How the Financial Gym Helped Change the Way I View My Finances

Our clients are our “why.” We love their stories and hearing of their successes. Every month we share a few client stories.

Kaitlin has been a Financial Gym client for about 5 months. She works for a global entertainment brand and loves finding the next great espresso spot in Brooklyn.

I am one of your average twenty something’s that never really gave money or finances any serious thought, other than my day to day spending habits and paying rent. Prior to working with the Financial Gym, my general view of my money situation was ‘out of sight, out of mind’ and I would purposely avoid looking at my bank account. In addition, I never really made much of an effort to save any money either. But I’m sure you can guess these choices lead to nothing but problems and created a bad financial outlook.

Financial Gym client Kaitlin Vesper

Am I really this broke?

I didn’t have a plan when it came to the money I made, and I would find myself time after time wondering where my money went and why I constantly felt broke all the time. I would always blame it on the fact that my job didn’t pay very well, and of course there was no way it had anything to do with my poor financial decisions and lack of a... wait for it...budget! Yes, that dreaded ‘B’ word that has the same negative connotation as dieting or going to the gym. If there’s one thing we can all agree on, it’s that no one likes talking about starting or sticking to a budget. A budget sounds and feels restricting and it makes us think we have to give up things that we enjoy (that would be coffee for me).

I knew I needed to start a budget, but that felt overwhelming and I had no clue where to start

Enter the Financial Gym

This is what started my journey to becoming more financially literate and what ultimately let me to finding the Financial Gym. I saw an ad on Facebook, and I was immediately intrigued about having a financial advisor that’s more like a gym trainer. My first thought was automatically “Oh, there’s no way I could afford something like that”. But did that stop me from signing up for a free warm up call and finding out all the information I could? No, it did not. I was immediately hooked after that first call and especially after I found out that I could afford the monthly membership fee.

The next step was meeting my new financial trainer (shout out to Lindsay!) and scheduling the ‘financially naked’ session. Which I was told was the part of the process that everyone dreaded. Weirdly enough, though, I was pretty excited about it. My main problem was that I avoided my finances and didn’t want to see where I was based on the whole picture. So, the idea of having a meeting where I lay everything out there bare for my trainer to see, well that sounded pretty refreshing and enlightening to me.

One thing that really surprised me was how encouraging and non-judgmental that naked session was. I didn’t feel like I was being scolded, judged or reprimanded for the financial choices I made in the past. Instead, I now knew where I stood and I got to share my goals, dreams, and hopes for what I wanted to accomplish with my finances. This was my favorite part, because I previously disqualified myself before I could start dreaming of the life I truly wanted.

A new money mindset

I’ve been a client at the Gym for about 5 months now and I’ve still got a long way to go in my financial journey. But now my approach is not to ignore my finances and then feel bad when things don’t go as planned. Now, I’m able to make a plan based on my financial goals and actually tell my money what to do and where to go. I have also made it a habit to check my bank account more frequently and actually keep tabs on my spending daily and weekly. Since becoming a Gym client and working with Lindsay I have become more proactive in my financial decisions instead of being reactive to last minute things that get thrown at me.

A few financial wins or highlights for me these past few months have been building a chunk of travel points with my travel rewards card (maybe a trip to Greece?), I’ve almost built up a full $1,000 emergency fund and after scheduling a last-minute salary negotiation meeting with my trainer I got a raise at work this year! With all that said, my financial journey is still ongoing and I’m still working out the kinks with my weekly spending habits and bolstering my savings. But for me, these small wins push me to keep making good decisions with my money and to create a life I love. The Financial Gym has been a huge part of this new mindset and is indeed my ‘Best. Financial. Friend.’

If you’re interested in learning more about The Financial Gym process and how our team of Financial Trainers can help you reach your goals, schedule your FREE 20-minute consult call here