Ksenia Anske: Financial Coach for Creatives

I’m happy to have Ksenia Anske back on my blog! Today she is talking about her new services as a financial coach. Ksenia Anske is an author of many fantastic books. She’s a social media maven with over 41K followers on Twitter. https://twitter.com/kseniaanske She honestly cares about all of her followers. As you’ll read Ksenia has a lot of experience in the financial realm. She’s looking to help out creative people. I asked Ksenia to share some info about here services and she gave me a snippet of her newsletter to share with everyone here (don’t tell anyone else unless you really want to).

If you are new to my blog please know that I only post very specific services that I feel that may appeal to my readers. Ksenia does not work in insurance. She’s looking to coach creative people and help them make their dreams come true. Please let Ksenia know I sent you and don’t forget to sign up for her email!

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To my qualifications as a financial coach.

Hello and privet! (Privet is “hello” in Russian.) Dani asked me to do a write-up for you on my financial coaching, so here you go.

I was born in Moscow, Russia, and came to the US in 1998, not knowing English. Since then I wrote a bunch of dark fantasy short fiction and 7 novels, and won of Amtrak Residency Program in 2015. My novel Rosehead won Honorary Mention in the YA Category in the Indie Ebook Award 2016, and I’m currently prepping for publishing my novel, TUBE, a ghost story, and after that writing my first thriller, The Dacha Murders.

About five months ago I started doing financial coaching for creatives, and right now I’m doing it for all kinds of folks (it all began with writers, as they finished their books and asked me how to sell them—that’s how it started).

If you look at my LinkedIn profile or ask for my resume, there is nothing there that shows any kind of financial experience history. So how come I dare declare I’m doing financial coaching?

First of all, a little distinction. I’m not a financial advisor, nor do I aim to be, nor do I want to be one. A financial advisor manages your money or at the very least provides you with very sound financial advice, generally focusing on implementing certain products and helping your with investing strategies.

I don’t believe in managing someone else’s money. It’s YOUR money. I believe YOU must learn to manage it YOURSELF, or you’re doing yourself a disservice. I’m a financial coach, not a financial advisor, and as a coach I don’t claim to know better than you, or to be an expert. In fact, you might know better and more about finances than I do. Where my expertise is, is in helping you get where you want to be, be it your budget or your savings or your net worth. So, I focus on helping you change your behavior, develop new skills, manage your money, and make a plan for spending it, saving it, and investing it. Then sticking to it. To the plan.

Why? Because I have experience. Been there, done that—helping myself to get out of the hole as I’m helping you.

I used to have a startup.
I raised money for it with investors.
I made sales every day and grew the business.
I needed more operational cash and I opened one credit card after another until I couldn’t open any more (total about 20, I think…maybe less, maybe more).
I paid everyone except myself.
It all went belly-up one day.
I went through a bankruptcy.
I was unemployed for a long time.
I cleaned up my act.
I created a strict budget for myself.
I started digging myself out.
I raised my rate from $3 per hour to $300 per hour in about a year.
I closed all credit cards and loan accounts except six (actively using only two).
I learned how to play the credit card game (I charge my two cards and pay them off every month, using my checking account as my Inbox).
I got my credit score up to 725 as of this writing (they just emailed me to tell me it went up again).
I learned to save.
I learned to invest, and am continuing to learn.
I started and am still in the beginning stages right now (establishing my HYS through Synchrony because I was stupid to open a Gap credit card years ago, but I stuck with it, and Synchrony offers 2.15% APY, and I chose them over Wealthfront with 2.32% APY to stick with the same bank and for better cash access in case of emergency (for now—will move as money grows) and Solo 401(k) and SEP IRA and VTSMX index fund through Vanguard because I’m a Boglehead and believe in simplicity and “staying the course”).
I’m debt free.
My net worth is laughably small, but it’ll grow.
I’ve done the same for my partner, using him as a guinea pig with his permission.
I’m doing the same with 2/3 of my clients right now (the rest I’m still coaching on writing).
I’ve reconnected with my financial advisors from my startup days, people with net worth in the seven figures, who are teaching me all they know.
I’m reading 2-3 books on investing a week (I read fast and a lot, and I’m very good at extracting and condensing useful information, so I do a lot of research for my clients to save them time).
I’m reading blogs and listening to podcasts to educate myself on the current state of investing.

So, in short.

I’m a regular, everyday investor just like you, only starting late, in my 40s, and bringing to it the wisdom of life experience and the understanding that if I don’t do this now, I’m basically screwed when I retire.

I’m very disciplined. Sometimes too much.

I can teach you the same.

I’ve also learned some very scary and very important things about investing from books and from my advisors, and I want to share them with you, to help you get in control of your money and to make your money work hard for you.

And I wish I knew all this when I was in my 20s. I wish someone taught me. So now I’m jazzed to teach you and help you learn on my mistakes. Once my numbers gain speed, maybe I’ll share them with you like Mr. Money Mustache and The Minimalists do. Until then, there isn’t much to show. Yet.

If you’re hesitant to work with me, you’d be wise to wait. Choosing the right person to help you is one of the most important decisions you’ll make on your path to wealth.

It’s also one of the reasons this newsletter is private. I’m not promoting it. Not sharing it anywhere. I’m not ready for public. Nor will I be blogging on the subject. Because it might be a phase, and I might outgrow it, get my millions’ growth on autopilot, and switch to something else. Teaching dance. Whatever.

The point of this whole affair is to fund my writing (until Rosehead gets made into a movie, and I make an outrageous amount of money and invest it all and rest on my laurels). I have something very valuable to offer you right now. This in turn helps me continue writing books. Hell, I’m planning to go to modeling calls at modeling agencies locally because I got my body into a really good shape, and when I was 16, I was scouted by a French agency in Moscow, but they scared me off, telling me I’d have to sleep with the photographer, so I ran out of there with my hair on fire. Lately I thought, “Hey, there are lots of mature models are out there, doing work. I’m photogenic. Why not? An additional steam of income.”

So you see, that’s why I’m doing financial coaching. Done this for me. Can do this for you.

And one more reason. I’m in love. I’ve always wanted to go to an economics school. When I was a teen. I even studied with a professor at Moscow Institute of Economics. I was very good at math. It never happened. So it’s funny how all the things I always wanted to do are coming back to me now. Writing. Dancing. Finances.

That’s the end of the story. Thank you for reading this far. I hope it answered your questions, if you had any.

If you want to ask more, just grab a Coaching Session (don’t worry, I won’t take your diamonds for it…maybe only your bleeding heart).

Onward.

More About Ksenia Anske: https://www.kseniaanske.com/bio

Ksenia Anske’s Coaching: https://www.kseniaanske.com/coaching

Twitter: https://twitter.com/kseniaanske

Books: https://www.kseniaanske.com/