Most people don’t see the importance of having a relationship with money. They believe money is just something they deal with in exchange for value and services. Our relationship with money begins at an early age. Those who have had positive examples set from an early age are more likely to grow up with a healthy money mindset, allowing them to coexist happily with money and to have a great relationship with it.
Having a relationship with your own money is the same as having a relationship with someone you love. Just like any relationship, you’re in it by choice. We honor our relationships through behavior and intention and it’s no different when it comes to our relationship with money. To improve your relationship with money, certain things need to be put into consideration.
1. CHECK YOUR SPENDING HABIT
Take out time to check out why and how you spend money. Know your patterns and what motivates your spending habits. Do you buy on impulse? What are your triggers for your spending?
To be able to figure that out, get a diary to track your expenses. it will help you get a better understanding of how you spend your money and it will also help you make changes and adjustments where necessary.
2. CREATE TIME
Because money is important, you need to create time to manage it. Creating a budget is only the first step to improving your relationship with money. You also have to set time aside to inspect it.
As a family or as an individual, spend time at the end of every week to look at your budget, you can track your expenses daily or weekly. Get involved: If you want to add more value to your money and your life, you need to decide to make it a priority.
3. DO NOT COMPARE
Most times we humans tend to compare our income to others and only be satisfied if ours is relatively higher. If we are offered a raise with everyone else, we tend to be less satisfied.
Comparing yourself to others and focusing on their income is a never-ending treadmill of dissatisfaction, and it only makes sense to make a deliberate effort to get off. Set aside time to reflect upon what you like and respect about yourself without comparing yourself with others.
Focus on how you have improved or grown without worrying about how you rank. Take satisfaction in how hard work and experience develop your skills or speed.
4. HAVE A RETHINK
Money is an essential tool that meets most of our basic human needs, especially food, clothing, and safe shelter, etc. money has more to do with other factors that impact our wellbeing. And meeting some of these needs requires money, but little if you have a planned budget.
We can meet our deepest needs for affection, understanding, belonging, and identity through our relationships, the pursuit of purpose in life, spirituality, and connection with nature. Buying more things or a bigger house cant do any of these.
So don’t look for fulfillment in acquiring more money or material things, you will be disappointed. Money brings you happiness when you spend on the right things
5. PRIORITIZE & MAKE GOALS
To make your relationship with money a priority, your goals should be specific and detailed. you must have something that you are working towards. It could be saving for a family vacation, or preserving funds for emergencies, or perhaps saving to clear up a debt you just need to have a plan for your money.
Having an action plan allows you to take out the guess-work and gives you clear steps you need to take to be successful. If you are married, your money goals should be decided together and should be something you talk about during your financial meetings. Your goals should be specific and detailed.
6. ADJUST YOUR GOALS
If you take a good look at your budget, you will figure that most of what you need in life is not about money, you can have a good life and spend less. While humans tend to adjust our expectations upward as our income goes up, you can consciously change that.
Instead of wanting more expensive things and more of them, you can choose to save a new income. Instead of buying things, you can give yourself the security of having enough money. One way to help yourself change your spending habits is to establish incentives that will motivate you to meet your goals.
These can be rewards for meeting goals or punishments when you don’t.
7. KNOW YOUR MONEY TO A PERSONAL LEVEL
You have to take out time to know everything about your money, how it comes, and how it’s spent, understand it on the most personal level. If you don’t know where your money is going, there is no way you can nurture it.
It’s hard to tell if there is a problem in any relationship unless someone tells you. Most of the time that’s your significant other, your friend, or a family member. Your money can also tell you if there’s a problem, you just have to look for it.
The easy way to know your money is by creating a budget. A budget not only allows you to choose where your money is going but it allows you to avoid unnecessary spending. If you have a budget, you are clear on what money is coming in, how fast it’s going out, and where it is going to.
8. DONT TAKE MONEY FOR GRANTED
See your money as an opportunity instead of an obstacle. It’s easy to feel like your money is restricting you, the one way we do this is by taking our money for granted. Don’t see money as a set back when you can’t afford a need instead think of ways your money can work for you.
If you have a budget in place and make time to respect and inspect it, the illusion of your money being an obstacle will slowly disappear. You have to let go of the fear and consider the possibility that you do have the resources to make your priorities a reality.
9. FORGIVE YOURSELF
You need to forgive yourself for past & current money mistakes. It’s important to realize that you must accept the things that have already happened. You can not change your credit card debt situation, your income circumstances, or lack of savings. All you can do now is accept the decisions you made in the past and change them in the future.
Just like with any relationship, you are going to make mistakes along the way, it won’t be as easy as it looks in the books but remembers you are not perfect and your self-worth shouldn’t be dependent on your mistakes. Take these opportunities, learn from them, and move on.
It’s never too late, find ways you can shift your money mindset from negative to positive and move on. The truth is, unless you let go unless you forgive yourself unless you forgive the situation unless you realize that the situation is over, you cannot move forward – Steve Maraboli
10. MONEY CAN MAKE YOU HAPPY
Understand that spending money on material goods doesn’t bring happiness. But there are ways that money can make you happier if you spend money on others. people are happy when they spend it on someone else or donate it to charity, they experience a significant increase in their sense of wellbeing.
Spend money to buy time. create more time in your life for fun and friends. Get people to help you do basic things and get yourself to rest, enjoy the evening with your partner or friends, or just have some downtime alone. Hire someone to help you do the work.
Buy experiences, not material goods. Use your money to buy experience. Experiences directly increase your wellbeing and the wellbeing of others you share them with. it enhances relationships and promotes connection to purpose and community.
Moreover, we are less likely to have buyer’s remorse with experiences, and they don’t lose their value over time instead, they can create happy memories.
