Episode #45: The Money Mindset Secret Millionaires Use

Money mindset coaching has been a rising trend in the personal finance world for a while now.  While I think that some basic money mindset theories are part of a well rounded financial education, I worry that a lot of what’s out there can be really harmful to some people who are just starting their own financial literacy journeys.  

People who are trying their best to turn their lives around financially don’t always know where to start with this learning process.  When you’re in this place, it’s really easy to feel the pull of doing money mindset work to improve your financial situation because it seems like an easier place to start than dealing with the actual 1’s and 0’s of finance.  I see it marketed and pushed in a very predatory way on a lot of online learning channels, and wanted to address the potential risks of going all-in with money mindset work rather than pursuing a strong foundation of financial education.

Now before you click away because I’ve just massively offended you and your love of mindset work, it’s completely okay if you enjoy doing money mindset work.  I actually agree that some mindset work can be helpful to improve our thoughts and limiting beliefs around money, BUT what worries me is that many money mindset coaches are missing a very integral part of the equation to truly help people turn their financial situation around, and that important puzzle piece is teaching people how to actually manage their money in the real world.  Unfortunately, this omission will always keep people poor regardless of how much mindset work they’re doing. You can work on money blocks all you want, but if you don’t understand concepts like budgeting, values based spending, emergency funds, taxes, and investing, it’s going to be really hard to visualize your way to wealth.

Why Money Mindset Work Can Cause Problems

So, let’s get right to it.  Money mindset work as a whole isn’t a problem at all.  I actually think that it should be part of basic personal finance education because it can help you get over limiting beliefs that may be holding you back.  The problem that arises though is that a lot of money mindset work is taught as a panacea and magic cure all to peoples’ money woes.  ‘Bank accounts are empty?  That’s okay, just save this money chant to your tiktok account and you’ll magically start to receive money from the universe.’  But, it just doesn’t work like that.  Mindset work can be a part of all personal finance education, but it should be a relatively small part, because there are other more important, tangible finance skills to learn that will actually help you get your finances in order.  And this is the secret that millionaires use to get rich (as promised in the title).  They don’t just focus on money mantras, they put in the time and effort to acquire the knowledge that they need to effectively earn, save, invest, and multiply their money so that they can achieve true wealth.  

So, while doing money mindset work might help you get over that emotional block that’s been keeping you from asking for a raise for decades, most likely the thing that’s been keeping you all these years from achieving financial stability is that no one has ever taught you the actual skills you need to know how to manage your money properly.  There is little to no education in our young lives to give us the hard skills necessary to manage our money.  This means that a lot of people begin their adult lives at a huge disadvantage by not having learned any financial skills.  It doesn’t take long before bills start piling up, debts keep getting deeper, and people start spiraling with their money.  It creates a shameful identity of being ‘bad with money’ and ‘bad at math’ that makes it scary for a lot of people to go and seek out education about how to get better at managing their money.  

So, money problems and money shame exist through a big hole in our current educational system: Enter a money mindset guru (of questionable background) with a good sales page that includes promises of wealth without having to do the hard ‘math’ based work.  People unfortunately pull out their credit cards, take an online course, do lots of money meditation exercises, but still don’t see any direct returns in their bank account because they haven’t actually changed any of their financial management practices.  And this is my problem with the money mindset industry as a whole.  A lot of it has become predatory, and very little of it actually focuses on teaching the basic, core, personal finance skills that you need to learn and develop to effectively manage your own money.

I’ll say it again: the money mindset secret that actually millionaires use is learning the practical skills that they need to effectively earn, save, and grow their money using the financial systems and tools that we have available today.  

So, now that I’ve been the bearer of bad news and walked on the last hopes that you’ve been holding onto about getting your financial sh*t together,the question is, what SHOULD you be doing instead of enrolling with that money mindset guru who’s been emailing you for the past month? 

So What Should You Do To Improve Your Finances Instead?

Luckily, the answer to this question is pretty simple.  You need to seek out and consume educational resources that teach you tangible skills to manage your money.  You need to learn about concepts like saving, taxes, budgeting, negotiating, buying, selling, investing, and the list goes on, BUT you absolutely don’t need to learn it all at once.  

You definitely don’t need to worry about being ‘bad with math’ because most finance concepts actually rely very little on math to understand what steps you should be taking.  And you certainly don’t have to worry about being ‘bad with money’ because how can you expect yourself to be good with money if no one has ever taught you how before?  This is how you get good at something, you learn it, and then you practice it.

So, how do you start learning these tangible skills? I have some great resources that I’m going to share with you that will help you start to learn about managing your money the right way.  Books are a really great place to start.  Try to start by reading just one finance book a year and putting those lessons into practice.  Books like ‘the wealthy barber’ ‘the automatic millionaire’ and ‘smart women finish rich’ are all great places to start that are beginner friendly and relatively free from showboat-y financial jargon.  

After you’ve looked at a finance book, start to learn from finance educators online.  There are so many people who put out fabulous free information on this topic, because they legitimately see the huge gaps in our financial education, and they want to help you.  YouTube has some great finance channels.  Podcasts, Instagram, and tiktok, are also great places to find free finance lessons.  

Finally, if you need help pulling this sort of information together, putting it into action, and following through, I recommend taking a personal finance course.  Either in person or online. Find a course that covers the things you want to learn, and that ideally has someone available for you to ask questions from whenever you need more clarity.  You don’t have to go it alone on this learning journey.  Look for help from real teachers who are good at what they do, and whose job it is to help you get better at managing your finances.  

I truly believe that we should all be taught these things while we’re young, preferably while we’re still in school, BUT that’s not the case right now.  So, in the meantime, we all need to be responsible for our own financial education.  Remember, when you’re creating your own finance lesson plan, you can include a chapter on money mindset work, but make sure most of what you’re learning is rooted in tangible financial skills.  Also, anybody who comes across as a ‘guru’ might not be the best person to learn your finance skills from.

Linked Resources

Want to learn the first steps you should take you start managing your money? Take the quick quiz on the How To Adult School home page!

Want to learn more about managing your finances like an adult?  Sign up for the free back to basics beginner finance course.  

Instagram: How To Adult School on Instagram

Tiktok: How To Adult School on Tiktok

Youtube: How To Adult Show on Youtube

Podcast: How To Adult Show Podcast

NOTE: This page contains affiliate links that allow you to find the items mentioned in this episode and support the show at no cost to you. While this show may earn minimal sums when the viewer uses the links, the viewer is in NO WAY obligated to use these links. Thank you for your support!