Here are some of the things which are hindering you from achieving financial independence and what exactly you can do to cure that.
1. Scarcity mentality
If you grew up being told that money doesn’t grow on trees, then you developed a scarcity mentality towards money. Our financial life is always shaped by the relationship we had with money growing up. People develop two mindsets about money; scarcity and abundance. The mind-set has nothing to do with the resources at hand.
Remedy: Intentional self-reflection and unlearning bad habits can help change one’s mindset about money, and develop mindsets of abundance. You can start by investing the resources you already have in building an abundant future.
2. Spending down poverty highway
Besides our money beliefs, we must deal with the motivation behind our spending habits. One of the biggest motivating factors that lead to unhealthy and inauthentic lifestyle spending is the need to keep up with and impress other people.
Besides the need to be loved and cherished, we spend money to buy the fulfilment we are lacking in our lives. We depend on money to give us identity.
Remedy: To get away from this cycle, you have to do the hard work to discover who you are and what you value; you have to belong to something bigger than anything you can buy. To help understand what is truly important to you answer these two questions: What do you want to have experienced with your life? And If you had all the money in the world, who would you be and what would you have done? Then do that.
3. Lack of a budget
We know we should budget, but we often don’t see the need to. We see a budget as all about restricting the enjoyment of life and highlighting failures (when you don’t stick to the budget).
How then do you adjust your spending when say, you lose or quit your job to go into business? In fact, the reason budgets don’t usually work the first time around is that we establish budgets with costs we know and guess what we don’t. In the guessing process, we over and underestimate some costs, even failing to include others. This is why you need to monitor your expenses for a while to work towards getting it right. This also brings an awareness that was previously lacking.
Remedy: To fix this, change your attitude on the purpose of budgeting from focusing on it as a restriction to finding a deeper motivation.
4. Not giving back
Even the Bible says that it is more blessed to give than to receive. Giving cultivates a lifestyle of gratitude and reinforces the premise that there is enough.
Remedy: Giving transcends money. You can give your time or skills as well. Through giving, you discover the power that lies within you.
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