Your Money Mindset Is RUINING Your Finances!

Everyone has their own history and relationship with money, which effects their money mindset. Most people don’t ever think about it but the way you feel when you spend or save and the way you think about an unexpected expense plays a massive part in your personal finances.

Unfortunately many of us will make bad financial decisions, possibly out of ignorance but commonly it’s because of an unhealthy relationship with money. It’s such an important and unavoidable part of life but so often gets neglected.

How open were your parents about money when you were growing up? How open are the people around you today about their money? It’s easy to see why people can feel alone when it comes to struggling with money when it’s considered such a taboo topic.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Here are the steps I took to fix my money mindset, start up my own business and begin a journey to get the things I really want in life.

Step One – Honesty

Step one is to be honest with yourself. Be aware of how you feel about money.

Guilt is often a feeling people have with spending. If you feel guilty when you spend, then ask yourself why?

How do you feel about looking at your bank balance or bank statement? What feelings do you have when claiming benefits? Does any aspect of your finances cause you stress?

Just for now, forget the facts, forget logic and numbers. Think about your emotions towards money, they may not make sense but emotions often don’t. You may find it easier to write it down or keep a money mindset diary.

Being aware of your feelings around money is step one to having the money mindset you want.

Step Two – Forgiveness

Now this may sound a little bit too much like therapy to you but we are dealing with mental wellbeing and emotions for now and the next step to improving your money mindset is to forgive yourself or perhaps others about bad financial decisions.

Not ignoring them, especially anything that is ongoing such as debts. Dwelling on the negative emotions surrounding them will not help clear them though.

Step Three – Facts

Instead we move to step 3 and that is to bring in the facts and make a plan. Like I said earlier, emotions don’t always follow logic. So get into the details, find out how much you owe on that debt, how much interest you’re paying, how long it’s going to take to pay off. What’s the best, fastest and cheapest way for you to pay it off?

Start looking at numbers and take emotions out of it for a while. Forget all of the what-ifs and just number crunch and make a plan. While making this plan to move forward you will have lots of thoughts about what you should or could have done differently.

Add these into your plan too. Your plan to not make the same mistakes. Now moving forward you know what you’re doing and this should bring in some more positive emotions. Your mindset can now focus on the solution rather than the problem and it can be fortified with the knowledge that you know what to do to prevent the problems in the future.

Step Four – Celebration

Sticking with positive thoughts, step 4 is about celebrating successes and being grateful. You might want to sit there and complain about what you don’t have and ask what you have got to be grateful for? Well that was the old you.

The new you likes to appreciate what you’ve got or even get excited about what you’re working towards. Going back to the diary, when I went through this journey I liked to write 3 things I was grateful for at the end of every day. It honestly makes a wonderful difference to your mindset and mental health.

I know that some of you were hoping to have bullet points with specific things for you to do but it’s not that easy. It’s so personal. I can’t tell you how to feel or what to do but I will encourage you to take these steps, as much as you might sit there and think they won’t help. Just try them for a week and see how you feel.

Once you start on the path to happiness with money you’ve… well… started and that’s the hardest part.