Holistic Money Podcast

Managing Work & Motherhood: Returning Back to Work After Maternity Leave Feat. Christina Wanta - Part 2

Whitney Morrison Episode 48

Join me and Christina as we continue our discussion on preparing for maternity leave and the journey of motherhood. In this episode, we focus on the experience of maternity leave itself, including the shift in mindset and the importance of embracing the time with your baby. We also delve into the financial aspects of having a baby, such as the recurring expenses that come with it. From diapers to formula, we provide insights on how to budget and plan for these additional costs. Additionally, we explore the impact of screen time during maternity leave and share strategies for reducing it. Finally, we discuss the transition back to work and the importance of finding a supportive work environment that values and understands the needs of working mothers. Don't miss out on this insightful conversation filled with practical tips and personal experiences.


Key Highlights

How did Christina feel during maternity leave? (00:01:10)

When did Christina start thinking about work again? (00:02:25)

How did Christina feel about going back to work? (00:03:45)

Did Christina experience a shift in the way she was treated after returning to work? (00:05:10)

What were some new expenses Christina had to start paying for during maternity leave? (00:05:58)

How did Christina manage her screen time during maternity leave? (00:08:28)

How did Christina navigate the transition back to work? (00:13:42)

How did Christina manage the cost of daycare? (00:20:33)

When did Christina start saving for her child's future? (00:24:04)


Notable Quotes

  • "I felt such warmth coming back to work. People welcomed me back and it was a delightful surprise."
  • "I had an advocate who saw my value and helped me transition out of a team that wasn't a good fit."
  • On the other side of boredom is creativity.
  • "We're building the foundation now so that we can have flexibility later in life."
  • "The earlier you start these accounts, the more time your money has to grow and benefit your child later in life."
  • "I want to have a happy child who has things to do and play with."
  • Step back and view your life more objectively and more holistically. I think you can really identify that and give yourself some grace.
  • "If you're going to buy stuff now, you have to match it with a contribution to their college fund." 
  • "Don't take away the joy of buying things for your child from the grandparents, but consider redirecting some of that spending towards their future."
  • Finding connections, looking at nature, finding patterns, those types of things is how I was trying to spend my time more than looking at my phone.

Apply here to be featured on the "Behind Closed Wallets" Series of the Holistic Money Podcast

Listen on Apple Podcast

Start your “No Budget” Money Plan

Learn more about our signature Program: Holistic Money Program

Connect with Whitney:

