Ep 111 Transcript: Stop Feeling Broke No Matter What You Make with Sherry Andrew

This transcript was auto-generated and may contain errors in spelling or inaccuracies in the spoken words.

Shauna Lynn Simon (01:50.254)

Hello and welcome to the Real Women Real Business Podcast. I am your host, Shauna Lynn Simon, and today's guest is Sherry Andrew. She is the owner and financial coach at Money Mindset Financial Coaching. Now, after being fired from a nearly 17 year career, Sherry rebuilt her relationship with money from the ground up, starting with the systems that helped her manage real life finances without shame or restriction.

She later launched her coaching business in 2018 and she now helps individuals and entrepreneurs and especially those with ADHD to create simple supportive money systems that bring clarity, confidence and consistency and actually work with their lives. Sherry is an accredited financial counselor, Canada and a certified professional financial coach. And her clients are known for making meaningful progress like paying off debt, saving and hitting financial goals.

while still getting to actually live their lives. So Sherry, welcome to the show.

Sherry Andrew (02:47.958)

It's so nice to be here. Thank you so much for having me.

Shauna Lynn Simon (02:50.488)

Thank you so much for joining me. I really love this topic. And part of this is our audience is primarily made up of what I love to affectionately call our Accidental CEOs. And these are people who followed more passion than plan and tend to live in a creative realm. And as you may know, a lot of creatives were kind of known for being slightly neurodivergent. And so I always love when we have someone come on the show because even that specializes in that, because even if you're

neurotypical. If you have that creativity in your mind, you can relate a lot to some of the ADHD tendencies. Even if you don't feel like you're fully on that scale, it's something that I think that we tend to still lean towards a little bit. So you mentioned, let's go back to kind of the beginning. So you went from a nearly 17 year career to launching Money Mindset Financial Coaching in 2018. What happened in that time? Like what

How did you make that transition? What moved you from one spot to the next?

Sherry Andrew (03:53.376)

In a word, necessity to go from being a two income household to a one income household. And the income that was lost was flexible in that I was able to work overtime. So I had a base salary and then I was paid over and above that for weekends, longer days. And that's essentially looking back how we navigated.

Shauna Lynn Simon (03:56.057)

When-

Sherry Andrew (04:23.468)

We needed a new washing machine. Our car broke down. Whoops, we booked a vacation that we didn't have money for. I'll just work Saturday and Sunday now instead of only Saturday. So I won't get any days off. I just, I just worked all of the time. And that was thankfully what had us not get into debt because if we didn't have that flexibility, the thing that I thought I was doing to manage our money, looking back now and

with all that I've learned, was tracking our spending, which is good. It's valuable. But the big pivot that was important was shifting from tracking to planning and having a way to plan that helped us answer the questions like, can we do this? Do we have enough money for this? How are we on track with our goals? And learning how we could shift our spending because our income was cut in half really was.

forcing us to make changes, but so grateful for that. think it was on Reddit yesterday where I saw somebody, there was a money conversation and she's, I just lost my job. So I'm not resonating with this. I'm like, Oh, I know right now you're in the weeds and you can't feel it, but this was me eight years ago and nine years ago, nine years ago. And now here's my journey and just know that I hope

you feel the same looking back at this as I do because getting fired sucks. But I also think about if I had not have done, if I had got fired, where would I be now? And the answer is I would probably still be there and not realizing that people make money doing things they love and they can build community and have connections and they can not spend Sunday night going, work tomorrow.

Shauna Lynn Simon (06:14.636)

You know, it's funny. So what you're talking about here, I think is something that a lot of people can relate to. There are some people who were laid off, fired, however we want it, whatever fancy term we want to give for it, but essentially lost this so-called stable career that they had and pivoted that way. There are other people who choose entrepreneurship and they have that crutch of, I've got this corporate job and I don't want to give it up. And it's interesting because I find the ones who were forced into it.

I think have a stronger drive and motivation because as you said, necessity. isn't failure is not an option. It doesn't mean you're not going to make mistakes. It doesn't mean that not everything is going to go perfectly. But one thing that you touched on from your corporate job that I really wanted to circle back to is that you already saw that you had control over how much money you got to make. And not a of people get that sort of freedom in a corporate job.

I always had it because I always worked not only the corporate job, which I did not get paid overtime for, but I bartended all through university, all through my first career. That's how I bought my house. That's how I paid for vacations. That bartending got me all those extras that I wanted. So if I needed more money, I just picked up more shifts. And to your point, I just slept a little bit less. I worked a little bit more, saw my friends a little bit less, but it was something that I could turn on and off as I needed to.

And where that lesson comes in incredibly valuable in entrepreneurship is entrepreneurship is the same thing. We often feel that we're affected and impacted by market circumstances and client circumstances. And don't get me wrong, all those things are very real and very much exist. But ultimately, we are in control of how much money we do or do not make. And that is a true freedom. Now, it doesn't always feel like a freedom.

Because let me tell you when the money is not rolling in, it's all you can think about and going back to that conversation how the woman on on Reddit, I think that's a very real thing that so many people experience is when you are stressing about the money, when you are in that moment, it's really hard to think about anything else. This is where like you are not able to grow your business. You are not able to make strategic decisions. You are not able to be as present for your family. So many things.

