jeremywest&meaghankeeven
Jeremy: [00:00:00] welcome to Jeremy Chats with coaches Today I have with me 
Megan 
Keeven . Welcome, Meaghan. Hey, how are you? Good. Good 
all right, so Meaghan, can you please give us a little overview of who Meaghan Keeven is as a person and how you came to the world? of cooking Yeah, so great question. I actually am in the finance industry and it was kind of in the traditional role of a financial advisor and just kind of organically came to coaching by way of request from my clients.
Felt like we were doing a great job, like managing their assets and, you know, building them wealth literally. But they still had an area of basic financial knowledge or literacy where they lacked. And so, many of them just reached out and said, Hey, would you be willing to kind of coach me through the basics of this and just kind of an overall plan that I would need going forward.
And so that's kind of how I got started in the actual coaching aspect of it. [00:01:00] Interesting. So tell me a little bit about who, what type of people are your clients generally? So I would say the majority of my clients are middle aged, so I'd say 35 to 55. I do have quite a few younger female clients recently.
So I don't know if there's like a surge and, you know, people really like. Yearning for that basic knowledge as we kind of earn a little bit harder economic time, but the majority of them, I would say 35 to 55 years old. Okay, and any other defining characteristics you have noticed about. The kind of people that are attracted to your coaching, I would say the majority of them are women.
Yep. Cool. So what would you say if you had to boil your coaching down to a core philosophy and. I usually say in 1 sentence, but everyone wants to say a couple of sentences. So go ahead. Yeah, I can give it to you in 1 [00:02:00] sentence. Money is something that we all should understand and use to better our lives.
Fantastic money is something that we all should understand and use to better our lives. Now, can you go describe that a little bit more? Yeah, I think at the most basic level, money is something that affects us day in and day out, whether we realize it or not, because it's always kind of in the background.
Like, we have to pay our bills. We want to invest. It doesn't matter. How old you are, right? You're still affected by, you know, if you're young, like how much money do your parents have? If you're old, how much money do you have? So it affects us at every age level of our life, as well as just, I think the majority of things that we do in life in general.
And so if we better understand it, then we will make more informed and better decisions as an end result. And so is your coaching More around the practical aspects of finances or is there a lot of mindset stuff that goes into it as well? I'd say [00:03:00] it's a pretty good combination because I feel like if your mindset is not like one of the first things that we address, then it's really hard to move forward to the more practical because our mindset is what creates our habits and our habits are what creates our actions.
And so our actions are what You know, literally make us complete our day in and day out task. Yeah. Okay. So can you give me a little bit of an overview of what you would do with a new client to go into their mindset? Yeah. One of the biggest questions is, You know, obviously they have an awareness because they're coming and they're asking for some sort of guidance or assistance on it.
And a lot of times they don't even really know where they're stuck. And so I will kind of go into like a lot of background questions as far as, you know, what did money look like in your household growing up? What were the things that like either your parent or your guardian set around money?
Because we are actually, the majority of our money habits are already created by the time we're seven, like that imprint in our [00:04:00] mind. And so it's really easy for us to have these subconscious feelings and thoughts around money that we didn't even create. They were put in our own, like they were put in our path, but not by us.
And so the first thing I do is kind of work through that with them. So I understand, do they see money as a negative thing? Do they see it as a positive thing? Is it something that makes them really uncomfortable? Is it something that they're super comfortable with or confident around? Does it stress them out?
What does it? Also due to them, like physically, does it make them sweaty? Does it make them, you know, that pit in their stomach or are they just like, nope, it's pretty neutral and I'm good with it. So if they start out with a negative mindset, how do you change that? So let's say for example, someone says, I'm just really not good with money.
That's probably one of the most common things that I hear from clients. And so I'll ask them, like, tell me why. And we'll kind of walk through some of those. [00:05:00] And then I help them reframe that thought as I, I'm going to make better decisions with my money, or I am going to further my education, therefore making me more confident with money.
So it's just kind of building an affirmation with them and walking them through how to kind of like reframe that thought so that they're not constantly having that negative talk in their mind around money. And so once they've built that new thought, then how do you stuck in their brain? Yeah, so I give them like very small actionable steps.
And so if they're like, Hey, I'm not good with money. And then we reframe that to, you know, I'm not, I, I can make better choices with my money. Well, what are the small, better choices that I could make on a daily basis or on a weekly basis? So let's just, this is like the big example that people always use, like a latte maybe.
