Moneymentals
Your Personal Cash Flow Management System
Save more, spend better---automatically---with the Moneymentals system.
Moneymentals is a revolutionary online course that enables you to create a financial plan for a fraction of traditional financial planning services. When you enroll in Moneymentals, you’ll learn how the right “wealthy habits” can help you go from merely surviving to thriving.
By following your customized plan, you’ll be able to spend more money doing the things that make you happiest now while the Moneymentals system ensures you’re saving amply for the future.
Over seven weeks, Moneymentals will give you the tools you need to make saving money a keystone habit upon which everything else builds: Reducing spending and debt, investing regular income (as well as windfalls), protecting your assets, planning for eventual financial freedom and leaving a legacy that will impact your family and make the world a better place.
The Moneymentals Toolkit
Included with the Moneymentals course is our proprietary Moneymentals Toolkit, which transforms the concepts you learn in Moneymentals into an actionable cash flow plan.
Throughout the Moneymentals course, you'll receive ongoing coaching on how to use and implement the Toolkit. When you do, you'll automatically begin to feel more secure about your finances because the Moneymentals system is handling everything for you!
Is Moneymentals right for you?
Moneymentals is ideal for adults dealing with increasingly complex finances, but who aren’t ready to spend between $2,000 and $4,000 to meet with a fee-only financial planner.
Moneymentals is ideal for you if:
- You want to pay down debt, take a vacation, save for a big purchase and save for retirement---but you don't know how to prioritize those goals
- You think you should be a better at budgeting, but it never seems to work
- You feel like you're working hard, but not getting much enjoyment from the money you earn
- You'd like to know if you're doing the right things with your money, but aren't ready to spend a ton on a financial plan
Your Instructor
Michael C. Goldman, M.A., CFP® is founder of Gather Financial Planning, a fee-only advisory firm in Maine.
As a financial advisor, he enjoys enabling clients to define short- and long-term goals and use money to help achieve the life they want. Michael enjoys assisting everyday people who often cannot see a top-quality, reliable financial advisor because they lack a large investment portfolio. He likes coaching, teaching and helping bring about a transformation in his clients so they can turn their dreams into reality.
Using money-management techniques to live a meaningful and rewarding life is something Michael puts into practice himself. Skillful financial management enabled him to pay for an advanced education and travel extensively, as well as move to Maine. He discovered Maine while completing his master’s degree at New York University and loved the area immediately. Upon moving in 2000, he was able to attend the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Rockport to develop his skills in his favorite hobby, woodworking. He was only at the school a year and a half before he began building his own passive-solar home, which he completed in 2004. He moved to the Portland area in 2006, where he now lives with his two daughters. Committed to community, he is honored to serve on the board of two charitable organizations.
Behavioral finance has been a strong interest of Michael’s for many years. Intrigued by investing and the behavioral influences involved in market fluctuations, he attended University of Texas at Austin to complete his honors thesis on the relationship between consumer sentiment and stock market price movements. He continued to research behavioral finance while completing his master's degree in New York.
Moneymentals is the result of Michael's years of experience both as a financial planner and a behavioral finance scientist.
The Moneymentals Curriculum
Pre-work: The Moneymentals $10k Challenge
Upon signing up for the Moneymentals course, you'll immediately get access to the Moneymentals $10k Challenge, a simple but transformative exercise that asks you to imagine how you would manage $10,000 under different scenarios.
Moneymentals students might think of the $10K Challenge as summer reading before school begins. The $10k Challenge is an exercise that will, by itself, help you better prioritize your financial goals, save more, and spend in a way that makes you happier. (That last bit, by the way, is what Moneymentals is all about.) After you complete the Moneymentals $10K Challenge, class will begin. Each Module will be released on a Monday, giving you a full week to watch the lecture, complete the homework, and—in certain modules—take action on your finances.
Module 1: Getting What You Want Out of Life
Following the $10K Challenge, Module 1 will prepare you for the Moneymentals system by asking you to reflect on your values—and whether those values are aligned with your current spending. In Module 1, you will learn:
- The difference between surviving and thriving
- The importance of spending better
- How to set an achievable fun goal—and why you must!
Module 2: Understanding Where the Money Goes
Module 2 introduces the Moneymentals Toolkit, a series of spreadsheets that will help you set up the Moneymentals system and begin controlling where every dollar goes—automatically. To do that, you’ll first need to know where you’re spending the money in the first place. In Module 2, you will learn:
- How to use the Moneymentals Toolkit
- How to reliably estimate every dollar you spend in a year
- The foolproof way to deal with irregular expenses—and irregular income!
Module 3: Setting Up Your Cash Flow System
In Module 3, you will set up your “no budget” cash flow plan. You will learn:
- Why traditional budgeting fails
- How opening a few extra bank accounts will radically simplify your finances
- How to set up the Moneymentals system with your money
Module 4: Using Your Cash Flow Plan
Module 4 shows you how to use the Moneymentals system once you have it set up. You’ll learn how to fine-tune your cash flow plan to account for differences between your estimated expenses and real life. You’ll also learn:
- Where to find money to kick-start your saving goals
- The right amount of money to keep in your primary checking account vs other accounts
- How to set up automatic transfers to keep your cash flow plan running on autopilot
Module 5: Finding Opportunities and Making Tradeoffs
With your cash flow plan in place, it’s time to return to some of the work you did in Module 1 and take action to align your spending with your values. In Module 5 you will learn:
- How to balance short-term fun goals and long-term freedom goals
- Where to find tradeoffs to help you reach fun goals faster
- Ways to reduce your overhead—or fixed monthly expenses—to supercharge your saving
Module 6: Building Financial Freedom
In Module 6, you will apply what you’ve learned toward the ultimate goal—financial freedom. You will learn:
- Ten freedom-building priorities so you know exactly where to save your next dollar
- How to set clear milestones on your path to financial freedom, so you can see your progress
- How to use debt reduction as a freedom accelerator
Live Workshop: Working Your Plan
Wrap-up the course with a live workshop to answer your questions and clarify the real-life issues that come up as you apply the Moneymentals system to your life. You will learn:
- Tips and tricks to help you integrate Moneymentals into your everyday life
- Practical adjustments to the core system to make it work better for you
- When to seek more advice