Shauna Lynn Simon (08:34.156)

are impacted by not having financial freedom. So you talked about going from, and I loved this. You said so many great things there. So I just wanna like make sure I'm capturing all of them. You went from tracking money, tracking your spending to, I can't remember what the term is, but projecting it, like forecasting, planning ahead. And it's interesting because I will say I have always had the spreadsheet.

provided this spreadsheet to numerous friends over the years since I was in my 20s. I started this spreadsheet when I had my first job and it's evolved since then, but it essentially is a forward looking spreadsheet. There are apps that do it. I know now, but I love my spreadsheet. I've been using it for literally like most of my life at this point. But what I love about it is it tells me if you bring in nothing else in terms of income, here's when you're to run out of money. Here's what you can afford today.

And it allows me to be strategic with every dime that I spend. So if I'm making a $20 purchase on Amazon, I'm not just doing a click add to cart without even thinking about it, because I now need to log that expense in my spreadsheet and there's an accountability there. So don't get me wrong, it doesn't mean that I don't do some add to cart. I might've had a few Amazon packages show up at my place today. I needed all of them, but.

I'm much more conscious about the spending because I have to now I counsel that in my spreadsheet and my spreadsheet is going to tell me when that next $20 that I've entered in like how that's going to change how much money I have next month the following month and when I when I start hitting red numbers basically. Yeah. So how do we make that shift if someone has just been tracking spending because I think a lot of people do associate that with budgeting like oh no like I I track everything that I do and I keep real close eye on my money.

But how do they transfer that into something that's going to be more proactive for them?

Sherry Andrew (10:23.724)

I love that. could probably talk for an hour to answer that question. And there's kind of two aspects of this. First is the business side and the second is the personal. And on the business side, I love to have things set up so that you know, at the core of both, it's giving money a job as soon as possible so that we don't go, squirrel, there's this money in this account must be for spending because this account doesn't have a purpose. So having

it have a purpose and on the business side, that's to pay yourself to cover your business expenses, to save for taxes and to pay yourself a little bonus and for fellow Canadians and depending on where you live, also to save for sales taxes because we don't want to get caught at the end of the year at tax time going, ooh, whoops. Like my goal actually is for all of my entrepreneurial

clients at tax time to be a little bit excited to do their taxes. I know it sounds a little unhinged, but imagine if you've paid your quarterly installments and you have $5,000 in your tax savings account and you do your taxes and you find out you only have to pay 2,500 more. So then you have 2,500 that's play money. get to do whatever you want with it. And I love using separate accounts.

to help me see that. And I love looking at my salary account and say, how many months of my bi-weekly salary, because we manage our household finances together and my husband gets paid bi-weekly. So I get to decide when I get paid, how much I get paid. So I've just lined that up with his to make things easier. So I can calculate at any given moment in just a few seconds, how many months of runway do I have, which

One of the challenges for many entrepreneurs, especially those with ADHD is that income inconsistency can be really challenging by having a system where you're on a set amount every two weeks, every month, twice a month makes managing the personal side easier. And on the personal side, the biggest thing to help and doing this on the business side is great as well. But I think it's more impactful on the personal side is to have a plan for the money.

Sherry Andrew (12:44.96)

and know, okay, I get paid this time, what bills have to come out and what's kind of quote unquote, like leftover. And what does that money need to do? Is I'm going for savings, groceries, incidentals and and separating the spending from the bills can also be really impactful as well. Just finding those systems that help you see not only where you're at right now,

But starting to look out, like you mentioned a little bit further, next pay, next month, three months, four months, because that can help time and money in the future be real.

Shauna Lynn Simon (13:23.595)

Exactly, yes.

Sherry Andrew (13:25.282)

We often have that concept of there's money in my bank account. It's to be spent, not, Ooh, but part of this pay has to cover my next rent or my next mortgage payment. And when I, I started my business and then later got down the rabbit hole of, these ADHD videos that are popping up in my social media feed. I'm nodding my head to a lot of those. And then was able to look back and go,

Managing money is really challenging for a lot of people with ADHD. Why am I successful at it? And then I started looking at all the systems and they lean into the positives and negatives that can create challenge for ADHD. out of sight, out of mind can sometimes be a negative if you're not taking your multivitamin every morning. But it can also be really helpful when it comes to your money. If you've got money just going somewhere else and it's not in your main bank.

You just go one day, you're like, Oh, my car's in the shop. Oh, I forgot that I set this up to move $50 every pay into my car maintenance fund. And there's $800 there because we weren't seeing it in our normal like, okay, how much is in my account? How am I doing? So figuring out what things are challenges for you and how can you use a money system that creates an advantage for you instead of a challenge?

Shauna Lynn Simon (14:48.716)

Yeah, I know, okay, so I wanna, again, once again, so many great little nuggets in there that I just wanna dig into, but one of the things that you're talking about that you didn't really say out loud, but I think you kind of touched on is paying attention to the money as it's coming in and allocating it. One of the things that I know in talking with clients, clients will sometimes come to me where most of my clients make six figures, but they don't know where the money's gone.

