We need to talk about your relationship
This time of the month always makes me shake my head in disbelief. The malls are JAM packed, everyone is out watching movies, eating at restaurants, shopping up a storm – living their best lives. Month end madness.
The cash is literally burning a hole in their pockets, and they are driven to spend spend SPEND!
Come next weekend, those same people are at home, sobbing into their empty packet of Salticrax.
Given that there always seems to be too much month for your money, it comes as no surprise that literally everyone asks me how to make MORE cash. I ask them what they do with the money they currently have. That question inevitably results in raised eyebrows and a confused look. “Perhaps you don’t understand Tanya, it’s not about what I have, it’s about how to make MORE!”
And yet, if you don’t appreciate what you already have, how can you expect more to come to you?
I continue…”What is your current financial status like?” After they recover from the shock of such a direct question, (apparently it is some kind of sin to discuss personal balance sheets…) they mumble something about…’well there is this store card, that credit card balance I can’t quite get paid off, the annoying overdraft, car loan and the crushing monthly bond repayments.’
No real clue about how much disposable income they have every month, no real clue about how much they are paying in interest, no real clue about how to make their money grow.
Let’s pretend money is a person. What kind of relationship do you have with money?
Are you the type to chase after it, like a groupie at a Harry Styles concert? Prepared to stand in long queues and wait for hours for the off chance you might actually get close to him? And when you do, you blush and gush something like OMGOSH YOU ARE SOOO AWESOME, I LOVE YOU! before slinking back off into the crowd empty handed?
Yip, this would happen to you if you won the lottery. Gushing, OMGishig, spending – and eventually ending up empty handed.
Perhaps you treat money like the kid no one likes at school, the one who is always causing trouble and picking fights. You kind of have to be in the same class and play on the same playground but you certainly don’t want to spend time getting to know him or hang out with him. Ewww!
Then you are that person at the mall every month end, blowing all your hard-earned cash as soon as it hits your bank account. You do not ever discuss money with your friends or family, money is a dirty word!
Or are you #besties with your money? Appreciating every precious moment you spend together, discussing plans for the future and dreaming about how to make the special times even more magical.
But seriously though, imagine if you were #bestieswithyourbucks? You certainly wouldn’t spend it mindlessly, not giving a second thought to how much effort and energy it took you to earn it. You would spend time planning what to do with your money, how to make it grow, how to make it last. You would be grateful for it, appreciate it and be considered and careful around it. You’d love money and money would love you right back.
Before you worry about how to make more money, take a closer look at your personal balance sheet and think about how you feel about what you already have.
Work on your relationship with money until you are #besties - then we can talk about how to get you more of it.
