All of us have a complex relationship with regards to money. How you acquire, spend and manage money is largely due to two factors: the nurturing you received during childhood about money and values, and the way you organized this information in your mind. At each end of the spectrum is financial insecurity. On one end, you might be extremely frugal and concerned with the relative deficiency of your means, on the other, you might be very irresponsible. The way that each of us processes and organizes money messages and also the ways wherein we model money behaviors is unique. Even individuals who are raised in the same household don’t necessarily have the same opinion on money or relations with money.
What Does Your Relationship With Money Say About You?
Believe it or not, the way you feel about money is something that starts early in life. Even though you might develop your financial style early, it can change with time or due to circumstances. It’s not uncommon for people who have gone through significant life change to adopt a very different relationship with money. Your personal relation and emotional interaction with money is probably one of the most crucial relationships in life that a person can have, because it plays an important role in physical, emotional, financial and overall well-being. The thoughts and emotions regarding your financial circumstances shape your attitudes and beliefs about money and together they create your relationship with it.
Money relationships are complicated: this is why so many individuals struggle with them. A simple way to start to evaluate this complex issue will be to identify a word that best describes how you feel about your financial circumstances. Are there words that describe how you feel about money? For example, words like hopeless, pessimistic, or indifferent versus positive, or confident. Then, list the top reasons why you chose your particular category. Those reasons will help to uncover main areas most in need of attention when starting to work to improve your financial future. The way to change your relationship with money is to understand how you feel about it by putting words to those feelings. It’s not until you really know how you feel about it, that you can work on changing it.
“Don’t tell me what you value, show me your budget, and I’ll tell you what you value.” – Joe Biden
You might not have given much thought as to how you treat your money and how that affects how your money will treat you in return. To set yourself up for future financial stability, financial well-being requires a healthy relationship with your money. If you treat your money right, your money will treat you right. Think of it like a personal relationship with that special someone, if you nurture, value and appreciate that other person, they will be there for you when you need them and give more of themselves to you. But, if you neglect, abuse and don’t value them, they won’t be there for you and eventually they’ll leave you.
How you treat your money works in the same way. Treat it right and you’ll have more of it, but if you don’t, just like that special someone, even money will leave you……broke! Your relationship with your money gives you the basis for your money habits. It’s only by knowing and understanding the thoughts and emotions about money and what money means to you, that you’ll be in the position to develop a healthy relationship with it for the future. Take care of your money and your money will take care of you!
Before you go, I want to invite you to join my FREE email list community. By signing up today, you’ll get notifications of my latest posts. Plus access to my FREE Resources Library. Click Here to sign up!
