Money and our attitudes and behaviors
“Early to bed, Early to rise, till you get enough money to do otherwise.”
I really liked this quote when I came across it on the web. It defines what life is for many in this world. Lately, I have been rereading and listening to a lot of different ideas on how to create more abundance in your life. There are thousands of books, websites, and programs you can buy on this subject. Like many resolutions people make, this information is bought and paid for but sometimes never put to use. If you don’t put it to use, you are merely creating abundance for the makers of the product!
Have you ever caught yourself purchasing or reading the information but not following through? The reason many people don’t is that you need to begin understanding why you aren’t creating the abundance you would love to have.
Attitude
On the surface, many people feel they don’t have the right attitude. Have you ever caught yourself thinking back to sayings such as:
- “Money is the root of all evil”,
- “that lifestyle is for the rich”,
- “you are just average and ordinary”, and
- “We can’t afford that, we don’t have enough money and you don’t deserve it”
What if you changed the way you look at things life:
- “We currently don’t have the money in our budget for that “
- “money is good as it allows choices in life and you can help others that need some help”
- “I can achieve and do what I choose to do in life”
With this attitude, you may soon notice that you do begin to have more money in your life.
Behaviors
After your attitudes have changed, your behaviors towards money may also begin to change. Once you believe you can obtain something and control your money by budgeting for savings and purchases. Many people once they write down their income and expenses and the goals they want to achieve actually find they begin to enjoy taking care of their money. Money is not evil, it is something we need and we can take care of to enjoy our lives and achieve our goals.
The age-old saying of paying yourself first can be quite simple; enroll in any workplace savings programs. If your plan at work is limited to 5%, and your savings goal is 10%, you can visit your financial advisor and set up an automatic withdrawal plan to cover the rest.
If you have debts you can set a plan in place to slowly pay your debts off. Many purchases are unnecessary and if you just set the item down, go home and sleep on it first you will usually find you never go back to purchase it.
Kijiji and sites such as that are becoming very popular for selling off what you no longer use as well as buying used instead of new. These types of behaviors are how many people are able to save more money for other goals such as retirement, vacations or even investment property.
Changing your attitudes can be a great start to changing your behaviors which then changes your life!
Comments
Instead of “I can’t afford it” I am thinking to myself “that is not how I choose to spend my money at this time”.
Instead of “I can’t afford that” I can say to myself “I am trying to be more mindful in my spending. Is this the best choice for mer?”
I need to make attitude adjustments and eliminate the I can’ts in my vocabulary.
I need to get over my jealousy and resentment as I see friends and coworkers setting early retirement dates, going on spa getaways and enjoying extra free time because the cleaning lady now comes twice each week instead of just once.
“Money is the root of all evil” – this is often mis-quoted; it’s actually “the love of money is the root of all evil”. In other words, there’s nothing inherently wrong with money itself, but if you start believing that it’s the only thing that matters, you’ll soon be making some poor decisions.