Episode: 322 - Transforming Your Money Mindset for Financial Success
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In today’s fast-paced world, achieving financial success often feels like a distant dream. The constant chase for more and the pressure to keep up can be overwhelming. However, one crucial aspect that many overlook is the underlying mindset towards money. Developing a positive money mindset can be the key to unlocking lasting financial success and freedom.
The Foundation of Money Mindset
Money mindset is more than just a trendy buzzword. It’s the framework through which we view our finances, deeply rooted in the beliefs instilled in us from childhood. These belief systems—whether based on scarcity or abundance—directly influence our financial behavior and outcomes.
A positive money mindset recognizes that there is enough and helps create financial strategies that align with personal values and goals. On the contrary, a mindset entrenched in scarcity often results in unnecessary debt and financial stress.
Uncovering Beliefs and Defining 'Enough'
Our financial challenges often seem superficial—debt, overspending, or poor saving habits. However, the deeper issue lies in our concept of 'enough.' Understanding what 'enough' means to you personally, rather than what society dictates, is essential in crafting a satisfying financial life.
Reflect on these questions: What does 'enough' look like for you? How would your life improve when you truly internalize that you are enough as you are? This reflection is pivotal in restructuring your financial habits and realities to foster abundance.
Practical Journaling Techniques
Journaling serves as a powerful tool in this transformative journey. By writing down your thoughts and feelings, you engage in a conversation with yourself that can highlight hidden hindrances and areas for growth.
Begin with a simple exercise: Every day, list three things you want, such as paying off a debt or creating a savings account. Over time, patterns will emerge, offering insights into your desires and goals. Even spending a few minutes writing about your aspirations or emotions can initiate significant mindset shifts.
Budgeting: The Pen-and-Paper Approach
While budgeting apps and tools are readily available, starting with a handwritten budget can enhance your personal connection to your finances. The physical act of writing helps solidify your commitment to your financial goals, creating a tangible bond with your money journey.
The Role of Gratitude
Gratitude is a cornerstone of a positive money mindset. It shifts focus from what we lack to what we have, fostering contentment and reducing the desire to needlessly accumulate more. Practicing gratitude—being thankful for your home, job, or even a morning cup of coffee—enriches your ability to make mindful financial decisions.
Gratitude provides the foundation for receiving more. When you appreciate the small things, you open the door to greater abundance and fulfillment.
Consistency and Self-Care
Transformation requires consistency. Establishing routines that incorporate gratitude, mindful spending, and regular financial check-ins helps sustain a positive financial trajectory. Allocate a small weekly budget for self-care—whether it’s a dinner out or a new book. These gestures remind you that financial success doesn’t mean self-denial.
Feeling good about financial decisions helps maintain motivation and resilience against setbacks. Embrace setbacks as learning opportunities and re-affirm your commitment to your financial vision.
Conclusion
Revolutionizing your financial outlook starts with changing your mindset. By recognizing the impact of ingrained beliefs, actively practicing gratitude, and employing practical tools like journaling and mindful budgeting, you can forge a path to financial freedom and satisfaction. Your transformed mindset not only brings financial gain but enhances overall life satisfaction, proving that wealth truly begins from within.
Resources Mentioned
Connect with Dr. Jen Casper: www.jencasper.com
The Totally Awesome Debt Freedom Planner https://www.debtfreedad.com/planner
To learn how to take the stress out of your finances so you can breathe again, follow this link: https://www.debtfreedad.com/lwp-masterclass-opt-in-page-podcast
Connect With Brad
Website- https://www.debtfreedad.com
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/thedebtfreedad
Private Facebook Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/debtfreedad
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/debtfreedad/
TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@debt_free_dad
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@bradnelson-debtfreedad2751/featured
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Transcript
Brad Nelson:
Money mindset. I mean, it sounds like one of those fluffy buzzwords, right, but here's the deal the way you think about money might be the very thing holding you back from getting ahead. Now, in today's episode, we're going to be diving into how flipping your mindset from scarcity to abundance can unlock opportunities, crush those limiting beliefs and set you up for lasting financial success. Now, trust me, this isn't some woo-woo stuff here. This is about practical strategies to finally make your money work for you and not the other way around. Let's get into it.