Like there's you look at your bank account, you're like, like I made really good money. got clients. I'm working every day. Clients are there every day, but I don't know where the money went. So this is definitely something that we're often working on. But one of the things that my clients find stressful, they're like, I don't want to look at my bank account. I don't want to look at my money because it stresses me out. And in my experience, when I get them to change that mindset and start looking at their bank account, looking at their money.

planning for it a little bit differently. Like, don't get me wrong. I understand when there's no money in the account, it can be stressful. But instead of framing it as the money you don't have, what if we started looking at it as how much money do you need to make? And that gives you a goal to work towards as opposed to just because if you're just thinking about the money you don't have, all of your subconscious is just going towards all the money you don't have. And that's where all your energy goes. But if we put our energy instead into

I'm looking at my account and okay, know, I've had some extra expenses lately, so I'm gonna need to make an extra thousand dollars this month. Okay, so how am I going to make an extra thousand dollars? And now we're changing the conversation in our head to being proactive, to being positive, and I'm gonna go and make that money as opposed to, my gosh, I can't afford my bills and I've got to move all this money around. Like instead of moving money around, like the easiest solution is just to make more money.

And I understand that is way easier said than done sometimes. But I can tell you when you make that shift in your head, makes a huge difference. I can remember a friend of mine, were talking. I can't remember exactly how the conversation came up. We talking a little bit of business. She's an entrepreneur as well. And she was talking about how she was having a conversation with someone and they were whining about money. And she's like, you know what? I turned to her and I said, like, listen, there's a whole lot of money out there. Go get go make some go get some of it. I'm like, that was just like the most.

Shauna Lynn Simon (17:03.042)

direct brilliant line. was about 10 years ago. Like there's tons of money out there. Just go get yours. And I know it sounds simpler than it actually is. We're oversimplifying it, but it is so true though. Like if we start looking at what money do we need to have for our future self, it's a lot easier to figure out where that money is going to come from too.

Sherry Andrew (17:23.67)

Yes. Yeah. And shifting from avoidance to having clarity around your money, it is wild. Some of the situations that I've helped clients get to, and a lot of that starts by, okay, here are your personal expenses, here are your business expenses. We've got to factor in taxes, we factor in all of these things. Top line, here's what you need to bring into your business to meet your bare minimum on the personal side. And then

start working towards some of your goals and then start working towards like your bigger goals. We've kind of got these different levels of what needs to come into the business. And then when you tell an entrepreneur with ADHD, you've got to make $15,000 a month in your business to cover all the things. like, okay. then they just, do it, especially those entrepreneurs who it is their sole source of income. I started working with a client and we met first in November one year. And then that following January,

He more than doubled his revenue. How did you do that? He's like, well, I, you told me that I had to make more. I'm like, okay, keep doing, keep doing that. And we continue to work together and he does continue to keep doing that. I'm like, Oh, more, more money last month. Perfect. Like let's, let's build a plan for it. Because when we're, when we're in that avoidance mode as entrepreneurs, we're also in that scarcity mode and

when you're having those sales conversations or you're out at networking events, that subconsciously comes out and the clients or potential clients are going to feel that when it comes to talking about your offers and how you can help them. you make, felt a little, a little desperate versus that, okay, I'm here and I'd love to get here. I know my basics are covered. It just, it really shifts things.

how you're feeling. I had a conversation with a client recently around how he was really focused on mindset. I like, yes, it's important to understand your mindset and focus on how you can improve it. But I don't think that you can do that independently of looking at your numbers and having clarity. Both really have to happen because you can't you can't just manifest unless you're like, what, how much? Be clear. What do you need? And you can say,

Sherry Andrew (19:48.172)

I need to make a million dollars next month, but if you need to make 15,000, the universe is going to make your manifesting is like disconnected from your reality. having those two together is so powerful to have that belief that you can do it too, because I'm sure you see this with your clients as well. Sometimes that external person saying, here's your plan. And of course you can do it. And I believe in you. And here's the steps to help you get there. Like, OK.

I guess I guess I'll do it and then they do.

Shauna Lynn Simon (20:21.262)

It's like, again, we're, it sounds like we're oversimplifying it, but sometimes it's not really that difficult. If you're looking at, I love what you're saying. Like if you're looking at every sales call of, you know, how much money you need to make, well, I need this business, or maybe you're pricing out a job. say, well, I need to make X number of dollars on this. Like, okay, well, what's best for the client? If you always came at it as, if you didn't need the money, what are the decisions that you would make here?

And when we reframe it that way, it's amazing the clarity that we can get and how much easier it is to sell something that actually is suited for the client in an authentic way because you don't need the money. Now, of course, even when you do need the money, you got to still think of it as if I don't need the money. And I always look at it too if one of my, if something doesn't come through in terms of sales or whatever, I'm just like, all right, cool. I wonder where it'll show up now. And sure enough.

Like I'll get an email usually an hour later with someone booking a call that I haven't talked to in two years saying like, hey, we need to work together. like, fantastic, let's do that. Like it's always gonna work out. And again, you know, I can't say with confidence that your money problems are always going to work out for you. Don't get me wrong. Like there's work that needs to be done to it. But I think how we approach it how we frame things definitely affects things. Now I wanna get into some solid systems for people. We're gonna do that as soon as we come back from this quick break. We'll be right back after this quick message.

