Episode 79: Money Money Money-Your Money Mindset and How to Make it Work for You
What You’ll Learn
What is a Money Mindset? (02:30)
The Last 12 Months (07:20)
Looking for the Lessons (11:10)
Working With Your Money Mindset (15:38)
Recap (16:35)
Invitation (17:35)
Some of our greatest adulting lessons come from managing money for our families and homes.
It isn't everything, but it does serve us in many ways and CAN if we’re responsible and intentional with it. Our finances should be a reflection of the life and family we’re cultivating in our home.
And the hard truth is...for too many of us that's not the case.
If your current financial state makes you feel shame, fills you with regret, or leaves you feeling down-right depressed after you look at it...
You need to take responsibility and own where you are. Acknowledging that the decisions you made up until now, led you here.
HOWEVER, shame, regret, and depression will not get you where you need to go.
So you need to LET. THOSE. THINGS. GO.
Why don't we explore a few questions that can you figure out what brought you here so you CAN move forward. Because Brenden Brouchard says Life is our greatest teacher, and to follow that up, Jim Kwik says, knowledge isn't power unless you use it...
Did you grab that coffee we told you to grab? You're probably going to need it, and a chair...sit down for this one.
This series is about getting you comfortable with your finances and empowering you to take responsible action to improve your situation. Whatever it may be....which is likely that you can't even afford eggs right now...
Almost all of us need to shift our money mindset to do this.
What is a Money Mindset? (02:30)
Your money mindset is your unique set of beliefs and your attitude about money based on your own experiences and upbringing. It's where you pull from when it comes to any financial decision. Identifying what your mindset is, and recognizing that it's possible to change it (if it's not serving you) is the first step toward financial freedom or goal you want to reach.
We all spend money, and it feels like we don't have a choice about how or when...but we really do.
We GET to decide, plan, budget, and spend according to what's most important to us.
Examples – groceries, medical debt, sports…
It's easy to shift blame for our financial state to others (economy, husband, kids, activities, etc.).
The Last 12 Months (07:20)
Over the past 12 months, what were you focusing on with your money? We all have themes in our spending, we don't need to pull out statements and narrow it down to the cent.
Charitable giving
Saving
Investing
Surviving
Paying down debt
Budgeting well
Handling emergencies
Retail therapy
This gives us a clear sense of where our focus was and gives us the power to choose something different if it doesn't align with the direction we truly want to be headed in.
Were there any financial habits that contributed to your focus this past year?
Maybe you noticed whenever you're feeling sad, you console yourself by buying books or other items and
Maybe reconciling your accounts was really stressful, so you just stopped.
And instead you just picked up a habit of checking the balance of your account and then spent on whims instead of spending intentionally...a financial focus of survival.
Maybe medical debt piled up and left you feeling so defeated you just gave up on your goals because they felt too big or impossible and that led to a financial focus of just handling red tag issues and leaving everything else on the table...
This might have been your story the past 12 months, but this doesn’t have to be your story for the next 12.
Looking for the Lessons (11:10)
What lesson(s) can you learn from what your patterns and habits have been? Sometimes it's the way you're physically spending your money, and sometimes (often times) it's how you're mentally spending your money.
Perhaps its that having the target app on your phone makes it too easy to buy things on a whim and removing it creates a pause and gives your power back.
Maybe eating out became a default response to rising grocery costs so deciding on a weekly spending cap with your husband is what you both need to keep your decisions aligned with your future goals and needs.
Or are there any lessons from the natural ebb and flow of the year?
We refer to August lovingly as "Ayahuasca" (Brittany didn't realize it was a drug)…because it's a bad trip…every year…in anticipation, we know we must save at least $1,000 of our tax refunds in preparation.
or
Why must kids always keep growing and need new clothes every spring and fall…making it necessary to save a small fortune for things like pajamas, underwear and socks (that no one sees)
Working With Your Money Mindset (15:38)
Everything we've talked about today is a great indication of what your money mindset has been…
You need to consider how you feel about your answers…
Is it that in spite of rising costs everywhere and unexpected expenses, you've continued to make intentional choices and fight to stay in budget (this would be an intentional money mindset)
Conversely, you dealt with those same rising costs and unexpected expenses by spiraling into a pattern of overspending in order to escape the feelings of scarcity (this would be a scarcity mindset)
Let's address the fact that these examples show two different ends of the spectrum, and you may fall somewhere in between.
Because money, and our mindset are very personal things…they aren't just based on the last 12 months, but on our upbringing, and honestly-all the life we've lived up until this point.
RECAP (16:35)
If your current financial state makes you feel shame, fills you with regret, or leaves you feeling down-right depressed...
Take responsibility, own where you are, acknowledge your decisions.
And LET. THOSE. THINGS. GO.
Identifying what your money mindset is, and recognizing that it's possible to change it (if it's not serving you) is the first step toward financial freedom or really any money goal you want to reach.
As you work to identify your own money mindset, here are some questions to think through…
Over the past 12 months, what were you focusing on with your money?
Were there any financial habits that contributed to your focus?
What lesson(s) can you learn from what your patterns and habits have been? (And do these patterns and habits align for the vision you have for the financial state you want to cultivate in your family).
Invitation (17:35)
If we're speaking directly to your pocketbook right now and you want to dig a little deeper, we have two sections of the Deliberate Start that are for you…the Financial Reflection and the Financial Beginning. The financial reflection helps you gain a birds eye view to move forward from and the financial beginnings pages lay the foundation for the financial state you want to cultivate going forward. Because we need to take ownership of our money and how it's being spent and we all need a place to start.
Look for the link to the Deliberate Start here, on our IG bio, or on the website.
