Feng Shui Your Financial House and Never Break a New Year’s Resolution Again

My friend Claudia Mott, a fee-only certified financial planner, former Wall Street strategist, and stellar human being told me something that had me falling out of my chair.

She said that the number two New Year’s resolution, after getting fit, was getting one’s money shit together. I had no idea so many of us feel so inadequate in the personal finance department, but it makes total sense.

Think of the witticism “You can never be too rich or too thin”, attributed to various high society dames, but first mentioned in a 1963 Harper’s Bazaar article titled “High Living on Low Calories” 🤦🏻‍♀️. 

I can’t even.

How do we even start unshaming ourselves from the brainwashing we’ve received about our bodies or our net worth for eons?

Then, while I was waxing philosophical, Claudia dropped another thought bomb 💣 🤯. 

She doesn’t mess around, that one.

Financial fitness may be #2 in popularity but it is El Supremo, Numero Uno when it comes to broken resolutions.

Yup, you got that right.

It’s the second most popular resolution, but it’s THE FIRST ONE TO BE BROKEN.

Let that sink in.

In January, gyms are more crowded than sardine cans, as people try to make good on their promises. Whether it is injury by zealotry, an unsustainable pace, or because in their heart of hearts they didn’t really want to change, people head back to their couches within a month.

To paraphrase Mary Poppins, getting fit is a piecrust promise. Easily made, easily broken. No surprise there.

Still, I was shocked to learn that giving up on healthy money habits happens before canceling the gym membership, grabbing that bag of Oreos, and throwing out the 27 grapefruits you bought for that fad diet.

Call me naive for not knowing, but hold my beer anyway.

Because I am not going to stand by and do nothing.

Here’s the thing.

You are not a loser for quitting. You don’t need resolutions. You just need a better plan.

So let’s combat financial flabbiness and broken resolutions at the same time, because none of us are losers.

We are going to do this now, before the New Year, so you can watch the ball drop in Times Square and feel smug because you ALREADY HAVE YOUR SHIT TOGETHER and have no resolutions to make and then break.

Grim determination is not needed here. If it’s fun you’ll get it done.

So let’s play “Feng Shui-ing Our Financial House.”

Why will embracing the principles of Feng Shui get our money mojo back?

For one it gives us a different mental model of our finances, making us more open-minded and creative.

For another, it believes that removing obstacles to the flow of Qi, the energy animating the universe, brings good fortune into our lives.

Chart of the Inner Landscape (1886)

Feng Shui believes a harmonious environment is not only inviting to good fortune but allows it to flow freely and multiply. Good circulation and being in right relationship with your lived environment makes you feel grounded, at ease with yourself and with uncertainty. 

What I love about Feng Shui is that it provides solutions to obstacles. It doesn’t require perfect conditions. Through the strategic deployment of mirrors, mobiles, plants, and fish, you can fix most anything.

Stewarding your wealth also does not require perfection, but it does require action.

What money and Qi have in common is a need to flow. In money’s case, action is the invitation.

Let’s face it.

Financial planning is not fun when it means you download every stupid purchase you made, calculate every hot stock tip that went sour, confront your ignorance of complex topics, or need to plan your death.

This hot mess of failure, fear, and dread creates paralysis – it’s the match made in hell between shame and overwhelm.  

Of course you have also done all sorts of smart money things – invested in yourself by getting new skills, maxing out your 401K contributions, and diversifying your portfolio. 

You just don’t remember them, because you listen to the asshole in your head who’s always telling you it’s disappointed and you aren’t living up to your potential and what’s WRONG with you anyway.

Congratulations. You’re human.

But you don’t need to be bullied into paralysis by that voice in your head.

Stagnation breeds dis-ease, decay and all-around funkiness. All that stuckness you have around getting your money affairs in order is generated by all the undone tasks that are guilting you right now into inaction. 

So let’s just focus on the ONE most useful thing you can do about your money – getting rid of the mental clutter that blocks its flow.

So let’s declutter your money house.

1. A place for everything and everything in its place.

Decide how you’re going to organize your money admin, whether it’s in digital files or analog cabinets. And if you don’t have an expense and net worth tracker like Mint, get one. It’s way more fun than downloading bank and credit card statements manually into excel spreadsheets.

When things are easy to find and are automated, the money inertia that needs to be overcome vanishes, as does the cognitive load.