Shauna Lynn Simon (22:41.774)

All right. Welcome back to the real women, real business podcast. We're speaking with Sherry Andrew and we're talking all things money, but we're talking about it from a neurodivergent ADHD perspective. And cause I know, and the reason why I'm starting with saying that is because we want to talk about systems and all of my neurodivergent listeners. don't want you to turn this off because I just said the word systems.

Okay, because we're gonna come up with some things that are actually going to make it easier for you to navigate things. Because I know Sherry, you've talked about some, the differences in ADHD. And I love the, one of the things that you talked about already was just moving money to where you can't see it, because that is something with ADHD is out of sight, out of mind. So move it somewhere where it doesn't feel like it's just available to you. But what are some other things that we can put into place, especially for those business owners

who have a fluctuating inconsistent income, AKA every entrepreneur I know.

Sherry Andrew (23:46.92)

The first is to have that clarity. What do need to make in your business? What do you need to make on the personal side? Factor in all of the things and having that clarity. And then also the system that I love and some people resist this at first because it can feel overwhelming is to use multiple accounts to give money a job on the business and on the personal side.

It's a little wild to some people. I haven't counted how many accounts I have recently, but last time I did, think it was 23.

Shauna Lynn Simon (24:19.564)

Okay, I it was bad at eight, but sure, yes. And this is, and we've talked about this on the show previously for anyone who's ever read the book, Profit First by Mike Michalowicz He's a big advocate of the different accounts for things and he definitely digs into it. There it is, yeah, Profit First. So not the first time we have talked about that book on this show, but there's good reason for it though, because it's almost so simplistic in how easy it is.

And I want to be clear when you're talking about how it stresses people about having different bank accounts, you shouldn't be charged for all those different accounts. Most of the time, a savings account will cost you zero dollars as long as you only move money in and out of it from other accounts. So when you're thinking about, oh, I don't want all the bank fees, you're not getting bank fees. And if anything, those are now savings accounts that are earning money. So a big chunk of our audience is interior designers. You know what interior designers do? We collect money in advance.

for major purchases and it's not unusual to have say $100,000 of a client's money. Well, we put that in what we call our holding account and that money makes me money. I literally make interest on that money before I've even spent a dime with it.

Sherry Andrew (25:30.186)

One advantage that my US based clients definitely have is a limitation that I find here in Canada. Maybe it's not a limitation everywhere and maybe somebody can let me know that it's not in fact, and there's an opportunity to do this. But I have one client who I recently started working with and she has a couple of different spending accounts. So she has like her bills account where self explanatory, the bills come out of it. And then she has her needs spending account. So this is the things.

that she needs to live that aren't bills. So groceries, gas, all of those incidentals. But then she has an impulse spending account for just like whatever. She sent me this like beautiful sequined hat that she bought at a thrift store once. And she had a plan for it. And a lot of the challenge for folks with ADHD is that we try to create this perfect budget that depends on us waking up tomorrow.

Shauna Lynn Simon (26:08.199)

Nice

Sherry Andrew (26:27.786)

and being a completely different person who never makes impulse purchases. And that won't happen. Bless you and your categorizing 12 months of transactions and creating this beautiful budget. But you have to build a system around who you are. And if you try and not have any wiggle room for impulse purchases, then you will still do that. And then you will very quickly abandon your system.

The advantage that this client, she shared the story with me. She was in the bank going through a portfolio of different options she could get for bank cards. They had Disney princesses. and she's able to get with one financial institution, three spending accounts with three different bank cards that had three different images on it. If one of my clients in Canada wanted to do something like that, we'd be like, OK, I've tried every bank.

let's talk about which bank we're going to use for which thing so that we can have it all with their own debit card. So creating wiggle room is essential when we create a super restrictive budget. There's so many connections between food and what we're eating and our spending. And when we try and create a quote unquote healthy focus, I'm not going to buy any snacks at the grocery store. Well, six hours later, you're at the convenience store.

spending $6 on a bag of chips when it was $2 at the grocery store. think about what's worked for you and what hasn't worked for you when it comes to your money and your life. And think about, is there a money system that can help me with that? And there probably is, and bless my brain that it comes up with these solutions when I'm talking to folks about their money and separation and being able to look at, this is my money for spending and I get paid next on this date.

or I'm paying myself for my business next on this date really helps to create some of that urgency and challenge. And very quickly, have clients where we put $500 in that spending account and it was supposed to cover my things for two weeks, but there's money left over. How is that possible? Well, because it was a very specific amount. It's essentially the 2026 version of using a cash envelope because there's a very specific amount.

Sherry Andrew (28:48.942)

we can very quickly see how much is left to spend and we don't have to look at one bank account and think, okay, my phone bill is coming out and then my internet and half of this is actually for my next rent or mortgage payment. We eliminate all of that mental math, which often creates that resistance and avoidance because we are just going to keep spending. And one of the things I talk a lot with clients about is where credit cards come into play when it comes to spending. And for many it's,

causing the use of credit cards at least temporarily because we're then spending future money and we don't want to spend future money. want to live in, we want to live in today and be able to get that clarity. So one thing that works really well too is if you were an employee, you can often get your employer to divide up your paycheck. And once you know this much is for bills, this much is for spending, this much is for saving. You can get your employer to do that and you don't have to

set up an automation or do anything else that makes life so much easier because then there's often delays if you're transferring between different financial institutions which can create challenges. just figuring out like what things are out there that could help me put this plan into place and the foundation does come from having a plan. You can't just put $500 into a spending account if your money doesn't allow $500 to go into that.

having that clarity first and then thinking about how we can use automations and systems to help you get there.

