Building a Strong Relationship with Your Money

Helping you to help yourself gain mastery over your money and your mindset.

Helping you to be the master, not the servant, while living an authentic life.

Welcome to Authentic Living with Linda
I’m Linda Codlin

Welcome, My Friends.

Let’s dive into a few ways we can create a healthy relationship with money and wealth.

1. A healthy and positive money mindset.
Money is a tool, it’s a means for achieving our goals and for creating security for us and our families.
In our society money is used as a measure of a person’s worth, more money equals more worth. This view needs to be challenged. Each one of us is worthy as a human being regardless of our bank statement.
Money is one of the things people disagree about most, how it is made, how it is used or not used. Money as a tool shows your personal values. What you value you tend to invest your time and money in.
Money is amoral, it doesn’t care how it is earned, or how it is used, it is our view of money that makes it mean anything.
What are you making what you earn mean about you personally?
What are you spending your money on, and what does this say about your values mindset?

2. Awareness and education.
Money and wealth generation is not a subject that is taught to us, without all the moral connotations of the teacher. We learn about finances and trade as a vocation, for the everyday person money management is not something that is taught in the education sector.
Understanding personal finances makes a huge difference to your mindset around money management. This includes being able to set your own budget, and life within it, without feeling the constraints of deprivation.
Learning how to see the abundance around us, and moving from that energy makes a difference to how we feel, and spending money is an activity in feeling. We purchase something for the feeling or benefit we believe we will receive from having it.
Awareness around what we use our money for, and education on how to make better decisions creates room or abundance to show up.

3. Goal setting.
Having a clear goal of what you want is the starting line for managing your money.
When you set a clear and specific goal, it’s like you are giving yourself a challenge, you have a direction to go.
Without goals we are knocked around by whatever is happening in the financial world, having a goal allows you to research, to make informed decisions about your next best steps.
Also a goal will show you what your brain is actually thinking, and it will be this thinking that may be standing between where you are and what you want.
Having a realistic goal, can be the inspiration to work harder, or work smarter. Your goal ideally would be in alignment with your core values, this reduces resistance and self-sabotage.
Remember to celebrate your wins, often we forget to give ourselves a pat on the back for following through to completion of our goals. Celebrate your wins.

4. Budgeting (Future freedom steps.)
A budget is a document that outlines what is coming in, what is going out, and where it is going.
By noting all streams of income, you have what I think of as the start line.
In our budget, I include every expense we invest our money on.
Budget mindset shift. I use the word invest, rather than spend. To me investing gives me the power over the money I have.
I choose to invest money into land rates. I choose to invest money into food, and I get to decide where I purchase that food from.
I choose to run a car, and part of the responsibility of vehicle ownership is fuel costs, maintenance, and road charges.
I choose to live in a certain type of home, and this privilege comes with expenses. I could choose to live a different lifestyle and invest my time and money into those choices.
A budget is a document that puts all these costs, expenses, and purchases in one place, it helps us to manage our incoming money wisely.
If we find we have insufficient funds for our lifestyle, we then have a choice to set a new goal.

5. Spending wisely.
This ties in with budgeting, when we track our spending, we get to see where our expenditure aligns with our values.
We get to see where we are spending for boredom, or “keeping up with others”, or sloppy planning.
Whatever the reason we are spending our money, we will be able to decide if the purchases reflect our personal priorities.
We will be able to see whether we are on track to achieve our financial goals, and if not make adjustments.
Wise spending can help us identify and eliminate impulsive purchases and accumulating consumer debt.

6. Debt management.
Financial debt is where you have borrowed money for items, assets, or consumables.
Managing the type and amount of debt you carry, can bring a huge sense of relief when it is at a manageable level. When we allow our debt to skyrocket out of control, we can feel overwhelmed, constantly worried about where the next payment is coming from.
Debt management is as much learning about how the debt came about in the first place, as it is about clearing it. Often we can put all our focus on clearing money owed to others, and forget about putting some aside to offset the unexpected things that happen, which throws us straight back into the debt cycle.
When we use credit responsibly, and manage debt effectively it can be a tool that helps us to achieve our goals. Not all debt is ‘bad’ debt, the secret is in you, you are the key to whether debt is for your good or not. If you find you can not pay your credit card at the end of every balance cycle, it is my opinion that you are better not to have the credit card until you have done more work on your money mindset.
Getting out of debt and staying out of debt can be a freeing experience. Knowing that all the money you earn is yours to keep, gives you more freedom to put that money to work for you.
Purchasing what you require with the money in the bank, with no strings or conditions attached to it, is so good. No tossing and turning at night, no worrying about whether you’ll have sufficient funds for this and that, because what you have is what you have.

8. Balance and flexibility.
Having money, gives you the freedom to enjoy it without concern. Being willing to put up with a bit of discomfort and waiting for what you want, increases your desire. And it can also save you money as you realize you don’t really want the item, that it was an impulsive emotion that wanted to be soothed.
Creating a well balanced plan between saving, spending and investing will enable you to live today with the peace of mind that tomorrow will be taken care of.
Word of warning, to have a healthy relationship with money, you must be the master and not money. If you are hoarding and not able to spend, then money is your master. If you are not able to be generous with your money for fear of it being lost, taken or misused, then money is your master.
Balance is about you being the master, enjoying money, and enjoying your life. You only have this life to live. Live it well.
Having money also gives you options, you have more flexibility and the ability to decide on the best value for that money.
When you don’t have easily accessible money you are more at the mercy of the market merchants, buying cheaper items which break more often, meaning you end up giving up more of your earnings for the same product more often.
Having money means you have the ability to cost compare not only price but quality and availability, getting the very best deal for the money you have.

9. Emotional detachment.
This is a huge area, most of us spend and use our money to make us feel better. We attach ourselves to our money, or the things money purchase.
When we distance our money from our emotions, we become the master of a valuable tool.
Everything we buy has a potential emotional response attached to it. When we figure out in advance what the emotion we want to gain is, and give that emotion to ourselves in a way that soothes and nurtures our soul, money will become the tool, the servant instead of the master.
Your self-esteem is in no way linked to the money you have or have not got. You are worthy and valuable because you are a living, breathing human being.
Money is not linked to happiness, happiness is an inside job, there are people who have no money who are extremely happy, there are also people with vast amounts of money who are miserable.
Money is a tool that can and does enhance your experience of life, you are the one who decides on your happiness of the experience.

10. Generosity and Social responsibility.
With money in your pocket you can help people. You can be the catalyst of change for the good. Using your money in a way that helps and serves others, directly or indirectly can give you the feeling of fulfillment and satisfaction.
Warning: If you are giving or doing social activities with your money or wealth from a place of guilt because of your feelings of having abundance and therefore you have a ‘responsibility’ to help others, money is your master.
Money or society or those who have less are pulling your strings, this is not financial freedom. Financial freedom is when you can give, and receive without negative emotional responses.
Financial responsibility is to take care of you and your family first, to share and give of your abundance because you want to, no strings attached, no hidden agendas, no backhander’s, no unwritten rules of control or manipulation. Money is an energy, when you give it, use it, invest it, spend it with clean energy more of that energy will come back to you.

By cultivating these habits and attitudes, you can develop a healthy relationship with your money and wealth that will support your overall wellbeing and long-term financial success.

Until next time; Tell me what you think about these 10 ways to build a healthy financial relationship with your money.
Which one speaks to you most?

oxoxox Linda

As a certified Life Coach, I help you to help yourself, so you can create a well lived life your way. 

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