Kate Northrup: Money is neutral. It's what we infuse it with energetically that makes it any which way. When you upgrade your energetics and you strengthen your engineering, you get to experience being in a stewarded state and the assets follow. Welcome to Plenty, a weekly recalibration of power, money and safety for high capacity humans. I'm Kate Northrup, best selling author and creator of Relaxed Money, and this is where neuroscience meets ancient wisdom meets real wealth strategy.
This is the sacred conversation at the intersection of money, the body, and the life you're truly here to live. If you're ready to reimagine what's possible for yourself and for the world, you're in the right place. Let's go. Welcome to part two of the recalibration series here on Plenty. I'm so excited for what I'm gonna share with you today because it's gonna help you to dramatically upgrade your financial life from a really strong firm infrastructure and foundation.
So if you've been trying different things, whether it's investing, increasing your income, putting in new systems behind the scenes, whatever, and you haven't gotten the traction yet that you want to, or if you're simply like, I'm doing great, and also more is more, so let's expand. Let's upgrade. This episode is going to meet you exactly where you are. I've been developing a new framework that I'm revealing for you for the first time ever today, and it's around something called the hidden money ecosystem. I spoke about it in part one of the recalibration.
You're welcome to go back and listen to that episode first, but this one is a perfect place to start as well. So your hidden money ecosystem is why money is not just math. A lot of people think, oh, I just need to make more money, especially high capacity people who have a history of being able to perform, whether they've gotten good grades or just been ambitious, been able to pull a lot of things out of the hat. This is a group of people who often, especially if they're entrepreneurs, but either way, just say, oh, it's okay. I'll just make more money.
There's more where that came from. And the reason that that's not always the only full story is because most people are trying to just fix the visible, meaning the visible parts of your financial life that other people can see. Your income, your and, honestly, people can't necessarily see these things, but they are the visible repercussions of your hidden money ecosystem. So your income, your savings, your net worth, the lifestyle. The lifestyle, by the way, is the part that people can see, and a lot of people get waylaid by that because of our cultural conditioning around status and wanting to make sure we look a certain way to other people.
And being work optional, being on a work optional trajectory, is also part of your visible aspects. But money is not just math. It is an entire ecosystem, and there are visible parts and invisible parts or hidden parts. So if the visible doesn't stick or increases, but it doesn't feel better, it's because you have yet to upgrade the state of your money ecosystem. And today, I'm gonna tell you about four different states that your money ecosystem could be in and what to do about which and where we're headed for the healthiest state of your money ecosystem.
Your visible financial life is the expression of two aspects of your invisible systems. One of them is the energetics, and the other one is the engineering. Now included in the energetics is your emotions around money, your thoughts around money, your beliefs around money, the way you relate to money, the way you relate to yourself around money, and the way you relate to other people around money. That's all the energetics and also your nervous system set point and your mindset and your money paradigm. Then you have the engineering aspects of your financial life, of your money ecosystem.
And the engineered aspects are your chart of accounts, what you're investing in, what you spend your money on, where you save your money, how much, your cash flow management system, the different professionals that you work with around your money. All of that is kind of the engineering aspect. So we have your expression of your visible financial life is a result of the energetics and the engineering. So those are important to remember. Let's go a little deeper around your money energetics, your money engineering, and the expression that's a result of those two invisible aspects.
So the energetics, first and foremost, it's your nervous system baseline around money. It's your old money stories, your automatic thoughts and beliefs, ancestral patterns, relational energetics around power, secrecy, responsibility, and your identity around wealth. So your money and wealth identity are all part of the energetics. The energetics determines if you feel safe or not, what feels safe or not, if you feel confident or not, if you trust yourself with money, what feels possible, and also what feels morally or ethically loaded around money. I just wanna remind you, money is neutral.
It's what we infuse it with energetically that makes it any which way, and that determines the results that we get. If money feels unsafe, your system will cap either your ability to make money, your ability to keep money, or your ability to enjoy money. One or all of those things will be capped if your system feels unsafe with money. And if money equals responsibility, an increase in financial resources will actually increase your feelings of pressure. Now let's get into the engineering, the next piece.
