Mandyy Thomas is the CEO of Intentionally Wealthy Coaching Ltd. By age 26 she had already saved/invested $250k+. She helps service-based entrepreneurs set up a strong financial foundation and to know specifically what to do with the money that is coming into their business: how to save for taxes, pay their business expenses, pay themselves personally and continue to grow their business to greater profits.
“ When you start to owe taxes, I want you to celebrate that because it means that you actually turned a profit.“
What are your thoughts around where money is headed right now?
Mandyy: So let's talk about it in regards to what you just mentioned about manifestation and law of attraction, because I love the principles of it, but I really feel like it needs to be expanded upon further and tied into something tangible. I will work with a lot of people who are very spiritual and they've done a lot on the mindset side. But then behind the scenes, once we dive in, then that's when I start to really hear the real things that they're actually thinking, where they really only kind of want to focus on that aspect, but they also feel really irresponsible. And so that right there makes it so for them to attract more, it's a lot harder because they just have this deep-seated seated fear of like, “I'm not responsible. I don't know what to do with it.” And so that's where, when we can tie in tangible stuff, then it makes it, so they start to feel responsible. They start to feel more confident that not only can they keep attracting more at a higher level, but now they can actually build real wealth. I've been a financial coach for over five years now. And what I've started to see is when you really focus on that law of attraction increasing what's coming in, it's almost comparable to like a little bit of a get rich, quick scheme from the mindset side where you only focus on that, but you're not focusing on any of the money leaks, plugging those learning, how to have your money actually make you money. Being really smart with it by putting money into investment, but you need to manage it well in order to be able to do that. That's where I'll have clients that are like, “I'm making all this money and I'm talking on Instagram, but I'm not paying myself personally. I'm behind a year and a half on taxes. I haven't put anything into my retirement.” I love the law of attraction. It's really amazing for the flow, but we also need to marry that with a strategy. And then the other thing is there's other deeper ruins that a lot of times it will really focus on all the things that feel good about money and really increasing those rituals. And that's amazing, but we also have to take a step back to see what are those things that are going to come up that cause us to sabotage. It's equally as important to see where we could sabotage. Usually it's one person. You're the one person in the family who's really working on your relationship with money and increasing, and it feels good. Maybe you're an entrepreneur now. But also, maybe there's nobody else in your family. That's done this work and there's something that I refer to as your family money paradigm. And if you are out earning them, there's a lot of things that will cause you to feel like you're not loyal to your family anymore. And that you're out of your family roots. Especially now, when we're living in a time of uncertainty. Keep working on the law of attraction, but make sure you're doing a lot of the tangible things to feel good with your money so you can keep more. That is the most important thing. That's what I've really found for abundance is actually having money in the bank, not just money flowing in, and then flowing right back out at that same consistency, but being able to keep more of it, have more of a capacity.
How did you get into being a financial coach?
Mandyy: It was completely by accident. So I used to be a power engineer and I really, really loved it. And then in my mid-twenties, I ended up getting super sick. I was on a personal development journey then, but that was really the biggest thing that spark changed for me because I really thought that things weren't getting better. I was a very left-sided-minded type of person, very strategy orientated, and wasn't really spiritual or holistic, and that completely changed a hundred percent. And so it was going down that journey that I realized that the reason that I actually got so sick was even though I'd saved that much money and I invested that much, I hadn't addressed any of the scarcity from childhood about money. There was so much fear and anxiety, and I realized that that was eating away at me. And even though I didn't have any debt and I was managing my money. I felt so much fear of losing it all. I came out into the workforce in the recession of 2008. It was through my journey of processing those emotions, going deep into that scarcity and really working through it that I realized, “Holy cow, if I got this sick, when I did this well financially, what about everyone who doesn't know how to manage their money?” And that's when I went, “I'm going to be a financial coach” and I was one of the very first ones in Canada. And it's kind of been history since then.
What do you think is the first step that they need to do in managing money?
Mandyy: The first step is making sure that your business and personal are separate. If you are tracking your money really well and you know exactly how much you've made in your business and what your expenses are, but it's in your personal, you won't actually have clarity. There's a huge difference between bookkeeping, which is what is used for tax purposes. But the other huge part is we need to be managing cashflow. And if you're just writing down income and expenses, you're only doing the bookkeeping taxes parts, but you are not doing the actual cashflow part. When I say cashflow, so in your business bank account, you've got your income coming in there. We need to pay your business expenses. We need to pay you personally. I like entrepreneurs to be paid twice a month. You manage your money really well that way. And then also taking into account taxes, setting that money aside on an actual monthly basis, but then also still having a buffer in your business account. You can not do that at all if you have it both in one. The other thing is some banks. If you have business going into a personal account, if they find out they can shut it down and freeze your account. So that's another really important reason. The other thing is the sooner you do it, you feel like a business owner, you put up boundaries, you charge your worth because it doesn't feel like a side hustle. It feels like a legitimate business. We need to treat our business like it is. When you feel more confident about money, you will make more money.
How much should entrepreneurs be paying themselves?
