Your Beliefs About Wealth

MOST LIMITING BELIEFS ABOUT MONEY ( & HOW TO REMOVE THEM )

The first thing that will determine your financial success in life is your mindset towards money. As already written in The Big Picture Guide to Get Control Over Your Money, your attitude towards money is actively creating your financial reality. And the most influential part of a mindset are the beliefs you hold true.

Unfortunately many beliefs are operating subconsciously. Once we accepted them they are our reality. Until we question them again. So the first step is always to get aware that these limiting beliefs about money exist at all. You need to find them.

Are you constantly marketing your services and keeping in contact with your list however you’re just not getting the number of people you’d like signing up for your programs? Frustrated because you continue to struggle to reach your income goals? At your wits end?

If you’ve answered ‘yes’ – I can sympathise with you. As can many of my clients.

Just a few years ago – I too was frustrated and confused. Despite all my efforts – I just couldn’t break through my income barriers.

One of the things I have learned (and now share with my clients) is that the reason I was struggling to generate the income I desired went much deeper than marketing and other business development strategies. The reason I wasn’t able to charge what I was worth had nothing to do with my abilities and the programs I was offering.

I was struggling because of my self-belief, self-worth AND beliefs I had around money. I call it my family’s money legacy. So up until a few years ago, the story that I had grown up with about money as a young child had been negatively impacting the income I was making (or in my case ‘not making’) in my business.

So what are your beliefs around money? What is your family’s money legacy?

What are the stories you grew up with about money? Like me (and many of my clients) – could your beliefs also be the reason why you continue to struggle to reach your income goals?

WHAT ARE YOUR BELIEFS ABOUT MONEY ?

Maybe your money beliefs are already empowering you to create an abundance of money in your life. But maybe there are still some limiting ones. Then it is relieving to get these limits out of your way.

So think about it, what does money mean to you?

Complete the sentence: Money is ______. Fill in the blank.
And then: Money means for me ______. Write it down.

This little exercise alone can reveal some of your limiting beliefs about money.

The Top Limiting Beliefs About Money and Corresponding Supporting Beliefs

HERE ARE SOME COMMON MONEY BELIEFS. SEE HOW MANY YOU RECOGNIZE ?

Money doesn’t buy happiness

Money doesn’t grow on trees

Filthy rich

It’s difficult to keep money

You have to work hard to earn a living

All rich people are crooks

Money is the root of all evil

The cost of living keeps rising quicker than I can manage

It’s a hard road to make a buck

Spiritual people aren’t supposed to be rich

Money and spirituality don’t mix

It’s sinful to have a lot of money

A penny saved is a penny earned

It takes too much effort to earn money

Money is dirty (dirty money)

If I’m rich my children will grow up spoiled

Being rich will stop you from getting to heaven

The rich get richer and the poor get poorer

Perhaps you’re also able to relate to some of these self-worth and self-beliefs:

I don’t deserve success

I am an unworthy person

I’ll become a greedy and untrustworthy person

Money will change who I am and what I stand for

If I want to be rich, I have to cheat and lie

To be wealthy I have to sacrifice everything

My parents always struggled with money so that means I will too

I will never be wealthy / successful / rich

I don’t have the qualifications therefore I’ll never make any real money

I don’t have the strengths and talents to earn a good living

I couldn’t possibly make that much

While you may be tempted to blame your parents (or other significant family members) for your beliefs around money, it’s important to realise that they did the best they could with the resources available to them. They may very well have been brought up with similar family legacies and therefore made the choices they did with the best of intentions for you.

Like the grandfather who always reminded you to “Save a penny because you never know when you may need it.” He didn’t say this to scare you. His intention for you was to ensure you were financially secure in case you needed it.

Or perhaps the grandmother who would always say “What’s the point of saving your money – they’ll only take it away from you anyway.” She had experienced a very difficult situation in her life and was doing the best she could. She didn’t mean for her comments to impact the way money was showing up in your life.

So, whatever your family money legacy and the story you grew up with (that’s impacting your life today) it’s vital to understand that you DO have a choice. You can choose whether or not you continue to allow these old and unhelpful money beliefs to impact your life. So what choice will you make?

Here are some of the most common limiting beliefs with money. See if you find yourself in them somewhere. Along with the limiting belief I will suggest an alternative belief that is empowering instead. You can adopt the empowering belief by repeating it in your mind and overwriting the limiting belief:

“MONEY IS THE ROOT CAUSE OF ALL EVIL.”