The engineering is what are you actually doing with the money? So the energetics is how does it feel? The engineering is what are you doing? It includes, like I said, all your different investments, tax planning, emergency reserve reserves, your review cadence, your money dates or lack of them, the rules around your decision making, your agreements around money, your boundaries around money, and your the interplay between business and personal finances if you are a business owner. And your engineering, determines what is repeatable, what is automated, what is reinforced, and what disperses.
So and how you deploy funds. So the engineering has a lot of tactical and visible results. Without engineering, your income is sort of just like floating out there. It's like a river without riverbanks. It just it's like a flood, or it's just leaky.
With engineering, though, your income compounds because engineering helps you feel safer with money, and it also helps your money feel safer with you. When you have a strong infrastructure, a strong structure under the surface, money compounds in your life because there's a fundamental sense of safety. Now layer three is the expression of your money. It is your visible, tangible financial reality, and it measures and answers the questions, is there more than enough in your accounts? Are you living aligned with your values?
Are you spending and investing and divesting in a way that really aligns with your values? Do you feel resourced in your lifestyle? Does your lifestyle make you feel rich and luxurious? Are you investing consistently? Is your net worth growing?
And are you on track to be work optional if that is something you desire to do? Expression is the part that most people obsess over. So most people think that your whole money life is just the expression part, but they're missing the energetics and the engineering, which is why they can't get the needle to move. But expression is just an echo. It's only a reflection of what's going on underneath the surface, and it reflects your energetics and your engineering.
Before we dive in, this episode is part of the recalibration series, and there's a companion recalibration field guide to go with it. It's where you'll locate yourself inside what we're about to cover, audit your hidden money ecosystem, and identify the one shift you can make right now that's gonna make the biggest difference. You can download it for free at katenorthrup.com/fieldguide and use it as you listen. The link is also in the show notes. Alright.
Let's get into it. Now there are four different states that your money ecosystem can be in, and they're not about you. Right? So this is not a you identity. This is not a personality type.
This is not a money archetype. This is a state that your ecosystem can be in. And your ecosystem, by the way, includes the systems and relationships in your life. So it's not just you. It is you and the systems and structures and relationships that impact your financial life.
So these describe the interaction of safety in your energetics and structure in your engineering. So the first state and by the way, we have a quiz about this. So you can go ahead and take the quiz and find out what is the state of your hidden money ecosystem over at katenorthrup.com/quiz. So if you go to katenorthrup.com/quiz, you can find out what the state of your hidden money ecosystem is in. Okay.
So first of all is the overdrive state. So there are four states. First is overdrive state. When you're in overdrive, you have a low sense of energetic safety. So in your unconscious, in your subconscious, in your default wiring in your brain and nervous system, you feel a sense of unease or lack of safety around money.
And when you're in overdrive, you also have a state of low engineering, meaning you do not have a strong structure. You don't have strong systems with your money. So if money feels, like, really urgent, it's, like, always an emergency, or it feels like, oh, there's never gonna be enough, or I just have to work so hard. People like me don't make money, whatever it is. Expansion may be tied to survival as opposed to thriving.
So it's really about like, I gotta make money to live. Right? Achievement chases a sense of okayness. What does that mean? So what that means is you are achieving from a place of once I get x y z marker of success, then I'll feel whole, then I'll feel worthy.
And then rest feels risky in this state because oftentimes in this state, your hours are tied to dollars, and you don't have leverage working for you through investments or intellectual property or any kind of way that you can get paid in a nonlinear fashion. Now in this overdrive state, your engineering is inconsistent at best. So there's not a consistent allocation rhythm where, you know, a deposit comes in and, you know, this percentage goes here and this percentage goes here. That's not in place in the overdrive state. It's reactive decision making.