Announcer:
You're listening to the Debt-Free Dad Podcast with Brad Nelson. Brad and his co-hosts experience the anxiety of living paycheck to paycheck before learning the fundamentals of living paycheck to paycheck before learning the fundamentals of financial success. They are now on a mission to empower regular people to pay off their debt for good and enjoy happier, less stressful lives. Keep listening for inspirational interviews, tips, tricks and practical advice to gain financial freedom. Financial freedom.
Brad Nelson:
Hey guys, welcome to today's show. I am Brad Nelson, founder of Debt Free Debt. I paid off about $45,000 in debt. I've been debt free now for more than 11 years, outside of my mortgage. I've also been fortunate to help thousands of other people save and pay off tens of millions of dollars with the work that we do here at Debt-Free Dad.
Brad Nelson:
Now, guys, after listening to this episode, if you're ready to take things to the next level, you're ready to break free from living paycheck to paycheck, reduce financial stress, build your savings and finally pay off debt for good but you're not really quite sure where to start. We've created some incredible free resources to help you get there, and I'll be sharing those details later on in today's episode. All right, guys, now to help us with today's topic and improving our money mindset. I'm excited to welcome Dr Jen, who is a doctor of soulful transformations. Her life's mission is to facilitate change in others. She guides people in reshaping their world, redefining their self perception and fostering internal change. Now, this enables them to evolve into the individuals they were destined to be, and her work is not just a profession. It's a calling, a passion and a journey of transformation. Dr Jen, I can't agree more with the work that we do here at Deaf Free Day. I think we're going to get along pretty well on this episode, but thank you so much for joining us. We're glad you're here.
Dr. Jen:
Thank you for having me yeah.
Brad Nelson:
So can you share just a little bit, like how did you get into this work of helping people with transformation and improving mindset? Obviously, we're going to be talking a lot about money mindset here today, but can you give us a little background about how you got started with all this no-transcript? So when we talk about mindset, sometimes our financial challenges can look so surface level, like I have debt or I have credit card debt or I have terrible spending habits or whatever. It's so surface level. But when we start talking about mindset, it starts getting a little bit deeper. So when we say positive money mindset or money mindset, what are we talking about specifically as it relates to our lives?
Dr. Jen:
We all have belief systems. Okay, when we're born, we're born into a family of origin and our parents give us their beliefs with regards to money and about life, and we absorb them and we claim them as ours. And then, as we go through our childhood and we go and become teenagers and we start to play with our own money whether we're getting a job or we're buying something that we want we are using those rules that our parents gave us. As we go deeper into our lives, we depend on what those belief systems are, whether it's from scarcity or that we're abundant. We then live our lives based off that. Now, a positive money mindset is when you recognize that you have more than enough for what you need. We can create debt because we feel that we need to be living in a scarce mental mentality and that we feel that there's not enough. So we put ourselves in debt because that aligns with what our belief systems are.
Brad Nelson:
Yeah, that's a great, and I love that you brought up determining what enough is because I feel like so many people, including myself, even to this day, sometimes you lose track of what does enough mean to you, not to the outside world, not to society, not to friends, family and neighbors or your co-workers, but to you like. What does enough look like to you? And I feel like if more of us spend time answering that question, I think it would be less of a rat race chasing after a bunch of mindless things that are filling up our lives. Would you agree? I would. Yes, it's crazy. In your experience, and I'm sure you've worked with plenty of people who have some of these money mindset hangups, but what do you find are the most common ones that people struggle with the most when it comes to their money mindset?
Dr. Jen:
That they're not enough, and because they're not enough and their belief system is that they're not enough, it materializes into the physical world of not having enough, because the subconscious is what leads us, it's what creates our lives, and if we don't believe that we're, if we do not believe that we are enough, then we're never going to have enough, because we want to buy things to make us feel as if we're enough. There's this cool thing that I, if you asked a person what would you do with a million dollars? Okay, they're going to tell you, buy a ship or buy a house or set their family up for success, whatever. It's not about having a million dollars in the bank.