Shauna Lynn Simon (30:26.094)

I love the idea of a spending account though. I know I sold a bunch of items on Facebook marketplace earlier this year and some of them were pretty high ticket items and I was actually surprised how many people paid cash. So I was literally walking around with hundreds of dollars of cash in my pocket. And so I've got my hairstylist, for example, I can pay her with cash. So my garden, that's going to be one of the things I'm going to put aside because that actually kind of, let's face it works a little bit better for both of us if I pay her cash. So I put that money aside, just put it into its own little envelope and that went into.

the bag that I always take with me when I go to get my hair done. So like this, the money's already there. It's done. It's out of my mind. I don't even have to think about it. But then when I've got the rest of this money, I did use it for, yeah, I'd be out of the store. I'd be, I want to pick up some takeout or whatever. And of course, I always threw the person off and I was like, I'm going to pay cash. But what I liked about it was exactly what you're saying. I could always see exactly how much money was in there and I'm controlling it in a different way. So I don't feel as though I'm taken away from something else.

inadvertently by spending that money. So I love the idea of having that spending account and going back to the credit cards. am someone who I am based in Canada. I charge my clients in US funds because it's the most universal currency. So most of my clients pay me in US funds. My Canadian clients can pay me Canadian funds at a converted rate if they really want to. It depends whatever makes the most sense. But I also have most of my expenses are in US funds. And I think a lot of people have experienced this like

Chat GPT is charging me 20 bucks in USD. Most of my software is in US funds. Most of my subcontractors, like I have a lot of freelance employees for marketing, for this podcast production, and they are all in US funds. No matter where they're located, they're located all over the world, but they're all paid in US funds. And so it's challenging sometimes to navigate. I've got this US dollars account, but no credit card.

because most banks don't have business credit cards for US dollars in Canada. They used to, they've kind of gone to the wayside, but I found a bank, it's not a bank, sorry. I found an institution that has these multi-currency credit cards specifically designed for business, which was the other thing. I wanted something that was designed for business where I was going to get the right reports that I needed and be able to track things properly. And what's great about this card is that I only have the money that I put into it to spend.

Shauna Lynn Simon (32:50.636)

And when I first got this card, like, well, that's going to be kind of annoying. Like I like, I like living off of credit. We all like living off of credit. Don't get me wrong. But for the most part, with the exception of the fact that it takes a few days for it to get from the bank onto the credit card. So if I have something unexpected come up and I don't have enough of a reserve, I've got to tell people like, I'll pay you in three days when the money gets onto the card. And most people are pretty reasonable and understand when I explain that to them. But this saves me using a Canadian credit card, paying those conversion rate fees.

And also not to mention taking my US funds, converting it to Canadian to pay off the Canadian card that paid US funds in the first place. Like all of that is just messy. So this card, what I love about it is the fact and like I said, I thought I was going to hate this, but I love the fact that I can only spend the money that I put on it. And that allows me to control my money in a very different way. And I make different decisions about how I spend my money knowing that I

don't have the credit on that credit card. Don't get me wrong, I have other credit cards. If I really needed to put something on credit, that's an option. But I have mostly tried to move to a credit-free way of operating my business because I really like it this way. And I have found, ironically, my cash flow is a thousand times better since I went credit-free. So I hear everything that you're saying. So I love this idea of a spending account. It's more of a digital spending account as opposed to having like a wallet of cash, so to speak.

but it's a way that people can actually see what's in there and knowing that that money is specifically for general spending. So if they wanna pick up something to eat on the way home or whatever, not have to worry about, like you said, all their bills are taken care of. I think that's so important. So what are some of the simple ways that we can be checking on our money on a regular basis? And how frequently, like I check it daily. How frequently are you telling clients to check on their money?

Sherry Andrew (34:44.28)

I check it too much as well. Probably at least daily too. Cause like, anything happened today on my bank or credit card? And what I recommend to my clients is when they're new to things and they're getting these systems set up, checking it more often can reduce the barriers to checking it because the longer you go without checking it, the more apprehension and anxiety that builds up around checking. Like, Ooh, it's been a week. now it's been two weeks. So

Even checking every day, maybe you're just like tracking that balance. Maybe you're physically tracking it or maybe you're just making a mental note of it. But generally getting to the point where the systems that we have in place for them, they're spending five to 10 minutes every week or even sometimes five to 10 minutes every other week or twice a month, depending on their pay cadence to just make sure that things are going like they should be. And when you're tracking things again, I love I love apps, but I also I love

spreadsheet that you can just you can customize it up to the wazoo and you can make it pretty colors but you can also pretty easily just okay we're playing up to September well let's plan out to the end of the year let's just do that really quick and it's it's a copy and paste

Shauna Lynn Simon (35:58.078)

like yeah and sometimes it's pleasantly surprising too where you're like like if i only bring in another five thousand dollars between now and the end of the year all my bills are covered so everything above and beyond that is just gravy at this point yeah great like that feels really good

