Do you ever lie in bed, worrying about which bills you are going to be able to pay this paycheck and which ones you can put off until the next paycheck?
You know exactly which bills carry a late charge and which ones do not.
You wonder at what point you are going to have to admit to your go-to family member that you do not have enough and ask for a little money to tide you over.
And God forbid something unexpected happened…
I can remember playing these “games”- and they were not fun.
Even with all of the knowledge I had of budgets, compounding, investing, and all the rest, I could not seem to change the reality… even as I increased my income.
But then I realized I had the power to change the trajectory of my financial future.
And so do you.
It all comes down to mindset.
We all have these “money scripts” running through our heads.
Some were learned by repeatedly hearing adults say them when we were children, such as “money doesn’t grow on trees” or “we cannot afford that”.
Some were learned through our childish interpretations of things we saw as we were growing up. It may be that you associate money or having nice things with fighting after watching your parents struggle to make ends meet or that you should not ask for anything because that is being selfish.
And some were learned from teachers, coaches, peers, or bosses, including “you have to work hard for money” and “it is not what you know, but who you know”.
Fortunately, you can change your mindset. Those thoughts are just habits. And since habits are learned, they can be unlearned and re-learned.
The first thing you need to do is be aware of them. Start paying attention to your immediate reactions, whether that voice in your head or physical reactions. Whenever possible, write them down. Then, when you have a few minutes, look at your notes and re-write them into positive, empowering messages. The next time you hear or feel the habitual response you can consciously tell yourself “no, that is not true. In reality…[new thought]”.Now, if you want to make this process faster you could reach out to a hypnotist. Or you can totally do it yourself, like I did when I was first starting and could not afford professional assistance.
The other thing I did to change my situation was to start using the Income Allocation method (I really need a sexier name for this- if you have any ideas, please share them!). Basically, this is a way of allocating every dollar that comes into your account so it already has a purpose before you start spending anything. In a way it gives you a budget without having to go through the process of creating a budget. When it comes time to spend you either have money in the account or you do not. No guesswork. No games. I am doing a short workshop on the Income Allocation Method tomorrow, October 21, 2021, at 6 pm EST in the free How To Be A Money Master facebook community. All you have to do is answer three easy questions to join. This is not an hour long sales pitch in exchange for some surface-level information. At the end of this 60-90 minute workshop you will understand the method and how you can apply it to your finances. There will be plenty of time for Q&A. I hope to see you all there!
What are some of your go-to money thoughts?