So the money you have doesn't have a job. It's always in reaction to choices you made in the past or to demands that the external world has. There's no in clear savings automation or investment automation, and there's an inconsistency in actually tending to and looking at the numbers. I used to be very much in this state in terms of the low engineering. I never looked at my money except for one time a year, incredibly begrudgingly, and always late around tax time.
So I just want you to know, please do not beat yourself up for this. School doesn't teach us how to set up engineering around our money, and our parents or caregivers do not usually model for us healthy money energetics. So neither of these things are usually taught, and and therefore, if you're finding yourself in an overdrive state, it's not your fault, but it is your responsibility to do something about it. And the good news is you're here with me in the recalibration series, and we are doing something about it together right now. What happens in the expression of your financial life when you're in the overdrive state of your ecosystem is that your income may be strong, but it could be volatile, or there may be low you know, not enough income.
There's gonna be a real fluctuation with your bank account balance, so it's a little bit roller coastery, feast or famine, your lifestyle may look impressive, but there wouldn't be the net growth, net worth growth, and the stronger infrastructure of wealth to actually back that up behind the scenes. And you don't feel clear about how you're ever going to get out of the loop of needing to work and trade hours for dollars in some way or just do whatever it is that you do, which even if you love what you do for work and for money, it's always important to be working towards a work optional lifestyle so that you're doing what you do from pleasure, not pressure. Overdrive creates revenue or income without stability. So that's overdrive. It is low energetic safety and low levels of structural engineering.
Now the next state your money ecosystem could be in is the constriction state. So in the constriction state, we have low energetic safety. So really, we're rooted in scarcity, fear based relating to money, but we have high engineering. So there's a sense of, like, hypervigilance, guilt around spending, especially if it's spending on anything that supports you or brings you pleasure. Fear weighted financial decisions, so it's always based on fear.
Oh my gosh. What if this happens? Oh my gosh. What if this happens? What if we run out?
What if the economy? What if the geopolitics? What it's like very fear based, and then expansion feels risky. So any kind of investing, whether it's investing in the stock market, investing in your own business, investing in your own education and personal development, anything that's, like, outside of the norm that would bring you outside what you've already experienced registers as a threat, and so expansion feels like a risk to your actual survival because you're running in survival patterning in your brain and nervous system. On the engineering side, though, in the constricted state, you actually have detailed systems and over buffered reserves, often delayed investing and a sense of hyperanalysis.
So in a state of hypo or hyper, you're on the spectrum of hyper when it comes to engineering, like maybe a little too much engineering and a little not enough trust. Now the expression of this often would be a healthy savings, high liquidity, a lifestyle that might be below your earning capacity to the point maybe even of deprivation and suffering unnecessarily, working more than is actually necessary because you're working from a state of fear as opposed to from a state of service or calling. Underleveraged opportunities. So when you're in a constricted state, you have a huge opportunity cost if you are in fear around expansion and investing because money does have a time component in order for it to grow. The sooner we make an investment, whether it's in an actual asset that creates growth, like a piece of real estate or stocks and bonds or whatever, the sooner we make that investment, the sooner it compounds.
And the same thing, honestly, with our education or our skill set or our own personal development. The sooner we make that investment, the sooner we make a change, and the sooner we can reap the rewards. When you're in a constriction state and you're overly holding on to resources with a gripped fist as opposed to with an open palm, you do miss out on opportunities, and you miss out on compounding of those investments. And you may actually have a net worth that's growing slower than your actual potential. Now constriction protects assets, but it limits expansion.
Okay? So that was constriction. Low safety on the energetic side, high structure, maybe too high structure on the engineering side. Next up, we have the diffusion state. The diffusion state is high energetic safety, but low engineering.
I am familiar with this one. I used to be in the diffusion state. So the diffusion state is really optimistic, vision driven, super trusting when it comes to money. It's very much, oh, there's more where that came from. I'll just make more.
