[00:00:06] Viktoriia Miracle: Hello. Hello and welcome to happy time happy money podcast and today we have a Lauren Canafranca. Lauren is a joyful money coach who helps folks cultivate a relationship with money that is rooted in security, gratitude and joy. She is passionate about money management and loves helping creative people connect with their money without tedious budgeting system.

[00:00:35] I hope I pronounce it that right. Hi and welcome Laura.

[00:00:40] Lauren Canafranca: I don't, I think,

[00:00:42] Viktoriia Miracle: yes, I don't. I was curious what that word means with my Russian English budgeting system. That sounds interesting.

[00:00:52] Lauren Canafranca: Tedious is like the traditional way of having to like track everything that you spend and balance and reconcile and match everything up all the time.

[00:01:03] It's the part of budgeting that gets tiring that people end up burning out, not wanting to do.

[00:01:09] Viktoriia Miracle: Ooh, I would love to hear more about it. The first I want to hear more about you. How did you start to do such an interesting thing and becoming a joyful money coach?

[00:01:19] Lauren Canafranca: Well actually I started as a massage therapist, I spent a decade, you know, holding space for folks and the stress that was in their body and relieving that.

[00:01:29] And throughout that time, people would share stories with me about being so overwhelmed by their finances. You know, people who worked in high profile positions in the bank having to file bankruptcy. The pain and the shame that comes with that, you know, I've filed, we have in Canada is called consumer proposal.

[00:01:50] It's just sort of the step below bankruptcy and they're terrified because they feel like they're going to go back in the hole. They don't know what they're going to do. And while my personal financial situation was never quite that dire. I shared a lot in common because I hadn't acquired a hundred thousand dollars worth of debt with my husband and I, we own businesses.

[00:02:12] And a lot of the debt wasn't a shopping habit. It was actually us taking a chance on ourselves, but we got to a point where we were expecting our third child and we were having the best financial year of our life and we were panicking because we couldn't afford it. We're going, we have to do something about this.

[00:02:31] We were getting swallowed up. The opportunities in our life, we're passing us by because we were spending so much money on debt and paying for the life that has sort of, you know, elapsed past us. And so I went into a really, really strict approach to money. I got very tedious, very controlled, and I went from blindfolded to compulsive.

[00:02:55] And in that time we paid off a lot of debt, but the cost of that was, i, you know, it was breaking down my relationship with my partner. I would be angry with him for spending $4. You know, I was so controlling when, you know, my kids were not getting the things that they needed because I was like, you know, sending them in small clothes and pushing off expenses all in the name of repaying this debt, which ultimately was a form of self harm.

[00:03:21] I was punishing myself for getting in this position because how could I be so stupid? And then I just hit a breaking point. And I said, I have to, I just sort of quit everything. I went back into that, you know, it's that restricting binge cycle that we go through. And I just went into hiding and I said, you know, if I'm going to do this, I have to do it in a way where I'm not shaming myself, where I'm not hating myself for this and where my family gets to enjoy this one precious life versus writing off everything.

[00:03:53] And so that's how I sort of found, I developed a gentle way. I have ADHD and so that tedious was not good for me. It made my mental health fall apart and I sort of developed this new method. It took some studying and cashflow management and I took studying in financial counseling and that's how I sort of found my way suddenly being a money coach.

[00:04:13] And that's the last place I would have expected myself to end up. But here I am. So I enjoyed it.

[00:04:20] Viktoriia Miracle: Love adult. Thank you so much for sharing your story. So it's such a beautiful story. I think that can, you know, a lot of people relate to and I know you did a compassionate cashflow. I am curious to learn what is it?

[00:04:36] Lauren Canafranca: Well, compassionate cashflow is my approach to money because so often the money gurus are very aggressive. And while I have a very intense personality, I know that if you don't approach things like a friend, right? If we approach our money with a critical voice and with no room for error, right in money.

[00:04:58] And, and self-esteem we've as the culture applied a morality to money, we've determined that we were either good with it, or we are bad with it, and there's not really space for the in-between. And so when I approach cashflow, I approach it with first security. We ensure that the things that you need to keep you safe are accounted for.

