Wealth is in Your Mindset
Let’s take a quick trip down memory lane. How often did your you of yesterday hear, “Put that back, I don’t have any money for that?” Perchance you heard this statement, “When we go into this store, you better not ask me for anything because I’m broke? Or do you recall being told, “Maybe Friday, I get paid on Friday?
Let’s continue this stroll. Did you experience mom or dad grinding it out daily, working one, two, maybe even three jobs to make ends meet? Perhaps you became very acquainted with discussions on how your family would rob Peter to pay Paul, still resulting in something being disconnected. Perchance, your childhood was marked with financial discussions that weren’t discussions at all, rather knock-down, drag-out brawls that resulted in expletives, doors being slammed, and family members retreating to opposite ends of the house.
Maybe, just maybe, none of the above was your reality, and you had a stellar example of money management and wealth. There were no cut-off notices, only discussions, no World Wars, and no robbing of anyone. Your family was candid about finances; they even gave you an allowance and opened a savings account to teach you financial fundamentals. But as an adult, you went rogue! You threw financial caution to the wind and did money on your own terms. As a result, you have been made to lie in the bed of your rogue-like decisions.
A Different State of Mind
Our fixed state of mind about money is directly related to our life experiences, resulting in you either having a poverty mindset or a wealth mindset. For some, they vacillate between both, knowing wealth is a possibility but just don’t know how to make it a reality for them.
Regardless of your influences and current mindset, if the goal is to rid yourself of poverty thinking and actualize wealth consciousness and financial freedom, you must arrest all thoughts not aligned with your new path. Your mind will be one of the most valuable tools you have on your debt-freedom journey. You are in control of your thoughts, and you get to decide if you will use your mind to help or hinder your journey.
I want you to make a note to self, some days, your thoughts will be crystal clear, and your wealth game will be on one-thousand. Other days, things will be as clear as mud, and you will think this wealth game is for the birds. However, it takes little to no effort to be poor. But my friend, on the flip side, work is required to be any kind of rich, rich in joy, rich in peace, even in relationships. When things get cloudy, and they will, make your mind grind for what you want and focus until things get clear again.
Mindset Challenge
I challenge you to take some uninterrupted time out of your day and write out all your beliefs about money. In one column, write your limiting beliefs, those that underpin poverty and financial despair. In the second column, list your prospering thoughts, those thoughts that support your want to become debt-free and acquire wealth.
When you have completed your list, identify what influenced your money thought habits and where you acquired them. Were your thoughts influenced by your childhood, or did you develop them due to your adult experience? Finally, decide which beliefs you will keep to support your cause and which ones cannot stay. You are now starting the process of training your brain to think about wealth.
Keeping Track of Your Coins
Personal transparency alert. There was a point in time when I wouldn’t say I liked to check my bank account. I would mentally calculate my monthly expenses, so I knew there was money there; however, I was always afraid to see if I spent more than I should have. I’m sure from that statement, you noticed I wasn’t keeping a budget at this time either.
Carrying on, if I’d overspent, there was the added pressure of possibly being behind in subsequent months because I had one job, no side hustles, no other source of income. I was just like 65% of people who don’t know where their money goes. Lean in and let me tell you a little secret, not knowing where your money goes will cause wealth to elude you, and you can bet your last dollar becoming debt-free will be next to impossible.
A simple way to remedy this problem…start tracking your money. Become aware of what comes in and what goes out. Mind Blown! And You’re Welcome!
Start with your earned income. What is your net pay? What do you bring in after taxes? Do you have any other sources of income you can put in the pot? What is your total?
Look at all your expenses, fixed, variable, and non-essentials. Track this at a minimum, one to two months. Be intentional. Keep all your receipts.
Your Come To Jesus Moment
I want you to brace yourselves because there will be some “Oh, that is not so bad” moments for some categories. On the flip side, you are likely to have more WTF moments. For those who would like milder language, “WITW (What in the World) moments. In a bit of true transparency, mine was WTF. I couldn’t believe I was spending so much money in certain areas. The number one black hole was eating out. I mean, I worked hard. I deserved to treat myself.
As your self-professed hype-women, I am in your corner, and I am cheering you on! It might suck so bad, and I mean really bad, but it will eventually feel so good. Please go ahead and feel all the suckery. Bask in the, “I can’t believe you did this to yourself.” Why don’t you add a “You are so much better than this” to it while you’re at it? Feel the low. You might even want to run a hot bubble bath with a glass of wine, find a nice spot on the wall, stare, and rethink your entire life. It probably won’t be that serious, but you get the picture.
However, when you come up for air, I want you to realize the beauty in all of this is if you take action now, today, this is the lowest it will get. Even more glorious than that, you can and will find your way out of the weeds.
Become Financial Knowledge-Wealthy
How many classes do you recall taking in school on money? The odds are zero is your answer. Financial literacy is not taught in the public school system; well, at least it wasn’t when I was going to school. We took 5,623 math classes, but not one about budgeting. We learned the quadratic equation with nothing on compound interest. We are taught how to count money in elementary, but there were no lessons on managing it.
Okay, let’s say we take the public school system off the hook for positioning its students for receiving an “F” in financial education. The other place we have to look at is in our own homes.
What did financial education look like in your home growing up? Were there conversations around saving and how to make your money work for you? Did you see your parents manage their money by incorporating a monthly budget? Did your parents open a savings account for you and require you to deposit some of your birthday or Christmas money? What role did your parents play in schooling you on money? The odds are you may have learned more from what wasn’t taught than what was. So, before we move on, let’s take our parents off the hook for not making sure we received a passing grade in finances because, more than likely, they didn’t receive this education either.
So, here you are. Where do you begin? You start with educating yourself, become the teacher and the principal. Decide what will be in your curriculum. Schedule the financial field trips. Figure out if your experiences will be hands-on. Determine what books will be added to the financial literacy section of your bookshelf. You make up the rules and play the game. Come in for the win, and rescue yourself by upping your financial knowledge game and snatching up as many people as are willing to go with you.
Start small and apply what you learn along the way. From my experience, the more you start turning the tables, the more you want to explore and learn. I recommend starting with one of these three books (In no particular order):
- Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
- The Richest Man in Babylon by George Clason
- Rich Dad Poor Dad (Let me tell you a secret, I had this book for at least five years, and I used it as a shelf ornament before reading it.) It is worth every second you will spend reading it.
