4 STEPS TO IMPROVE YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH MONEY

MO’ MONEY?? NO PROBLEM. That is if you're spending wisely and saving more of it, of course. But what if you have NO’ MONEY? Or you simply don’t know how to manage it? Well luckily we are here to drop some financial expertise on how to improve this dynamic. 

We all need and deserve healthy relationships and lifestyles, and especially in the context of money. Here are a few questions that you can ask yourself right now.What is your gut reaction to the word money—is it positive or negative? And what are the underlying factors of your initial response when you think about it? Does it get you excited? Does it make you happy? Or does it create an anxious-like feeling and you feel upset about the conversation when it comes up?

 I’ll tell you one thing– having financial literacy and being financially strategic with your money creates a trusting and loving relationship with money that is quite exciting and honest, to say the very least. 

 

 

 Our sister company Seiler FEC works with pro athletes to help them train their money, finances, and spending behaviors. And like most of us, sometimes they don’t always know how to manage their money or where to start! When sitting down with these sports heroes, we always start out with one question. “What is your emotional response to the word money?” 

While Seiler FEC focuses on the pros, Financial Footwork trains everyday champs so that they can win with their money too. You may not be snagging championship titles, but you still deserve to win. Just like the pros, you probably have a daily routine too. And that same discipline you use throughout your day, applies to how you train your money. 

Whether you're a superstar or an everyday champ, we all have an emotional response to money. Let's dive in a little deeper when viewing the two buckets of reaction. 

Positive, and negative. If you have a positive reaction to money, you might feel opportunity, power, possibilities, and accomplishment. More often though, people feel a negative reaction to money: fear, stress, unpredictability, family expectations, and problems.

 

 

 The good news? You can turn that negative into a positive. It just takes a bit of daily training, practice, and honesty. But first, you have to understand where those feelings of money were rooted from. 

Typically, our money habits begin forming very early in life. Watching cartoons as a kid, they were always selling something during the commercials. I knew that I could buy a toy using my mom’s credit card, and that toy would arrive at my house. I understood that if I paid for something, I would get it. 

I was developing my spending habits with money before I understood how it worked, and you probably were too. I understood how to spend a dollar, but I didn’t understand how a dollar was earned. Didn’t money just live on my mom’s credit card? *YIKES!*

This happens with the majority of us. First, we learn how to spend. Then, when we find out the money that we’re spending isn’t free, and then our views on money change. Sometimes it even begins to create anegative response.

 

 

 We begin to develop positive and negative habits around money based on our environment and the things we are exposed to with money throughout our life.

Everyone has a different mix and understanding of how their money impacts their lifestyle. Money can also form our opinions on world views, politics, and how we view our financial picture. So start off by asking yourself, “how did your environment growing up impact how you view money?” Think about it--how did this narrative create the values thay align with your money choices today? Reshaping money habits can be difficult and frustrating, but by taking it step-by-step with the key points we have listed today’ we can begin to identify those habits and create a roadmap to being more financially fit for the near future. 

Now that we have introduced you to the emotional attachment we have towards money, and where it most likely stemmed from such as when growing up– we want to now help you have a positive response towards money. Whether youre a pro athlete or everyday champ, we all face an emotional response to the world as well, being positive, or sometimes negative, and we want to help you identify your habits and shift your money thoughts. 

Here are 4 training tools to train your money habits to a positive, and winning response.

 

 Step 1: Identify your Money Response

Ask yourself, is money a negative or positive word for you. When you think about money, what types of emotions do you feel?How you respond to money will help you identify if you need to change your habits and your thought process with your money. 

 

Step 2: Review your Money Habits

What are you currently doing in your financial life that is continuing to drive your positive or negative response to money? What habits should you keep and what habits should you change? Analyzing your habitual patterns will help you identify areas of opportunity with your money and ways to better your financial picture. 

For example, You are a spender and you have a hard time controlling your spending. When you go out to the store, a restaurant or to shop for a specific item, do not take a credit card with you. PRO TIP: Take a small amount of cash and limit what you can spend while you are out. This controls your spending habits and the urge to swipe the credit card. 

By making these small improvements, you are now in the frequency of creating positive spending habits by limiting the amount you can spend while bettering your financial picture by not spending what you needed to save. You’ve taken a bad spending habit and created a positive one.

 

Step 3: Implement Financial Tools

Step 4: Create a New Habit Pattern

  

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