Financial coach Lynda Moore, the Money Mentalist.
We like to think about money in terms of simple maths: earn more, spend less, invest the difference.
But the main influence on your bank balance goes beyond just what’s coming in and going out, according to one expert.
Talking to Nadine Higgins on The Prosperity Project podcast, financial coach Lynda Moore says our mindset is what sets the tone for our entire relationship with money.
“It’s like a mindset with anything else. It’s actually our beliefs. So it’s the stories that we tell ourselves that we then act upon through life. And so they become self-fulfilling prophecies,” Moore said.
Those scripts usually start young and feel true because they’ve been rehearsed for decades.
“What did you learn about money from your parents as you were growing up? ... what’s your very first memory of money? Was it something positive or was it something not?”
Mindset shows up in outcomes, not intentions. If your results don’t match your effort, Moore suggests stripping out the excuses and looking squarely at behaviour.
“When we look at our behaviours that have led to these results, you’ve got to cut the story out and just go, well, what did I do? Well, I’m deep in the doggy mire and debt because I overspent.”
Moore says budgeting, apps and investment plans are all useful tools, but evaluating our money mindset should be the number one priority.
“It should be at the top ... There’s all these things that are very high at the top level here that we should be doing, that quite frankly come from maths. They don’t come from the emotion. They don’t come from the fact that we have a very emotional attachment to money. We want money to do things that money was never designed to do.”
If you’re one to reward or comfort yourself with retail therapy, there may be an unexamined money story spending on your behalf.
“Money is so easy to use to regulate our emotions when there’s so many other ways that we can do it. But money’s easy. And it’s shoved down our throat all the time. Everywhere we go, sales, special, buy now, pay later.”
If you keep stalling at the same income or savings level, Moore says it could be a case of your mindset limiting you.
“You’ve got this story that says, you know, I’m not worthy of money. So you’ll reach a certain point and your beliefs will stop you earning any more income or generating any more assets.”
Moore says once we have a handle on what our money stories are telling us, we can work on rewriting the narrative. Then the money management part can be learned.
“Managing money is a learned skill. In the same way you can learn to ride a bike and you can learn to read and write, you can learn to manage money.”
Listen to the full episode of The Prosperity Project for more on:
The podcast is hosted by Nadine Higgins, an experienced broadcaster and a financial adviser.
You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes are released every Monday.