2026: The year you finally become good with money

* Transcript created by AI – may contain errors or omissions from original podcast audio

Hello my friend. We are heading into a brand new year, and I wanna talk to you about something really important today because if 2026 is going to look any different for you financially, it’s probably not going to be because you magically got a pay rise or won the lottery or your bills suddenly halved.

It is going to be because you decided to finally become good with money. So today I wanna take you on a little journey. We’re gonna do some reflecting, some mindset shifting, and I really want you to start to think about why you are the way you are with money and how you can step into a whole new version of yourself next year.

Alright, let’s dive in.

Just a quick note before we dive in. Everything I share on this podcast is general in nature and does not take your personal circumstances into account. I’m not a licensed financial advisor, and nothing you hear on this podcast should be taken as personalized, financial, business, taxation or investment advice.

Before you make any financial decisions, please seek guidance from your accountant or a qualified licensed financial advisor who understands your specific situation.

Before I begin today’s episode of the podcast, I’d like to invite you to go and check out the fine $500 in five days challenge. There’s a link in the show notes for today’s episode. It’s really easy, really straightforward. Some practical ways that you can add $500 into your wallet, ASAP. The link is in the show notes for today’s episode.

I wanna begin today’s episode by helping you to identify what type of person you actually are with money. So I want you to be really honest with yourself. How do you actually behave with money?

What’s your patterns? What’s your vibe? Like if money was to, if you were to pretend that you are in a relationship with money, what would money say about you and the relationship that you have together? So what I wanna do, let me give you a couple of playful money archetypes to help you figure yourself out.

Okay, the first one is this, the money avoider. Some classic signs that you are a money avoider is that you put your head firmly in the sand. I like to call this the ostrich approach. You avoid looking at your banking app. You don’t even think about your bills, let alone setting yourself a budget or any financial goals.

No, no, no. When it comes to you, you just think, I’m just gonna pretend it’s not happening. So long as I’ve got enough money to tick along I’m, I, that’s as much thought as I’m gonna give money. Okay. The second type is the complete opposite. That is someone who is obsessive with money. These are people who are constantly checking in on the banking app.

Refreshing balance. You know where all your money is, down to a cent. You might have special hacks for getting there. The best deal on everything, your checking and checking and checking just in case. Alright, the third type, you might be an overspender. Now these are some signs that this might be you. You have a theory that you work hard and you get to spend your money hard too.

Anytime you get any extra money, it disappears as quickly as it comes in. Your weekends always involve big cost blowout, and maybe you end up putting things on credit cards or spending beyond your means all the time because you’re just like, life’s short. Money’s here to be enjoyed, but deep down. You know that that is not healthy for your long-term financial success.

The next type, which is closely related to the obsessive checker, is the mega tight ass. So this might be you if you cling to every dollar, you don’t wanna spend money on anything. You hate to replace or update things you rarely indulge yourself. You might have a, you know, a big savings account, and you might not, but the key signs are that you feel really uncomfortable spending money and you try to minimize your spend as much as possible.

 And then the fifth money archetype is the calm and collected money manager. Now, this is the unicorn version of money management that many aspire to. So you manage your savings, your investments, and your expenses with ease. You check in regularly, but in a healthy way, like not obsessive, you’re not stressed, you’re not avoidant, you’re just grounded, confident, and on top of it.

So there’s no shame in wherever it is that you are at right now. There might even be a couple of archetypes that resonate with you. But the important thing that I want you to start to identify here is really like, what am I like when it comes to managing my money? Now, the next thing that I really want you to start to explore is, why are you like this with money?

What’s your money story? Now, I don’t believe that people are born being good or bad with money. I believe  that the experiences that you have throughout your life shape your relationship with money. So let’s go right back to childhood. When you think about what money was like in your house when you were growing up, maybe you grew up in a household where, you know, money was spoken about constantly.

But in a way that was stressful, fearful, like, we don’t have enough. We can’t afford that. Or maybe you grew up in a household where money was never spoken about before. You had no idea what was going on with your family’s financial situation. And so now like money feels like something that you shouldn’t talk about, you shouldn’t think about.