The universe will always provide. You know? Also, like, really comfortable with possibility and comfortable with risk. A lot of people in this category really don't have a lot of trouble betting on themselves, but there can be a pattern running under the surface of addiction to needing to perform because you can put yourself in a state of always needing to make more money because you haven't taken the money that you made and allocated it in such a way that that money can hold you with investments and systems and cushion. Now it's a low engineering state, which means that there is probably inconsistent allocations between savings of long term and short term and your financial cushion and investing and and different things like that.
So inconsistent allocations, avoidance of a detailed financial review. So really not looking at your finances, feeling like it's too boring or unsexy or you just can't sit still long enough to do it. Very distractible. Also, often outsourcing to professionals and just being like, oh, my CFO is taking care of it, or my wealth planner is taking care of it, or my husband is taking care of it. Like, I don't need to look at those numbers.
I'm just in a state of open receiving the frequency of abundance. And if I look at the numbers, that's going to get me out of my abundance vibe, which is an error. Loose or missing systems and no structured investing cadence and no money dates. So that expresses as income comes and goes. So money in, money out cycle.
And by the way, that can happen at any income level. I know people living launch to launch who have multi 7 figure launches. Or I know people living paycheck to paycheck who, you know, are making less than 6 figures. So this isn't really about your income level. It's about the energetic state and the engineered state of your money system.
Savings don't build consistently. Like, the money comes in, but you have nothing to show for it. The lifestyle fluctuations, so going on a big bold vacation, and then a couple months later, it's like, ah, we don't have money to pay our mortgage. Right? So this is, like, really volatile.
And not having future planning or future planning is very vague and kind of airy fairy and not grounded in any sense of reality or plan or actual direction. Diffusion creates openness to flow, to financial flow without any accumulation, without any actual meaningful building of wealth. Now the fourth state is the stewarded state. And the fourth state is really where we are all wanting to direct ourselves. And it's a spectrum.
It's not a point where you hit it and then you're done. It's a state that you can consistently cultivate and grow and enhance over time. So when you're in a stewarded state, you're in a high state of energetic safety or a solid state of energetic safety, and you're also in a high state of engineering or a solid state of engineering. So on an energetic level, what that means is that your money does not equal your identity. So you have successfully separated your net worth, your income, your revenue numbers, whatever numbers you have.
You've successfully separated your identity from your money, and you are rooted in your wholeness, in your beingness, not in your ability to earn or perform. Expansion feels clean, feels unfettered, feels like a natural part of being human and a natural part of your development. Growth doesn't spike pressure. So as you go for a bigger paycheck, as you negotiate for more, as you invest in more things, as you grow your business and you scale things, the pressure doesn't increase because your energetic state is more neutral around money, and you don't make money mean anything that it doesn't actually mean. And then also, you feel like you're allowed to create wealth.
Like, that actually feels like, yeah, people like me get to create wealth. Why not me? On an engineering perspective, with your solid systems, your income has a destination before it arrives. So you have abundance agreements in place so you know when money comes in, 5% goes over here, 10% goes over here, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. And if you wanna know more about that, I've been working on something called the Keep More Formula.
It's gonna be part of our premium offering with Good With Money. Good With Money is a free workshop that I upgrade and teach once a year in April, and it's coming up soon. And if you want to get access to the keep more formula, which is basically a paint by percentages allocation template to have cash flow stewardship planning to feel rich now and create wealth for later. That's gonna be part of the premium paid version of good with money, but the overall good with money is free. Okay.
So income has a destination before it arrives. Allocation for it is predecided. So you're not just living on a wing or in a prayer. You actually have a plan, like a structured plan in place. Investing is rhythmic, and your business and your personal systems are separate but connected in a way that makes sense for you, your family, and your goals, and your review cadence is consistent.
You are doing your money dates, and they're going really well. You're really showing up for your money so your money can show up for you. Now the expression of being in a stewarded state, meaning the visible financial results that you might experience, would be you have more than enough in your account. So you're experiencing not only sufficiency, but also some healthy overflow. So you have cushion.