LinkedIn: LinkedIn

Instagram: @holisticmoney

Email: Info@holistic-money.com

Hello and welcome to the Holistic Money Podcast. I'm your host, certified financial planner and money mindset coach, Whitney Morrison. Over the past seven years, I've taken myself from credit card debt and no savings to a seven figure net worth. I did this without a budget or a restrictive money plan, but instead smart, sustainable wealth building strategies combined with changing my relationship with money. In this podcast, you'll learn the ins and outs of my no budget philosophy, practical wealth building strategies, and key mindset shifts to make it happen. There is no shortage of information out there to tell you what to do with money, but teaching you how to think and feel about money, that's my secret sauce. If you've been waiting for a podcast that gives you actionable strategies to not only build wealth, but also feel really good while you're doing it, then you're in the right place. Let's get started. Hello, and welcome back to the holistic money podcast. Y'all I am still pregnant. I hope, hope. Hope by the time you actually are listening to this episode. That my little baby will have decided it is time to come visit me earth side. But as of today, I am past my due date and I am still waiting for this baby to arrive. It has been such an emotional roller coaster. I cannot tell you how many times I have cried over the past week. I can definitely tell my hormones are changing and I can tell this baby. Is coming soon for those of you that know me, you may know that I struggle with anxiety and depression. And so I'm a little nervous about the postpartum period with my baby. Thankfully, I rented an Airbnb right down the road from my house for my mom for a few months. So she'll be here to support my husband will be off of work, so he'll be here to support as well. But I wanted to tell you. That I have a few more episodes planned for you as I go into maternity leave, but then there's going to be a little bit of a break until I start releasing episodes that I've recorded for the behind closed wallets podcast series. Which is a series where I'm going to be interviewing real individuals and couples on their finances. We're going to talk through their numbers. We're going to look at. What their goals are for their financial futures. And they're going to get some mindset, coaching, some financial advice, some tough love when they need it. All of this is completely anonymous. So you won't know who these people are, but I guarantee you. You will see yourselves in the way that they think about money. Talk about money. And the coaching that I give them on money. So it's going to be a really, really powerful series. If you are interested in being anonymously interviewed on the behind closed wallets podcast series, it's not too late to apply. You can go to my website. If you click on podcasts, scroll down just a little bit, you will see an area to apply. To be interviewed on this series. So today's episode and the reason why you're probably listening right now is part two. In the how to mentally and emotionally prepare for a baby Joining me in this episode is Christina wanta. She is a really amazing friend of mine. She's also a mom of two, a deep thinker. I'm so excited that we've got to record this podcast together. In this part of the series we're talking about maternity leave. So when you're actually off work with your baby, To returning back to work after maternity leave, we're going to be talking about new reoccurring expenses. You can expect as a new family with a child. We're going to be talking about the identity shift that occurs becoming a mother while still trying to maintain your professional identity as a high income earner. I know that's something that I'm thinking through. And then that moment when you actually do return to work. And the finances of sending your child to daycare, which is something that I definitely plan to do. And it is astounding, how much daycare costs. So that's what we're focusing on specifically in this episode. In part one, which released last week. We talked about that time leading up to maternity leave. So that moment, when you find out you're pregnant. To everything that you need to buy for a baby, most expensive items to telling your bras that you're going to be taking. Time off work. If you're an entrepreneur, I talk about what I did to prepare. For not having any income for three to four months in my business because of maternity leave. So that is in part one of the series. Part two is more during maternity leave. And then returning back to work. I hope everyone is having a great fall season. Let's dive into this episode. Let's talk about during maternity leave. You mentioned you were nervous before maternity leave and then you experienced a shift where you started to feel less nervous. Will you tell me about that shift of leaving work and how that felt for you? I worked right up to my due date. She came maybe two days after her, her due date. The baby arrives and it's like, you're, you are, your attention gets so laser focused. For me at least, I have a friend who is totally the opposite and she was slacking, you know, messaging her team. From, the hospital room, up until the last sort of moment of getting, delivering her baby. So many things can have our attention and to allow yourself to focus on something so singular is such a gift and it's hard. And so I think I just like leaned into it and, leaned into. her and being with her. And so I didn't really focus on work at all. And that's a gift to just say, I'm going to step away. And so that was the shift for me. Things probably change over, the next few weeks or the first two months of leave, your curiosity peaks about what's going on over at work. So I think there's a, which we can talk about. A shift in the moment of delivery to getting used to it to maybe getting a little bored and sort of like your your mood changes That's what I wanted to ask, you know at what point did you start to think about work again? And when you did have to go back to work were you at a point where you were like i'm really ready for this Or did you feel like I don't want to go back to work. This is not what I wanted. It's very interesting because I had My first before the pandemic and my second during the pandemic at the same company. And