17 years old, I was convinced that I would be a stockbroker. But by the time I graduated when I was 20, I knew that the high-stress world of financial markets wasn’t for me. So, I pivoted into corporate accounting where I was able to apply my formal training to doing cash flow analysis and budget projections for tech startups before the first bubble burst.
While doing accounting at a marketing agency, I got the advertising bug and transitioned again to a new field. I spent the next 18 years becoming an expert in digital marketing – first at agencies, then as a consultant and business owner. My position as a consultant allowed me to work with and mentor people in all types of positions and I realized that most people just aren’t good with money. We’re not good at managing it, we’re not good at talking about it, and we’re not good at asking for what we need.
While I was realizing this about everyone else, it was true for me too. I’d been through two economic recessions, eight months of unemployment, and two tech bubble bursts. I’d even had to cash out those investments I’d been holding since I was 11 just to pay my rent. I’d also been making bad financial decisions for years which left me with thousands of dollars in credit card debt, no assets, and no plan for retirement, despite already being 35 years old.
I decided it was time to get it together, so when a friend mentioned she liked the software she was using to budget (You Need a Budget, aka YNAB) I signed up for it, too. I used it for two years without really changing anything about how I managed my money. I just categorized and tracked my expenses but didn’t do anything with the information.
I was stuck in a cycle of “getting organized and on track,” and then binge spending on clothes and other things I could justify as necessities. I never hit any of my savings goals, so I felt anxious about how much money I had and guilty about what I was spending. But I kept spending.
After a couple of years, I started using micro-budgets, which YNAB encourages. This technique dramatically changed how I handled necessary expenses and saving for future goals, which was a big step in taking control of my financial future. But, it didn’t stop me from spending when I “didn’t mean to,” so I still wasn’t hitting my goals.
I started learning why we are the way we are with money and discovered that I’d been putting pressure on myself to meet goals that weren’t realistic and that my budget didn’t meet my personal needs. It took me years to peel back all of the layers of money stories I’d developed and all of the guilt I had about how I should be good with money because of my education. It also took years for me to learn that I could have a budget that met my long-term goals while still making me happy now.
Now I’m debt-free (except a mortgage), on track for retirement, and have shopping for clothes built into my budget because clothes make me happy. I know my bills are covered every month, I know my savings goals are funded, and I know when I can treat myself without guilt or worry. Getting here didn’t require having a stricter budget or a more complex system. It required understanding my motivations, financial values, money trauma, triggers, deep needs, unexpressed desires, and fully understanding myself because money doesn’t exist in a vacuum.
Learning all of that required a lot of soul-searching, reading, and digging through advice that just didn’t apply to me. So I created Not Bad With Money Coaching to provide custom, personal budget coaching that will give you the advice you need for your situation, not generic advice based on someone else’s experience. I don’t want people to be anxious and worried about money for as long as I was so I developed a program that will accelerate your transformation and so you can get on track to where you want to be in six months instead of six years.
If you want to hear more about my approach to personal development and education, check out my podcast Not Bad Advice. If you’re ready to take control of your money story, click the button below.
Change Your Money Story
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Budget Coaching
You Can Do This
It’s time to be Not Bad With Money!
We all have money stories but being bad with money is a story you can stop telling yourself. Whatever your experience has been with money so far, you can change how you’ll experience the flow of money in the future.
Through a combination of practical tactics, mindset shifts, and intuitive guidance, Not Bad With Money coaching can help you achieve any financial goal including:
- Getting out of debt
- Saving for retirement
- Eliminating your money anxiety
- Creating (and following) a budget
- Discovering how you sabotage your own success (and how to stop)
Start the process:
Get in touch with Pam to schedule a free, no obligation intro call to learn more.
If you want more information, want to have an introductory call with me, or are ready to get started, fill out this form. There’s no obligation and I won’t spam you with a bunch of emails.