Dr. Jen:
It's about spending that million dollars. No one comes up to you and says, yep, I got a million dollars. I'd put it in the bank and it would sit there and my life would not change. We don't want a million dollars in order to save. We want a million dollars of what it gives us. It gives us financial security. Maybe it gives us the ability to buy things that we think we want to fulfill us, which we find out it doesn't. We want a million dollars in order to be able to say we had a million dollars. That's why people who come into large sums of money unless they are educated, unless they have done the inner work on themselves, they spend it all very, very quickly Because, again, it doesn't align with their belief systems that they are enough just as they are.
Brad Nelson:
Wow, and that's fascinating. I love that you brought up a million dollars. That's a great example. But even things like raises. I work with a lot of people who feel that way too. Or people will say when I get that next bonus or when I get that next raise, then I will change. But, just like you said, if your current belief system is you're not enough, no change ever happens. That is interesting, and I think it's important for the listeners to understand that, because you have to figure out how to be enough, then right, is that the direction we need to go in? We need to answer that question. So, for someone who feels like they're not enough, dr Jen, what are some practical tips or maybe some exercises someone could do to figure out how to fix that?
Dr. Jen:
I firmly believe that, if you're going to do it on your own, journaling is a way to help you, because it's having a conversation with yourself that you can refer back to to look at what is actually holding you back. Okay, if we play with the raise? Okay, let's say we want a $2 an hour raise. Okay, what are you going to do with an extra $2? It may not seem like a big deal in your check, but there's this surplus of money and all of a sudden we start spending that surplus of money without recognizing that we could do something more efficient with that. Whether it's paying off our finances or our credit cards, or maybe we're saving for a trip, or maybe we're just putting it aside. Until we change, our lifestyle is going to stay the same. So if we are spending, spending, spending, spending, spending, spending, spending and not saving anything for us, because we value ourselves enough to save, because we're worthy, no matter how much our raise is, no matter how much of a windfall we get, we're still going to spend just like we've been. But when we shift that mindset, when we become more aligned with, well, I'm worthy, so I'm going to pay myself. First, I'm going to take 10% of my income. Everything that I get across the board goes into a savings account and I'm not going to watch it for six months. I'm just going to keep depositing 10% of whatever I get into that savings account.
Dr. Jen:
After six months, look at how much you saved, but your lifestyle may not change, but your mentality has changed. And then, when you look at it, you're like I have money saved simply because I changed a habit, I changed a pattern, I changed something within me. So the question becomes when I feel enough, what is my life going to look like? If I'm enough right now and I value myself enough, what do I want to change in order to reflect that out here? Because how you feel inside, that's what's going to look like outside. So if you're spending money, there's this lack, this scarcity. What is enough for you? Is it having $600,000 in the checking account? Is it just being able to comfortably make your bills and go out to dinner once a week? Until you do explore this of what enough looks like for you, can you actually start to change that within yourself?
Brad Nelson:
Right, yeah, and I think that's the hard work. Like you mentioned journaling. When you say journaling someone who's never done that before, can you say what you mean by that? Because you said write down how you're feeling. I mean that alone can be a scary thing for a lot of people to sit down and actually write down. Is there a way to overcome maybe some of the fear of what should I even put in this right, or what should I write down? What are all the things Like any real quick things that are tips that you'd give somebody for that?
Dr. Jen:
Here's something very, very fun and it's super easy. Okay, every day I make a list of what I want. Okay, now for the beginner. If I had a brand new client, we were going to do this for the very first time. I would suggest list three things that you want. Okay, maybe it's pay off my credit cards. Maybe it's I want to buy a coffee from Starbucks and not feel shame that I'm going to spend $10 for a cup of coffee. Okay, maybe I want to go on a cruise. Maybe I want a savings account. Okay, we're not going to put a value on it, we just. I actually want a savings account. All right, by making a list of three things that you want every single day and then going back after a month, see what is the common theme every single day, and then going back after a month, see what is the common theme, what are you actually wanting? Journaling can be very simple. Where?