so before the pandemic, I had to commute to work. Leadership was changing. it was a lot of turmoil, a lot of change at the company. So going on leave during that time felt good. And then. The idea of returning to that environment, I had, concerns about going back and commuting back to work, getting dressed, putting makeup on, getting in my car, bringing all of my pump stuff, pumping during work. it was like. laborious, like even thinking about doing all of those things. And so I, I struggled a lot. And so during my leave, during that time, I had a whole plan, transition plan where I was going to go out on my own and, go back to being a freelancer. And I sort of was mapping out, how am I going to do that? What's. My plan of attack. So when I went back to work, it was November of 2019 and then not soon after that, did the world shut down and our whole world changed as my husband say, manifested what I wanted, which is being able to work from home. To answer your question, I think that I was, I was. It's not ready to go back. I did not want to go back into a, a corporate environment into that specific environment. And it was hard. It was hard to go back to that. Did you experience that with Will as well? No. I mean, it was like night and day. So that's what's so interesting is to see same company, two very different. experiences. So with my son, Will, who's now 19 months, he was born last March. I had a totally different team, totally different leadership, and I was leaving in a really healthy, environment I felt and I had 16 weeks total off with my second. So four more weeks. I remember talking to my boss occasionally during that time and just getting a sense of how things are going and feeling like him giving me reassurance, things are great. And like feeling this gentle, like you're, everything's fine. Like you're good. And then the return to work is. It's coming back to my home office so that I could pump while I'm on a call. I didn't have to go into a dark, weird room to, put my milk in a weird refrigerator. Like I, I just, it was just totally changed the whole dynamic of what it meant to be returned to work as a, as a new mom. It's just like a way gentler transition. And did you notice? Is any shift in the way that you were treated or viewed in your role after returning to work after maternity leave? I almost was transitioning into it thinking, I'm not a new employee, but I'm, I'm going to come in with like, I'm coming back to the same team, but maybe things have changed. Let me be open to that. Like I'm being curious about the change. And I think that then you sort of like on ramp rather quickly. And in the case of my second child, I had a team I managed. And so I'm coming back and to a, few direct reports and making sure that they're clear and that they have support and that I'm helping them and I'm getting up to speed kind of quickly. And so I think there was like, Hey, you're back. Great. Let me like gently onboard you. And then it's like, okay, you're, you're back into the role. so when you were on maternity leave, what were some of those new expenses that you had to start paying for, for the baby? I was breastfeeding, so I was, doing that throughout my whole maternity leave. But leading into... Nursing, you also have to pump. So, a breast pump and all of the accoutrement related to a breast pump. Check your insurance. Your insurance provider will often cover a breast pump. So make sure you, you check on that. If you're not breastfeeding, formula, can be really expensive. I breastfed for six months with my second. I had to, quickly get onto formula. And that was probably like, 100 a month, depending on, you know, how much they were eating. And I would also say that it's important to, have self care and time away to yourself. I like to get manicures. And so I was definitely spending money on manicures. Making sure that my husband was able to like. He was working at the time, so being with our kids and so giving me that time away, we don't have family here. So just finding that support system so you can take that self care and making sure it's okay to invest in those things. Yeah, I was doing a little research before this call because I don't have any experience on how much like diapers and formula costs, but what you just estimated was. pretty consistent with the averages. So I saw to expect average cost of diapers, 70 to 80 a month, average cost of formula somewhere between 70 to 150 a month. So, you know, really you're, you're looking at 200 to 300 extra in expenses. For baby during that maternity leave time. So that's kind of good for moms to be aware of moms and dads to be aware of as some of those additional expenses. And then, like you said, the self care, one of the things I thought was interesting when you and I were talking is how you mentioned that your screen time went up significantly during maternity leave. And I experienced that right now. As I'm even prepping for maternity leave and starting to wind down in my work and I do have more time. I'm just noticing my screen time going way up and it actually feels very bad. Like I noticed that my head feels differently. My eyes feel differently. I'm already starting to experience a little bit of that boredom because I'm used to being very stimulated by my work and now that I don't have that stimulation. I'm like, where do I put this part of me? I'm very excited to become a mother, but there's also this part of me that likes to think critically and use my mind and build my business. So tell me a little bit about your screen time and what you would do to help,, just not spend so much time on your phone. It's so funny because I have an iPhone in it. The iPhone would occasionally give me the report, screen time report of how much, many hours is, and like, stop judging me, iPhone. Like, totally. which actually was a, doing its job. It was a cue to me to sort of pay attention to it. You know, you're nursing a lot. Or you're feeding the baby a lot. The baby's sleeping a lot. But then I also was reading a lot of content and reading a lot of news. And I, don't read a lot of news daily because I'm just sort of consumed with other content with work, and then my kids. And so I don't dedicate time to news. And so. Not only was like my screen time going up and I was doing like online browsing and shopping more My news intake