If there is one thing I learned being a banker, it is the understanding that money management and developing a healthy relationship with money is a vital piece to the puzzle of life.
If you want to improve your finances, you need to build a healthy relationship with money and your own personal financial picture.
Each of us have our own story, our own journey, that is going to be distinct from everyone else around you.
The principles are the same, but the path is going to look very different for everyone.
Here Are 6 Great Ways To Develop A Positive Relationship With Money:
Forgive Yourself For Previous Financial Mistakes
One of the first steps towards developing a new mindset towards something is to forgive yourself for all of your previous mistakes.
We’ve all heard the saying, “💩 happens.” The goal is to look back and acknowledge the wrong doings and then pivot towards making better ones.
Ray Dalio, one of the greatest investors of our time, has shared in his book Principles, the power of making financial mistakes and growing from them over the course of our lifetime.
Money management is a skill that needs to be developed and practiced upon consistently.
We have all made mistakes with our finances at some point or another.
Don’t allow those mistakes to hold you back from learning and developing a positive money mindset.
Stop Comparing Yourself To Others
Comparing ourselves to others can become completely unproductive, especially when it comes to finances.
If you want to use someone else’s situation to motivate yourself towards improving your own situation, then by all means, go for it. Do you.
But, real change and forgiveness does not take place when you are looking out into the world for validation and motivation.
The real changes comes from looking within. Using yourself as a mirror and a motivator to get better.
Each of us will walk our own distinct journey in life. Comparing your financial situation to that of your neighbor, family, and friends is a recipe for disaster.
Instead, look at your own situation and look for areas in which you can improve yourself, and identify what you you can do differently to put yourself ahead for your own future.
Stop comparing yourself to others and start comparing your progress to yourself 1 year ago.
The moment you realize that nobody is coming to save you and that it is YOU vs. YOU—this is when you are going to grow exponentially.
Figure Out Why You Want To Make Money
I have worked a variety of different jobs, and I often look back to learn from my past experiences. One thing that I have learned through experience, is that if you are going to go out and make money for yourself and your family, you need to know exactly why you are doing it.
There needs to be a clear and concise answer as to what your drive is and where it stemming from.
As obvious as the answer might seem to you, define it.
Figure out exactly why you want to make money and write that down for yourself.
Each day before you walk through the doors of your job, pull out that piece of paper, and read it to yourself.
Building a positive relationship with something, and developing a strong mindset, is all centered around identifying a strong purpose.
Create And Maintain Good Money Habits
Over the years, I have learned that managing a family is not easy, and there must be a good foundation set in place in order to help your family succeed.
This success that I refer to, is instilled through habits. Habits and routines that are set in place and executed upon each and every day, breeds results.
If you want to ensure yourself that you have built a positive money mindset, you must create and maintain good money habits.
You want to keep your finances at the forefront of your life and you want to make financial decisions based off of your future goals and your budget.
Optimize Your Budget For Happiness
Working as a personal banker, I often found, that my clients were operating their day-to-day finances without a set budget in place.
The clients that were excelling with their finances knew exactly how much they were spending. They had money allocated specifically for purchases beforehand.
It was the clients that were swiping their credit cards and debit cards without ever reconciling their accounts, that were struggling.
When you go to set a budget for yourself (given that you have things in order and are not in debt) optimize your budget for your personal happiness, but keep it tight.
Set a strict budget that will help you move in the right direction. Pay yourself first, building a savings and allocating money to investments for your future.
The point is to be frugal, but also set it up in a way where you are experiencing your happiness along the way.
Always Stay Grateful But Never Settle
In our home, we give thanks 🙏 for everything that we are able to experience as a family, this include finances.
It doesn’t matter how big or how small, we appreciate it, and we stay in a mindset of gratitude.
I believe, that if you are going to have a positive money mindset, just a positive mindset overall, gratitude needs to become a staple in that equation.
I encourage you to always stay grateful as often as you can.
When things don’t go the way you planned financially, do not waiver. Simply search for solutions.
Always revert back to all of the beautiful things that you have within your life currently.
At the same time—never settle!
Always stay driven by setting yourself new goals and shifting towards new financial priorities.
Keep the game fresh by always moving towards and surpassing the results you produced yesterday.
Strive for new opportunities, and work towards building new positive perspectives along your journey throughout life.
The Bottom Line
A positive money mindset is something that is built and cultivated over time. We are not born with it, we must seek it out.
On your financial journey towards building a positive money mindset, you are going to be challenged.
You will hit all-time highs, and you will also experience some all-time lows.
The success stems from learning how to handle both the peaks and the valleys of your financial path.
