Tiffany Raiford
You know all those Pinterest quotes and sayings and those supremely positive and uplifting,” Choose happiness,” posts people use on social media all the time anymore? Well, as irritating as it might be to some to scroll through newsfeeds and photos and feel as if you’ve left Facebook and entered a world of early morning motivational speaking, they are correct. You do get to choose happiness. In fact, you get to choose everything you want to choose in life; your mindset is key. If you want to make better decisions, be more productive and live a happier life, you need only master your mindset. If you can begin to control how you think and feel and express yourself, you can really make a positive change in your life. It’s honestly the truth; that whole law of attraction thing really does work for people, but you have to be in the right mindset to make it happen, especially when it comes to your finances.
We’re not suggesting you sit around and meditate saying, “Ommmmmm…….money and success come to meeeeeee,” on broken-record repeat or anything (I guess it doesn’t hurt, but you know) but I am suggesting you take a few moments to really consider your financial mindset. You have to learn to control what you think and how you feel about your finances so that you can make the best possible financial decisions, and I have a few simple tips that might help you control your mind and master your money just a little better. It’s all about perspective and point of view, so let’s see if we can go about changing yours. It’s not going to happen overnight by any means, but it only takes 21 days to make a habit, so let’s get started on making one small change at a time (the best part is that you’re not limited to using this method only to assist you in making better financial choices).
Get Your Priorities and Goals in Order
The first way to master your money mindset is to set some goals and prioritize. For example, my husband and I have four kids and we’ve had a very expensive year that involved paying a lot of money for the birth of our twins that were in the hospital for a while after birth (even after great insurance), paying – in general – to maintain a certain lifestyle that we love for a family of six, buying a huge new car to fit our new family of six and buying a new house with a big down payment (also huge to fit our family of six), we kept our old house so we are now landlords, we travel as frequently as possible and we have literally spent so many tens of thousands of dollars in the past year that we are really feeling the need to buckle down and try to replenish all that savings.
For us, our priorities are always taking care of our kids and making sure they have what they need, and that we are always able to provide for them experiences and adventures and ways to make amazing memories. We also want to be able to keep our material things – like our house – and we’d like to send our kids to college. So savings is big for us. That’s our biggest priority in life – savings. It took a huge hit this year with everything we’ve paid for, but our priority and goal is to rebuild it as quickly as possible.
Once you get your priorities and goals in order – is it to buy a home or pay off debt? – it becomes a lot easier to control your mindset about your money.
Replace Negative Thoughts with Positive
It’s impossible to make anything happen and have a positive money mindset if you’re always focused on the negative. It’s easy to focus on the negative; trust me. When a random stranger rang my doorbell a few weeks ago and essentially yelled at me, threatened me and told me he could break into my home anytime he wants because it’s his dream home and we stole it from him (um, we made an offer, it was accepted and we bought the house….didn’t realize that was thievery), we decided a security system was in order. We weren’t expecting to spend $1000 that day, but we did. I could have been upset and focused on the fact that that’s a thousand less dollars in our savings account, but I decided to replace that negative thought with a positive one, which is that we now feel so much more protected and safe in our own home – and that is priceless. When you learn to look at things with positivity, it’s a lot easier to focus on your money matters.
No Comparisons Allowed
One of the biggest money mindset mistakes people make is comparing their lives to others. You have to stop that because it’s going to put you into a position that’s just not good for your finances. If you are constantly spending money to keep up with people, you’re not doing what you need to do. Stop the comparisons and you’ll find it’s much easier to save and mind your money.
Use Small Goals as Milestones
One great way to keep your mindset about money on track is through small goals. You might want to pay off your car in a year, but it’s not easy to do that if you’re waiting and waiting and seeing no difference in things. How about focusing on making a smaller goal, such as paying a certain amount to that car each month so that when you write that check or make that payment online, you see the difference and it makes you feel accomplished? It’s a small mindset matter, but it’s really something very positive and beneficial.
Welcome Change
Sometimes you have to make changes in your life to get your finances in order, and you have to learn to accept change. Perhaps the change you want to make is spending the rest of the year doing something that you wouldn’t normally do so that you can pay off some debts. Do it; welcome the change, accept the challenge and focus on the positive aspect of it rather than all you are missing. Instead of being sad you might not vacation this year, focus on something fun and free you can do at home with the kids that might make life a little more exciting until next year when you are debt free. It is all about how you look at things, and it makes a big difference.
Photo by Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images
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