was going up and it caused a lot of anxiety for me Because it was doomsday with the news and then this desire for wanting and meeting with shopping And it was just a recipe for like mental fatigue and anxiety And so what I started to do was I did this with my second I started to, journal, I did it on my phone, but I started to notice connections between my, my career as a design manager and,, my role as a mother. And so I started to write like very short, like, like little essays almost on my phone. Of themes I was finding I was walking a lot. I was nursing a lot. So these are moments to imagine or dream. And it gave me spaciousness to think about, oh, I see connections between what it's like to be a parent and what it's like to be a manager or a leader at work. And so I, now I have these series of like 20 little essays that I might, turn into a book one day or something or turn into something that helped really. Channel my downtime energy into something productive. And I had to challenge myself to say, I'm not doing this for anybody but myself. You and I might have the same energy there of like, how do I, I'm gonna take this and I'm gonna into something, and it's like, just relax. Like, just enjoy. The walk that you're going on and enjoy the looking at the trees I found almost like a, I don't want to even call it a project, but a thing to channel my energy. I had a lot of conversations with my mom. I talked to her all the time, or my sister. And so finding connections, looking at nature, finding patterns, those types of things is how I was trying to spend my time more than looking at my phone. I think that's such a good piece of awareness, because had I not had that conversation with you, I'm very sure I would have gone into maternity leave completely unaware of how much time I was spending on my phone. But now that you mention it, it is something I do feel aware of. Forget who it is that said this, but on the other side of boredom is creativity. So I really feel like I'm gonna Allow myself to get to that board space mm-hmm. and do my best not to reach for my phone and just see what comes up on the other side of that. And I think that your story about what you decided to do with those short essays is kind of like a testament to like, okay, if, if I can not distract. And not, lose my sense of presence with being on this phone all the time, then what else could I possibly do with my time? So I love that. And for me, the things that I check over and over again are my statistics for my business. Like I'm embarrassed to, if anybody were to ever look at my phone and see how many times I like log into my fucking email provider. So that's the one thing that I'm going to have to really manage. And I know for those of you that are. Entrepreneurs and building businesses. This is something you can probably relate to like your numbers and your metrics and your growth and really seeing how your content is doing is a big part of your, at least your brain thinks the perceived success of your business. So I'm really going to have to just allow myself to be with the discomfort of Not knowing or looking one or one time a day and knowing that those numbers are not going to have a huge shift when I'm not producing. Another tip that helped me not be on social media which was people want to know see pictures of your baby and sort of that's fine. Partly what the job of Instagram is, is to keep in touch with people in your life. So what I did instead was create an album, a photo album that I can share with my, my family and my friends. And so that's where I started to post photos of, uh, and log my day so that my family could see it rather than posting on Instagram. Um, so I. I didn't use any social media because I didn't, I, I mean, I shouldn't say that. I didn't go on Instagram very much, um, because I just knew it wasn't good for my mental health, but I was solving the, the scratching the itch another way. And so there's different ways that you can keep in touch with people that thought through social media. Yeah. I love that as an alternative option there is a lot of addictive qualities of these, of social platforms that are strategically designed to keep us using these apps over and over again. And there are a lot of studies that show that it is not great for our brain health to Continuously stay on these platforms. So I think that's a really great alternative. So let's talk about transitioning back to work. I am Honestly at this point excited to do and I haven't even had the baby. Maybe I'll feel different All right, so tell me We already talked a little bit about your experience transitioning back to work But you came back feeling at least that second time around You still felt a sense of importance at work. You didn't feel like anyone devalued you because of that time off. Is that correct? Oh, yeah. I mean, absolutely. I had good relationships. I have a great group of people at my company that are so warm. I felt so, such warmth coming back. A lot of, you know, messages welcoming me back or when I joined a zoom video, people really think, Oh, you're here, you're back. And that actually sort of delighted me and surprised me a little bit just to feel that warmth. And to feel like as. My boss not expecting much and yet, which is actually a great, lesson for me as a leader and a manager, I haven't had to experience. Someone on my team leaving for pregnancy. So now it's, it's like, Oh, what would that feel like to somebody else? And what putting myself in their shoes? I can do that now. And so it helped me be mindful of how might I manage that for my team one day? So I felt a lot of warmth and it's almost that feeling of like a new job or you're, you're starting school and you're like, I'm not expected to do anything. Like, there's something like riding that wave for me. That was like, I'm going to just enjoy that. It quickly changes when you have duties and responsibilities, but, there's sort of like give yours giving yourself the that on ramp is helpful. That's wonderful. It sounds like you had a really good experience transitioning back to work. And for those of you that don't have a good experience or feel like your position has been replaced, or you're no longer in the same projects that you were working on previously. I think this is where. you really have to take a deep, hard look at the