The Money Mindset
MONEY MINDSET
A money mindset is an overriding attitude that you have about your finances. It drives how you make key financial decisions every day.
What you believe about money, yourself and the world shapes how your life will unfold. Every single day you have the power to make decisions that will move you forward financially or set you back.
THE MONEY STORY QUESTIONS
Look at your family history.
When did you grandparents grow up? What was the world like? How was their experience with money?
When did you parents grow up? What was the world like? What did your grandparents pass on to your parents? How did this affect your parents relationship with money?
Now let’s focus on you…
What was the feeling about money like in the home where you grew up?
What was the feeling like about spending money?
What was the feeling like about saving money?
What was the feeling like about giving money away?
What’s your earliest money memory?
What messages did your mother pass down to you about money?
What messages did your father pass down to you about money?
Do you remember hearing your parents talk about (or fight about) money?
Growing up, did you have more than/less than/about the same as your mates?
Now dive deeper with the following questions
How is this affecting me in my life today?
Maybe you still feel the tension.
Whenever you’re faced with any substantial money decision—whether it’s figuring out how much is reasonable to spend on renovating the bathroom or whether to take the job you don’t really want but that pays more than the one that makes you happy, you get tied up in knots. You can feel it in your gut. It makes it difficult to move forward.
How is this helping me?
Perhaps the fact that money causes you to shut down has stopped you from making some decisions.
Maybe you were willing to let your employer default you into a mix of investments for your super that were appropriate for your age, rather than choosing them yourself—and that turned out for the better.
How is this hurting me?
Let’s go back to that job decision for a moment.
If you recalled or just had a feeling—from childhood that the tension in your home tailed off in years when your parents were more flush, then perhaps you opted for the position that paid more, even though it didn’t make you quite as happy.
Or, maybe the ramifications are simpler and more straightforward.
Perhaps the tension means it just takes you an insanely long time to shop for anything—because you have trouble making decisions. That’s an issue to be dealt with as well.
And this is just one example of how it might play out when you begin to follow the breadcrumbs. They’ll always lead you to a place of learning.