Money Mindset Keeping You Poor

You’ll might never be rich and here’s why… 

There’s a lot of unconscious programming that happens in our brain while we’re growing up that shapes the way we see money; and how prepared we are to become financially stable into the future, and how much we actually think about financial independence in general. 

So in this blog post I want to explore some of the biggest and most overlooked ways we sabotage ourselves and our financial future; and that from this we can take the steps necessary to change it. 

Why we are programmed to be poor:

How the school system is designed to keep you poor:

(They teach you to become an employee, not to be wealthy)

The education system does not focus on helping you build your financial IQ :

Schools are there to prepare us for our future occupation. School prepares us to go to the next phase of learning, where we will specialise in an area we find interesting and pursue that occupation. School was not designed to create entrepreneurs nor do they focus on many of the skills we find necessary for life after school. Skills like financial literacy and all its facets; how to think and problem solving, mental health awareness and skills, leadership, time management and more. 

Let’s take a look at financial literacy for a second. Schools generally do not teach you the importance of how to save or build money habits that will allow you to save instead of spend everything you have the day you get it. They don’t teach you how to pay your taxes, or how to budget your money. They don’t tell you the importance of creating an emergency fund, or how to invest your money or where to invest it. They don’t teach you about how to build credit, the difference between good and bad debt and how to manage it effectively. Those are just some of the basics when it comes to financial literacy and are of paramount importance for everyone to understand as when they leave their schooling they will be faced with these real world concepts and problems. So essentially school does not prepare you for a successful post education life, it teaches you the foundation of being a good employee. From there you will need to figure out how to do all those things work, if you want to live a successful and fulfilling life. 

Learning generally stops after formal education
(you need to constantly up skill yourself.)

Once you have finished your schooling and walk across the stage to receive your hard worked for degree, the job hunt begins. Once that lengthy process is over and you start to work at a company; most people tend to stop any further form of formal education. Some companies may offer on further means of up skilling yourself within the company and you can slowly work you way up the corporate ladder. Up skilling yourself or investing in yourself in any form is probably one of the best investments you can make in your life. You can learn a few new skills and completely change the trajectory of your career for the future. Learning and growing does not and should not end after formal education, your future success depends on it.

Higher education is becoming too expensive and leaves many in debt.

Formal education is in most countries incredibly expensive and can send you into a massive lot of debt by the end of your qualification. 

Most Americans struggle to pay off their student loans straight out of collage or university. The average time it takes for students to pay off their student loans is about 10-20 years depending on the qualification and a few other variables. It is also good to note that some graduates salary is insufficient to cover their loan payments. Looking at this, it seems pretty hard to justify spending that amount of money on an education that might not even provide you with a job; or a good enough salary to pay off your debt that you accumulated in order to get your current job. 

It may bring up the question, is there an alternative to Formal education that does not place me in such a bad financial situation? Luckily there are plenty, but not any one alternative is the golden ticket to fixing the problem, all of them have an element of risk and requires work, focus and dedication like all great things in life. For example some people take what money they would spend on a formal education and buy their first home to rent out, this however comes with several risks associated with it. You could invest in several courses and learn valuable skills that do not necessarily require a degree for you to find work; like a video editor, a graphic designer, an online store owner, the list is quite long if you go and look online. I encourage you to go look up some of your own alternatives to university, you will be stunned at your options, however I urge you to deeply consider this as it is to do with your future. Make sure you take time to plan and think your decision it through. 

So in short, formal education can be incredibly helpful and provide you with the tools you need to pursue a career you love, but can also land you in a massive pile of debt so be aware and weigh up your options before you decide. 

Past beliefs about money
(parenting, experiences, circumstances, exposure)

Our past beliefs about money can shape what we do with our money and the relationship we have with it into our future. So it is important that we check what are some past beliefs or experiences that have led us to feel the way we do about our finances and money in general. Let’s take a look at some common negative beliefs about money.

