Feeling stagnant and lost when it comes to improving your finances? Struggling to take your money game to the next level? Wondering how others seem to have money flowing to them organically while you struggle to make the minimum monthly payments?
Odds on, you may have a distorted view of money.
That’s OK! You’re not alone. In fact, I used to think the same way too. A lot of people have a distorted view about money.
The mechanics of personal finance are easy. Spend less than you make. Invest in a diversified portfolio geared towards the long-term. Most importantly, don’t buy crap you don’t need or want just to impress the neighbors.
However, as anyone who has ever had a money goal knows, implementing those rules and sticking to them through thick and thin is a lot harder than it sounds.
The stories (or excuses as some would say) limit our ability to make changes in our lives. To change your life, the narrative must be changed.
The big turning point for me was when I realized that changing to a positive money mindset is the key to turning my financial life around.
What is a Money Mindset?
A money mindset is a unique and individual collection of thoughts and feelings that have developed over time towards money and have become core beliefs. These core beliefs stem from personal experience with money as well as your point of view of how money works in the world.
A money mindset is your attitude about money. A money mindset shapes what you think can and cannot be done with money. It forms your point of view on how much money you’re entitled to and able to earn. It dictates how much money can be spent, how debt is utilized, and how much confidence or stress is felt when investing.
Your mindset determines the actions a person takes or does not take. A person’s actions will determine the associated results.
For example, if you believe that rich people are inherently greedy then you’ll not become wealthy. Why would you if you associate greed with wealth?
Now flip the script and let’s see what happens.
If you believe that being wealthy is a blessing, then you’ll see positive progression in your life. This will lead to understanding that being wealthy has nothing to do about greed.
In fact, wealth enables generosity. Wealthy people tend to be the most generous givers to charities and non-profits. Look no further than the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to understand the generosity created by being wealthy.
Therefore, a positive money mindset will carry positive thoughts and feelings towards money. This leads to positive interactions with money.
Meanwhile, a negative money mindset has the power to dictate stress and failure with money. In other words, a negative money mindset makes it much more likely that a person will struggle with handling and dealing with money. You’ll more likely be experiencing stagnation and frustration with money.
It’ll feel like the harder you work, the harder the struggle to get ahead becomes.
When a positive money mindset is embraced, no problem is unsolvable or insurmountable. Roadblocks become opportunities. Even asking for help changes from feeling like weakness to a source of strength.
Being $100,000 in debt no longer feels like shame because new money is generated all the time. Having a 600 credit score no longer feels restricting because credit scores improve every day.
I didn’t always think like this. I started out with a negative money mindset but then life happened to change my perspective.
My Turning Point……..
I remember early in our marriage; my wife always had a positive mindset and it drove me nuts (“Little Miss Sunshine” as I called her! Lol 😊)! She truly believed that if good thoughts and good deeds were done, good things will happen. She believed that people are inherently good and always willing to help.
My mindset was more…cynical. To me, the pie was finite. People were only out for themselves. I was on an island and could trust only myself. Boy, what a fool I was!
The turning point for me came when my girls were in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) for 14 weeks and later had to spend another 8 weeks at a special feeding clinic in Indiana in order to learn how to eat and thrive. I remember those days like it was yesterday.
We were up to our ears in medical bills from both the girl’s issues and my son’s issues. Add to that living on a single income, and we were on “tilt”.
Then we had to spend 8 weeks in a place 10 hours away for 8 weeks of 40+ hour / week of “feeding boot camp” for both my girls. I had no idea how we were going to pay for it. I just knew it needed to be done no matter what it took, or they weren’t going to survive.
I couldn’t take a leave of absence from work because we needed the money and our cash reserves were getting drained quickly. I literally pulled every financial lever I could and the only one left was tapping into my 401K.
This is 2014 and the economy was finally starting to recover from the 2009 housing crash, but my 401K was still taking a beating. The cash I thought we had was eaten up by the stock market crash and did not recover yet.
What to do? I had no idea…….
This is when my wife (Little Miss Sunshine! 😊) had the idea of asking other people outside the family for help. At first, I was against it. For starters, my pride wasn’t going to let me. I had been on my own since I was 18, paid my way thru college on my own, bought a house on my own, and built a life on my own. I was damned I was going to ask for help now.
Plus, I had a REALLY hard time believing complete strangers were going to want to help us. I mean c’mon, a complete stranger who knows nothing about my family is going to believe in our plight enough to donate money. Really? I just couldn’t believe it.
My sister-in-law started a GoFundMe page for my kids without my knowledge. At first, I was pissed but then I realized she meant well and was just looking out for our best interest. Looking at my girls struggling to eat and thrive, I realized that I need to put my pride on the backburner and give this a shot.
