Unique Relationship with Money

Hello everyone, and thank you for taking the time to read this blog post. I know you’re all very busy, so I’m really appreciative of the fact that you’re taking the time to join me right now. In today’s blog post, we’re going to talk about a relationship. There are a lot of relationships out there, but we’re going to focus on a particularly unique one.

We’re going to discuss your (and my) relationship with money. In my line of work, I coach a lot of people not just on business but also on life, and I’ve come to realize over the past 12 years that many people have a relationship with money that is very unusual, distinct, or unique. When it comes to the relationship that everyone has with money, there is such a vast spectrum.

With that in mind, we’re going to talk about five things to think about regarding people and their relationships with money. There might not be as many nuggets of “do this” or “do that” as you might have come to expect in my blog posts. However, just thinking about these things is very valuable. It’s important to think about how your mind works in relation to money.

It’s important to find out how you feel when you talk about money and personal finances. And, as an entrepreneur, it’s just as crucial to figure out how you feel when you get into your business metrics and your business numbers. So, to that end, here are five things to think about when you explore your relationship with money.

1) Culture-

The first thing to consider here is the culture you grew up in. I live in Houston, Texas, and one of the things I love most about this city is that it’s one of the most diverse places in the world. People here come from all different backgrounds. There’s a huge Hispanic culture in Houston, in fact, I married into a Hispanic family.

That’s just one example, but in that specific case you’d ask yourself how your Hispanic culture influences your view of money? Of course, there are subsets within Hispanic culture based on what country you’re from that create even more specific influences on your view of finances, so that would be something to consider as well. Whatever your culture, these are all extremely helpful questions when it comes to discerning how it has shaped the way you see money.

2) Education Level-

Your education level can be a huge factor in how you view money, so you really have to ask yourself how it influences the way you look at it. This is a particularly interesting thing because the answer isn’t always what you might expect. Sometimes people who are highly educated don’t have the greatest relationship with money, whereas someone who’s not traditionally educated might have a better one.

High levels of education don’t necessarily mean you have a good relationship with money, and the reverse is also true. For example, you might be a medical doctor and yet have a really interesting relationship with money even though you’re extremely educated in a certain field. Whether you’re someone who didn’t graduate from high school (many entrepreneurs I work with are in that category) or you received some kind of advanced degree, this is an excellent question to ask yourself.

3) Parents/Grandparents-

This potential source of influence pertains to your parents, grandparents, or guardians; or, in other words, whoever raised you. This probably has the greatest impact on our relationship with money, and certainly our culture and education level can fit into it as well. However, you have to take it a step further here and ask yourself how the people who raised you view money?

Did they argue about money? Was it something they discussed, or was it something they never talked about? Was there constant financial stress, or were things usually comfortable? Did they have their own entrepreneurial business where you learned how money worked in a business capacity, or were they employees?

Was there a budget that you knew of, and did you guys play board games like Monopoly where you learned about money? These are all things to consider when you’re trying to figure out how your parents or guardians influenced your relationship with money.

4) Entrepreneur/Employee-

Most of my readers are entrepreneurs, but some might be salespeople, sales professionals, general managers, or employees. In that case, you have to consider how being an employer versus an employee has impacted your relationship with money. As an employee, you might view money in a particular way, just as you might see it a certain way as an entrepreneur. Or maybe you’re an entrepreneur and you have your own business but you think more like an employee. So just think about how your work situation or career effects the way that you view money.

5) Risk Tolerance-

There are many things that I’ve learned through working with the myriad of people that I have. One of those things is that, generally speaking, there’s a level of risk tolerance that we all have, and it varies from person to person. Some people are averse to risk while others don’t mind taking them at all.  So you have to ask yourself what your risk tolerance is and how it impacts your view of money. Do you like to take massive risks? Are you someone who gambles, or you someone who wants a sure thing? There’s not necessarily a right or wrong answer when it comes to this. However, you have to figure out where you are in that regard and how it shapes your relationship with money.

Conclusion

These five elements are absolutely crucial because they impact how you run a business. So when we do workshops on knowing your financial numbers, planning a quarterly, and having a budget, you have to dig into your psychology a bit, or your relationship with money, in order to get great results. Because of that, I just wanted to put a little teaser out there to get you thinking about the way you view money and the things that have shaped it. Hopefully this will allow you to think about what you might need to do to improve your relationship with money.

Of course, making improvements in any area of life can be challenging. If you need anything, whether it’s assistance in improving your relationship with money, sales help, business consulting, or sales coaching, we at EntreResults can help. Feel free to give us a call! In the meantime, have a better than amazing day!