Are you stressed about money? Worried that you don't have enough of it or that no matter what you do, you can't get on your personal debts?
Perhaps you often have heated discussions with your loved ones or business partner about how either you or they manage your money?
Financial health is similar to physical health. There are those that take their physical health for granted, don't look after their bodies, eat the wrong foods, fail to regularly exercise and eventually their lifestyle choices and bad habits catch up with them. This results in developing serious life threatening diseases such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, stokes, poor blood circulation and having a shorter life span.
We all know that eating the wrong foods, drinking too much alcohol, smoking cigarettes
and being lazy couch potatoes are all bad for us, yet we continue to follow the same bad habits. We are not prepared to change our lifestyle until we find ourselves knocking at St Peter's door and a serious health scare propels us into action.
Likewise, there are those of us that also take our financial health for granted and don't seek professional help until a serious financial crisis comes along that threatens our family and derail our financial future.
"If only I would win lotto, I will be happy"
This is how Susan, a self-employed florist describes the chaos that makes up her financial life. She always works over-time to keep on top of her bills, often spends too much on clothes, entertainment, fashion accessories and gives away money to family and friends even though she can't afford to do so.
Susan has large credit card debt and routine expenses like buying Christmas gifts or paying for birthday parties for her two children seem to come as a surprise each year.
She is behind in paying her taxes and all this constant financial juggling takes time and energy away from her that she could be better spent with her family.
Susan is a money worshipper and thinks if only she had more money, it would make her happy and she would finally be in control of her finances. Like many other people, Susan's money decisions are driven by her unconscious money beliefs (The thoughts that she has about money that she believes are true).
Like most people, the financial decisions that Susan makes are on autopilot as she never stops to think what she believes about money might either be not true or only partially true. She is letting money control her life instead of using it as a tool to enable her to live her best life. Therefore her relationship with money is distorted.
"Do not value money any more or any less than its worth; it is a good servant but a bad master" Alexandre Dumas 1852.
Alexandre Dumas, the famous author, best known for "The Three Musketeers", "The Count of Monte Crisco" and "Twenty Years After", advises us to take a balanced approach to managing our money and don't falling into the trap of letting it control our life.
Note : Susan is a fictional character and not based of any actual client and used for illustrative purposes only. However, her money beliefs and behaviors that are illustrated are real and are statistically representative of a portion of our society.
References
Kahler, R.K & Fox, K (2005) Conscious Finance- Uncover your hidden money beliefs and transform the role of money in your life.