I mean, I knew you were gonna say that , right? Like that's the, that's like the thing. But I say like, you know, maybe [00:06:00] cut back on your latte one time a week and that's therefore going to then allow you to save, you know, 7, but 7 is a start. And so I think it's finding a way that's something that's impactful to them, but not huge and overwhelming, because I think you have to start small and again, build those actions and those habits in order to make a longer lasting change.
Yeah, I definitely think you're right. I think that's the key. The biggest mistake people make when they're trying to make changes in their life is trying to make two bigger changes all at once. Absolutely. So by following your coaching, what's the ultimate result that your clients get? The, I would say multifactorial, I think, based on what your specific goal is.
But I think overall, the one thing, and this goes back to, again, like my core philosophy, is they have more confidence in their understanding of money and how it actually works and how they can use [00:07:00] that to then go make positive changes and impact in their life. Fantastic. And then what does that ultimately get them?
Whether, so if someone came to me and they were like, you know, I'm trying to save for a down payment on a house, but I don't understand how to, you know, save money every month. And so do I walk them through kind of like a budgeting exercise? Like, we look at expenses that maybe they could redirect to a savings fund to then ultimately have that 20 percent down payment on their house.
So it's just, again, Taking these little tiny small actions what based on what their goals are and then allowing them to kind of compound and snowball to hitting their bigger goals, which actually, if someone can buy a home as their end goal, then that's a pretty impactful. Like change that they made in their life.
Yeah Oh, I'm here in australia. I don't I think this is just an australian thing I was just thinking about the latte thing. There was a politician here in australia that said Millennials can't buy [00:08:00] houses because they spend all their money on smashed avocado toast Yeah That became a big meaning here Oh, you've seen that?
Yeah. Yeah. So I think in the U. S. that's pretty big too. Like the reason, like people want to say that, like, the reason why people are broke is because they spend all their money on avocado toast and lattes. And you know, that's not the, that's not true. Like even their houses cost what, like five times as much and salaries have gone up two, two times as much or something like that.
Yeah, exactly. And I was like, when I want to tell people, right. Like, I don't, tell people they can't spend money on things. I tell people that they need to spend money on things that are aligned with their values. So if coffee and avocado toast is like really important to you, then that's what you spend your money on, but then you have to cut back somewhere else.
So it's just more of like a value aligned spending. But yeah the avocado toast and the latte is a thing in the U S too. Yeah, cool. Could you share with us, without using real names, just share with us a success story where [00:09:00] your financial coaching made a big difference in a person's life? Yeah, absolutely.
I recently had a client who came to me and had a, No idea about really anything. And she was just like, look, I was never taught these things in school. Cause that's not what she specialized in. And she's like, it wasn't talked about in my home. And so we kind of, we started from ground zero as far as like, we, you know, got her on the right mindset.
She didn't have a terrible relationship with money, but I just gave her some affirmations that like helped her just become more confident. And then as far as like practical, we literally educated her on. What is credit? What is debit? What is like, what is an emergency fund? How should you fund that emergency fund?
What should be in it? And then she was able to not only learn the basics, fund an emergency fund, but then also start investing as well because she had covered You know, the basics and was able to move on to more advanced topics like investing, which was then going to, you know, in the long run serve her [00:10:00] even more.
So she just overall, like I said, financial literacy at the most basic level, she was able to grasp and take it and do something pretty powerful with it. So when she first came to you, was she sort of living paycheck to paycheck and not even saving anything or? Yeah, she just, you know, she was like, I. I don't even know where I'm supposed to be putting it and for what reason.
So she had a little bit of money to save. She was saving a little bit in a bank account or something, but she needed to learn how to invest and stuff like that. Yeah, I mean, she didn't have a ton and she didn't know, like, oh, I actually need to have, you know, 3 to 6 months worth of expenses saved for emergencies.
So, like, you know, we funded that and then we moved on to more complex topics and, you know, she said throughout the process that it was really empowering to her just to be able to understand the basics and then be able to move on to something more complex, like investing. And now she's like, I get this and I actually enjoy it.
It's not something to be afraid of anymore. Cool. And [00:11:00] it sounds like, as you said, she didn't have a lot in savings, but now she's onto investing. So it sounds like you were able to help her find more money in her budget to save and invest. Yeah, we kind of, we did an exercise and we kind of just said, Hey, let's go through and just kind of like everybody should be doing, like, let's review, like, where are we spending our money?
