When it comes to money, people have many different beliefs. Some of them are picked up when we are young from the various adults in our lives and others are formed through our experiences as we grow. The important thing to know is that those beliefs are simply a point of view, and if you want to change your relationship with money to have more of it flowing into your life, you just need to shift your perspective to start building true wealth.
What “changing your perspective” really means.
Shifting from scarcity to abundance thinking requires a perspective shift. To do that, it is important to examine the beliefs you currently have about money to see if they support the life you want or if they are keeping you from it.
Not everyone knows that many of the beliefs we have are formed before the age of seven, when our young minds are most impressionable. This openness to information helps us learn quickly about the world and how we should act within it which, ultimately, helps to keep us safe. This quick absorption also means that the relationship that the adults in our lives had with money have influenced our own beliefs, though we might not realize it.
This is why it’s important to ensure that your beliefs about money are ones that you want to own.
Growing up, did you hear things like:
- Money doesn’t grow on trees
- The love of money is the root of all evil
- There’s never enough money
- Money is hard to make
- Money is too hard to save
If you heard more of the negative things, start questioning the truth in them for yourself and decide the validity of the beliefs. This will make it easier to move from a scarcity mindset toward more abundant thinking.
For example, the belief that “Money is hard to make,” can definitely be challenged. When you have the knowhow, it can be quite easy and there are many examples of that in the world.
Saving money isn’t difficult either, when you actively decide to do it. Every little bit adds up, and over time, that builds your wealth.
This is why mindset and wealth creation go hand in hand. Sometimes all you really need is just a little more information to get a money mindset transformation that shifts limiting beliefs about money, opening a world of opportunity to you.
With consistency, your on-going positive money mindset will help you experience the compounding effect that naturally comes with it, making it easier and easier to build your wealth, in the same way that compound interest turns into more and more money.
Practical ways to start thinking differently about money.
After you recognize where your beliefs about money and building wealth have been holding you back, to reframe your money mindset it’s important to:
- Catch yourself when thinking or saying things about money that reinforce your old beliefs and scarcity thinking.
- Create habits that reinforce a positive perspective about money.
One place where many people get stuck is creating affirmations about money that they don’t quite believe yet. When you have that kind of cognitive dissonance, the constant push and pull in the mind makes it more difficult to make the shift.
For example, “I release all debt easily,” can be very difficult to fully align with when you can barely make a minimum payment. In this case, it might be more effective to say, “I am proactively reducing my debt.” Or, “Every payment I make is moving me toward financial freedom.”
Can you see how there is true reality in those statements that your mind can more easily align with?
This kind of affirmation can help you build greater consistency with your new money mindset.
Other small things you can do to think differently about money are:
- Celebrate every financial win. If you find a quarter on the ground, celebrate. Make a payment over the minimum level, celebrate. Receive some unexpected cash, celebrate! The more you celebrate, it opens your mind to more positives around money. And the celebration makes it more likely for you to do more of those things.
- Journal about money. There are many studies that show that when you write down worries, it is easier to deal with them and let them go because you can see them in a different and physical way. That can give you a new perspective, while helping your brain to shut off the constant cycle of overthinking. And recording your positive wins with money in your journal is a great way to relive the moment and feel good about your money, while you also reinforce your new money mindset.
- Visualize receiving money. When you watch elite athletes, you will see them mentally rehearsing their physical moves as they visualize success. That is because visualizing activates the same areas in the brain that the physical actions do, making it easier to get a successful result. Visualization also activates the Reticular Activating System (RAS) which is the brain’s filter for stimuli, helping you ‘program’ it to look for the things that will help create what you are visualizing. That brings new opportunities and synchronicities into your awareness that you might not have otherwise noticed.
Every small thing you do each day will have bigger payoffs down the line, as you reinforce your positive money mindset and money habits, increasing your momentum toward greater wealth creation.
Defining true wealth – for you!
Your next step on your journey toward true wealth is to create the bigger vision that you want for your life and define what wealth really means to you.
Not everyone wants a mansion, yachts and vaults of jewelry and that’s okay…in the same way, it’s okay if you want all that too!
It is critical to know what you’re working toward, because that greater vision will help keep you on track toward that bigger goal, while you build your momentum financially. It will also help you maintain your focus and positive money mindset during any challenges you might face.
To explore what true wealth means to you, take the time to consider:
- What building wealth means in your life
- What you will be able to do that you can’t do now, and why that matters
- How having greater wealth will help you make a bigger difference in the world
- How greater wealth will make your life more fulfilling
- What it will do to align you with your greater purpose
Too many people put all their focus on making money, and when they amass the amount they want, they find that their lives feel empty.
A truly wealthy life goes far beyond making money, and only you can decide what True Wealth means to you. When your vision of wealth resonates deeply within you, you will be surprised at the ways money and new opportunities come to you.
Then it’s just a matter of choosing the ones that align best with your goals.
Why traditional wealth advice doesn’t always work for women.
It is important to know that How Money Works for Women is different than how money works for men.
Although the pay gap is improving, women often make less in similar positions than men do, which means they have less money available to them for investing. They also take time off work for maternity leave and to care for children or other family members, which creates income gaps that men don’t usually have to deal with. And women live longer, and that means their retirement income has to stretch farther.
Knowing this, it’s important for women to understand that there are effective ways to build wealth no matter how much money they currently have available to them, their stage of life or how old they are. There are different strategies for each one, and it’s something Kim Scouller and I cover in How Money Works for Women – Take Control or Lose It.
In the book, we provide practical solutions for the unique financial challenges and opportunities that women encounter throughout their lives from paying for college, to starting a business, to raising children, to taking care of elderly parents, to planning for retirement and long-term care needs.
What Sara C. has to say about Sharon Lechter’s and Kim Scouller’s How Money Works for Women – Take Control or Lose It: “This book is a must-read for any woman who wants to take control of her financial future. It breaks down complex financial concepts into simple, practical steps that anyone can follow. I appreciate how it speaks directly to women—addressing the real challenges we face when it comes to money, confidence, and financial independence.
It’s not just educational, it’s empowering. A great reminder that if you don’t control your money, it will end up controlling you.”
What I have learned in my life and through my work, is that most people have never been taught about how money really works which is why they get stuck in the rat race of living paycheck to paycheck.
It is not their fault! And that knowledge gap is a simple one to fill.
The more you learn about money, reducing debt and investing, the easier it is to consistently take the steps that build wealth.
You can increase your streams of income. You can find ways to make more money, even while you work a 9-5 job. And you can build the wealthy life that you so richly deserve.
It all starts with you, changing your perspective about money and building a positive money mindset that supports the future you want and your definition of true wealth.