How Susan Conquered Her Money Fear

Susan Whelan describes her former self as hopeless with money.

As a child, she remembers sitting on her father’s knee hearing him say, “Sometimes, Susan, the more money people have, the meaner they become.” Between taking this statement to heart and experiencing her dad’s stress and anxiety around finances, whenever money came to her, she spent it as fast as she received it.

Later, after experiencing a significant trauma in high school, she could never seem to pay her bills or put aside money for the future. Her dad, she says, was forever helping her out and paying off her debts.

After joining MindShift.money and the Cash Flow Cure Program (which included access to the Financially Fit Bootcamp program too), Susan learned she had the power to change her future and get on the path to Financial Freedom. She’s now free from Money Stress and well on her way to freedom from debt. Even better, she can talk to her dad about money without fear.

The Connection Between Addiction And Money

Because of the trauma she experienced early in life, Susan carried a great deal of sadness and shame. She battled addictions to drugs, alcohol, food and poverty for most of her life.

At the same time, she coupled those addictions with wanting something better for herself. She tried out personal training, holistic body care, qigong and more. But just like her addictions, she had an on-again, off-again relationship with these self-care techniques. She didn’t like her body and swung between starving herself and binging.

She treated money the same way, blowing through her funds as fast as they came in. There were times when money came into her life easily, and she even owned her own business for a time. But, more often than not, money caused more problems than it solved.

In 2010, for instance, she and her partner went into liquidation and lost their business and their home. Where had all the money gone? She had treated her business income just like her personal income. She spent way too much and didn’t save or run her business properly.

Soon she and her family had nowhere to live. They joined a caravan and lived with friends while trying to figure out their financial situation.

After a death in the family, they were willed a broken down cottage in a little town of 400 people. Though their family struggled with the grief of losing a loved one, that little cottage proved a lifesaver for Susan and her family.

She finally had a chance to tackle the root of her issues and come to terms with the negative emotions that were holding her hostage.

Overcoming Her Money Fears to Find Financial Freedom

Throughout her life, whenever Susan thought about money or needed to check her bank accounts, she felt sick and panicked. To her, money was a monster, causing arguments with her parents and siblings and inspiring feelings of shame.

Finally, she decided she needed to face her fears and actually learn about money. She wanted to know how to budget, save and spend well.

She worked with several financial experts who helped her confront her fear and difficult emotions around money. When she came to terms with her negative feelings about money, her other addictions became manageable as well. Without that process of dealing with her emotions, Susan says, she would never have been ready to start the MindShift.money program.

Now she was ready to tackle her Cash Flow problems. But she realized she still didn’t know how to deal with money on a daily basis. She needed to learn how to actually manage her finances. After reading one of Dr. Tony’s books, she knew his program would be a good fit to help her solve her problem.

When a friend sent her a special offer to join the MindShift.money community, the opportunity couldn’t be ignored! Even though finances were still tight, she did the math and figured out that the cost of the class was less than paying for another financial adviser. She took the leap and didn’t look back.

Financially Free In Eight Years

The MindShift.money program is so simple, she says. It just makes sense.

The modules are clear and easy to follow. With the help of Dr. Tony, Susan figured out how much money she needs to reach Financial Freedom and to chart her course to reach her own Personal Freedom Number.

Because of her success in the Financially Fit Bootcamp Program, Susan is on track to pay her credit card debt off in less than a year. She’s got a safety net protecting her in case of a financial emergency, and she’s working on building her Freedom Generator.

Even better? She’ll reach her Personal Freedom Number in eight years or less—achieving a Financial Freedom she never even dreamed of just a few years ago.

Probably the best result though, is that Susan and her father can talk about money without the stress and anxiety that used to permeate their financial conversations.

“Any time my dad tried talking to me about money, it was just really, really too uncomfortable. He would end up having to get me out of debt, and it was just a whole toxic money cycle. So there was all of that stuff. Now he can just say to me, ‘you’ve got this,’ you know, and it’s really cool. I talked to him about money the other day, and it was the best time in our lives, you know, that we were able to sit there and talk about it.”