A common misconception, if you haven’t mastered this area of your life yet, is to think of money as something bad, or even evil. It’s an abstract belief, looking from the outside. Or maybe you have had some bad experiences with rich people and created the limiting belief that with money everybody will become like this.

Or maybe you think about when people make money their one and only goal in life. When they start chasing money and get blind for higher human values like love, compassion and character integrity. This, of course, is wrong. But it’s not the fault of money. The people doing it got it wrong. They made money their king. They have become a slave to money.

Money was created as an exchange medium for the value of traded goods. So it is just an expression of value. If you have a lot of money that means that you have created a lot of value, for other people. (I know there are exceptions to this, for instance a bank robber. But that’s no role model and you don’t want to become one either.)

So money is just a neutral medium that follows along with how you use it. It is your responsibility to make the best out of it. Replace it with this supporting belief: “Money is neutral and a resource to do good in my life.” 

“MONEY IS NOT THAT IMPORTANT. IT’S ONLY MONEY.”

This limiting belief about money expresses that you don’t take money seriously enough. It’s not one of your priorities. But this is the exact reason why you haven’t achieved a satisfying situation with your money yet.

Treat money with respect and give it the time it deserves. Then “it” will respect you. Replace it with this supporting belief: “Money is one of my priorities in life.” 

“MONEY IS THERE TO BE SPEND.”

This belief comes from not understanding that in order to create financial abundance you actually have to safe money. If you spend all the money you earn, instead of saving and investing it, you will never create the financial abundance that you could have.

Spending money on nice things has its place, you should enjoy your lifestyle. But don’t overdo it. You have to make sure to get into the habit of saving and investing money. Replace it with this supporting belief: “The money I don’t spend makes me rich.” 

“THE RICH GET RICHER AND THE POOR GET POORER.”

This is really a big excuse. It is especially an disempowering belief because it gives away your responsibility to care for your money situation. And whenever you give up responsibility you also lose power and influence over your life. Replace it with this supporting belief: “My financial reality is entirely up to me.” And “Everything I need to create financial abundance is already inside me.“ 

“I’M JUST NOT GOOD WITH MONEY.”

This is another piece of rubbish because it assumes that you cannot learn new things.

As written in the Big Picture Money Guide you have to educate yourself about money. Study money. Then  improvements will follow naturally. Start by reading a good book about money. Replace it with this supporting belief: “I learn and use knowledge about money every day.” 

“MY FAMILY HAS NEVER BEEN RICH.”

The past does not equal the future. Especially if it isn’t even your past. You are a complete independent and individual person. What other people did or did not has no power over you. You decide now!

So take responsibility for your own life and learn to improve your financial life today. Replace it with this supporting belief: “I can create my financial independence by learning and acting on it.” 

“MONEY IS A LIMITED RESOURCE.”

This plays into the scarcity mindset where you would think that there is not enough for everybody, including you. This is opposed to the abundance mindset, which assumes that abundance could be created for everyone, including you. Replace it with this supporting belief: “There is enough money to create financial abundance.” 

“YOU HAVE TO WORK (TOO) HARD TO GET WEALTHY.”

You don’t get wealthy by working hard (only), you get wealthy by doing the right things. And it all starts with adopting the right mindset towards money.

And one part of it is to look for the smart way to get wealthy. Not in a sense of looking for a quick fix or doing questionable things, but by understanding what leads to wealth. 

This means understanding how you can create real and lasting value for others and then offering it for a good price. This is true whether you are a business-owner, self-employed or employed. Replace it with this supporting belief: “To get wealthy I just provide real value for others and ask for a good price.” 

“EITHER RICH OR HAPPY.” OR “EITHER RICH OR HEALTHY.”

Playing the “either rich or…” game is based on the wrong assumption that to get rich you have to get out of balance. This is not understanding balance.

When you know where you can create real value for others, it just becomes one part of your life, as any other like health or happiness. It then will be just one part that goes well. Replace it with this supporting belief: “Money is just one part of my life I handle exceptionally well.” 

“IT’S SELFISH TO WANT A LOT OF MONEY.”

Money is an representation of the value you have created for other people. As I said in the 1st belief it is a neutral medium and it’s entirely up to you what to do with it: good or bad.

If you are able to create value for others, that’s a giving personality already. If you use your money to help even more, reinvest it in your services or in the good services of others, then that is adding more value to other peoples life.

Replace it with this supporting belief: “The money I earned is showing the value I created for others.”