Your Money Beliefs

This might be a slightly left field question, but do you know what your Money Beliefs are?  

Before you answer, I’ll briefly go into what I think Money Beliefs are, and how they come about.

Beliefs are essentially “passed down” or "acquired" – from our parents, our grandparents, friends, colleagues, peers, society.  We take things that either validate (or confirm) what we already think we believe and really make it ours, or we look for things to be the opposite of what we currently know, because we don’t want to live a certain way.

For example, my mother immigrated to Australia with her mother not too long after World War 2. She and my grandmother are Austrian by birth, and having been born in what was part of the “hub” of the war, shaped my mother’s early beliefs about money and life in general (as you can imagine).

Because life was not safe or reliable, my grandmother was still of the “hide your money under a mattress” generation.  Banks couldn’t be trusted, politicians couldn’t be trusted, and one’s own fate rested entirely with the individual.  Over time living in Australia this view faded, but it was still there to the very end.  It certainly hadn’t faded completely, because I, as a first born generation in Australia, still felt the ramifications of these beliefs!

I’m a strong believer in what we BELIEVE to be real, is actually real – regardless of what the “true” situation is.  If someone looks at themselves in the mirror and sees a fat person, it doesn’t matter that they wear a size 8 – to them they see someone who needs to lose weight.

A similar thing happens with money.  If we BELIEVE that we need more money to be happy (for example), then we spend our lives constantly seeking more and more money, before we can be happy. But, when is enough money, enough?

So, does that mean that our beliefs are our beliefs and that’s it – we should just succumb to them, and plan our life accordingly?  Absolutely NOT!  Just as we are in charge of what food we put into our mouths, and what outfit we choose to wear, we are in charge of the thoughts in our minds, and we can also CHOOSE to alter our beliefs, which are built on these thoughts.

The key however, is being AWARE of these beliefs, and not just unconsciously allowing them to rule our lives.

With that in mind, our money decisions that we make are then partly ours, and partly the sum of those around us in our lives.

How do you break this unconscious, predictable connection to your unquestioned beliefs?

THINK and ask QUESTIONS (of yourself and those around you) about who you are and what you really want, untainted by expectations, judgement, guilt or fear.

This is quite a big topic, and as you can tell I’m pretty passionate about it, so for now I’ll leave it there for some “thinking” to happen.

Let me know if you have any questions, or would like to challenge me on anything I’ve written!