[00:05:20] The next thing we do is we look at gratitude. So we approach your debt with grateful, frame of mind, instead of being angry at this debt, be really glad that that line of credit was there for you when you had to switch jobs. Taken out other day at that soul sucking office, you know, it'd be so grateful that your credit card lent you the money to get pizza at night when you couldn't cook for your kids, because you were so drained or whatever, whatever it is, or, you know, paid for your dental surgery when you needed to get the pain out of your mouth.

[00:05:51] Like if we can approach it in a way that's sustainable and grateful and not too aggressive, we do it with compassion for ourselves and for our past versions of ourselves, Find our way out of debt without sacrificing all of the opportunities for right now. And then that leads me to the last section, which is joy, which you mentioned in the intro joy for yourself right now.

[00:06:15] Enjoy for yourself in the future is really important. So we think about, and we find the things that you value first, and we carve out space in your financial plan for joy, for yourself, for Viktoriia next year, for Viktoriia in 10 years, for Victoria as a, you know, a senior, what is your life gonna look like?

[00:06:36] And you know, so many women retire in poverty and I want that to not be thing. So, but we have compassion and thoughtfulness about the future versions of you. And then we have sort of a Yolo category where that's you right now, doing whatever you want. And then there's no need to be really tedious and make a list of things of where your money went cause sometimes that's illuminating and sometimes that just makes you feel worse because most of the time, you know, where your money came from or where your money went, sorry, you know where you were.

[00:07:08] Viktoriia Miracle: So you don't use budgeting or do you use budgeting?

[00:07:12] Lauren Canafranca: I, it's sort of like budgeting on an annual basis. And then I have sort of different varieties for, uh, those are variable income. I can, I have a unique approach to variable income in that we create a set rate and then we get to choose what to do with the stuff above and beyond what your average is.

[00:07:29] So I don't do the traditional budgeting. I do it about every quarter check in and make sure my income is what I thought it was. But not on a month to month basis at all now.

[00:07:39] So I love it. Thank you so much for such a great, you know, information that like will, can steer your thought process in a really right direction because what we also have the dealing for, it's the toys being happy today.

[00:07:55] That's why I call this. Fuck us. Happy time. Happy money. Yeah. You know, if you're not either though you're spending your time happy way with your friends and family, you do something that you love or you spending time to earn money, which has have to be happy money. Otherwise there's no point in like there's no happier life in available.

[00:08:15] Viktoriia Miracle: So I really love your approach and it's really resonates with me. Once you were thinking about like, you know, not budgeting for things that you really love. It's like for me, going to the dance glass and paying for it extra on top of my gym membership, it's like, I just feel so much more productive and focused after this.

[00:08:33] But if I like budgeting, I said, Hey, this is not in my budget. My mental health will be so much lower and I will be able to complete the work way faster than I can do with the dancing class. So that's an example.

[00:08:49] So I love to ask one question, everyone in this podcast, and I would love for you to fill in the blank. So a sentence sounds like this. If you really knew me, you will know that I am blank,

[00:09:07] Lauren Canafranca: Ooh, if you really knew me, you would know that I am sensitive. I sometimes come across very intense and brash. I have a strong personality, but I'm actually very, very sensitive on the inside.

[00:09:23] Viktoriia Miracle: Oh, I love it. I think all I ask is like, have this like strong personality actually like have this like sensitive, like all warm their hearts.

[00:09:34] Yes. I know you have a free gift for us today. Please share with us with our audience, how they can find it and what it is?

[00:09:45] Lauren Canafranca: Yeah. I actually have a resources page on my website and you can find the link in the episode notes. But that's a place that you can go where you can get some financial education tools specifically. Some of them are Canadian specific. Some of them are rules of thumb that are universal. I have some free tools that you can use if you're a sole proprietor or a small business owner, where it's just you and you can keep track of some of your expenses and some basic options. So if you head to the show notes, you can find that link and check out all there is.

[00:10:16] Viktoriia Miracle: Yes. If you watching the listening to this episode, just scroll down and there'll be a link to the episode where, when there you go there, you will see video, audio and transcript of this episode and all the way also all the links that we mentioned below, and this episode. Thank you so much for coming Lauren, and thank you everyone for watching or listening, and I'll see you in the next one.