It might feel foreign, scary, or confusing. Maybe you had an experience where you came into some money at some point in life, maybe you got an inheritance or a big bonus, a payout, and you blew it and you still carry the sting and the shame around that. Perhaps you’ve had a period of of your life where you were doing incredibly well with money.

You were budgeting, you were saving, you were getting ahead, and then, you know, you hit the goal or something awful happened. And then you fell out of the the habits. Maybe you’ve just had this lifelong pattern of feeling like you’re not good with money and you don’t even know where it’s come from. But whatever the experiences have been, the big ones, the little ones, they’ve all come together to create the relationship that you currently have with money.

And so again, there’s no shame around this. I don’t want you to be blaming yourself or you know, getting caught up in the stories around it. It’s just about understanding,

ah, that’s why I am the way that I am with money. Because when you understand where these beliefs or your habits have come from, that is when you can start to change where you are heading with money in the future.

So taking where this, you know, these, these patterns, these habits have come from, I now want you to have a bit of a think about, well, what belief do you now have about money? What is your core money story? What have, what have you gone and made all of those experiences mean about you and your relationship with money?

And what I have learned over the years of helping people again and again with their money, is that most people have a big story about money that they repeat to themselves. So it might be, I’m just not good with money. I’ll never be rich, I’m always gonna struggle. Money is stressful. I don’t earn enough money doesn’t stick with me.

Whatever your story is, you’ve probably subconsciously been saying it in your head over and over again. Because here’s the thing, these stories, whatever it is that you’re telling yourself, it’s not a fact. It’s an inherited belief. These are your survival thoughts and patterns from the past, and they don’t have to be a prediction of your future.

And if you are here, I want 2026 to be the year that we rewrite the script. We create a new relationship with money for you. So I want you to really start to think about what it would feel like to actually be good with money. So let’s do a bit of a, let’s step forward. I want you to think about the 2026 version of you.

Imagine that you have a beautiful, calm, confident relationship with money. What does that actually look like? Maybe for you? It means that you’ve got an investment property or, or investment properties. Maybe you’ve got an emergency savings account. Maybe you’ve got systems in place so that money flows automatically into the right buckets, and you don’t have to be micromanaging it anymore.

Maybe it looks like that you are actually looking at your money and you know exactly where your money is going. You feel safe, secure, and empowered. You are not panicking, you’re not avoiding, you are actually in control of your financial future. And maybe at the moment that feels like it’s a, you know, I, I’m really far away, away from where you are right now, and that’s okay.

But what I wanna let you know is that this is available. It’s available to anyone, including you. At the end of the day, becoming good with money always starts in the same place. It starts with the decision. A clear, powerful moment where you decide, do you know what? This is the year I finally become good with money.

Not, I’ll try not. I hope not. I’ll worry about that. When things calm down, it comes from a decision. And if you are listening to this episode and you’re ready to make that call, I want you to make it now. Say it out loud. Write it down. This is the year I finally become good with money. And if this feels true, if you are ready, if you’re sick of the way that you’ve been with money, and you are truly ready to rewrite this relationship and make money feel easier, safer, lighter, and more empowering, then I’d love to support you.

I wanna invite you to come join the wait list. I have a brand new program, which is launching next year, early 2026. The link is in the show notes for today’s episode, and if you go jump on that wait list, you’ll be the first to hear when the doors open, and you’ll also get an extra special bonus for jumping on that wait list.

And I’d also love to invite you to go check out my fine $500 in five days challenge that I mentioned at the start of this episode. It is practical, it’s quick, and what this challenge will show you is just exactly what’s possible when you give your money a little bit of intentional energy. 2026 is your year.

Let’s make you good with money for once and for all. Thank you so much for listening to the Intentional Money Show with Clare Wood today. I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s episode, and please, if you have a friend or a family member that you think they need a bit of help with their money, lovingly send them this episode and hopefully it will inspire them to take that leap and make the change as well.

Thanks for tuning in. Have a beautiful week and I’ll chat to you again soon.

* Transcript created by AI – may contain errors or omissions from original podcast a