#215 Budgeting and mindset go hand in hand as you move from scarcity to abundance.
Nov 29, 2019
I'm sure you have heard the story about the person who won the lottery and a few years later they find themselves back in the position they were in before they won the money - poor as a church mouse.
Why do you suppose that happens?
I believe that we all have a comfort zone when it comes to money and unless we change our behaviours, our mindset will always take us back to this place. In the spirit of full transparency, I definitely didn't come from an abundant attitude around money.
If there's one thing I've learned about the school of hard knocks, it's that I never want to take a course over. I want to learn it once and be done.
So when I found myself bankrupt, I was offered an opportunity to swallow my shame and sense of failure and learn a few skills. Or I could go back to being an ostrich. I chose to learn to do things differently.
Budgeting was one of those skills that I wanted to know more about and it didn't come easily for me. I wanted to fall back into old patterns of behaviour. Saving for the future? You must be kidding?
Those lottery winners - they did a whole lot of squandering their money, not budgeting and learning. I've seen this over and over again - it doesn't have to be a lottery. How many people have you met who come into a bit of money and the first thing they do is buy a better car or a bigger house. They don't spend money on skills development. I was as guilty as the next person. But I was tired enough with the status quo to want to learn a better way. Budgeting definitely came along before I dabbled in understanding mindset.
Mindset around money leads to certain behaviours - they can be destructive or constructive. They can lift you up or pull you down. I didn't learn to love budgeting right away but I saw it work for other people and I knew that what I was doing wasn't working for me.
I ended up in bankruptcy because of choices I made. If I wanted a different life - I needed to make different choices with my money. I took baby steps. I had no desire to become so frugal that I couldn't enjoy life but I also didn't want to spend "like there's no tomorrow" because there is a tomorrow and we need to prepare for it.
I love everything about making money work for me. I am passionate about how the brain works when it comes to money. I could care less about keeping up with the Jones' - heck they have their own money story. We need to worry about our own story.
Money is not good or bad. It's an exchange of value in a transaction. It is a tool to create a better life if you choose to. The sooner you make that choice the better. Budgeting is a great first step to get you on the road to a better money mindset and behaviour.
Photo by Fabian Blank on Unsplash