Mandyy: What I would say first is figure out what you exactly need to live? Every single one of my clients is different. A lot of people think that they know this number, and honestly they do not. We need to figure out your personal salary using three different numbers. One is your fixed expenses. That's the easy part. The other part is your day-to-day expenses. So that's groceries, gas, household, eating out. That is another section. And then the last section that most people forget about is like your non-recurring and random expenses. I call them your savings buckets. A lot of other people we'll call them your sinking funds. So things like travel, Christmas, clothes, annual fees and expenses, vehicle repair fund, house fund. All of these types of things you need to include in your salary on a monthly basis. What I do with entrepreneurs is I help them to figure out basically what's like the bare minimum that they would need to get paid on a monthly basis for everything to happen. Now let's say we're paying all your savings buckets. Let's say we're paying more to debt or whatever those other priorities are and having a tiered system that they can use. So depending on whatever season of business they're in, if it's a lot tighter, maybe we're on that first tier of what they're paying themselves. And now let's say they're getting more of a business buffer. So then they can kind of go through the ebbs and flows and now maybe we're paying them kind of that second tier amount. So it's really important just to start to figure out what does that kind of minimum baseline that you want to work towards? But making sure you're taking into account those savings buckets. Savings buckets is a Keystone habit. Everything completely changes for you when you're doing this, because now you're getting consistency with your finances, with which entrepreneurs, especially, they feel like there's no consistency. Instead of having these big expenses that come off, that completely derail you. So now you're cashflowing those expenses, but expenses aren't actually increasing that month because you're taking it out of these savings buckets and that consistency makes you feel more safe and more secure. You will earn more money. Everything in your life changes.
How can we look at tax in a way that's not scary?
Mandyy: So the first thing I always tell my clients is, once you start paying taxes, I want you to celebrate the hell out of that, because it means that you made more in income than you had in expenses. That's something to celebrate because depending on everyone's journey, there will be times where maybe you're investing heavily in your business. I didn't start my business as a side hustle. I went full on, on my business. So I did not have literally a dime of income coming in when I built my business. So I can tell you in that first year, I did not owe anything in taxes because it wasn't profitable because I invested so heavily into my business. When you start to owe taxes, I want you to celebrate that because it means that you actually turned a profit. The other thing that I will talk to clients about is I will prepare for how we can actually have it so you're paying less taxes. We can talk about increasing the profitability and once they get to a certain point, maybe we'll have you switch. Your accountants can really help you, but they're so busy that they're actually not, for the most part, very good with educating you or helping you for what's coming up in the pipeline. So that's what I help my clients to do is to know what to talk to your accountants about kind of when and what good questions to ask. So as you become more profitable, you can elect to file taxes as an escort, for example, we can have you taking a salary, being an actual employee of your business instead of just taking out a monthly e-transfer for example, if you're a sole proprietor. And then you'll be paying a lot less taxes because of how your business is filing taxes and just explaining to them that process. A lot of people don't even know about this. And second of all, they don't know the things to prepare, really making sure we have a profitable business. So we can take advantage of these. They'll start to see, they're actually paying a lot less in taxes than what they were previously, and they can have that appreciation that it is going to build up the roads and for healthcare and different things like that. So they don't feel that all of their money's going to taxes. And then in turn have that rebellious attitude, which then they earn less because they don't want to pay more in taxes.
What does tapping and saying these affirmations do to a person?
Mandyy: As entrepreneurs, we feel very alone in this aspect. We're in masterminds, we're in group programs, but people maybe talking about their gross income that they're making, no one's talking about what their expenses are, what their personal expenses are. So we feel very alone in this huge aspect of finances. So when you tap on it and say how you're really feeling, this is very, very, especially for women. And so for women, a lot of times you don't feel heard, you don't feel understood. So when you actually verbalize it and it comes out of your throat chakra, it is so powerful because even if nobody's there and no one's listening, you feel like this is true. I actually have these fears and I have these worries, once you've made over six figures, then there's the fear of the money stopping. So many of my clients have the fear of making less money than they previously did. When you actually voiced those things out loud. You're like, “Yes, I have these fears. I'm not trying to run from them. I'm not trying to pretend that they're not there.” When you can reframe after that, then it's helpful. There's a lot of toxic positivity when it's just like, “Oh, just get me into the energy of it and this and that.” And they're like, “I literally don't know what I'm doing behind the scenes with my money.” So then you can say it out loud and say, “I just want it to be easier. I just want to show up for my money today and actually feel good about it.” So I tell clients do this right before your money date. So then you can sit down and you can actually enjoy it. When you set up your space in it and you actually feel good about it, your body can feel calm.
Learn more about Mandyy
Follow her on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/intentionallywealthyco
Intentionally Wealthy Podcast: https://mandyythomas.mykajabi.com/podcast-season-1-goals
Check out her website: http://mandyythomas.com/financialcoaching/
Freebies!
Figuring out your personal salary & personal expenses: bit.ly/realbudget
Recording your monthly business income & expenses: https://mandyythomas.mykajabi.com/pl/147551
Want more? Make sure you subscribe to the BYOM (Bring Your Own Mask) Show on iTunes or Spotify so you can stay in the loop when a new conversation drops!