And that was a pretty powerful exercise for her. You know, she didn't realize she was spending, you know, X amount of money every month on Uber Eats, which was really powerful. Doing anything for her. So she then redirected that money, was able to fund her emergency fund. And then since we got that box checked, then we moved on to some of the other, you know, objections for her.
So how did she get over her Uber Eats habit? Did she just have to go into cooking for herself? Yeah. Yeah. She was like, you know, I'm just going to, it's like I said before, maybe you just cut back to instead of, you know, four times a week, you do it two times a week. Yeah. All right. So. How do you, when [00:12:00] someone isn't aware of the ways that they're spending money that they could save how do you help them to find that?
Yeah, that's a great question, too. So, a really basic exercise that anybody could do, like, you could go do it right now. Go into your Debit account or your, whatever banking or whatever credit card you use and print off the last three months of that and sit down and literally categorize like where you are spending your money.
And most people don't. Even realize like what they are spending and where, and that doesn't lie, right? Like you made those transactions. There's a monetary number assigned to that transaction. And that gives you a very insightful view of I'm spending, you know, 800 at the grocery store and 400 on Uber eats and, you know, another 300 on going out with my girlfriends, like to dinners where you spent a lot of money that month on food alone, [00:13:00] but it's all right there in front of you.
That's my, I already know that's my weakness where I spend too much money because I that's why I asked if what she replaced Uber Eats with because I don't like cooking. So, yeah, I was trying to find some other secret or maybe go pick it up yourself. I mean, there's some pretty hefty fees with delivery services.
Yeah. So I mean, I think we got I got sushi last night and I walked to get it. So not only I got exercise as well. We're lucky. There's only there's where I live. There is no Uber Eats. And there's only one place that delivers. So if I want to get something different than I have to go get it. What are Oh, actually, I drove for Uber Eats for a little while and you would I was amazed.
Sometimes people would call Uber Eats for an ice cream. Oh, I'm sure. It would be more for the delivery fee than the food. And I was telling Because I also just did regular Uber and I was telling someone riding with me [00:14:00] that and she said, Oh, yeah. Yeah. I live upstairs from cafes and stuff and I still call Uber Eats because I'm too lazy to go downstairs.
It's wild. Yeah, I know. And then people because it's in the app and you don't have to input your credit card details or anything. Yeah, people just don't realize they're spending money. They don't feel like they're spending money. Yeah. And that's like a huge thing too is like society makes it very easy for us to spend our money now, right?
Like everything is automated to your point of what you just said. You don't even pay attention like people in general don't even pay attention to Like yes, I ordered that meal that was twelve dollars But then there was a ten dollar delivery fee and then a seven dollar service fee and then i'm gonna tip them Yeah, I mean it's very easy to not be aware Yeah I'm guessing that 1 thing that comes up a lot as well, when you look through the last 3 months is subscriptions to streaming services that you're not even watching.
Yeah, that is a huge 1. And I will say it's not, you [00:15:00] know, I can't say that it's You know, makes a huge dent in somebody's like, budget, but they do add up. Right? And so that's 50 or 60 a month that we can redirect somewhere else. That can actually be pretty powerful. I mean, for example, if you put 50 a month into a Roth IRA that then sits there for the next 20 years, I mean, that was a significant impact on your future money available to you just by going through and canceling something you don't use.
I'm not a financial advisor or anything, but I'll just give a little tip of something I do with those streaming apps. Basically I only ever have one at a time because I just binge one show at a time and Say I sign up for Netflix The moment that I have finished signing up for the month or you know signing up for the subscription I go and cancel it and it keeps the subscription going for the next 30 days, but automatically You Doesn't automatically renew and then even if I'm still watching that show, it might be five days [00:16:00] in between watching it after it's canceled and then I sign up again and yeah, actually any of those app subscriptions, you can always go and cancel it immediately and you'll just have it for that month.
Okay. I'll have to remember that. Yeah. What are some common obstacles and challenges that you know, come up over and over again with different clients? You mean that they just kind of fall back into like old patterns or? Well, no, as in so everyone's an individual. But what's a pattern that you notice that what's a challenge that you notice that most of your clients have I think just taking the time to be aware of where their money going is going that I can't stress that enough that like, even at a very like small scale, 10 minutes a week of reviewing.