Sherry Andrew (36:13.506)

And often I see clients, the stress visibly, like their shoulders visibly lowering when we go like, okay, we're here in April and here's the next, here's December. And look how much with what we've got set up, you'll be able to have saved for vacations, for this, for whatever your financial goal is. Right. Come December. If we just do these things that we've been doing for months and they're feeling easy because when you're tracking your spending,

Because the cashflow tracker that we have, goes from reality to future. it's as the clock moves on, it's transferring from here's the plan to here's what's really happening. And when you remove all of those spending transactions from your bills account, it relieves so much of the stress, which then can reduce the resistance to checking. Because if you log in and you see, well, since I got paid last, there's been seven transactions versus 27 that can reduce the friction.

Shauna Lynn Simon (37:14.274)

Well, and again, going back to what we were talking about earlier with your whole mindset, if you can see that you need to bring in an extra thousand dollars this month, then you're telling your brain, I need to bring in another thousand dollars this month, as opposed to seeing it as a deficit. If we just kind of flip that little switch that just says, OK, cool, I need to make another thousand dollars. But if you wait until the end of the month, you're like, I needed to make another thousand dollars this month.

Well, now you're trying to play catch up. And that's when I see people just kind of throwing stuff out on social media and massive blowout sale. And here's an offer and I need to bring money in the next week. That's not going to get traction. But if you're intentional about it and start looking to the universe and not just the universe, but your actual leads lead generation list, your prospects and actually looking to where can I get another thousand dollars from? It's amazing how quickly and easily it can show up because you're looking for it.

It's like when you decide you're going to buy a red car, all you see on the road are red cars. If you decide you're going to make $1,000, you're going to find yourself $1,000. Again, I know I'm oversimplifying things, but I wanted to mention you were talking about looking at your money saying too much. I will tell you that I read the book, Million-Dollar Habits by Rachel Rodgers. Sorry, I was pulling it up on my phone because I want to make sure I got the name correct.

So Rachel Rodgers wrote the book Million-Dollar Habits. And one thing she talks about is look at your money every single day. And she said that is a millionaire, like a million dollar type of habit that she talks about. She also wrote the book Million-Dollar Habits. Sorry, Million-Dollar Habits and Million-Dollar, sorry, it was, I had it on here. We Should All Be Millionaires. That's what it is. So we Should All Be Millionaires and then Million-Dollar Habits. And one of the million dollar habits though is looking at your money every single day. And I love that. So I think that,

If a millionaire is telling me you need to look at your money every day. And I know we were talking about this recently. I had a guest on the show. We're talking about it was Jane Harris when she was on the show and we're talking about her relationship with money and how as her money grew, she was paying even more attention to it. So I think that's the thing too, that like we think of this as this is something that you do when you don't have money. It's something you do when you do have money. It's something you do no matter what.

Shauna Lynn Simon (39:32.11)

because we want to make sure your money's going into the right places. You've talked about some advice for neurodivergent versus neurotypical. you said that, you know, there's some things that are a little bit different in how we view money and how we navigate the money decisions and such. what's something that if someone's listening to this and they are neurodivergent ADHD, and maybe someone has told them for years, like, you should just be doing this. I absolutely love when people are like, you should just, if you could just. Like we actually just had Shannon Schroeder on just a couple of weeks ago.

And she talked about the ADHD brain and how all your hearing constantly is like, if you could just, if you could just do it this way. So for someone who's ADHD and feeling like they've been failing at something because they've been told just do it this way, what is something that maybe like neurotypical money advice that completely backfires for ADHD brains?

Sherry Andrew (40:22.164)

yeah, anything that starts with you should just you should just spend less. You should just save more. You should just pay off your student loans, pay off your credit card. Yeah, it really just brings up that defensiveness. It's like it's not just neurotypicals tend to not understand. OK, just spend less. How many steps it is for the ADHD brain, how many points of temptation there are because.

We get the dopamine from doing research on buying something. We get dopamine from buying something. We get dopamine when something arrives at our door. There's, there's a lot of steps that create that resistance to just. So first stop listening to those people.

Shauna Lynn Simon (41:08.494)

It's their social line.

Sherry Andrew (41:11.284)

There's social media influencers that are showing up on your page that are saying you should just when it comes to ADHD and money. You don't need that vibe in your life. Find folks that are talking about how challenging it is and why that's challenging and a few things you could do to shift things. we tend to be all or nothing. And what I see a lot is people come to me and they're feeling overwhelmed and they've gone through multiple cycles of

I've built this beautiful budget. have tracked three months, six months, 12 months and categorized. And then the dopamine wears off and they stop doing the things for a neurotypical tracking transactions and comparing like getting an app and looking to see partway through the month. Well, I wanted to spend this much and I spent this much. So I need to cut back or I can't spend any more on this in a month.

When somebody with ADHD does that and like, I've exceeded my takeout budget for the month. Our brains don't go, well, I just won't do that anymore. This month. It's the following Tuesday and we're tired. had a long day. We're exhausted. We're starving because we were in a hyper-focus. We didn't eat all day. We're going to, without even thinking, get on our app and order something. So finding those ways.