Dr. Jen:
you take a pen and a paper and you write constantly for 10 minutes. It could simply be a question that you come up with and then you allow for yourself to journal for 10 minutes. Maybe 10 minutes is too long Any amount of time that you're willing to sit down with a piece of paper and either answer a question from yourself, or there are guided journals where there's journal prompts and it doesn't have to be a long two-hour process. You could simply journal for five minutes and just write down your feelings and write down your thoughts.
Brad Nelson:
Right, see, and I believe the same thing when we teach people budgeting, I am such a big fan of doing it by hand, like just write it out first Now am such a big fan of doing it by hand, like just write it out first, now. I get that there's these great apps and these great tools out there and I have nothing against those. But when you're first getting started, there's just something that's just different. Like you have a different relationship with that budget because you personally have touched it, you've handwritten it out, you've taken the time to think through it and something from the brain all the way to the hand, it just feels different than, say, typing it into an app. So can you speak to that? What begins to happen as you go through the journaling process and you're talking about, like, how do I improve my money mindset? Are these things that I want? What is the transformation that begins to happen within you?
Dr. Jen:
When you have pen and paper, there's authenticity, there's a truthfulness to it. Okay, when we have an app, when we're going to Excel or we're going to work into some kind of worksheet, we're punching numbers and it's no different than playing a video game or going to a cashier and having someone do it for you. When you are sitting there with a pen and you have that blank piece of paper with lines on it and you're sitting with yourself, there's an authenticity within you that you are emotionally connecting from your brain down through your hand and into that pen. You don't get the same thing when you have a app or some kind of electronic.
Brad Nelson:
Yeah, yeah, I totally agree. When I started this business almost 10 years ago, I've got a notebook that I still have today and I actually just came across it last week and I opened it up and it's all handwritten Basically everything that I still have today. And I actually just came across it last week and I opened it up and it's all handwritten, basically everything that I wanted this business to be. I'm so grateful that I did it. It's this amazing gift now that I get to go back and look at and say this is where it all started. It's just a really cool thing.
Brad Nelson:
A lot of people I think look at journaling is kind of like it's weird, it's too touchy, feely or I'm just I don't. I feel dumb, I don't know what to do. Do it like you will get so much out of it. I think that's great. Let's switch lanes a little bit. Let's talk a little bit about gratitude, because I think gratitude plays such a role in your financial life and I think sometimes we tend to overlook it because in the society that we live in, it's always I need more stuff, I need to buy more stuff, I need the latest and greatest stuff, or I'm told that the stuff I have isn't good enough by all these advertisers. We tend to forget and put aside gratitude and we don't spend a lot of time really thinking about everything we have. Can you share? How much does gratitude play a role in your overall mindset and your quality of life?
Dr. Jen:
I actually wrote a journal called A Journey to Gratitude. There was a period in my life that God flipped it upside down and, like a snow globe, shook it. What got me through those seven years of my life being flipped upside down was gratitude, and it was gratitude for the simplest of things, whether it was just having a cup of coffee and just being able to be still and be quiet, because I knew once I started to life again and adult again, okay, life was going to become rough. So for the 10 minutes that I had a cup of coffee and I could just be alone with myself, gratitude played a huge part in it. So when we're grateful, it allows for us to receive. It's finding those bits and those tiny pieces that make our lives whole.
Dr. Jen:
And when we have money, okay, and we're looking at our money story, what are you grateful for? It should start, possibly, maybe, with the house, the fact that you have a roof over your head or that you have groceries, that you have the capacity to go to the grocery store and buy the groceries that you like, not because you have to do things, you want to do things. Gratitude to be able to receive. Be grateful for the bills that you have, because those bills mean that you received a service. Okay, your electric bill. You should be grateful that you have electric Right. Okay, I'm grateful I have heat.
Dr. Jen:
We were going to meet and it was like below zero. I was grateful that I had a heater to keep me warm, because outside told me just how cold it was outside below zero. I was grateful that I had a heater to keep me warm, because outside told me just how cold it was outside. And when we can sit with gratitude and we can be vulnerable with that and openly receive, it allows for us to give more. Because if we don't give to ourselves, if we don't learn how to receive, how do you expect to receive more money and be able to spend it wisely for yourself and for your family?
