Sunday, October 26, 2014

How do you feel about money?


A successful friend sent me a link to a webinar on wealth and abundance and because I respect her judgment I participated.

I went in a skeptic yet found some sound and useful  ideas that  I will share with you.

1.  We each have a "set point" about money that determines how much our subconscious decides we ought to have and we unconsciously structure our money activity to accommodate that set point.

            a) Our set point, a vibration level that we use to calibrate how much wealth we should have is dictated by the sum of our hidden ideas, absorbed from mom and dad and any other influences in our childhood before we could differentiate between a sound idea and a bad one.  We loved mom and dad and depended on them for our safety and wanted to imitate them.   

2. It is these subconscious ideas and attitudes that define how we regard money, how easily we get it and how we use it.

            a) If mom thought you had to work hard to earn money then you probably work hard to earn money.

            b) If dad mismanaged money or lost it in the stock market, then you probably find a way to waste money or use it in ways that do not make it grow.

            c) If dad or mom had something against wealthy people - they were superficial or obnoxious or just plain bad then you are conflicted about wealth because wealthy people are bad. 
           
            d) If your parents thought that money was "the root of all evil" then it stands to reason you would not want a whole bunch of it.

Most of us don't know we have a subconscious roadmap for wealth.  We feel our money journey is just a product of bad luck, lack of opportunity, ignorance, poor education or the economy.

I know that I used to mirror my father's attitude about money.  Dad liked to hoard money - put it away somewhere and think about it.  It made him feel secure to have it but he didn't want to USE IT.  To him, money was something physical to stash somewhere.   He didn't see it as a tool to enhance his life and circumstances.  He lived nicely but not well. He swept his own shop instead of hiring someone to sweep it for him.  He stayed close to home and never learned to drive.  He traveled by bus.  (Guess who else likes to travel by bus and mows her own lawn?  Moi.) 

One of my father's younger brothers, my uncle Charlie, had the opposite wealth profile.  He was a bon vivant who, at one time, employed a butler.  I remember that butler because I lived with Charlie at the time.  Mr. Vitezy looked exactly like Albert Einstein.  His wife was the housekeeper and they lived in an apartment over the garage at Charlie's Bethesda, Md. house.  To Charlie, money was energy and freedom.  Both brothers were equally wealthy.  The other brothers in the family were divided between spenders and hoarders but no one came close to my father's extremes

Although we think it is hard to change our wealth set point, it probably isn't.   It is hard to discover what the hidden ideas are but once they are out in the open the opportunity to topple them is possible.  If you sit quietly and ask yourself what money means to you, you'll find some interesting answers.

Maybe you feel just right about your wealth status.  I'm almost satisfied with my wealth level but upon examination, I realize my dominant habits of spending, using and making money are directly attributable to my parents.  Just knowing that has resulted in some really big changes in my money habits recently.

Start out by asking yourself some very simple questions.
How do I feel about money?  
How did my father or mother feel?
Do I see money as a tool to be used or as a physical item to be put away and accumulated?
Do I see money as an enemy or a source of freedom?
Do I see wealth as something out of reach?

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