company that you're working for. Because I think one of the main things is like, if you are not working for a company that does not value you, does not value your contribution, and you do feel devalued after having a child, then I think that that is a really strong indication that it's time to start looking for a new role. Because yeah, there are positions available that do offer you that. And I just think that that would be a really demoralizing return from such a special part of your life. And so if you're experiencing that, this is full permission. Go out there and start looking for a new role. Because you hear from Christina, that doesn't have to be the norm. And I would add to that, um, because it's not all, you know, maybe hindsight's 20, 20 for me, but in coming back, I was also, thrusted into a new team to some extent. And a lot of the people on that team were very high performers. that didn't have children and or had older children. And so I felt this, um, a lot of pressure to come back to a very high performing environment. The speed at which they were going was not matching the speed that I could withstand. I struggled with returning to an environment that was so high performing that might not have identified with like Oh, this person just went on maternity leave and maybe what understand her experience for a moment. And so I, I struggled with that a lot, actually in the work itself, less of like my immediate team and how they welcome me back. But more like, how do you transition into your, your day to day job at the speed that the company needs you to or the high performance that the company expects? Oh, I can imagine that would be such a challenging transition. And how are you navigating that? my boss observed that I was struggling and he said, are you happy on that team? And I said, no. And he helped very artfully me transition out of that team. And I, was really grateful for him, for to spot that I was. Talented and had value added value and that it wasn't a match. And what happened was I had a lot of self doubt and negative talk, self talk and imposter syndrome that I wasn't meeting their expectations and not operating at the caliber that they needed me to. I had feedback given to me about how I needed to be doing performing better. And I was just like, wow, like floor that, like, I, I don't feel like I'm. And so I had an advocate and I still do to say, no, you're good and this isn't a fit. Either you have to self advocate or you find an advocate to, to see that you are valued and good. And maybe there's just not a fit. I think that that is such good advice because I really believe that we go through seasons in our life. There are seasons where I can be so hyper productive where I can operate. at a really high level and now I'm in a season where it is not like that at all. Getting pregnant for me, like my brain chemistry changed my ability just to push through severe resistance to doing something significantly decreased. It was like, oh girl, you don't want to do that. Let's go take a nap. Yeah, that sounds good. And I totally, I feel like my brain which for me has just like really decreased my output, but the output that I do put out has been really delightful and fun. I've really started to integrate that into my work a lot more. And so I just think that there are seasons that we go through and if you can really, View yourself objectively, which is very difficult to do when you're in an environment of people who are not in the same season as you. You can step back and view your life more objectively and more holistically. I think you can really identify that and give yourself some grace. Like, I just really believe that lifestyle is the most important thing. It's more important than your job. It's more important than the amount of money that you're making. Although those two things are inextricably linked, right? The amount of money that you make in the lifestyle you get to live. But I just think that lifestyle is so important and finding a role in a job that really fits the lifestyle that you want, I think it can be more important than a big fat paycheck. I think that's so beautiful to say that the seasons, our seasons are always changing and it might not be where somebody else is at and that's a, that's been hard. I'm even in that now. My child, my son is 19 months, so it's been almost, a year and a half that I've been back, and I'm still sort of like, I'm in a different pace. I have two little kids. I'm want to slow down rather than speed up, or I want to, I have to give my energy. Like, we only have, our cup is so full, you know, and we can only fill it so much more. And, that might not be the case for all women. Some, some might have different energy, a new energy that is, sort of sprouts or spawns from having children. So let's talk about some of those recurring expenses that we will experience after going back to work, really big one, a lot of people talk about is Daycare or childcare. How much are you currently paying for childcare? So we just have one child in childcare now and it's 1600 a month. So when we had both, it was 27. Gosh, that is a lot of money. That's a lot of money for childcare to be go to, to be able for both parents to go back to work. This is good for parents to be prepared for and to know about. Uh, where I live in Wimberley, it's a little bit less expensive. Thankfully, I do forego a lot of convenience living out in Wimberly in a smaller town, but um, it's about 800 for a baby for, for daycare. And then I think when they start to get into toddler year or like over one, it reduces down a little bit. So I think our childcare is probably going to be somewhere around 500 to 800 a month. So a little bit less expensive, but still. A significant cost. So how did y'all manage that financially? The daycare decision happens early. So if you're pregnant, get on a waiting list or start thinking about your child care plan, whether it's a nanny or a daycare. And so we literally looked at the nanny versus daycare situation. We don't have family here and we really have a, we had a, limited amount of leave that we could take. And so we knew we had to do some type of Daycare situation, whether it's, or childcare situation, whether it was a nanny or daycare. Nanny is a, significantly more expensive, but there's pros and cons to that. I have a friend who