Money mindset exercises are a must when you’re setting up financial goals because, without the right mindset, it’s near impossible to make positive changes in your life. Regardless of where you are on your financial journey, these practices help you stay motivated. Let’s keep you on track and ready to achieve your goals with abundance mindset exercises!
Table of contents
- What are money mindset exercises?
- Why do you need to do money mindset exercises?
- Money mindset exercises to try
- Expert tip: Become conscious of your thinking
- Money mindset questions to ask yourself
- What is the best type of money mindset?
- How do you instantly make your mindset better regarding money?
- How do you continually practice an abundance mindset?
- More money mindset articles
- Money mindset exercises can improve your finances and life!
What are money mindset exercises?
Money mindset exercises are practices that you do to change how you think about money and wealth. Because your perception of money impacts the way you earn, save, and spend it. All of which affect how you manage your finances and build wealth.
Since childhood, you were surrounded by beliefs, judgments, and ideas about money. Not to mention that your own experiences with money influenced how you view it too.
Whether you consciously think about your understanding of money or not, you carry these notions and judgments with you. And they show up in how you manage your finances.
Abundance mindset exercises help you discover and examine your beliefs about money. Then, you can look closely at the ways you earn, save, and spend your dollars to see how these beliefs are driving your actions.
Why do you need to do money mindset exercises?
You can learn to think differently about finances by changing your mindset. Rewiring the brain is a fascinating process called neuroplasticity. Basically, it’s using attitudes of mindfulness to redirect thoughts and change habits.
Financial mindset exercises help you become aware of your thoughts and redirect them. When you practice mindfulness and change your habits, you use new parts of the brain. That’s when the rewiring happens, and you create new pathways in your brain.
The task of building wealth is a long and winding road, especially if you grew up without money and are a member of a marginalized community. These mindset exercises can help you stay motivated. Because a huge part of the challenge is staying in the right abundance mindset.
Money mindset exercises to try
Money is a tool that humans created to make exchanging goods and services easier. But because we need it to survive and thrive, we’ve attached emotions and beliefs to it.
Unfortunately, those emotions and beliefs tend to run the show, whether we are conscious of them or not. The good news is you can redirect your thoughts with abundance mindset exercises. Check them out!
1. Look to the past
Being aware of what you tell yourself about money is a great start. Once you get those thoughts out, you can use money mindset exercises to shift them to the positive.
Start journaling to find out what you truly think about money. If you’re having difficulties identifying your limiting beliefs about money, remember they came from somewhere.
So, thinking about where you got them from is also a good place to start. Did they come from the way your family talked about money, teachings from church, or your own experiences?
Similarly, think about times when you felt shame, guilt, or disappointment around money. When do these feelings show up in your adult life?
For instance, do you feel guilty wanting more money – getting a big promotion or making more money in your business? Why?
When you’ve gotten your thoughts down on paper, it will be easier to see what you need to change.
2. Examine your current money situation
The challenge of financial mindset exercises is that you can only see if they’re working if you’re also taking action. That being said, you cannot improve a situation if you don’t know what’s going on.
If you’ve been avoiding looking at your credit card statements or bank accounts, now is the time to do that.
Likewise, you can’t create a budget that will work for you if you don’t know how much money you’re earning or spending.
For that, you may want to start a spending journal. The goal of which is to help you identify your spending habits and where your money is going. A spending diary will also show you where you can improve.
Basically, you need to look over your finances and see what is going well and what needs improvement. This may include habits for saving, spending, investing, or a combination.
3. Practice compassion for yourself
Since money is a huge part of our survival, we see every financial mistake as wasting money. Although that may be true in some situations, that’s not always the case.
Some mistakes are necessary for us to learn lessons and grow as a person. So if you’ve been berating yourself for past money mistakes, it’s time to stop (and maybe try some confidence building exercises to help)!
Forgive yourself and shift to money mindset exercises instead. Four ways to practice self-compassion are to take care of your body, write down your feelings, be positive towards yourself, and add mindfulness to your life.
4. Be grounded in gratitude
When you’re grounded in gratitude, you’re saying that you’re content with life. But you’re also happily anticipating more good things to come. That’s why it’s one of the best abundance mindset exercises.
Oftentimes, we only feel grateful when we get the big goals we’ve been working on, like a promotion, a new car, or a house. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with celebrating the big wins.
But those can be few and far between. It’s also unsustainable to keep chasing success and material satisfaction to feel grateful.
Practice money mindset exercises by being grateful for the small things every day. When you start with the small things as part of your daily gratitude list, you’ll always have something to be thankful for.
Be grateful you opened your eyes as you get out of bed. Be grateful you have running water as you take a shower or brush your teeth. Find more ways to be grateful in our 30 days of gratitude challenge!
5. Make a list of how you want money to show up in your life
Make a list of the things that make you happy and light your soul on fire. It doesn’t matter if you think they’re outrageous, and they’re never going to happen in a million years. Write down everything you would like to have and experience if money is no object.
Then, make another list of practical financial goals you want to achieve in the next 30 days, 3 months, and 3 years. Maybe you want to build up your emergency fund or start sinking funds for a family vacation or purchase.