You know, where things are kind of sitting like, Hey, I have X amount of my bank account. I made, I paid these bills this week, you know, this, these are the ones that are coming up. Just being aware of that and kind of having a mental note of things can be pretty [00:17:00] impactful and pretty powerful in like the way that like say that you reviewed that on a Friday and you knew you had X, Y, Z bill coming up on Tuesday.
And if you go out and blow all your money this weekend, you're going to be in the negative. And so just being aware. Is probably one of the most important things that I stress to people is it doesn't matter how much money you make you have to be aware of where it's going and what you're spending it on.
Yeah. I've known people who were making really good money with the business. And then basically all of their business came from Google ads and then Google decided that they weren't going to let them advertise with them anymore, so they suddenly had no income. And. You know, a huge mortgage, huge car payment, all these things.
So yeah, it doesn't matter how much money you make. If you're spending more than you make, you're going to be in trouble. Absolutely. I think that happens. I mean, it's more common than what people think. Yeah. Yeah. I think when you see someone who's well [00:18:00] off often they're not as well off as you think, and they're actually just like everyone else, they're spending more than they're making.
Yeah, it's, you know, it's the lifestyle creep. The more money you make, the, you know, they say the more you add to your lifestyle and that becomes like the normal for you. So it's harder to, you know, even have a surplus if you're making six figures plus a year. Yeah. Especially if you've got a huge mortgage and stuff like 2007 I was doing real estate and I had people trying to sell their house because they couldn't afford it anymore.
And it was worth less than they owed on it. So they were really stuck because. They couldn't sell it for what it was actually worth, but they couldn't afford the mortgage either. So yeah, it's, it doesn't matter how much money you make. You got it. As you say, you gotta be good with your money. Absolutely. I was going to ask, actually, that's a here's maybe a bit of a, I don't know, a difficult question, [00:19:00] but when someone needs you, I'm thinking that whatever they pay you as a coach, they're going to end up paying you.
You know, with saving more money than they're paying you, but how do they find the money to pay you in the first place? Yeah, so that isn't that is a very personal question, I think, from for most people, right? Most people, to what you just said, they look at it as like, okay, this is a temporary, like, Expense that I'm going to have, and these are really important lessons that I need to learn, or I shouldn't say lessons, but like, you know, it's really important information to get educated on.
And in the long run, what they're compensating me with is way less than what they are saving. And so most of them, most of most individuals realize that, and it's really not a thing. I really haven't gotten Actually really any pushback on you know, what I charge for coaching people because I think it is the [00:20:00] you know It's a monthly fee but in the long run i'm saving, you know, probably thousands literally.
Yeah And I can I haven't had you as a coach But I have had a coach go through financial stuff with me and I can attest that I definitely I probably saved about five times as much as I paid her. So yeah Yeah, but that's definitely a mindset thing. So I guess you're mostly getting people who are already in the right mindset.
If you're not getting any pushback on that, which is good. Yeah. I mean, that's really great. I mean, I really enjoy all the people that I work with and they're really like open and eager, even if they're, you know, nervous or anxious about it. They're at least very open to the process, which is extremely helpful.
Yeah. So can you explain the process of setting the financial goals and then how you ensure that your clients stay accountable to those goals? Yeah, so I do it a little bit different. I don't think of just like three [00:21:00] flat goals. I walk people through I want you to think of like three, like very, like short term goals, three, very midterm goals, and then like three long term goals.
And then it's our job to collaborate and decide which ones we're going to tackle, like, immediately, obviously the short term. Right. But then how, at the same time, are we fitting in? The mid and long term, because we can't leave those out. And I think that's the mistake that a lot of people make is there.
They get so hyper focused on 1, specific goal that they can't see what else they need to be doing in the background. So, I think it's really important to look at all of, like, the time duration, short, mid and long when we're thinking in terms of goals and then so. What do you normally meet with your clients weekly?
Typically it's bi weekly. I do have some that I will do weekly some after they've gone through like the initial process, then it kind of goes into like a quarterly check in, [00:22:00] sometimes like twice a year check in, or if they have something, you know, like a big transition going on in their life, then they'll reach out and I kind of just have like a one on one session with them, just like a, you know, one off.
So, but typically it's bi monthly. And so how, or what kinds of steps are they generally taking? I mean, I know this is going to be different for everyone, depending on where they're at, but especially at the beginning, what kind of steps are they taking between their meetings with you?
