Money. Dirty, sexy, scary, stressful money.
Budgets and finance aren’t really about how much money you have but rather they’re about how you feel about money. Early in life we form an emotional perspective about money and that emotional view stays with us throughout our lives and guides us through the financial choices and challenges we all face, but sometimes that make things confusing and stressful. Our core relationship with money impacts the important people in our lives, our relationships, and our careers too so understanding your own unique relationship with money can take you from fretting to freedom.
For example, we’ve all heard stories of someone wealthy who is cheap andappears to be anything but generous – they may not be unkind or miserly, but perhaps have a relationship with money based on fear.
Fear that it will be taken away, fear that something bad will happen to them because of their good fortune, or even fear that they aren’t really worthy of having earned it in the first place. While that person may have lots of money, they have a lot of emotional stress too.
Or how about that friend, partner, or maybe even you, that checks their bank balance every day and agonizes over making even small, unplanned purchases.
Your relationship with money may have nothing to do with a strict budget my may everything to do with needing control.