Brad Nelson:
Right, right, well, and I think the other thing gratitude definitely does is it gives you hope to press forward too. Not everything is going wrong now and you could be going through some terrible things. And I would agree, dr Jen, I've been through some awful things. I lost a spouse to suicide, I have two kids that I had to take care of, and I would 100% agree, I went through some of those changes and those life experiences too, and I think gratitude is the one thing I would agree that got me through, because when I could focus on those things, I'm grateful I have my kids. I'm grateful I get to be their dad. I'm grateful I still get to run this business and help all these people with their finances. I'm grateful that I'm here today. It allows the other stuff just to go away for a little while.
Brad Nelson:
I would encourage anyone listening to this take this advice and if you're going through some tough financial challenges, take time, like we just talked about journaling. Write down everything that you're grateful for. It'll help tremendously. Dr Jen, do you have any stories of clients that you've helped? Maybe and I know that this is off the cuff Maybe you've got one, or maybe just a general story of anyone that you've worked with that maybe went from a negative financial mindset and then just had this amazing transformation over to more of a mindset of abundance and just positivity when it came to their finances. If you could share like the ripple effect that had in their life.
Dr. Jen:
There was a client who everything in her life seemed to just go wrong. Everything she touched it turned to crap Okay. And so one of the things that we worked on was starting with gratitude and having her shift her mindset. Instead of looking for things that were going wrong, look for things that were positive. And then we came up with a plan of how to improve her finances. One of her solutions was to get another job.
Dr. Jen:
And I said would that bring you joy? And she said no, right, okay. So what brings you joy that you presently have that we can help this direct into your finances in order for them to improve? And I said what are you going to do when you have this extra money, when you pay off these credit cards? What are you going to do? How is your life going to be different? And so we worked on that. We worked on how her mindset would guide her to how she would become and who she wanted to become when things were different.
Dr. Jen:
By working with that gratitude, by allowing for her to start to see things that she was looking forward to and having grace to pay extra on the credit card and to be grateful that she had that extra $15, $50, $100 to put on that credit card and she saw the amount go down on what she owed.
Dr. Jen:
It helped her change her life to appreciate time with her family, time with her kids, and it really brought it down to what was really important, because if it wasn't joyful, we didn't do it. And instead of complaining about the fact that she had to pay her electric or complain the fact that she had to pay her mortgage, okay, if you don't want to do those things, if you don't like paying those companies, what can you do to change it? If you don't like your car, then what can we do to set you up so that you can get into a position to buy a different car that you enjoy? Because if you're not enjoying life, how do you expect to bring more abundance, more joy, more fun into your life if all you do is complain?
Brad Nelson:
Right, so good. One of the big things with all of this is the consistency to stick with it. You're not just born with a positive financial mindset and it doesn't just stick with you the rest of your life. You've got to practice these things in order to maintain. Just like, if you want to maintain a certain weight, you've got to maintain healthy eating habits, healthy exercise regimen. You've got to maintain. If you want to maintain finances, you've got to stick with a budget. You've got to maintain we're going to handle our finances different, so we're not going to go into debt.
Brad Nelson:
What's some advice? Because this is the area that I feel most people struggle with. It's like they want to have a positive financial mindset, they want to improve their health, they want to improve their money, they want to improve all these areas of their life. But what I find is when that motivation is high, they're ready to take action. But we all know that we don't wake up every single day motivated to do it.
Brad Nelson:
There's going to be days you wake up and you're like the last thing I want to do right now is work on my budget. The last thing I want to do right now is listen to the Devri Dad podcast. The last thing I want to do is worry about eating the salad. I want the donut right. What do you suggest to someone when there's days where they're going to be off days or when they find themselves slipping back into that old way of life and belief system, because it's easy to kind of fall off the path? What do you in your profession and all these people that you've helped over the years, what advice would you give to someone to stick with it and on a daily basis when they don't feel like it?
Dr. Jen:
I'd have them check in with their feelings. So think about it. When we're doing really good and we're seeing the credit card balance go down, okay, and our dreams are starting to become more forward whether we're going to buy a house, whether we're going to buy a car, whether we're going to go on vacation, whatever it is that we're creating in order to get into the future, where what we want, we feel really good and when we wake up and it's a hard day, you can have a hard day you can say, okay, so today I want to splurge a little bit. Okay, now let's talk about splurging.
