29: Paying Money Matters

I recently got an email from my podcast service provider that they are changing things up and I no longer fit into their free plan category as I have too many listeners.  Basically, if I want to stay with them as my provider, I have to upgrade my plan and start paying a monthly fee.   I gladly took out my credit card and signed up for the upgrade immediately and here is why.

First of all, having too many downloads to stay on the free plan is a good problem to have, right?  It means you value the content I put out and lots of people are listening.

I’m in a few podcast groups on Facebook and there was a little chatter about some people being disappointed they now have to pay.  Now for some, I can understand their perspective.  Lots of people like myself start a podcast as a passion or hobby.  They want to share a message and get it in your ears every week.  If your podcast isn’t monetised it’s pretty amazing to be able to host it on a platform for free.

Since my podcast launched in late 2019, I have hosted it with a podcast provider.  They have been amazing!

In the beginning if I needed to get help, they got back to me straight away.  Their technical support is great.  They have a beautiful player that integrates seamlessly with my website.  I can use their player and post episodes to my social media account.  I can get analytics of who is listening and where.  That’s how I know I have an audience in Europe, North America and Asia.  What countries are listening and how many downloads.

This is all so valuable to me and I have got it all for free.  Now if the podcast provider went out of business it would affect me and lots of other people.  I want to use their service; I value what they offer.

When I pay them money, they get to keep their business running.  They get to continue to offer their amazing service to many people.  They continue to be able to offer schools and hobbyists a free service.  They continue to be able to pay their employees.  Their employees get to feed their family and spend money in other businesses and so on.

Paying money matters.

You see sometimes we get confused about what money is or isn’t.  Money can’t hurt you, it isn’t evil, it doesn’t make your life better.

Money is neutral.  It’s just a tool we get to use to exchange it for value.

In the past, we didn’t use money.  Money is just a social construct we made up to make it easier to trade good and services.  That’s it.   Maybe in the past you needed some potatoes so you traded your broccoli for your neighbour’s potatoes, right?  But that is not practical to do now.  So, we use money as a trading tool.  I know you understand this intellectually but for many of us the idea of money or our thoughts about money can be very charged with emotion.  Not having enough, feeling like there is only a certain amount of money to go around, meaning that if one person has more it means another person has less.

We use money as a convenient tool to exchange for goods or services.  I pay you this dollar amount you give me that service or product.

Paying someone money means they can pay someone else money and so on.  That’s how it works and it’s a beautiful thing.

When we get paid for our work in money it then means I can pay my lawn-mowing man, he can use that money to pay the barber, the barber can use it to pay for his son’s piano lessons and so on.  Do you see what an amazing tool money is?  Imagine having to say to my lawn-mowing man, okay well I can pay you with a coaching session and he would be like, well I don’t want that I need a haircut, but I don’t have that to offer.  So annoying.  How much better is it just having money to use to trade.  So much easier.

Now on to my second point, what if I just expected my lawn-mowing guy to do it for free?  This might work a couple of times but in the long term it’s not sustainably.  How does he pay for his petrol and car and trailer and lawn-mowing equipment if I don’t pay him and furthermore how does he get his hair cut?!

Now my lawn-mowing guy isn’t forcing me to pay money.  If I don’t want to pay him, I don’t have to use his services right?  No one is making you pay.  You choose to pay because you want that thing or service.

Here’s another way to look at it too.  Sometimes we can get caught up thinking about things we spend money on unintentionally for example, I don’t often hear people speaking positively about paying their bills or rent or mortgage.  I want to offer to you that you are choosing to think how you do about paying your bills and it is possible to think about them differently.

Now let’s just think about this for a minute.  When it comes to all your day to day expenses.  What are your thought about paying money for them?  Such as your gas and electricity bill.  Your water bill, your phone bill and your rent or mortgage.

Do you feel negative about it, happy about it or maybe you don’t really feel anything about it.

Just neutral.

Are you annoyed at the amount your electricity bill is?  Or are you happy about it?

What?   What are you talking about Meaghan?  Why on earth would I be happy about my electricity bill?

Well, here’s why.

Just imagine for a minute that you didn’t have running water.  What would your life be like?

No shower, no dishwasher, or forget that, not even a sink with running water.

Now imagine yourself going to the tap getting a drink of water, or jumping in the shower after your morning walk; how good does that feel?

So many of us have negative thoughts about bills but really think about it for a minute.

Why?

Have you ever taken the time to explore this?

Have you every examined the thoughts you have or questioned if they are true?

I love paying my bills.  You know why? Because I love water, I love air-conditioning.  I love having a gas stove.

I love my computer and the ability to connect on the internet.

And I love having a house to live in.  I love paying my rent because I value having a home and shelter.  This is very high on my list of things I want to spend money on.

So, you can feel however you want about your expenses but I want to offer to you that if you are thinking negatively about paying your bills or ‘I wish it was free’ or ‘my electricity bill is so expensive’.

Question yourself.  How do you feel when you think those thoughts?  Are those thoughts serving you?

Do you even realise you have choice about how you want to think about them?

I want to pay my bills.  I feel good about paying my bills because I want those things in my life.  I want to switch on a light at nights.  I want to cook on demand in my kitchen.  Right?

The final point I want to cover about paying money is this.

People in general don’t value free or cheap.

But when you invest a significant amount of money into something.  You take it seriously.  Let me give you a couple of examples.

I love shoes.  I have had plenty of pairs I have churned through.  But one particular pair of boots I bought in Denmark that cost me hundreds of dollars, guess what?  Ten years later I still have those beautiful boots and they are still in amazing condition because you can be sure when you spend a lot of money on something you are way more invested.  In either taking care of it, if it’s a physical thing you have purchased or made use of it if it is a service.  You’ve only got to walk up a suburban street to see this in action.  It’s so easy to spot a home owner's homes among rentals.  They are usually so much better taken care of, right?!

Likewise, this year I invested in life coach certification training.  It is with a world renown; highly reputable coaching school and it is costing me a lot of money.  Think paying up front for a master’s degree.  So every month when I hand over that money you better believe I show up to the classes.  I study my arse off.  I am 200 percent invested because I have invested so much in myself to do it.  I’ve done other training that has been good but only cost me a couple of hundred dollars and I can tell you now, I was nowhere near as committed or invested as I am in this training.  Do I get my money’s worth of value every month.  Absolutely.  That and more.

When you pay a lot of money for something you take it seriously.  This is really great to be aware of, one, when you are offering a service and two when you are paying for one.

Also being a person who will spend that kind of money on themselves has a huge impact on your money mindset.

Often what stops people spending a lot of money is they think they can’t afford it, or they wont get the return they put in because they don’t believe in themselves.  There is so much more to this, but I thinks that a topic for another post!

Paying matters.

Next time you go to pay a bill or pay for a service, notice your thinking.

It will reveal a lot about your money mindset.

If you want to take this work deeper and explore the thoughts you have and what they are creating in your life email me at Meaghan@moneymindful.com.au to book a free consultation.

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