Money Mindset: What are your fears about money?
What were you taught as a child about Money?
Were you raised in a house that believes money is bad?
What are your fears about money?
Growing up I remember that my family had ideas that “Money was the Root of all Evil.” What does that really mean and where did they get this idea? It is taught in many religions and it is a translation of the Apostle Paul’s writings in 1 Timothy 6:10 to be: “For the love of money is the root of all evil.”
This quote is misunderstood it’s not money the problem, it is sin because of the love of money. In Proverbs 13:11 “Dishonest money dwindles away, but whoever gathers money little by little makes it grow.”
Proverbs 22:16 “Whoever oppresses the poor for his own increase and whoever gives to the rich, both come to poverty.” As a child I learned it’s not good to spread rumors. Rumors are spread by retelling a story over and over until the meaning is no longer anywhere close to the original store; we would play a game with our group of friends. The story would start out in one form and at the end of the 5-10 of us telling the story, it was completely changed. Spreading a completely different and distorted story.
Money is not evil; it is the improper use of it that makes it wrong. Today we in many ways fear money because it stops us from achieving great things and passing it forward.
Some fears identified by:
Northwestern Mutual's Planning and Progress Study 2016 studies
- Having an unplanned emergency
- Having unplanned medical expenses due to illness
- Having insufficient savings to retire
- Outliving my retirement savings
- Becoming a financial burden
- An inability to afford healthcare
- Losing my job
- Identity theft/theft
- Extended unemployment
- Death/loss of primary breadwinner
- Having poor credit
- Having to claim bankruptcy
- Becoming a victim of a financial scam
- Talking to my partner about money
- Having to take care of my parents
- Grandparents parenting again
Like everyone I have had the same fears and I love Groucho Marx when he said, “Money frees you from doing things you dislike, since I dislike doing nearly everything money is handy”.
Here is the difference between a fear mindset and a rich mindset about money:
Fear beliefs poor mindset VS Wealthy Rich mindset
Deal with money fears
Your mindset about money helps you achieve and deal with your fears. This is something that can be changed and unlearned. What you were taught affects your thinking and what you teach your children will affect their lives. Self-confidence about money and self-esteem about earning it is something that affects every aspect of your life.
Money fears and education
It is sad that our Schools and educational system do not teach financial skills and leaves it up to the individual to figure it out or the family who has the rich mindset to pass it on. Someone could perform well in academia in school and be a financial failure.
To be fair to our educational system we do not provide enough funding for addressing good money habits that keep us away from money fears. We barely provide enough education for our scholastic academia skills. We need to rethink the importance of adding money topics to our schools to provide the skills needed to be wealthy and make the world a better place.
Grouch Marx said, “While money can’t buy you happiness it certainly let’s you choose your own form of misery”.
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About the Author:
Lillian Meyers CFP®, CDFA®, EA is a financial planner in Sonoma, California helping clients with wealth events, planning for retirement, loss of a spouse or divorce. She has decades of experience assisting clients in living their best retirement life through the use of financial planning, investment management, and other sophisticated financial options.