Challenge your early beliefs about money, expert advises
Childhood experiences may have unwittingly shaped negative attitudes
If your childhood upbringing has turned you into a reckless spender and skewed your view of wealth, it is not too late to change things.
You can still overcome any self-destructive financial habits that you have. What you need to do is look back into your early experiences around money and challenge them.
Sarah Lord of Killik and Co observes that people tend to have difficulty in identifying the financial beliefs they may have unconsciously developed. She says that a person's view of money is not necessarily right or wrong, but it would help if a person understands how their childhood experiences have unwittingly shaped their negative attitudes towards money.
"Consider your childhood financial past to find out if it is influencing your thinking now in life. Ask yourself what is your first memory of money? What were your positive childhood experiences and what were your negative experiences? How did these experiences make you feel?"
"Money beliefs from a young age can have a significant impact on how we then live our lives as adults, but the difficulty for many is identifying these unconscious beliefs and then changing the way in which they live," she says.
"By understanding where the beliefs come from, it will assist with expanding your financial comfort zone and importantly provide a more balanced financial life. Being aware of your financial beliefs may be all you need to alter the way in which you approach life and money," Lord says.
Here are some ways on how you can change your negative financial habits and ensure that your responsible behaviour lasts:
- Recognise that there is a need to change your behaviour and develop a desire to reform your habits. "As with many other things in life, before we can change our habits, we have to firstly recognise that there is a need to change," says Lord.
- Go back to basics. Look at your income versus expenditure and see where you are failing. "It is highly likely that your expenditure is exceeding your income and you are using a credit card to fuel your spending," says Natalie Storey of Acuma Wealth Management.
- Put a budget together of what you want to spend each month. "If you review your spending habits, you will have a structure to your life and be able to start saving money."
- Think about the future and what you want to achieve. "This will be a good motivator," says Storey.
- Write a list of all the money-related actions that you need to follow through such as "save more", "pay off debt", "make repairs to the house". Lord says this will help you fight the initial "fear of change."
- Create a plan as to how you can carry out the tasks you've set out to accomplish.
