Winning The Inner Game of Money

Mastering the inner game of money is about adjusting your inner thinking about money. In this post, I’d like to share with you 5 simple tips to help you transform your relationship with money.

Tip #1 | Expand Your Vocabulary

Real talk: you cannot have any further than the words you speak about money. And, that’s not some fancy woo woo talk. The things you don’t know about money, the words you don’t understand — interest rate, compounding interest, inflation, taxes — are keeping money out of your pocket. Here’s something simple you can do today to remedy that problem: learn a new money concept every day. We talk about those things on our Wealth Habits Podcast. But you can also google “financial literacy” or “financial vocabulary” and commit to learning about a new money concept every day.

Tip #2 | Strengthen Your Mental Game

The challenge of changing how you think about money is that habits can be tough to change. It’s estimated that almost ½ hour of our day is handled by habits — things we automatically do without thinking. Think about it. How often have you driven to work, arrived safely but not remembered the drive in? Or, what about the drive home? The fact is that our brains automate many tasks so that we have a brain power available for other things. The problem is that our brain does this with everything, including our money. So, if you pick up a faulty habit with money, it’s very likely that you’re automatically doing it without thinking about it. Here’s a simple solution: set a weekly appointment with yourself to review your finances. Total up your categories. Are you happy with how you’ve allocated money? If not, then it’s time to make some changes.

Tip #3 | Turn Setbacks into Set Ups

You have to remember that failure is not final. No matter what you’ve been through or how big of a financial hole you may find yourself in, you’re never too far gone to turn it around. It’s estimated that one in four families that earn $150,000 or more are living paycheck to paycheck. That’s unbelievable! You don’t have to be in that group! Today, you can get a handle on your finances. Follow our Wealth Habits Podcast and Cory Chapman’s MoneyTalk LA for tips to improve your finances. Bottom line: the way you setbacks into setups is to realize that no failure is final, extract any lessons you can from your money mistake and then choose a new behavior.

Tip #4 | Uncover Your Past

It’s very important to understand the forces that shaped who you are. So often we’re living out of and making choices from some memory that we’re not consciously aware of. Can you recall your earliest money memory? Who taught you to think about money the way that you do? This tip requires you to dig deep. It may not be fun but it’s worth it. Pour yourself a glass of wine if you need to and take this trip down your money memory lane. Figure out all the beliefs you have that are limiting you. Bottom line: you cannot fix what you will not look at.

Tip #5 | Dream a Bigger Dream

Please! Please! Please! Make time to dream a bigger dream. So often we limit ourselves by never dreaming beyond our next move. The top performers in any field are often 10-15 steps ahead. They’re not simply aware of their next move…they’re aware of their 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th move. That may seem like a stretch if you haven’t conditioned yourself to think like that. So, start small. Just plan out your next 3 to 4 moves and build from there.
Bottom line: you have to be willing to dream beyond where you are if you ever hope to live beyond where you are. Here’s a simple task to help you dream: every day, set a timer for 5 minutes and write down as many different things you’d like to accomplish in your lifetime. Don’t limit yourself. Don’t worry about whether it can be done. Just write it down.

Well, those are your tips for winning the inner game of money. It’s really about stretching yourself internally so that you can have more externally. The good news is that all this inner work is dependent on one thing and one thing alone: you. You can do this work in a good economy, a bad economy, no economy…it doesn’t matter.

So, get started today. And, before you go, let us know which tip for the inner game of money resonated with you the most.