The Top 5 Ways People Mess Up Their Money, Part IV

[Jenifer Madson]

In the last few weeks, we've been discussing how we get in our own way with money; how we pretend to feel better about the subject than we actually do, how we try to go it alone, and how we sometimes take financial advice from people doing worse than we are.

This week we're going to discuss the tendency to:
4. Rely on old information to make a new life.

As you can imagine, I talk to many, many people each day about how to improve their relationship with money. What is interesting to me is how determined we can be to hold on to our old money stories while seeking new solutions. People will ask me what to do about a certain financial challenge, and when given a possible answer, will automatically start defending their old way of doing things, telling me why the new tactic can't work before they've even tried it.

Take A Minute:
Are you holding on to old ways of working with your money that don't serve you?

Make A Minute:
Find one, old money pattern and resolve to break it. Find someone who is successful in that area, and pattern your new behavior after theirs.

I'm not attached to where you get your answers—just to the idea that you put yourself in a place of openness and curiosity as you seek them. Let go of what doesn't support you, open yourself up to new possibilities, and you will free yourself to experience a whole new financial reality!

(Number five will be posted next week).