Money Gets a Bad Wrap
If you’ve ever gone through hard times with your money then you know it can (and usually does) consume your thinking all day, every day. And that, my friend, is not good for you! It’s stressful, takes up your energy and is probably making you a cranky pants. But, GOOD NEWS! TODAY is a great time to focus on a simple budget plan, money habit reset or getting more comfortable with your finances..
First thing is first: what do you want?
Do you want to go to the beach 4 times a year (that’s my goal)? Buy that new pair of shoes? Build a garage? Work for 6 months and travel for 6 months? Give more to charity? That’s badass. The world is your oyster. And let’s be clear: creating a budget or a financial plan isn’t about becoming a penny pincher. It is about setting yourself up for success so you can live the lifestyle you want to live. You do you and let’s make sure you have the tools to create the good money habits to get there.
Are you ready for this? There is nothing more personal in your life (other than your family) than your relationship with money. It is the ONE THING that impacts EVERYONE and…we never ever talk about it. In fact, you might get some side eye if you do. SOOOOO money gets a bad wrap and is widely misunderstood (poor thing). A few things you should know about money:
#1. Decisions around money are emotional…NOT logical.
All of us know we should budget, save money, contribute to our retirement blah blah blah. But why don’t we do it? WELL, I’ll tell ya: decisions around money are not logical, they are HIGHLY emotional. If our decisions around money were logical, all of us would already have perfect bank accounts, credit scores and amazing retirement funds. But that isn’t the case. For most of us, if you had a choice to buy a hot tub or put that money in your retirement…most of us would buy the hot tub. BECAUSE, we’ve already visualized the value it is going to bring to our lives. And I can guarantee you probably haven’t done that for your retirement. So, when you are ready to set those financial goals, leverage that emotion in your favor. Instead of saying “beach trip” say: take a girls trip to the beach for 5 days and drink margaritas. See what happened there? It stirs ALL the feelings around. You can SEE the trip, taste the salt and feel your toes in the sand. And that is a good thing because when you are emotionally tied to your financial goal, you are already seeing the value it will bring to your life and thus are more likely to stick to it.
#2. Money is not complicated. Humans are complicated, money is not.
Money is just a way for us to say something is valuable. It is a value system. We give a value to everything and what I find valuable (Coffee!), might not be valuable to someone else. TRUTH SPRINKLE: When you say you can’t afford something, you are really saying it isn’t valuable enough to you to commit to the actions it would take to get it. Make sense? When your finances aren’t where you want them to be, you have three options: make more money, spend less money, or do both. Think of a time when you wanted something REAL bad and got crazy creative so you could make it happen. THAT is committing to the actions to make it happen. And here is the thing; we are all unique unicorns and one size does not fit all in this department. So it is important that YOU know what is valuable to YOU so you can create a plan that serves YOU.
#3. Mastering your money actually starts in your brain.
We humans tend to move AWAY from pain and TOWARDS pleasure. Make sense? And depending on how you grew up, odds are, you heard and saw money cause pain. Either the people around you struggled with money or they spoke about money in a negative way. Example: “money doesn’t grow on trees”, “We’ll never be able to afford that”, “Rich people are stingy” etc. And that, whether you know it or not, has had an influence on how you perceive money. When you catch yourself having a negative thought around money, flip it to a positive and instead of looking for proof that confirms the negative thought, look for proof that proves you wrong.
Once you start working on your relationship with money, magical things can happen. When it is no longer an area of your life you are scared to deal with, stress will start to melt away because you will feel confident and empowered in your actions around your finances! AND, you’ll get a new BFF out of the work…money. Money is your new BFF.
FREE DOWNLOAD: 5 Actions to Create a Badass Relationship with Money.
There are 5 simple actions you can take TODAY to start creating a badass relationship with money. Ready? Let’s Grab Life by the Betties shall we?
Livin' & Lovin'
B
As seen on Paleomg.com on January 3, 2018