Money is the root of all evil:

A lot of people may have heard this misquoted in their childhood to great confusion, because why if it’s the root of all evil do we spend most of our lives working for it? The correct quote is: The love of money is the root of all evil. To be greedy and obsessed with making money over all else and making money an idle in your life is what is the problem. For a simple example, if you are solely focused on making money, and say you own a car cleaning service establishment; you will focus more on cleaning as many cars as possible over providing an exceptional service to your existing customers. This mindset will have long term consequences and probably lead to the failure of your business. If you shifted focus to providing an exceptional service over pursuing money, you will be more successful and more wealthy because of it. 

What were the conversations you remember having as a kid with your parents:

Did it go something like, money doesn’t grow on trees. What do you think I am made of money? We cannot afford that. That’s too expansive, save it for a rainy day, prices sure have gone up… All these statements about money have left a lasting impression on your mind about money and how you perceive it. You may start to look at money and saying the same things as your parents did without you noticing. And what you say you will believe about money as well. Therefore you’ll likely also feel lack, and that money is out of your control. 

I’ll save when I make more:

The truth is if we cannot cultivate the habit of saving money now, it is unlikely that you will save when you have more. This is due to a phenomenon know as lifestyle creep. When you make more money your level of lifestyle rises with your income and soon you will say the same thing; waiting for a new raise or something else to solve your money problems. 

Money corrupts people:

Money is a multiplier of the person you are inside. Yes there may be more opportunity to be corrupted when you have more money because you have more options at your disposal, but that does not necessarily mean you will be corrupted. Just like the situation does not make the hero, nor does money make a corrupt person. It simply reveals who they are in that moment. 

In order to move on, and form new better beliefs about money you need to first address those old negative beliefs. See where did they come from and make the decision to replace them with better beliefs that will aid you in becoming a more financially responsible and literate person. 

Beliefs like, money gives you more options, it can provide me with more free time and empower me to pursue my passions, it can help me to help others as well as myself, and so on.

Start to come up with your own new beliefs about money and change the habits you have around money to suit those new beliefs. 

Consumer culture (maximalist vs minimalist mindset, keeping up with the Joneses, having enough and pegging your desired lifestyle)

In todays consumer culture, we are constantly being sold to at each and every turn, telling us we need this and that new thing that just came out. It’s easy to justify buying more and more because that is what everyone is doing. We sometimes buy things we see just because it looks cool in the store, or it was on sale and we might find a need or use for it later… maybe. We generally own way more than we need. Part of the reason is it’s so much more convenient to go out and buy something to solve a problem we have, rather than to find a way to make do without. The other part is that some of what we buy is influenced by how it would make us appear and who it might impress. Keeping up with the Joneses is a very real phenomenon and is more subconsciously ingrained in us than we think. This habit of buying things we don’t really need, for whatever reason we do it, is a big problem when it comes to finances. 

The culture we live in is a maxamalist culture, we are constantly buying more, being advertised to more, seeing what others have on TV shows and buying that too. We never get the feeling or think that we have enough stuff, and that is burning a hole in your finances. 

In order to combat this we need to become aware of what makes us want to buy, what influences us to want more, and slowly start to detach and unplug from those influences. We should take a look around and see what things do we actually use that we bought, and instead of buying more, become aware of what you have.  We need to become more minimalistic in our buying and what we choose to purchase and own. 

How to change our programming: 

So then that brings us to the question how do we change our programming? Now that we are aware of some of the things that will, if not addressed probably keep us poor into the future; we can take steps to change them. 

From making the right choices with higher education and continuous learning in order to earn more and become more valuable to the market place, while not getting into massive debt in the process. To changing our beliefs about money and the story we tell ourselves about it. To making sure we are not spending our money on things we don’t need. Spending wisely and investing in ourselves and upgrading our financial IQ. 

Some great books to read when you are just getting started are any books written by Robert Kiyosaki, best known for his “Rich Dad Poor Dad” book. “The psychology Of Money” by Morgan Housel. “I Will Teach You To Be Rich By Ramit Sethi. And many more; but those will give you a good start on your journey to a more financially literate life. 

I hope you found this blog post helpful, if you did please share it with others, so that hopefully it might help out someone else as well.

Till next time bye bye guys.