Are you guilty of thinking these money myths? Well, I’ve taken the liberty to break them all down to you to help you improve your money mindset.
Why is it important to focus on the mindset before anything else, you ask?
Friends, financial freedom isn’t just about having lots of money to sleep on! It’s basically:
– 70% attitude, mindset and behavior
– 20% action
– 10% consistency
Attitude and mindset significantly influence your actions.
Think about the last time you were asked to do something by your parent, by your boss or by your friend: let’s say that your mother asked you to clean your room. Now, you know that a clean room is needed. You know that having a clean room will improve your mood. You know that having a clean room will make your life easier.
But do you believe in having a clean room?
If you believe in it, then you’d do a great job in cleaning it. If you don’t believe in it, you’d do a bad job just for the sake of doing it.
Your approach towards money is the same!
As you know, your thoughts and your mindset influence your behavior and your subsequent behavior. What you think is what you do. Therefore, if you don’t think that financial freedom is important, you really won’t do anything crucial to achieve it.
I’ve already made a blog post about positive money beliefs. But I believe in tackling the negatives first before reinforcing the positives. It’s more effective that way:
These money myths can keep you from going broke.
1. Budgeting is way too complicated.
Not true: The great thing about budgeting is that it grows with you! When you’re still young, you can already develop a simple budgeting system that is suited to your financial situation.
Sure, there are a lot of budgeting templates all over the Internet – maybe this is the reason why a budget’s complication is included among these money myths. A budget is basically a list of your income, your savings and the your expenses. Here’s a simple format made especially for you.
2. I don’t think that emergencies will happen to me.
Not true: Emergencies happen to anyone, anytime and anywhere. That’s why they’re called emergencies: they can just suddenly emerge without a warning.
Do yourself and your family a favor by setting up your own emergency fund. You may even call it your safety fund or your security fund. Its name can vary but its amount must always be the same – 3-6 months’ worth of your monthly expenses. Choose the amount that helps you sleep better at night.
3. Retirement? I still have so much time!
Not true: The fact that you have so much time left is the reason why you should get started now! Early investing and regular investing are the keys to retiring with millions.
And if you think that you can’t “afford” to invest now, what makes you think that you can “afford” later when you have so much more responsibilities?
4. You can spot a millionaire by his clothes, car and house.
Not true: Someone driving a fancy car is not necessarily wealthy – his debts may be even up to neck that he may not have enough cash to fill up his gas tank, you know.
Being a Filipino millionaire is technically having a net worth of one million pesos and above. Most millionaires actually prefer modest houses, decent clothes and functional cars.
5. Being rich will ruin my life and make me evil.
Not true: It’s awfully sad that a lot of people I’ve met really think this way.
You see, money is only a tool. It’s a neutral entity. It does what you want it to do, basically.
So if you were kind and generous when you were still poor, you’d also be kind and generous when you become rich.
If you were mean and ungrateful when you were poor, then you’d be mean and ungrateful when you become rich.
Don’t blame money – money is just supposed to serve your purpose, not to dictate your life.
You have the power to own your life. You have the power to dictate how your life will be. You have the responsibility to co-author your life dreams with God.
So get up, get rid of all these fake money myths and get started on the road to financial freedom!
Hey, maybe we’ll even meet each other along the way?
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