Rather than make 10 small decisions, make ONE big decision by automating your money tasks like transferring funds into savings or investment accounts. Any decision from “Do I sell my house?” to “Should I tie my shoelaces?” is taxing on the brain. So minimize the cognitive tax and automate, automate, automate.

2. Jot down every wealth-related task you’ve been avoiding.

I came up with 20 things on my financial to-do some of which have been lingering for months *cough* years. These range from needing to write up a six-figure loan I made to a willing-to-help-me-bury-a-body level friend (Don’t ever do this! Do the paperwork BEFORE lending money) to canceling a duplicate NY Times subscription.

Sit down and do a mind dump of all your financial open loops.

Once they’re out of your head and on paper, you’ll feel oodles better because you’ll have freed up so much energetic bandwidth.

3. Prioritize and then break them down into teeny steps.

Sometimes we don’t do a task because it looms as large as the Empire State building. We forget how easily we can get to the top if we break it down into 1,860 steps and take each stair one at a time.

Take a minute to break the giant task meatballs down into the next smallest step required to make progress (e.g. if you need to update your will, the next step might be to call your lawyer. Or ask three of your most financially buttoned-up friends who their lawyers are and why they’d recommend them). 

This is the #1 thing that stops us – we don’t know where to start. Just start anywhere. A nano action is always better than no action. 

4. Pick 3 “next smallest steps” to do next week. 

Two that are top priority, and one that is easy to cross of the list. Keep the bar low, my friend. Don’t pick the three thorniest, most complicated financial priorities. You want to have wins along the way to keep you going.

If you do this week after week, your financial house will pass any white glove test. There’ll be no money dust kittens lurking under the couch.

Next, let’s take a quick spin through your financial house and see if there’s anything you missed.

Do not be put off by the following list of questions. It’s meant to be helpful, not to be overwhelming.

The kitchen is the place from which our nourishment comes:

Does anyone owe you money? Can you collect?

Is your income higher or lower than the year before? Do you know why?

Do you need to negotiate a raise?

Do you need to explore other jobs?

Do you want a side hustle?

Are your investments invested in a way to maximize your well-being?

Do you have a plan for retirement?

The bathroom is where waste goes down the drain:

Are you generally keeping track of your expenses? No need to track every penny. It’s easy to worry about the four-dollar lattes, but expense tracking is not about deprivation or policing but making sure that you’re spending your money intentionally and that you know when the line into financial ruin has been crossed.

Otherwise, you do you boo. Buy those damn shoes if you want to.

“Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness. 

Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.”

— Charles Dickens, David Copperfield

Do you know what your minimum viable expenses are? What’s the monthly nut you have to be able to cover? Having a solid number doesn’t mean you won’t ever be in the red, but it does mean you won’t ever be surprised to find yourself in a jam.

Are you managing the timing of your spending? If you want to take a fabulous vacation next year, are you managing your short-term spending so that you can reach that goal?

Does what you’re spending on spark joy? It’s important to really ENJOY your money. Life is short and you can’t take it with you. Aesop had a point, but while it’s foolish to be all grasshopper, it’s not enough carpe diem to be all ant. You need a little of both when it comes to money.

The bedroom is where your finances and romance make out:

There’s “mine”, “yours” and “our” money. Do you have a clear understanding of how you’re doing money in your relationship?

Has there been financial infidelity? That’s serious. 

Is one of you hiding your spending from the other?

Is one of you siphoning off joint funds without permission to invest in dodgy schemes? Or even in “the investment opportunity of a lifetime”? Let me tell you, no matter what your return on stealing money from your spouse is, the return on investment on betrayal is always a negative 100%.

You have to work out how you do money as a couple.

How do you make decisions? Who does what? Do you both agree on how to invest and how to spend your money? And if you don’t, how do you work it out?

Even if one of you is a finance whiz and the other is not, you still need to do money together. One can lead, but the other shouldn’t give away their sovereignty and abdicate responsibility for their part in the family finances. You’re a grown-ass adult. Don’t treat your partner like daddy or mommy. They deserve better, and so do you.

Whew. Now gimme back my beer. My job is done.

My biggest and best piece of advice? Start now. 

Take the smallest, most tentative of steps, but do it quickly. Momentum builds on momentum.

Don’t become a New Year’s broken resolution statistic. Take action now!

P.S.

I'll be teaching a class on Financial Intimacy for Business Owners this October. You’ll make better and more profitable business decisions when you approach your financials with curiosity and listen the stories they’re telling you. Sign up here for early bird notification.