How is Your Relationship with Money?

All the decisions you have made, and will make, come down to your relationship with money. More often than not your relationship with money stems from your parents (or the people you spent the most time with in your younger years) relationship with money.

For some of us we were told to put the money in the bank. To save. To keep saving. Not really knowing what you were saving for. Maybe a car, maybe a house, when you set up house… but at the time that felt like a lifetime away. If you saved, you saw your bank balance ever so slowly growing, and then spent it on your first big big purchase, which was most likely a car.

For some of us, having grown up in the age of credit cards, personal loans, easy credit, it felt like we were living in a world where we received ‘money for nothing and cheques for free’. Until we head into our late twenties. Life changes. Move out of the family home. Start thinking about owning your own home and whether it’s possible or not. Think about getting married and supporting a family…. All while maintaining the lifestyle you have been so accustomed to living.

For some of us we have grown up in rental housing, and so the thought of owning a property may be so out of the mind sphere, because no one in your family had ever owned property before.

The key point here is, if you understand your relationship with money, you can be more discerning with your future investment strategies, knowing that your emotional response is driven by learnt behaviours from your childhood.

To get to know your relationship with money, here are some questions you can ask yourself:

What are my Parents/Guardians relationship with money?
How you think about money? Are you living from pay cheque to pay cheque or saving for your own home or an investment?
Do you avoid or embrace conversations around money – and why?
What feelings come up when you think about money?
What self-talk comes up when you think about money?
What are my spending habits? Do you work to a budget or not?
How often are you checking your bank accounts? Do you see what is available on a regular basis? Do you do transfer funds to maximise interest earned (e.g. term deposit savers) or interest saved (offset accounts for loans)?)
How are my spending habits enabling or preventing me from creating a path of wealth creation?
How can I improve my relationship with money?

One thing that will most certainly improve your relationship with money is to start talking about it more. Discuss it with friends and family. Ask them about their relationship with money. The more that you observe how yours and others relationship with money can keep you stuck, the greater the opportunity you will have in becoming unstuck.

If you would like to talk about your relationship with money and how this could be influencing your investment planning and decisions, or anything and everything property, let’s connect.