Wealth Wellness: Do you money well?

A decade and a half ago, I wrote a book called Money Well – How to Contain Wealth, about wealth containment. It is my signature approach and it opened the doors to using the metaphor of a container, which is now in common usage in the self-development world. A copy of Money Well somehow found its way to a second-hand bookstore in Bangkok. A decade later, the Thai buyer of the book has not only attended most of my online courses and talks which I started delivering last year, but he invited me to deliver Money Alchemy online to a Thai audience, which I have just done over the last two weekends. Not only is he a translator, which is very useful, but he is very familiar with my work, making this a wonderful experience for all. How amazing is the world? Anyhow, he told me way back, that when he saw the Money Well book, the first thought that went through his head was, ‘Do Me money well? How do I money?’ Which is an interesting question, with this additionally most fascinating idea of using money as a verb.

I thought to explore this question of money wellness further, seeing as wellness within is the focus of this particular Odyssey issue. What does it mean to money well? Do you feel you are money well? What is money wellness? And what is the level of your money wellbeing? At which point do you declare yourself to be money well? And who decides where the level of true money wellness is, in the first place?

Do you think of money wellness, in the same way that you reflect on other forms of wellness and wellbeing? As something to cultivate and train towards, or to practise? Do you approach money wellness in the same way as you strive towards physical wellness with preventative care in the form of vitamins, energetic healings and therapies, eating well, exercising and so on? Knowing that a body that is well, positively affects the mind and the emotions too. Do you reflect on the effects of money wellness on your emotional and mental health? Not as an event, but as a process with equivalent possibilities for doing it better?

Mental wellness has drawn into sharp focus in recent years and there is much attention on emotional wellbeing. Spiritual wellness too is an important part of many people’s lives. Yet money and wellness are rarely linked together, even though financial stress is something that has been quantified and measured.

In a 2023 financial wellbeing study it was found by Afrocentric that the salaries of 70 per cent of South Africans did not cover their monthly expenses. Debt Busters found that 80 per cent  of women experience financial stress, and its impacting their health both physically and mentally. These findings are not confined to Africa. A most recent article in Fortune magazine talks of financial trauma that can be chronic or generational and research shows the link between financial and physical wellbeing, with symptoms of severe back and stomach aches amongst other physical symptoms reflecting this. The American Psychological Association found that 72 per cent  of adult Americans are stressed about finances…

When we look at the state of money wellness around the world, there is a very mixed picture. The wealthy are definitely becoming wealthier, but are the poor becoming poorer? This is where working with energy to create magic comes in handy.

World poverty has in fact decreased according to the World Bank, from 1.9 billion people in 1990, representing 36 per cent of the population, to 719 million representing 9.2 per cent . This is good news! Especially as about 200 years ago, the bulk of the world lived in extreme poverty. (See worldvision.org)

Actual poverty aside, how do we quantify wealth wellness? And how do we achieve it in a world constantly striving for more?  How do we decide how much is enough and how do we, the lucky few, become sufficiently content with our lot to stop spending all of our time striving for even more, so we can start living and enjoying what is enough, or more than enough now, instead of at some ideal future point?

It starts with looking reality in the face. Assessing your wealth wellbeingness. Reflect on the following lightly but with intent, allowing your first thoughts to rule:

–  Are you money well or not?

–  Do you have plenty or more than plenty but are caught in the spiral of spending, necessitating more and more?

–  Are you money unwell and caught in the same spending spiral buying things you actually do not need and maybe cannot actually afford?

–  Are you someone who earns well but is so petrified of poverty that you restrict all pleasure, scrimping and saving for a possible grim future, therefore being pretty money unwell too?

–  Are you just not earning enough and so cannot help but be in debt?

–  Or are you somewhere in the middle, earning some, spending some, saving some and enjoying the journey?

Perhaps you are thriving – earning lots, spending lots and investing lots – real wealth wellness. How do you go to the next level and what does that mean? Spend some time assessing this and reflecting on your wealth wellness. Often we are unwell and do not know or admit it and equally often we are very well indeed and just do not recognise it.

We live in a world which encourages debt and spending before we even earn; it is easy to imagine that all is well when it may not be. Budgets and financial calculations are often scary, or boring at the very least. So it’s one of those things you can always put off for another day. Yet the world’s wealthiest people not only budget, but they keep track of their dollars to ensure they keep them growing.

When you set off on a journey to assess and then change something, there is resistance. You need to be very aware of this and, by expecting it, you can better deal with it. The thing you want to change does not matter. It could be your eating habits, your exercise routine, your love pattern or your spending and saving habits. The resistance will be there, regardless. One part of you will be keen to do it and another… well, not so much.

The resistance or lack of it will depend on how much urgency the matter has. If you are going to a Greek island in a few months, the importance of implementing your exercise routine will intensify. Often, we do not make changes as the motivation is not really strong enough. Strong motivation can inspire it, activate it and add some energy to it.