And those systems too, we have that app linked to our spending account. Maybe we have a separate account that's just for takeout spending because we know that's a really challenging part for us. And then we have that point of resistance, like, card declined. Now what? And probably that now what is going to be, how do I move some money there from somewhere else? Because I'm going to eat my face off if I don't get food right now. But it creates that pause.

and finding ways to create that little bit of a pause can, even though we make the same decision, can make it a little more intentional because then we're like, ooh, okay.

Shauna Lynn Simon (43:16.716)

The pattern disruptor, yes.

Sherry Andrew (43:18.816)

Yeah, we'll find a way around it. I tell my clients like a lot is it's about creating some boundaries, but not brick walls and not barriers because we don't want to say you can never do this. You always have to do this because that's like, watch me.

Shauna Lynn Simon (43:36.871)

Because

Sherry Andrew (43:38.61)

That's how our brains work. Our brains are like, I will find a creative solution around this. Right. Like, just, just you just wait, I'll find a solution. using automation, using some type of system where you can have that that pause and people listening folks with ADHD specifically are probably not going to believe when I say this, but you can shift from getting dopamine from spending to getting dopamine from saving. I

It won't happen overnight. Sure. But set up an automation, set up an account at a different financial institution and set up an automated payment or have your employer move $25 in there every time you get paid and then just ignore it. Don't have the app on your phone. Have the login information not saved. Have it like written down somewhere safe so that you have to jump through a couple of hoops to get it. And then you'll need it one day and you'll go to check. You're like, Oh,

This one thing that I did today is going to help me in three months, six months, a year, because we've created a system that doesn't involve us doing something manually every time we get paid. having that, how can we make things still move and still function when we go through periods, which we will, of, I don't want to do that. Life is life-ing too much. My business is in a season of busyness.

and the money isn't as urgent right now. But then if things are still going on in the background and it's moving where you want it to go, it's still going to be there when you circle back and be like, okay, I'm ready. Let's do a financial health check. Where am I? And you're like, I'm not a dumpster fire because I set these things up.

Shauna Lynn Simon (45:26.616)

And I like that too, like you talked earlier about having like kind of earmarking money a little bit, like what can that money be for? It doesn't have to have one specific purpose, but it can be whether it's a rainy day incidentals type of fund, whether it's a travel fund or whatever that looks like, but just knowing that you have, that you've got money that you're putting aside, but you're not really paying attention to, but when you need it, it's going to be there. For me, one of the things when I did some reevaluating of some financial stuff,

I took a closer look at what do I want money for? Because obviously there's the, I'm going to need it to pay some bills, obviously. But if I've got excess money, what would I like to do with that money? You know, the thing that I hit up against constantly of if I had more money, I would for me. And we talked a little bit pre-interview before hitting record. We talked a little bit about running. I'm an avid runner. I love running. I love doing Tough Mudders

And with that also comes, I like different supplements. I like managing my protein intake. like managing the nutrients that I'm putting in my body. I want the extra money that I want. I want it for traveling and I'm going to travel. I'm going to do a race. I'm going to do a Tough Mudder. I'm going to do some of those things. I want to be able to know that I can buy any supplement, new workout clothes, any of the things that I want to support that part of my lifestyle.

That's my dopamine hit is anytime I can. Obviously, if I can just throw on any clothes and run, I am happy. But if I can now like have a new pair of shoes doing it or, whatever the latest thing is, and I don't need to spend a ton of money on gadgets necessarily, but I just want to know that if I if there is a health supplement that's going to make my running a little easier or make my energy a little bit higher, I want to know that I can spend the money on it. And I'm not talking about paying for like everything you see on the Internet that claims to be like a miracle drug. That's not what I'm talking about.

good, healthy, holistic type nutrients, but they don't, they're not inexpensive. One of the biggest things that I spend money on is an adrenal support supplement that is basically it's combined. It's a whole bunch of natural ingredients that are combined together, but it specifically supports my adrenals. As someone who spent years suffering from adrenal fatigue, that is one of the biggest supplements I can ever have. So if I am a little off on my nutrition one month, knowing I've taken that supplement at least helps me to be a little bit further ahead.

Shauna Lynn Simon (47:52.684)

And so when I look at my money, that is my focus. So the money that I'm putting aside, I know that's going towards yes, probably travel and a race. like, let me tell you, every race costs about 100 bucks to do minimum. They're not inexpensive So when you see someone doing a half marathon every week and let me tell you, they're spending some pretty big bucks doing this. Plus they've got the travel and I mean, gas prices aren't exactly going down right now. So those are the things that make me happy. And that's knowing that I'm saving money going back to your dopamine hit, knowing that I'm saving money.

because it's going to support those things, that means everything to me. So I totally agree with getting that dopamine hit from saving money, especially when you've kind of earmarked it. And maybe whatever you're earmarking it for, you might be listening to it, doesn't like, she crazy. Like there's no way I would spend money to go run somewhere. You do you, whatever it is that's gonna give you that dopamine hit. It could just be a matter of you wanna buy a different, another video game. You wanna...

invest in a streaming app without feeling like it's hitting your bank account every month. Whatever that looks like, whatever your indulgence is, have at it. It could be your take out account like you were saying, like whatever that is. But putting that money aside and saving it so that you have it when you need it is huge. Yeah. Cannot stress that enough.

