How to change your mindset about money
How do you change your mindset?
You might say, just reframe your thoughts.
And you’re correct if that’s your answer.
Sounds easy right?
But it doesn’t come easy for everyone.
Because to change a certain thought, we also need to change the belief behind that thought. And a belief can be challenging to flip.
So, stick around because this post will show you how to reframe 18 unhelpful money thoughts into much better thoughts. You’ll walk away ready to keep a healthy mindset about money.
When you keep the habit of reframing the negative thoughts about money, you’re essentially creating financial wellness which will help you achieve your money goals.
Ready?
Disclaimer: I’m not a financial advisor. What I will share in this article is a combination of knowledge I learned from personal life experiences, people in my life and books I’ve read. What worked for my family is not guaranteed to work the same way in your situation. Consider reaching out to financial advisors if you need professional help with your financial situation.
Why do we have negative money mindset?
Money mindset is your view and attitude about money. It’s all about what you think about money, and your beliefs around it.
Negative thoughts about money are related to a negative money mindset.
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We often have negative thoughts because of negative mindset we have around money.
Your mindset is influenced by your personal experiences and the information you absorb from your environment, people and resources like books, etc.
If you’ve heard about the scarcity and abundance mindset, you would’ve picked instantly that negative thoughts about money usually stem from a scarcity mindset.
They’re also related to limiting beliefs that often hold back a person from living fully and enjoying life.
A limiting belief is a certain view of a person that is often false and restricting. It commonly gets in the way towards achieving one’s goals.
If you happen to have a negative money mindset or limiting beliefs, please remember that you can always change them. You can overcome limiting beliefs.
How to change your mindset about money?
There are many ways to turn negative money mindset into a positive one . One of them is to reframe your thoughts. It’s not easy but it can be done. You just need conscious effort to practise it every time you catch yourself having unhelpful thoughts about money.
To help you get started, I suggest the following 3 steps.
Step 1: Search for clarity
As always, the first step is awareness. Check-in with yourself and find out what kind of money mindset you have right now. Ask yourself these questions.
- What do you think about money?
- How do you feel when money topic comes up?
Step 2: Reflect on your money mindset.
Chances are, you either have negative or positive money mindset. It’s also possible that you’re neutral about it. But whatever mindset you have at the moment, I encourage you to reflect deeper to see if your current mindset is helping you right now. Does is support your goals and lifestyle?
Step 3: Keep the positive and reframe the negative thoughts .
If you have a negative money mindset, it’s not the end of the world. In order to address this, All you need to do is DECIDE. Decide to change your negative thoughts. You’ll start by challenging the beliefs that cause your negative money mindset. Find evidence to prove that a limiting belief isn’t true. Then reframe the thoughts.
Have a plan, stay committed and soon enough you’ll have a healthier money mindset.
A little exercise for you
I would like you to reflect on these two questions.
- what do you think about money?
- how do you feel when it comes to money?
If you have negative thoughts about money, can you think of the reasons why?
You see, thoughts about money are influenced by a lot of things. It could be your past experiences and people around you. And it could also be the current financial situation you’re in. There must be a deeper reason why you feel a certain way about money now.
My money mindset
For me, I’ve always view money as a tool. I didn’t grow up rich but I grew up with a healthy view about money. Even though we were poor growing up, we were taught to be grateful whether we have 1 Php or 100Php. We were also taught that money is not always the answer to every problem. But it’s nice to have money because it helps you improve your lifestyle and enables you to help others.
So that’s my experience.
When it comes to people around me, I’m so grateful because I think I always attract good-hearted people in my life.
I have friends who are rich but I don’t think they mind if I have lesser money than them. Because these friends see me beyond money. They see me as a person and we’re friends because we connect in way that’s beyond money.
I have a very special friend, MH. When I was single and I was living on my own, we would go out with other friends and she would often insist to pay for me. I had money then but I was always mindful about where I spend my money on.
That experience made me appreciate more the wealthy people. MH unconsciously helped me develop that desire to be generous too and give where I can.
Money is not bad. It’s how people view and use it that makes it bad in certain situations.
I’m so lucky to have people and experiences that helped me keep a positive mindset about money.
So even when I met my husband who had a 5 figure debt, I never saw it as a problem. Sure it was an inconvenience but we were able to pay it in less than 3 years while on one income. And we never had a fight about money.
How to reframe negative money mindset?
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As I mentioned at the beginning, reframing the negative money mindset requires intention, practice and determination.
When we reframe negative thoughts we are therefore challenging our beliefs. So before we even begin to practise reframing our negative thoughts, we need to be clear of what we do believe and what we value.
After that, create the intention around it. Only then you can start practising the actual reframing of the thoughts. Determination can be put simply as being consistent with practising this habit.
You need to be intentional about this because to be successful in reframing your mindset, you need to have a meaningful purpose why you want to do this.
Money is not always the goal
Since we’re talking about money here, let me just say this.
Money is a tool. It’s the “thing”, the “energy”. Oftentimes, it’s not the real goal. It’s what helps you achieve your real goals.
I find that thinking this way helps me make a better financial decision and it’s certainly helpful when challenging negative thoughts around money. Thinking about money helps me to avoid getting too hung up on the dollar amount. Instead, it helps me focus on what money does regardless of the the amount of money I have in my bank.
Money is not the goal. The real goal is what money does for you.
So if money isn’t the goal, then what is?
The goal is the purpose. And most of the time, it’s bigger than money, it’s what you value (and it’s not always money).
It could be freedom, security, happiness and people and things that matter. Think about your core values. Those are what truly matters and they make the real goals.
18 ways of reframing money mindset
Just a gentle reminder:
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The negative thoughts I’m about to share with you, and the reframing suggestions are common. But use this as a guide. Maybe you have a different mindset and it’s up to you to discern which ones need reframing.
When you catch yourself having negative thought, pause and just reframe that thought. Take it from another angle and flip it.
Change your mindset
Here are the 18 common money thoughts than can be flipped into more helpful and positive thoughts.
| Instead of | Reframe as |
| 1. I can’t afford it | 1. I will find a way to do this without going into debt |
| 2. Money is stressful | 2. Money can be joyful |
| 3. It’s hard to earn money | 3. Making money can be easy and fun |
| 4. Money complicates relationships | 4. Money can deepen relationships |
| 5. The more money I make, the more people take advantage of me | 5. I am in control of how I spend my money |
| 6. I need to spend less money | 6. I can find ways to earn more money |
| 7. I am bad with money | 7. I am learning to better manage my money |
| 8. Money is the only way to be wealthy | 8. Wealth comes in many forms beside money |
| 9. Talking about money is rude | 9. Talking about money helps me learn new things and help others |
| 10. I failed at saving money | 10. I’ve learned what not to do, now I can start saving money |
| 11. I have to be careful with money | 11. I can always make more money |
| 12. If you have it, spend it | 12. I can spend it now or save it for something better |
| 13. I am always broke | 13. I can learn to manage money better |
| 14. They’re always asking me for money | 14. I can create healthy money boundaries |
| 15. Money is only for basic need | 15. It’s ok to spend for self-care and joy |
| 16. I’m scared to spend more money | 16. I’m investing on myself and in my future |
| 17. It’s ok to buy for others but not for myself | 17. I have to care for myself before I can take care of others |
| 18. I have to have money to be worthy | 18. Money is not a measure of my self-worth |
Conclusion
I hope those 18 suggested ways to reframe negative money mindset help you. In case you missed it, you can grab a card deck here for less than a cup of coffee.
Just make sure you use the discount code: IAMINTENTIONAL
What more of Money Mindfulness resources?
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