So during the, like the meetings we have, we come up with a list of homework that they need to be doing. And so the expectation is that by the next time we meet, those things are either started or a hundred percent knocked out. So they have a very clear path of, and what kinds of things would those be?
If I say, I want you to, you know, for example, list out every single one of your debts, the interest rates associated with them, how long the term is for. I mean, that's something that shouldn't take an individual two weeks to complete, right. [00:23:00] But I've been. Then when they meet with me next time, then I can say to them, okay, based on this information that you laid out now, you are aware of it.
You know, where you sit. Here's how we're going to tackle it. You know, whether that's we start with the highest interest rate 1st and start knocking that off because of that, or do we start with a little win? And the lowest you know, balance, so that boost your confidence. So we, you know, it's personalized, but I'm very specific of this needs to be done by this date.
So that then for our next meeting, we can move on to the next part of the process. Perfect what would be for you as someone who. It is so much of a coach that basically your clients were coming to you asking, okay, can you actually coach me through this? What would be one piece of wisdom that you find yourself consistently giving out?
Whether it's, I mean, both to clients and probably also friends and family, if they'll listen. Yeah, I think we touched on this before. You gotta be aware. [00:24:00] And again, it, I don't care if you know, you make 30, 000 a year, or if you make 3 million a year, you have to be aware of where you sit and where your money's at and like what you're doing with it and that I am just very huge on the awareness aspect of money management.
Alright, so you have to be aware of where your money's going and what money you have coming in and what money is going out.
Excellent. Yeah, go ahead is like, make your money, like, direct your money, like, be very deliberate with where you're putting your money. So, at the end of the month, you should know where every single 1 of your dollars is going, whether that's into, you know, savings, whether that's into a vacation fund, whether that's into investments, whether that's to debt, you should still know where every single dollar is going and it should have a job and be working for you.
Your money should be working for you. Absolutely. Good. Love it. Now just finished up with 2 last [00:25:00] questions. And they might take us 30 seconds. They might take us 20 minutes. So, basically, these last 2 questions are just to make sure that we've covered everything today. So. Is there anything that, and by the way, the answer can be no to either one of them, or you can have something for either one of them, or both.
So, is there anything that we started talking about that you didn't get to say as much as you wanted to because we headed off in a different direction and took a tangent? I don't think so. I feel like we, we were pretty good on following through with the thought process. Excellent. And then as I'm just getting to know you is there anything about you, your philosophy and your work that I didn't even know to ask about that you think would be a glaring omission when it comes to the life and work of Meaghan Kivy?
I don't think anything like glaringly, like obvious that you missed. I think it's just I really want people to have, like, a good relationship with money so that they can use it for good in their life. Excellent. And just, [00:26:00] I know every individual that you work with is going to be different. As far as what they consider the good that can be done with money.
But what about you? What good can be done with money for me right now at this point in my life, it's being able to, if someone reaches out and you know, I, you know, they're not blatantly asking for money, but you know, I just know somebody struggling, like being able to literally. Give that to them and not be, you know, hurting on like my end.
And then just being able to, I have children and so being able to do things with them that they want to do. And me not really having to tell them, no, like I don't want them to be spoiled, but I want them to have experiences and opportunities. So that's that money to me right now. That feels so good. I Have been in that I'm not in that place right now, but I have been in that place where like I had a friend whose dog was Needing a cancer treatment and she had to go fund me and I was able to give a lot [00:27:00] of money to it and it feels So good to be able to Other people in that kind of way.
Yeah, it really does. Yeah Fantastic. Well, This podcast is for two reasons. One is for anybody to listen You For free and get little tips and hints from all different kinds of coaches and all different types of self development. But some people are going to be listening going, I need Meaghan
keeven in my life to help me move forward.
For those people, how would they find you? Instagram is probably the place that I check the most. So my handle is women underscore and underscore wealth underscore. Women and wealth. No wonder you're getting mostly women.
I actually, believe it or not, I do have like, I mean, a pretty significant amount of males as well. But yeah, I mean, everybody needs help with money. So yeah. Women underscore and underscore wealth on Instagram. [00:28:00] Fantastic. And if people don't have Instagram, where else can they find you? I have a website called era of women and wealth.
Era of women and wealth dot com. Yep calm Fantastic Meaghan, thank you very much for coming on and we will talk to you again soon. And oh, sorry, I'll just put out if anyone needs to find me all of my links are at JeremyWest. net. Thanks so much for having me. Thank you, Meaghan.