When you think of wellbeing, your health or mental state is often what we think about first. However, your financial status is an integral part of your holistic wellbeing.
Many things affect your financial wellbeing, including if you were born into an affluent family or grew up economically disadvantaged.
While some aspects of your financial wellbeing are outside of your control, one of the most critical factors that you can control is your money mindset.
Your money mindset is your unique set of beliefs and your attitude about money. It drives the decisions you make about saving, spending, and handling money.
Your beliefs about money are often formed when you are a child and can be influenced by how your parents handled money at home, the community you grew up in, and your spiritual beliefs, among other factors.
While your money mindset may be formed by factors you can’t control, such as your upbringing, it is not static. You can change your money mindset by gaining insight into your unique money mindset and adjusting your beliefs and attitude to serve your needs better.
If you grew up in a community that rejected worldly wealth, you might find yourself avoiding money in your own life. Ideas like being ‘filthy rich’ or that money is the root of all evil can lead to money avoidance. It’s important to remember that money is not evil in itself. People can make poor decisions around money, such as lying or stealing. However, money can also alleviate suffering and be a force for good.
Money is an essential factor in modern life. Having the means to access good healthcare, education, and employment opportunities directly affects a person’s ability to reach their full potential.
However, if you believe that money will solve all your problems and is the only thing that is important, you might miss out on other aspects of life that contribute to your overall wellbeing. Money is necessary, but caring for your community, developing your spirituality, and achieving personal growth is just as crucial for your holistic wellbeing.
When you are evaluating someone’s worth, it’s easy to look at the clothes they wear, the car they drive, or the house they live in and make presumptions about their worth.
If you only look at how ‘flashy’ people are with money when evaluating their worth, you can very easily be deceived. Many multi-millionaires choose to live humble lifestyles. Many people have a lot of nice things to show but are living beyond their means and have a lot of debt.
Your value is about more than having the latest phone or a designer wardrobe. A person’s status in society is determined by many factors that may not be immediately apparent on the surface.
Many of us grew up believing that saving money is an integral part of being a responsible adult. Making sure to have a retirement plan and creating an emergency fund are essential to your financial wellbeing. However, saving can also go too far.
If you are afraid to spend any money, you could deny yourself important opportunities in life. Investing in your education or buying a home in a good neighborhood can directly improve your chance to build more wealth. Saving is important, but so is spending wisely.
The most important part of developing a healthy money mindset is to find a balance between these competing beliefs.
Spend some time writing down your beliefs about money to see where you could challenge your existing beliefs to improve your money mindset.
