Who Taught Us about Money?

We all carry with us a certain understanding and certain beliefs in relation to money. Our money habits are basically extensions of all these beliefs. Likewise our financial results are a reflection of what we believe in and the money habits that manifest from them. You will realise that whatever financial results we have achieved right now such as our net asset worth, our annual earnings, our savings; all come from the financial decisions we made in the past and habits that we carry. Theses financial decisions and money habits we have come from one source…our money beliefs. So if you want to change your financial results you have to go to the source; you have to change your money beliefs.

Whom did we learn these money concepts and where does our money beliefs from? Our parents can also be the single most important influence on money. Although they don’t sit down and teach us, we absorb what they tell us, how they behave or think and this knowledge form the basis of our money beliefs and values.
What about our education? Well we all know that the only thing that school does for us is to prepare us to go out there and look for a JOB. But this is powerful enough to stick into the mind of a lot of people that carries with them what we refer to as the “job-mentality”,such as something is wrong with you if you don’t have a job.

The conversation over the family dinner actually has a great impact on a child’s subconscious mind. What your parents say to one another over dinner and how they say it can greatly influence you.

We all know such sayings as “Money is the root of all evils” and “Money does not grow on trees.” Where did we hear this? From our parents!

Of course they say this to us with good intention. Our parents always want the best for us! When our parents say, “Money does not grow on trees,” they mean we must take care of money and not waste it.

The flip side of this is that you believe you have to work very hard to get money. Our parents reinforce this belief by repeating that if we want to be very successful, we have to work very hard. Perhaps more importantly, we should work smart and effectively rather than just working hard to create wealth.

However, these beliefs picked up early on become ingrained into our minds, shaping our habits and action. While all of us do have the intention to improve our financial situation, we find that at times we are unable to do so. This can be due to our own beliefs. So we strongly suggest that you go back to your younger days, review and evaluate the source of your values and beliefs. Why do you think the way you think now or why do you do what you do today?

Is it because of your past? The environment that you grew up with could have influenced you and your current beliefs. Remember what you believe in, you become. This is what we call “self-manifestation”. If your values and beliefs are stopping you from achieving your dreams, then you may first need to do something about them. You may need to “undo” your current negative beliefs or values and reprogramme or recondition your mind .

Everything, whether you aim for the moon or dream of becoming financially free, the intention comes from your mind. Therefore some of the limitations can be from your inner constraints. When you have an intention and become emotional about it, this will lead to actions and results. But if your intentions are limited because of your conflicting emotional values and beliefs, you are not able to take necessary actions and achieve what you want to achieve.

It is said that you reap what you sow, therefore what you sow in the mind, you reap in your life. Your outer world always reflects your innermost beliefs and values. So understand your own money beliefs and values and do what you need to do to remove any inner constraints that are stopping your intentions from becoming actions and results.

Discarding Negative Money Beliefs

Therefore before anything else, you must first examine your beliefs about money and wealth. Just like you, we too thought that working hard is crucial to being successful. We were programmed to believe that our success relies on hard work.

However, as we progressed in life, and our network expanded and as we are more exposed to what is happening around us, our eyes opened, and our mindsets shifted, we realised that rich people don’t necessarily work hard or at least not for a prolonged period. Instead, they leverage on others working hard for them. In fact, a lot of them don’t work at all!

So we went back and reevaluated our beliefs. If one of them, such as “You must work hard to create wealth,” may not be entirely true, then what about the others?

You need to look back and reevaluate your own beliefs. If working hard alone to create wealth is not the best way, then what is the best way? What about the other negative beliefs that you had. Do you need to discard all those beliefs?

One of the most powerful thing I learnt from Robert Kiyosaki was when he says “The rich does not work hard for money; they make money work hard for them”. This impacts me significantly and makes me realize that most people only know how to make money using time. The same goes with me; up to the point when I was studying under Robert, all my businesses were time based…my time. I was literally traumatized to realize that I have been working hard but really not that smart ….to the point I wrote my first book based on what I learnt. I wrote a small book which become a best seller; “Leveraging Time to create Wealth”. In that book I talk about the various types of income and which types does not rely on time.

So we still have a lot of people who cannot see how they can be financially successful without having to work hard and use time. So their constant excuse especially if they hold a full time job is; “No time …so how to make more money?”. If this belief does not change it will be difficult to change your financial results.