Dr. Jen:
Splurging doesn't mean that you throw the baby out with the bathwater. Okay, you don't take all that money that you've saved and go buy something frivolous that you're not going to enjoy the next day, pay yourself. So, okay, I'm a female, I like to get my nails done. All right, I'm going to take the $25 and I'm going to go get my nails done. I'm going to give back to me, because when we're feeling out of sorts, when we're losing that motivation, there's a part of us that has slipped into a scarcity mindset that we have to give, give, give, give, give. When are we giving back to ourselves. So when I'm working with someone with regards to money, okay, every week they get to have a little kitty. In that kitty maybe there's $20. That $20 they get to give to them. They get to splurge on something, whether that's buying pizza for everybody for dinner, or maybe that's getting their nails done or getting their hair done, or that $20 can build up that at the end of the month you have to spend that money that's in that kitty. That's giving back to you. No, you do not get to put it back on a credit card but, jen, that's $80 I could put on.
Dr. Jen:
No, if you are denying yourself, you're going to splurge in bigger, worse ways and then self-motivation is going to take you down to a hole because you're giving away to everybody else. You have to give back to yourself. So if you have a bad day okay, we were accounting for that you go to your kitty earlier than Friday, because today's Tuesday and you go use that $20 that you put aside and you give back to you Because, remember, how you feel inside is going to manifest in the physical. So if you're feeling lack, you're going to see lack wherever you go. When you give back to yourself and you know that you have something to give back to yourself because you put that aside, because you're worthy. You're worthy of giving to you. It allows for you to feel good, and then you want to keep doing it.
Brad Nelson:
Yeah, so good, man, slam dunk on that last question. Such great advice and absolutely love it. So where can our listeners learn more about you? Because you've got some great stuff out there. You're helping a lot of people. Can you share where people can find you?
Dr. Jen:
Sure, jencaspercom Would love to have you. I have relationship groups, I have private counseling, I have workshops that I do. I would love to help.
Brad Nelson:
Awesome. Well, thanks so much, jen, for being here. We appreciate your time and always a pleasure. Thanks so much. Thank you. Now, guys, if you're ready to break free from living paycheck to paycheck, reduce financial stress, build savings and finally pay off debt for good, but you're like many people who are just not really sure where to get started, don't worry, we have you covered. Simplify my Money is sent each Sunday to your email. It's your step-by-step roadmap to better financial control and you'll learn easy-to-follow strategies to manage your money effectively. It's stress-free money decisions that will help you simplify your financial life with proven tips that actually work, and you're going to gain the tools and confidence to tackle your financial goals head on. Sign up for Simplify my Money by clicking the link at the top of the show notes.
Dr. Jen:
Let's talk about that baby. Let's talk about your money. Let's talk about all the good things, all the bad things, that may be.
Brad Nelson:
Let's talk about that. Let's talk about that. Tune into Dead Free Dad. Tune into Dead Free Dad. Alright, guys. That sound means it's time for the celebrations of the show, and today we are kicking it off with Sonia. Sonia says I paid off three more credit cards. She says I am on the homestretch. I only have $17,000 left to pay off. And Sonia has been working so hard over the last few years. I'm so proud of her just crushing it and so excited and so hard over the last few years. I'm so proud of her just crushing it and so excited. Hillary, I just joined Roots and I've been to my first live meetup and group coaching call and I've gotten through the start here and I'm on the be aware section in the behavior module in week one. Hillary, so excited that you are taking action and getting started. So great to have you. Christina, I added $112.39 to my savings and I paid $447.41 towards my debt. I was able to knock out my second item off my debt snowball list. Christina, congratulations to you. Job well done. Hey, we also want to say congratulations to all of you guys who are working so hard at getting out of debt. Hey, we get that. Getting out of debt isn't easy, but hopefully, with our help and your hard work and consistency, you'll finally reach your goal of reaching a financial freedom, and we are here with you every step of the way. Thanks for joining us on today's show and we will see you guys on the next episode thanks for listening to the debt free dad podcast.
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