Our Thoughts Affect our Money

Have you ever stopped and taken time to think about your thoughts around your money? What are your thoughts on spending? How much cash classifies as rich? Do your money or possessions give you status? If the checking account dips below a certain amount, are you anxious? We all have a money story.

Our Thoughts Affect Our Money

Our money story starts with our upbringing and what our parents taught or didn’t teach us about money. How they spent their money, how they saved, talked about, or lack thereof shaped our beliefs around money. Your money story was also developed by your grandparents, friends, and the community in which you were raised.

Our money stories aren’t little drops in the buckets, either. They affect how we spend, save, and give our money today. We create thoughts that may or may not be true around money. They can make buying a latte feel like you have just lost out on paying off the college loan. It could also make you realize that money is just a tool that can provide peace of mind.

If you have anxious thoughts about money, how can you change these thoughts? What does having anxious thoughts about money even look like? Or mean?

You might be stressed when the doctor's bill comes in the mail—second-guessing your investment selections. When paying bills, you may have the physical symptoms of anxiety, racing heart, difficulty breathing, nausea, tingling, sweating, and dizziness.

I want to point out that I am not a therapist or doctor. I do not treat anxiety in my clients. I do recommend that they talk to a therapist or doctor about their specific anxiety issues. And since anxiety is one the most common co-morbid issues with ADHD, most clients are already in the process of working on anxiety with a medical professional.

I do, however, cover our money stories. I do cover the thoughts we have about money. The feelings we have around money. And discuss ways to have new healthy thoughts and emotions while we interact with our money. We also cover our values and discuss if our spending aligns with our values.

A lot of clients come to me with the goal to pay down debt or save money—both big and admiral goals. We discuss where they want to be in 5/10/20 years. What they would do if they couldn’t fail? If money was no object, what they would do? And my favorite, if you received $5000 with no strings attached, what would you do with it?

But I found something that was missing. We missed the steps of visualizing them completing these goals. Sadly, when you have ADHD, it can be hard to achieve long-term goals. According to Dr. Russell Barkley, time management is “the ultimate — yet nearly invisible — disability afflicting those with ADHD.” ADHD can affect one's ability to plan for the future; there's often a shorter "time horizon.”

Time horizon is like looking out to sea. You can’t see the ship that is over the horizon. However, as it gets closer to shore, it gets more prominent, and you can now see it. The same thing happens with our calendar. On Jan 1st, Christmas is almost a year away, and we don’t focus on it. However, as time passes, it gets closer and gets “larger.” Around Halloween, we start to think about Christmas.

And saving for a down payment or paying off a large amount of debt takes time. You just may not be able to picture yourself completing this goal. Thinking it is never truly possible. Sometimes, these goals take years to complete. You have to visualize meeting this goal and feeling the feelings of completion. This empowers you to get to think that in real life. It can change your thoughts about your ability to complete your financial goals. Effectively changing our economic future.

Now, more than visualization is needed to change our thought process about money. It is a quick start to get the motivation necessary to move towards our goals, but it isn’t the only thing we need to do. We need to change our negative thoughts into positive ones, which I will cover next time.