Needless to say, I was completely blown away by the result. We literally had hundreds of complete strangers donating money to our cause. People from as far north as the Arctic Circle and as far south as Australia were donating money…..and not just $10 either.
Literally thousands of dollars were coming in. In a little over 2 months, we had raised enough money to pay for the 8 weeks of living expenses and medical bills from the feeding clinic.
This experience changed my perspective on a lot of things.
What’s The Point of This?
The point here is that it took an extreme event to change my perspective. I have been known to be…. a bit stubborn 😊
Once the crisis was over, I used this experience to get our financial house in order. Before this experience, I had a REALLY limiting view on finances. I grew up in a household where both parents lived thru the Great Depression (as children of farmers) and carried that fixed mindset throughout their lives.
My parents always struggled to make ends meet. While we never starved or lived without a roof over our head, money was tight, and we struggled. There were 6 kids to raise while running a really small dairy farm. My parents were natural savers but that was it. They never learned to explore options. If we didn’t have it, we learned to live without it. End of discussion. There were no other options.
I carried this mindset into my adult life. I scrimped and saved. I lived with a fixed, scarcity mindset and hoarded all that I could to get by. The pie was finite. If I could not afford it, I lived without it. It was how I was raised and the only way I knew to manage my finances.
I learned a lot from this experience. I learned that the pie is NOT finite. It was only limited by my imagination and willingness to explore all possible options. I learned that the limiting beliefs I grew up with were sabotaging my life.
My money story dictated my money beliefs and my relationship with money. In order to change my money beliefs and fix the mess we were in, I had to change the narrative. Without changing the narrative, I was doomed to repeat past mistakes. No amount of planning, budgeting, or saving was going to fix this problem. Only embracing an abundance money mindset was going to change the future of my family for the better.
How a Positive Mindset Shapes Your Life
A money mindset is like emotional inertia. It can hinder you or drive you to action. Seen in this light, it’s not debt or a low credit score driving the lack of success and holding you back. It’s really your perspective and interaction with money that creates your money story. This story dictates your relationship with money.
If you have a negative money mindset, this negativity breeds emotions that prevent action and manifests as:
- Fear of Unknown
- Intimidation
- Procrastination
- Defeatism
If you don’t feel like you can succeed, then you’re less likely to act. The challenges seem insurmountable so why bother trying? A negative money mindset can literally sabotage your life and all the hard work you have been doing. No amount of goal setting, advanced planning, or financial acumen can overcome a negative money mindset.
If you have a positive money mindset, you are more likely to be decisive and take the steps necessary to succeed. When your money mindset changes to focus on the positives and what is possible, it’s much easier to see the path forward.
Changing your money mindset from focusing on the negative to embracing the positive will also move you from poverty and scarcity thinking to prosperity and abundance thinking. Money stops being the villain and becomes the hero that saves the day. Money will turn into a tool that can be used to enhance your life.
You point of view changes from seeing money as fleeting to something that always comes back to you. It’s like a boomerang effect. The harder you use it, the farther it travels, and the more likely it comes back to you.
A positive money mindset will improve your confidence and change your outlook toward achieving your goals. It empowers you to act, make promises that can be kept, set goals, and create an action plan. It can also provide financial balance for all the up’s and downs of life. Balance equals stability which breeds success.
Changing your money mindset isn’t an overnight process. Like anything else, it takes awareness, practicing of positive habits, and diligence. However, I honestly believe that it is a necessary and essential step towards improving your financial situation.
Let’s be real. It’s not easy. Nothing worthwhile ever is. In fact, it might be one of the hardest things you’ve ever done. The reason is when something is feared, it has control over you. When you feel empowered, you have control over it.
You must believe that change is possible. You must believe that you deserve success, that you deserve to be wealthy, that you deserve freedom!
This is why I chose the phrase, “Live the Life You Love, Want, and Deserve” to end my articles. It’s not a tagline. It’s a mantra. It’s a reminder to me that I deserve good things to happen in my life and so should you.
What It All Comes Down To…….
A money mindset is an overriding attitude that you have about money and finances. It drives how financial decisions are made and has a big impact on your ability to achieve your goals. If you change your money mindset, you can change your life. You’ll make better decisions, embrace challenges, see the opportunities available, and make it happen! The power of positive thinking is an extremely powerful tool.
As Cassandra from Brie on a Budget says, “ Everything we want is typically on the other side of what we fear.” Go stare fear in the face, kick its ass, and make it happen! I believe in you! 😊
Live the Life You Love, Want, and Deserve…….. 😊