Make a plan for each of your goals. Figure out how much money you need to save and how much you can truly afford to put away each month. Update your plan each month to check on your progress.
How about the first list you made? Pick one and make it your big hairy audacious goal.
6. Keep showing up for yourself
One of the most effective money mindset exercises is showing up for yourself relentlessly.
This happens when you read abundance mindset books and learn about how to invest for your financial future. Or, if you’ve been dealing with chronic debt, showing up for yourself is getting help to tackle your debts once and for all.
Showing up for yourself may not be the same every day. But you do it when you journal, meditate, and say positive money affirmations.
Listen to personal finance podcasts, read blogs, and watch YouTube channels to learn how to stay positive in a negative world. Call your bank to negotiate your interests or join a savings challenge.
No one can do this for you. So, show up for yourself every day, tirelessly.
Expert tip: Become conscious of your thinking
Having the right money mindset is all about being conscious of your thinking and choices. In addition to learning from your past and present money situations, you also need to balance this with compassion for yourself and an understanding of where you want to be in the future.
Money mindset questions to ask yourself
Being intentional with your thoughts means knowing what they are and where you got them from. So, here are some money mindset questions to ask yourself to figure out your beliefs about money and wealth.
How was money talked about in your family?
The way you think about money and react to it can be tracked all the way from childhood. Be patient with yourself if you can’t remember much. Answer these additional questions to get started.
Did your parents talk openly about money? What feelings did they express in these conversations – anxiety, anger, excitement, etc?
If your family didn’t talk about money, how do you feel about discussing your finances as an adult? In your life now, can you see similarities in how you feel, talk, and handle money the way your family did?
What are your experiences with money?
Needless to say, your experiences with money impact how you manage it today.
For instance, if you never got what you wanted as a kid, you may be the adult with money spending problems who spends everything you earn. It’s as if you’re trying to make up for all the times you didn’t get what you asked for.
As you look back and try to connect your money habits to your past, you will not always get such a clear-cut explanation. But spend time thinking about it and see what comes up.
What common beliefs about money have you heard a lot about growing up?
Perhaps you’ve heard, “Money is the root of all evil,” or “Money doesn’t grow on trees,” or “You have to sacrifice to make money,” etc. Are these phrases familiar?
You’ve probably heard them before, along with; “to serve God means you can’t want more money,” “the only way to make lots of money is to go to college and have a secure job,” or “you can’t make money doing what you love.”
Which ones of these are you subscribing to? Have you thought about whether they’re true or not?
Find out what money myths you believe and explore some common beliefs about money that may be harmful to your financial well-being.
How do you view poor people?
Continue your exploration by considering what you think about poor people.
Some common views about poor people are they’re bad with money or have bad money habits, they’re not trying hard enough, and they just want a handout.
Do you share the same opinions? If you experienced poverty, do these ideas align with your experience?
How do you view rich people?
It’s fascinating how the poor and rich are represented if you think about it. Because the rich aren’t described favorably either. Some popular views about rich people include they’re greedy, they don’t work hard, and they just got lucky.
The thing is, would you be excited to work towards your goal of being financially sound if you see rich people as selfish, entitled, and demanding?
Some of us have judgments and beliefs about money that we’re not even aware of. And doing money mindset exercises helps you uncover these narratives that may be holding you back from achieving your financial goals.
What do you actually believe about money?
Some of the beliefs we hold onto from childhood and painful money experiences may not be rational. But they drive the way we earn, save, and spend money nonetheless.
Look at your answers to the money mindset questions and relate your answers to your financial situation now. Can you spot patterns in your life, such as you can’t get out of debt?
Take some time to identify money values that you agree with consciously but you do the opposite of in your life.
For instance, do you spend all your money as soon as you get it, even though you want to save? Or maybe it’s the opposite – you restrict yourself from spending on luxuries and necessities even if you can afford them.
Identifying your actions and beliefs can help you to align them in your life.
What is the best type of money mindset?
The best type of money mindset is one that allows you to continually grow and improve. Rather than staying stuck with negative beliefs, you can constantly try to make your mindset align with what you truly think.
How do you instantly make your mindset better regarding money?
A great way to instantly improve your mindset is to believe that no matter how far you have to go, you are capable of achieving your money dreams. Even if your finances don’t look the way you want, keep telling yourself that you will find a way to change it, and then look for ways to do just that!
How do you continually practice an abundance mindset?
Whenever you catch yourself repeatedly thinking negative things about money, remind yourself of something positive instead. For example, instead of worrying about debt, be proud that you made a budget this month.
More money mindset articles
If you liked reading about money mindsets, check out these articles next:
- 11 Key ways to improve your money mindset
- How to use money journaling: Improve your mindset and your finances
- How to stop worrying about money
- Rich mindset vs. poor mindset: How to develop a rich mindset!
Money mindset exercises can improve your finances and life!
Changing the way you think about money for the better can only help you. In fact, it may help you build wealth for yourself and generational wealth for your family!
Whether you start with answering money mindset questions or looking for ways to think more positively, do one of the money mindset exercises today! And then, do them again and again and again until it’s easy to believe that you’ll achieve financial wellness. Cheering you on!