To change something, you need to first assess where you are. Take not a hard, cold look, but a soft, gentle, kind one. Don’t swipe it away with a nonchalant ‘I’m not good with numbers’. If you’ve ever bought something on sale, or shopped around before spending on a computer, phone, or apartment, in order to get the best deal, then you know the difference between a high and a low price and how that results in a saving. That’s all the maths you need. Keep it light.

The very simple three-part plan is: First get a friendly, happy, cheerful, approachable and practical notebook

– Add up your income. (If you are in business or working for yourself you DO need to know what this number is.)
– Don’t forget to include interest and investment income.
– Depending on your circumstances it may be easier to work this out as an annual number and then divide.

– Work out what you owe – if applicable – just general totals – they don’t need to be totally accurate.

– List what you need to spend each month for essentials – just estimate.
– List what you can save each month – perhaps you already do this.

The difference between what comes in and what goes out or what you save/invest (or spend over and above ‘essentials’) is your financial wellness indicator.

If you owe some money, start by looking at your credit card or cards and just write down the totals. You may more or less know these already. Do use a notebook. Notebooks are friendlier that iPads, phones and computers for sure. Also get a lovely pen. You may need to ‘first make friends with the paper’, as my Jung teacher always told us.  Sit and look at it. Maybe for days, until you are ready to write. Maybe you can only tolerate one total written down at a time. Fair enough. Then continue and do it again, until you know how much is owed by you. Also how much people owe you. What intent, decision and action do you need to take?

Work out your assets. What is the value of what you own if you were to sell up your home/s, investments, jewellery, rugs, paintings and so on. Sometimes this information is very cheering when you are going through cash flow problems or you feel you are not wealthy enough.

Undertake to clear debt. You cannot flourish, you cannot have wealth wellness, while you are in debt. Debt is a slow-running, continuous leak in your container. So however much you put in, if the container is leaking, it can never get full. Set a clear intent to become wealth-well, to be money well. To flourish and prosper beyond your wildest dream. All dreams begin with a clear intent. 

Decide on your end result. What do you want to achieve? No debt? What does that mean – you need to quantify. Of course it is always best to strive for ‘being in credit’. What does that mean? You need to find out. You may want to become ‘financially independent’. A phrase thrown around like confetti. What does it mean? What exactly needs to happen, what do you need to pay off, or own or have to achieve that? If you are already there, what happens next? What is the next level? My book Wealth Journey is helpful here.

Now don’t get side-tracked at this point and go all woozy and think you need to call in an accountant or financial planner and work out projections on future inflation and interest rates. You don’t. Just make a list, as it feels for you right now.

Don’t let the muggles reality blues get you here. Keep going. But keep it real. Real for you that is. Don’t think you need a 17-bedroom mansion when all you really want is a three bedroomed apartment with a sea view. Yes, Bugattis are Very, with only four in South Africa; perhaps a nice sports car is a better bet?

Keeping the unreal reality real is a matter of containment – again the subject of Money Well. You need a container, and it needs to be big enough, but not so big and far-stretched that you cannot see the edges. Going back to money wellness for a moment, once you have looked at where you’re going – what your destination and therefore motivation for expanding your money wellness is, you need to put some numbers down. Remember, you know how to do this. But even before the numbers, put on one of your happiest, grooviest tunes and dance! Dance yourself into the joy of this intended and anticipated moment.

Dance as you conjure numbers – it could be your new turnover or profit number, it could be the number you need to get you into the black, it could be the number you receive in your bank account once your business or house or piles of unneeded goods are sold. It could be the number you feel you need to make you feel safe. Maybe it’s not a number. Maybe it’s a number of things – a fully paid for home with all contents, a Mercedes sports, a baby grand piano and a million in currency. That’s what I thought I needed way back some decades ago as I sat under a tree in Nieu Bethesda while on a retreat. I wrote it all down in a fabric covered book at a time in my life when I had lost everything. I lived in a bachelor apartment, drove an old beetle and worked as a telemarketer on straight commission, which I was not earning much of. But I was joyful and I did think my life was blessed and I had no doubt I would achieve those things, though I had no idea how. And, lo and behold, with focused intent, some good moves like paying off and then cutting up all my account and credit cards, stupendous wizardry and quite a bit of hard work, it all came to pass plus more!

If I, a girl raised in an apartment in Hillbrow by Greek immigrant parents, could do it, then you can do it too. No exceptions. Find out what money well means to you. Be clear and specific – but not too much. Find out where you are right now too and undertake some clear intents and actions to change whatever needs changing. Then do it!

To help you on your journey, two readers joining my mailing list will get a free copy of Money Well – How to contain wealth. Send in your name and join my mail list. [email protected].

Kiki Theo is a wealth expansion author and facilitator. Bridging money and energy, she offers a combination of business experience, based on her own successful background as an entrepreneur, including over a decade as the owner of a fund management company, and her own energetic transformations, based on her lifelong study and practice of energetic healing, Jungian psychology and metaphysics. She is the author of nine wealth expansion books and offers courses and one-on-one sessions focused on wealth expansion for self and business that create tangible results. www.kikitheo-wealthworks.com  [email protected].