did an au pair, uh, live in au pair and they love her and, they sort of weighed the cost of that was, less than daycare because then you had sort of the benefit of someone living with you and helping you and doing house things. They ended up doing for a few years for their Children. We ended up shopping for a few different daycares. And the one we went ended up going with, had full year round care. Not all daycares do that. They offered food. Not all daycares do that so we didn't have to pack breakfast or lunch or snack Yeah, and they didn't take these like crazy long vacations over the summer So a lot of daycares closed during the summer or they have early they start late and they end early We needed like eight to five All year, like 365 day care, basically. And, we just had really good vibes about it. It was a bilingual school and we wanted a bilingual school for our kids. And so those are sort of the decision factors and, making our decision. And then in terms of the, the cost, I don't think that we knew going into it, like similar to probably what you were feeling and then as they get older, you're, you're getting excited that the cost is going down. And so as an example, with our daughter, she was in daycare with, with our son, but then the moment she could go to pre K at her elementary school, I was like, yes, we're doing that. Cause it's a lot cheaper. Money sort of started to drive our decisions and some of those things. Yeah. Which is totally. I think that's the case for a lot of parents, especially with daycare costs being so high. I mean, Craig and I, as we start to navigate this, I mean, we are going to have to cut back on the amount that we put it towards our travel to be able to take care of some of these new expenses, you know, trying to think of additional income streams that we can bring in for ourselves because having a child or two child or even. or two children, or maybe even three in daycare. My family doesn't live close either will be a significant new expense. So it's a great thing to think through. And the last thing I want to touch on that, you and I talked about in terms of an after maternity leave expense. Is beginning to start to save for the future for your child. So you had mentioned you and Steve have just opened a couple of new accounts for your kids. So what did you end up opening? So we opened a 529 account for both of them, which is a college savings fund. And then we have, a high interest yield savings account and so they both have those accounts set up in their names And we're fortunate with My husband's family, you know, will send us a check or birthday checks for the kids. And so we are having these accounts so that we start putting that so that every month we're just putting that money into that account and we're starting to build out that. so that number so that when they get to a point where they're a little older and we're talking about school, or they want to buy their 1st house or whatever it might be, we, really want to have an intentional, and thoughtful approach for them so that they can make a decision for their financial future. So we're sort of describe our time right now as foundation building. And we're building the foundation so that we can have flexibility later in life. Yes. I think that is so smart because the earlier you start these kinds of accounts, putting money in compound interest is your friend. You have more time for the money to grow and then you'll have. More money set aside for your child later in life I will tell you my mother is gonna be incredibly disappointed when I tell her that I don't want her to send any more things To my house moving forward. What I want is I want I'm gonna do the same thing I want people to contribute to their accounts when it comes to birthdays when it comes to Holidays and the reason why is because I'm really not a stuff person I don't want a lot of toys around my house. I want to, I want to have a happy child who has things to do and play with. But like, I just can't have a lot of stuff. Even some of the gifts that I've received today, I've received like four or five different kid photo albums. Like I don't need any more photo albums. I really wish we would have taken this 30 into this investment account. This is a pro tip. If your mothers or your in laws do not want to just send cash, our imperative is to, my in laws, is that for every Dollar you spend on a shirt or a toy. You have to match that college savings. Love it. They don't necessarily fulfill that wish, but that is the idea is that if you're going to buy stuff now, you have to match it with this sort of their college fund. Yeah, I think that's a great idea. That may be a better alternative for my mother because she is just loving buying first grandchild. She just wants to buy that little thing. Everything. Yeah. Oh yeah. Every time she comes out, she's like. You know, which is wonderful. And don't take that away from her because she loves it. So that's, that's good. I know. I know. This is really like, it makes me actually think about when I will become a grandparent or a grandmother, like how special that's going to be. And I don't want to take it away from her, but all right, Christina, thank you so much. We went through so much today. It's such a helpful episode. Good. Yeah. It was, it was a pleasure. Thank you. All right, y'all. Thank you so much for listening in to this episode on maternity leave and preparing for a baby. If you're listening on this via podcast, I would love it. If you left me a review, I always read your reviews and they feel really good when I received them. So everyone, I hope you have a great week and we will see you in the next episode. Have you ever built a budget, but within weeks felt exhausted by the spreadsheets, the upkeep, or the restrictive spending categories? If so, you are not alone. Budgeting has never worked for me, so I created a new way, money mapping. Money mapping has all of the things you need to be successful in your wealth building journey. It's simple, organized, and automated, but most importantly, it offers a completely new way to relate to money and manage it in your life. If you're ready to kick off your no budget strategy for building wealth, sign up for my free money map training at www. holistic money. com forward slash money map. Here's to building wealth with ease.