“Whoever said money can’t solve your problems
Must not have had enough money to solve ’em”

I’m coming at you with some provocative Ariana Grande lyrics that often pop into my head when I’m talking to people about money. But we will end up somewhere less pop-y I promise.

Last week with my money coaching hat on I counseled a nature based therapist, a doula and online birth biz wiz, and a sacred counselor. All women. All very cool. All with different money stories and challenges.

What all three have in common though is their love of serving other women, and a desire to make the world a more beautiful place. They have amazing hearts, and visions. But somewhere along the way they missed the memo on financial wellness and literacy and now are filling in that missing piece of their self-care practice.

Because they have realized if they don’t take their financial wellness seriously, they will actually limit their ability to do good in the world.

They won’t be able to bolster that beginning’s of that new world changing business. Donate to the causes and people they believe in. Give themselves and their kids a stable life that soothes their nervous systems. Pay for whatever they need to stay as healthy as possible for as long as possible so they can continue their life affirming missions.

Most of the women I coach are working with a belief or a remnant of one that money = evil. Or that money can’t solve all your problems (that part is actually true) AND SO that means I shouldn’t care about it or want it.

I used to feel the same, that less money = better, and I was building a life around the question “how little can I survive on” instead of “how much do I need so that I can thrive?”.

Everyone will have a different answer to that last one. Some of the fear of even asking that question will be because you’re afraid that you “thriving” will mean someone else loses. Or that once you know how much you would need to thrive, you wouldn’t have a way of getting yourself to that number.

But money isn’t a zero-sum game, more money for me could never be the reason that someone is struggling to pay their rent. Just like me not finishing my dinner isn’t actually harming the people in the world without access to food. They are not causally linked even though they appear to be to our brains.

But back to the lyrics for a second. “Whoever said money can’t solve your problems
Must not have had enough money to solve ’em”.

I just saw an article yesterday about a local birth center going bankrupt, not refunding clients, and the owners vanishing. I also saw this week that a midwifery conference slated for this fall is going virtual since they had such low registration, and the organizer added that she had been losing money on this conference all along even with good registration years.

This problem of financial dysfunction is RAMPANT in the birth world. Money can’t solve every problem, and there are many tools that can help solve problems better than money can. But that doesn’t mean that money isn’t important, especially in the world of radical women, doulas and midwives where it has been neglected and misunderstood for so long.

Just like in birth when we say that every tool can be used in a sacred way, I believe that money is a tool, and it can also be used in a sacred way. It isn’t the tool that is evil, it is what you do with it.

I am being featured in a really cool free online event called: The Doula and the Dollar.

The Doula and the Dollar will begin in a few days on August 27 and I honestly think it would be great to register whether you are doula or not.

Go take half a minute now to register for The Doula and the Dollar here.

I’ll see you there!

Margo

P.S. If you want to check out my money coaching offerings including my self paced course, go check out my other website here.