You have breathing room. Your lifestyle is aligned with your values, so you're spending money on things that really align with who you are and what you believe in. Your spending is a prayer for the world that you wanna be part of creating, and so is your investing. You have a clear investing trajectory. Your net worth is growing, and you're taking consistent steps to continue to invest in growing your net worth.
You are working towards being work optional. It doesn't matter if you're twenty years from that, but you are working towards it in small, doable pieces. And resting does not threaten your revenue, nor does it threaten your fundamental sense of self. So that's the stewarded state, where you have high energetic safety and high engineering. So in a stewarded state, it's when your ecosystem is working for you, and where instead of you needing to hold your money, your money is beginning to be able to hold you.
Now most financial education, most personal finance education really just only focuses on the engineering part, savings, budgeting, paying off your debt, you know, all of that stuff. And while that stuff matters, it won't work unless you bring in the energetics. Now most spiritual money work only focus on this is on the energetics. So it's like, oh, you just need to be in the wealth frequency. You just need to, you know, be in your pleasure, be in your feminine.
But without the engineering, if you make more money, it's not gonna stick. It won't have a place to go. So it's really about both. Neither the energetics nor the engineering alone create sustainable wealth. You really need the dance between both, and it really is a dance.
So sustainable wealth is a mature ecosystem shift. Right? So the maturation of your energetics and your engineering as a healthy whole adult who also gets to have fun with money. You don't need to earn less, and you don't need to shrink your ambition. You may actually, though, just wanna say it, not need to earn more.
Sometimes when we make these shifts in our hidden money ecosystem, we end up with more abundance at our disposal because of the shifts we made either to the engineering or the energetics or both. When you upgrade your energetics and you strengthen your engineering, you get to experience being in a stewarded state, and the assets follow. So I wanna ask you, where are you currently operating? Which one of these hidden money ecosystem states felt the most resonant with you? And remember, you can go to katenorthrup.com/quiz and take the quiz that will tell you which state your money ecosystem is operating in.
Under stress, do you shift states? Right? This is not a static diagnosis. It's not like you'll be in the same state forever. This is something that you are going to be developing over time and moving from state to state.
Are you in overdrive during launches but constriction during downturns? Are you in diffusion when things feel good enough? Right? When when you get a bunch of cash, do you go into a default diffusion setting where you take your hands off the wheel? It's really good just to pay attention to these things to notice our patterns.
Because as soon as we notice our patterns, we can actually begin to shift them. The goal is not to bounce between states, but the goal is to find ourselves defaulting to a stewarded state because we've tended to the energetics, and we've tended to the engineering. And so our default state returns to high energetic safety and high sense of engineered structure. And that can really happen over time. So the first step is clarity, and you can go ahead and find out what state your hidden money ecosystem is right now.
It's also gonna help you to understand what your primary leverage point is for moving into a healthier state and whether your next step is energetic or engineered slash structuring. This is not a personality test. This is not a judgment marker. This is not a label. This is not a diagnostic or configuration.
I'm not diagnosing you. It is simply an assessment of the current state of your hidden money ecosystem so you can get clarity to then work with the levers you have to shift your state. And I wanna say something that's really exciting. When we shift the state of our hidden money ecosystem, we do not have to try to habit stack or to be different or to just, like, be better. We don't have to effort.
We just end up defaulting to a healthier state automatically, and that I find really exciting. Remember, money is not your identity. Your income is not your identity. Your net worth is not your identity. Your revenue, your profit, none of that stuff is your identity.
All of that stuff is simply a result of your infrastructure. When your energetics are safe and your engineering is strong, the healthy financial expression really actually does become inevitable without efforting. And that's really what stewardship is all about. That really is financial leadership maturity, and that is also relaxed money. Thank you so much for listening, and I can't wait to see you next time for part three.
One last thing, and this is important. The difference between where you are now and where you wanna be financially is not effort. It's architecture. Join me for good with money, my free three day live financial upgrade experience, and we will close that gap together. Tens of thousands have already done it, and you're next.
Join us at Kate Northrup dot com forward slash good. Again, that's katenorthrup.com/good.