Developing a Money Mindset
This week’s blog is a little bit different than some of the other blogs we have posted, however, it is an important one to discuss. Money is a huge stressor for most people, especially around the holidays. Reoccurring stress has a negative affect on our health. In fact, chronic stress physically damages the body over time. Therefore recognizing your stressors and, developing ways to manage them, can help alleviate that stress and provide you with a healthier life.
In this case, developing a money mindset can help reduce financial stress and allows you to live a more stress-free life. If you don’t already have one, let 2023 be the year you develop a money mindset. A proper money mindset includes having healthy habits with money. You can start this financial journey by removing any negativity associated with money and by understanding the goals you want to reach with your finances.
Here are a few habits that you can include in your life in order to help build a healthy money mindset:
Forgive your past financial mistakes
We tend to beat ourselves up for past mistakes in all areas of life. However, it can be especially difficult to forget or forgive ourselves for a mistake surrounding money. Whether is was a not smart purchase, possible bankruptcy, or anything else; your mistakes are made for a reason. We are meant to learn from our mistakes and move on. There is no point in beating yourself up over something that you can no longer change. In order to create a healthy money mindset we must forgive, but not forget these potential mistakes once and for all. Remembering your mistakes are important to insure that you don’t make the same one twice, but forgiveness is always a necessary step in moving forward.
Create your own relationship with money
It is easy to feed off of other people’s relationships with money. For example, if your mother or father had a tension filled relationship with money, that does not mean that you have to adopt those same emotions. You need to create your own individualized feelings with money to therefore build your own habits off of. This is not to say that you need to change your relationship with money if you believe that you have a solid handle on it, it is just that it is important to create your own and not base your decisions off of another source.
Stop comparing your finances
We are our own worst critics. Some of us are the best at comparing and judging others based on what we see on the outside. This is an extremely important aspect to grasp when it comes to creating a money mindset. We can not be focused on comparing our finances to another person. Instead we need to point that focus inward and allow it to drive us to create better habits that help to build up our own finances. What good does comparison do to our own finances, except maybe make us feel bad about them?
Create good habits surrounding money
Discover your money goals and develop habits surrounding them. For example, if you want to save up for a new car that may mean incorporating a habit of weekly budgeting your money. You may have to put a certain amount into savings and reduce your spending on non-necessities in your life. Your money habits are going to be individualized based on your own goals and the important thing with this habit is consistency. Consistency is key to creating and sticking with a habit. Remember small progress is still progress.
Treat yourself
Developing a healthy money mindset does not mean to withhold all spending and become extremely frugal. It simply means to become more aware of your relationship with money. In order to do this, you need to treat yourself. There does not always need to be a justification for you treating yourself. You work hard for your money and if you believe that you deserve something new, then treat yourself. Do not create that stigma with yourself that you need to save every last penny and have to withhold purchasing things that bring yourself joy.
Remember to be thankful
There is a saying that if we threw our life problems into a pile and saw everyone else’s, we would chose to pick ours back up. Regardless of our financial situation, they could always be worse. Remembering to be thankful is important because without it, we would be in a whole different situation. Remaining thankful allows us to truly realize the blessings that we have and it allows us to enjoy more of the little things in life; not just the paychecks or materialistic things.
As the new year approaches, reflect on your finances over this past year, set goals for yourself and then take action. Developing a money mindset is a great habit to build for a New Years resolution!