Sherry Andrew (49:09.89)

Thinking about how can you spend money to make your life easier? We pay to have somebody come and clean our house. I also heavily invest in wellness things. When my husband spends his money on golf, I spend mine on infrared sauna bags and acupressure mats and also running shoes and races. And anybody who tells you running is a non-expensive sport, they're lying.

Shauna Lynn Simon (49:37.87)

So much, they're lying so much. Even just fueling for a run alone can cost you whole lot of money. Like it's not inexpensive to do it, no.

Sherry Andrew (49:48.001)

100 % yeah, it's it's looking at where do you want your money to go and how do you get it to go there so that it doesn't come to the end of the month or the next time you get paid you're just like I've no idea where it went I should have had $200 left over which I was gonna use to buy some supplements or protein but it's not there so where did it go I don't know because I have no recollection and I'm also going to avoid

going to track the things because I feel shame and I'm judging myself around not having that $200 that I plan to do something good for me with.

Shauna Lynn Simon (50:27.07)

And I mean, and we're talking small numbers here, $200 here, $500 there. And for some people, that's still a lot of money. But I also want to emphasize that in some cases, you might, your spending account or your savings account might be in the thousands, the tens of thousands. There's the whole, you know, more money, more problems. The reality is that like the same practices that you have when you don't have money are the very same practices that you want to have when you do have money.

because there isn't a disconnect between those. They are essentially one and the same because those practices work for both when you do and when you don't have money, just in slightly different ways to support your lifestyle.

Sherry Andrew (51:09.006)

Yes, 100 % and that more money, more problems. When you were an entrepreneur, it's multiplied by a hundred because specifically around taxes, because what I see people cycle through a lot, especially right now, where we're getting into like crunch time tax wise is you get a tax bill as an entrepreneur. Maybe you haven't been saving it. Maybe you haven't been paying your quarterly installments. You get that tax bill and then you're like, whoo, and you

work your butt off for three, four months to pay that tax bill off, but then you do the same thing and you're not saving for it. And then it's worse the next year because of that period, you worked your butt off to pay for your taxes. So you're just continuing to kick it down the road. So finding ways to save for it. The first thing that you're going to do as an entrepreneur, if you're listening to this, please, if you're not already set up a separate tax account and just start saving right off the top for

taxes. Don't wait to figure out what your profit is. Don't need to categorize all of your expenses because that creates a barrier that delays us doing that thing we know is going to help us.

Shauna Lynn Simon (52:18.03)

Yeah, I mean, I'm in Ontario in Canada. Our taxing is 13%. So if I charge a client, I'm essentially going to pay 13 % taxes on them. Ideally, I'm charging the client the 13 % and that 13%. I collected it. It's not mine. belongs to the government. And so I take 13 % and just throw it into the tax account. What that means though at tax time is I always have money left over because I don't actually need.

13 % because my expenses are going to reduce the amount that I actually owe the government in the end. But by throwing the 13 % in there, I know come tax time, like you said, I get pretty excited. I'm like, got money coming to me. Now don't get me wrong. Sometimes it ends up just going towards other taxes, but it still all works out in the end. All right. So you also have a tax saving cheat sheet for anyone who is looking to create a better system around their tax savings. You've got some other great free resources as well.

So we'll make sure that the link is in our show notes, but the link for anyone who's listening is Money Mindset FC as in moneymindsetfc.com/links And we'll make sure that that link is in the show notes. So Sherry, if someone who's listening to this today, if there is, if they only do one thing this week to feel a little more in control of their finances, what should it be?

Sherry Andrew (53:35.918)

Open up that secret account somewhere and by secret I mean secret from you and automate money going into that account. So okay you're gonna get access to the account and you're gonna have there's gonna be some something you're gonna have to do that's gonna have a little bit of a delay for you to be able to get money to that account probably. So set a reminder in your phone for a week from now as well to go in and actually like make sure that automation is set up and then and then just do what we do best forget about it.

Shauna Lynn Simon (54:04.91)

I love it. Amazing. Sherry, this has been such a pleasure. I love how practical and real all these tips are. They're easy to implement. They work for the neurodivergent and the neurotypical brains. And I can't thank you enough for joining me on the show. So thank you.

Sherry Andrew (54:22.208)

It was so great to be here and I hope the audience has just one tip. Take one tip and run with it.

Shauna Lynn Simon (54:28.418)

Love it. Perfect. And of course, we'll make sure that all of Sherry's contact info is in the show notes. If you want to reach out to her and get financial coaching as well, please feel free to connect with her. And if what we're saying today has been resonating with you, then I hope you will continue to tune in each week and allow us to continue to join you on your journey because entrepreneurship is exactly that. Don't forget to leave us a review and subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts. And of course, as always, the best way that you can show your support for this show.

and for your fellow women entrepreneurs all in one shot is to take this episode and share it with someone that you know needs to hear this today. I guarantee there is someone in your life and you're like, listen, I know they're ADHD and I know they're having difficulty with managing their money. I'm going send them this episode. They're going to thank you for it. And of course, it helps us. It helps our algorithm. It helps everyone out. So thank you so much for doing that in advance. Until next time, keep thriving, everyone.