Fixing your finances starts with your money mindset.
Money Girl
220 MG Your Money Mindset: Is It Hurting Your Finances?
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Your attitudes and psychology around money really do affect how you handle it and how much of it you have. In this podcast, I'll discuss what a money mindset is, where it might come from, and how it can be the key to accomplishing your financial goals. I don't have enough time in the podcast to cover everything. So at the end of the show, I'm gonna give you information about a special live teleseminar that I'm giving where you'll learn specific techniques and tools that you can use right away to improve your money mindset. Stay tuned for where to go for that free resource. The term money mindset may seem a little nebulous, so I wanna pin it down for you. Your money mindset is how you think about money. Your thoughts about money are incredibly powerful, and that's why it's so important to pay close attention to them and to change them when they don't help you accomplish your goals. Here are a few simple examples to help you figure out your money mindset. Number one, you start thinking about a great party that you've been invited to, and how you just don't have the perfect thing to wear. After work, you immediately go to the mall and end up buying an expensive pair of trendy new jeans that you can't afford. Number two, you believe that you aren't smart enough to get a better paying job, so you end up spending years making less money than you could. And three, you believe that you can't cut your spending enough to save for retirement and you never get around to building wealth for your future. If you altered your mindset to remember how many great outfits you already have in your closet, to be aware of how much talent you have, or to decide that there are plenty of ways to make room in your budget for a monthly contribution to a retirement account, that would be the first step to making better financial decisions, right? I know you get this, the actions you take don't just come from thin air, they originate from your thoughts. Having a poor mindset can be the reason you end up making all kinds of bad money moves, like going deep into debt, not paying bills on time, dipping into retirement savings, and hanging on to losing investments, just to name a few. Financial problems creep up when you're stuck in bad patterns of behavior, like spending more than you make or falling prey to risky investments. Sometimes your money mindset cripples you the most when it causes you not to do something, like never getting around to saving for emergencies or creating a budget. So be sure to choose your thoughts about money carefully and ditch the ideas or thoughts that are not aligned with your financial goals. It's easy to make money mistakes, but it can be tough to figure out why you make them, why you have a poor money mindset to begin with. Where mindset comes from is an interesting topic because many people inherit their relationships with money from their parents or close relatives. How we relate to money on a psychological level begins to take shape early in life. For instance, if your family was affluent and always wanted to project an image of wealth with fancy cars or expensive brands, you might still believe that a materialistic lifestyle is important for your self-esteem, even if you can't afford it. Or perhaps your family was constantly fighting about how to spend money or pay the bills when you were young and impressionable. That could have caused you to subconsciously pick up a feeling that money is the reason for problems in life, or that it's a destructive force in relationships. Maybe someone even told you that money doesn't grow on trees, or money is the root of all evil. I've seen these issues cause people to never build wealth and to prevent talented folks from charging what they're worth in business, for instance. These types of mental roadblocks are why it's important to examine your mindset and consider whether your thought processes around money are the ones you really want or whether they need to be reformed. The reason I covered the topic of money mindset at the very beginning of my book is because it's the foundation for everything that happens in your financial life. The surprising thing is that even if you learn a ton about personal finance and make plenty of money, you can still make devastating financial mistakes over and over. So, having a solid money mindset is the foundation on which it's possible to build lasting wealth. I love learning and anything that makes learning easier. If you're a parent and your child needs some homework help, then IXL is a right for your family. IXL is an online learning program for kids covering math, language arts, science and social studies. 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It's storming every industry and literally billions of dollars are being invested. So buckle up. The problem is that AI needs lots of speed and processing power. So how do you compete without cost spiraling out of control? It's time to upgrade to the next generation of the cloud, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure or OCI. OCI is a single platform for your infrastructure, database, application development and AI needs. OCI has 4 to 8 times the bandwidth of other clouds, offers one consistent price instead of variable regional pricing and of course, nobody does data better than Oracle. So now you can train your AI models at twice the speed and less than half the cost of other clouds. You want to do more and spend less like Uber, 8x8 and Databricks Mosaic. Take a free test drive of OCI at oracle.com/advanced. That's oracle.com/advanced oracle.com/advanced. I want to reiterate that having a poor money mindset has nothing to do with how smart you are or how much money you make. I know plenty of people who are managing their money brilliantly on very moderate incomes. They simply make deliberate, conscious decisions with their money that match the outcomes they want for themselves and their families. Your mindset and any resulting bad financial habits that are holding you back from being a better money manager can be fixed. Raising your awareness about negative thoughts you may have about money is half the battle. The rest of the battle is deciding to make positive changes, seeking the financial knowledge you need and taking action. This is such an important topic that I want to give you much more about how to shift your money mindset and improve your financial behaviors and results. So join me on a free teleseminar that I'm giving on May 24th called Money Mindset Solutions. Five ways to transform your finances now, where we'll have more time to cover specific techniques and tools. To learn more, visit moneymindsetsolutions.com. Everyone who registers will receive a free recording of the call in case you can't make the live event or are learning about this teleseminar after May 24th. Again, sign up for the free event or to receive the recording at moneymindsetsolutions.com. If you enjoy the Money Girl podcast, I think you'll like my book, Money Girl Smart Moves to Grow Rich. It tells you what you need to know about money without bogging you down with what you don't. It's available at your favorite bookstore in print or is an e-book for your Kindle Nook iPad PC Mac or Smartphone. You can download two free chapters at smartmoves2growrich.com. For more money tips, be sure to sign up for the free Money Girl newsletter. Follow me on Twitter. My username there is Laura Adams with No Space. And join the Money Girl Facebook page. You can submit your money questions through social media or email me at money@quickanddirtytips.com. As always, you'll find a transcript of the show in the Money Girl section at quickanddirtytips.com. I'm glad you're listening. Cha-ching. That's all for now. Care to see if Money Girl, your guide to a richer life. You