August 6, 2023

Watering Your Money Tree: The Money Mindset

How Implementing Basic Math Skills Can Greatly Improve Your Money Mindset

A Different Kind of Green Energy

Money is boundless energy proven quite influential to our current socioeconomic systems. Everything seems to come at a price, and drives much of how we contribute to the collective with work and life.

And yet, it’s able to be solved, deciphered, even managed with the use of common math. It’s no wonder why accounting, marketing, finance, and many more industries are booming- they utilize this core piece of our earliest education to structure it!

Let’s not be blind to the similarities; math and money are both numerical, logistical, and quantitative disciplines. If we didn’t have math to help us budget our personal finances or calculate economic relations, where would we be?

Which is one of the many MANY reasons why teaching math in a comprehensive way is super important. Money, and the mindset around money, has become a refreshingly popular topic of discussion these last few years. With a handful of economic crashes, loss of jobs, and the world in turmoil amidst a global pandemic, many people are coming to realize they’ve been perceiving their money all wrong.

So, What Exactly IS a Money Mindset?

And more importantly… WHERE does it come from?

A money mindset is your individualized collection of beliefs of money that fuel much of your attitude towards it. It forms long before you even begin to start handling your own finances, brewing inside the subconscious of your mind.

The sociologist Morris Massey theorized that there are three major periods of life in which life values, ideas, and perceptions are developed. There’s the Imprint period, Modeling period, and Socialization Period. Why is this important?

Well, between ages zero to seven years of age (the Imprint period), the human brain heavily resembles a sponge that absorbs any information it encounters. Much of your money mindset was developed there. You were exposed to others’ predisposed and existing money beliefs that were either expressed or inflicted upon you, especially by those who raised you.

While you may also acquire new or similar beliefs around money, the most profound influences on money occur during these years when your mind is most impressionable. And you may not even realize it, but you carry those impressions into your everyday monetary beliefs and behaviors. You subconsciously harbor an attachment style to your money, how you use it, and the emotions that arise; money is seen as a resource many use to take out their stress or success.

Essentially, the mindset you harbor and subsequently channel when making financial decisions like purchases and investments all have to do with your mindset around money itself. And you know what? It’s hard. Sometimes it can be brutal. It’s difficult to escape something that’s been conditioned in you since your earliest core memories- but you can alter them consciously to slowly assimilate or revitalize your entire view.

With the growth of knowledge through technology, it’s become significantly easier to be re-educated on how to manage your money. There are coaches, courses, media influencers, and so many more looking to enhance our financial consciousness. Because even though you live in a capitalist society with very clear-cut ideas about how money can be made and used, it may not always fit your values, needs, or background.

And even though how you use money is much more in your mind than in math, you can still incorporate mathematical skills and strategies in order to increase your awareness, and therefore your financial security.

Bring On the Math

On a fundamental level, using math can help you organize, plan, and allot for many different kinds of expenses! You can manage a business (if you’re an owner of one), save up for big life investments (car, house, college fund, etc.), put some money into stock, and even budget for a new item or experience you’ve been DYING to acquire.

Something critically important to remember about money is that it is an energy just as much as it is a resource. It is natural for it to come and go, and much of how you react or respond to these transactions will affect the ebb & flow of your financial wealth.

In terms of actual math skills, basic arithmetic such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division are practical starting methods. You can accumulate various answers for an assortment of situations; the use of arithmetic can help you calculate static or consistent numbers if you’re working with a steady income or payment.

Arithmetic is the more obvious and digestible math to use, but there are plenty of people who balance their finances with advanced strategies- and the help of technology. If you do not have access to such resources, then freshening up your mental math skills (and getting a calculator) is a great place to start.

If you’re beginning the journey to healing or bettering your money mindset, try keeping a money journal or spreadsheet (if you have access to a computer). This will be the place to record your daily and weekly expenses, which can help you craft your monthly budgets!

By keeping a detailed account of where your money goes and returns, it’ll increase your awareness. And when we broaden the scope of our awareness, we tend to feel more empowered and confident in taking aligned action.