We’ve all heard money sayings like “money can’t buy you happiness.” Some of us even use these sayings regularly, but have you ever stopped to think about how true these statements really are? In fact, it may be that believing in these myths about money is holding us back from achieving financial freedom.
“Everything we know about money has been learned from others, but this advice could actually be bad advice,” says Benjamin J Harvey, co-founder of training company, Authentic Education.
With this in mind, it makes good sense to revaluate our attitudes to personal finances to prevent limiting beliefs from stopping us becoming wealthy. Here we show you how.
What’s our wealth imprint?
We start developing our views about wealth and money from a really young age. “Psychologists say our beliefs about money are set as early as age six,” says Harvey.
He says our overall view about money is called our ‘wealth imprint.’ We get our wealth imprint from friends, the media, our parents and by developing our own views and this imprint has an unconscious impact on our relationship with money.
“We may see our parents argue about money and decide that money is bad, or hear our friends complain about greedy rich people and decide we never want to be rich,” says Harvey. Although we may not know we’re even doing it, we could be accepting these ideas as being true.
Why our wealth imprint is so important
According to Harvey, our wealth imprint often reinforces those money myths that prevent us from achieving financial freedom. As Harvey explains, it’s not that these money myths are completely untrue, but that they represent an unbalanced and limiting opinion about money.
“If you look at the popular money and happiness myth, it’s certainly true that money can’t buy happiness, but at the same time if you are always broke, you will probably experience unhappiness, “ he says.
“Similarly if you believe the money myth, ‘It’s selfish to want a lot of money’, then you’re less likely to attract as much wealth as someone who has a more empowering belief such as, ‘The more money I have, the more good I can do for society and the world’,” says Harvey.
Therefore, by having a one-sided view about these statements, it often means we are trapped in a negative pattern of belief that may well become true for us.
Another common money myth
One of the biggest money myths is, “I’m too old to build wealth now.” This belief is entirely untrue, says Harvey. “Your earning capacity isn’t limited by your age.
“There are many well-known examples of older people obtaining a level of financial success that allows them to expand their wealth.” One well-known example is Colonel Harland David Sanders, the founder of the fast food chain KFC. Colonel Sanders didn’t start the KFC business until he was 62 years old and he sold it in 1964 at the age of 73, for $2 million (roughly the equivalent of 16 million today).
One way we can overcome our limiting beliefs
The human mind is very adaptable and it’s quite possible for us to change our limiting beliefs about money. Harvey says a simple, but powerful, way to change a limiting belief is to:
- First identify the limiting belief
- Identify a more empowering belief
- Reinforce this new belief by writing it down and reading it to yourself every morning and night
How we can learn more about money myths and overcome them
The staff at Authentic Education have developed a comprehensive eBook and online course that outlines the 10 biggest money myths that may be blocking you from achieving the wealth you deserve.
To help you overcome these myths, the course also outlines 10 empowering beliefs you can replace them with. To get the eBook and sign up for your online course for free, click here.
What strategies have you found helpful to change how you think about money?
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