Larissa Zimmerman: Financial Fitness

Do you really know the connection between a healthy, mind body and wallet?  Connie and I spoke with Larissa Zimmerman from National Financial Fitness on our Talk Show this week.

Larissa provides financial education for individuals and businesses – to help them gain control of their life.  Larissa promotes, and lives, the concept that when you get your mindset right around your financial situation, your health and wealth follows.

I found it interesting that Larissa often receives referrals from Financial Planners – because some people who are seeking financial advise aren’t prepared – and don’t know how to prepare.  Larissa provides the basic (and not so basic) financial management skills.

The main reason that Financial Planners send clients to Larissa is because those client don’t know where they are financially, how much they really have coming in the door, how much they spend, what loans they etc.

Through her training, Larissa is able to help her clients become very clear about their financial position, so that the Financial Planners can help further.

One tool that is used in this training, are ‘scenario sheets’.  That track what you think you’re earning and spending and give a lot of clarity.  As a special offer for our listeners, Larissa offered anyone who emails her from National Financial Fitness and mention they were listening to the call and she will send you the Scenario Sheets (and some info on how to use them).

It’s All About Mindsets!

The training that Larissa provides is based on the principle of FUN!  When Larissa works with clients one of the first question she asks is what’s the similarlity between sex and spending money – needless to say, she receives a number of comical responses, but ultimately the lesson is – they are the two main reasons why relationships break down.

Part of the training that Larissa provides is that managing your money is about your mind – not the numbers on the paper.  Although the training provides education about managing money, right up to Financial Investing – it really works on helping learners develop the right type of mindset.

A great example of creating a mindset to achieve successful financial management, is the mindset around actually generating wealth.  Larissa shared that she often felt that having money was bad or greedy (and I’m sure many of us have a similar feeling) – for her to achieve success, she had to develop a mindset that said ‘wealth is good’.

Another example, is our thoughts on budgetting.  Personally, I like budgeting – I don’t find it limiting, if anything it gives me a level of freedom because I know that the regular household bills are covered.

Larissa provided some wonderfully practical advice on what you can do to start that mindset change.  These are shared in the replay of this weeks show.

I am always amazed at how much of our ‘material success’ can be traced back to how we approach a situation with our minds.  Just goes to show that balancing the mind and body is great thing!