5 Mental Shifts That Happen When You Develop a Positive Money Mindset

Going from having a negative money mindset to a positive one means you’re going to have to make some big mental shifts. I talk about some of them in this post. But here, I want to mention some of the mental shifts that happen after improving your money mindset.

Being aware of these kinds of shifts can make you more excited to do the work necessary to change your money mindset if you feel that the one you have isn’t serving you or allowing you to reach your financial goals.

5 Mental Shifts That Result from a Positive Money Mindset

1. You start to associate money with positive things.

   If you’ve been dealing with a negative money mindset, you’ve probably been associating money with negative things. For instance, you might have seen wealthy people as greedy. As a result, you might have felt greedy yourself if you ever thought about wanting more money, especially more money than you actually need to meet your daily needs.
   
   You might have also been dealing with doubts about your own ability to make money and manage it. But as you’ll see in #2, learning how to manage money well comes from having a positive money mindset.
   
   With a negative mindset, you may look at your own abilities when it comes to money and finances and see them as inadequate for what it would take to make more money and be able to manage it well. But a positive money mindset encourages you to believe in your ability to learn how to better manage your money and be open to receiving more of it.
   
   As you change your money mindset, you also start to see all the opportunities and possibilities that open up by having more money. You see how being financially free allows you to stop stressing about money. You see all the things it allows you to do, like travel more, go on nicer vacations, dine at fancier restaurants, and enjoy an overall better quality of life.
   
   And you see how having money allows you to be even more generous so that you can use your money to help others. For instance, you can do things like donate generously to your favorite causes and invest in businesses that share your values. When you start to see money positively, you want to have more of it in your life because you see the endless possibilities that come with it.

2. You shift from “How can I make more money?” to “How can I better manage my money?”

   One issue that often presents itself when it comes to money is that people often think having more of it will solve their problems, at least their money problems. But the truth is, having more money will only help with financial problems if you know how to manage it well.
   
   In his book Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, T. Harv Eker says that rich people are good at managing their money, a point I mention in this post. He actually says that this is one of the key differences between the rich and the not-so-rich. And being able to manage your money well is actually more important than the amount of money you have coming in.
   
   One reason people may have trouble managing their money is because they don’t care about it enough to take the time to learn how to manage it. These people may only view money as a necessity, as something to help them pay the bills. They’re not looking at all the beautiful possibilities money allows for. And this results in limiting beliefs like this one: “I’m terrible at managing my money.”
   
   All of this stems from not having a positive money mindset. With a positive mindset, you care about money so much that you want to learn more about it, how to receive more of it, and how to better manage it. So, with a positive money mindset, you start telling yourself things like, “I’m good at managing my money.” And in time, if you say it enough and really believe it’s true, it will become true for you because you’ll put in the work to make it true.

3. You shift from “How can I make more money?” to “How can I make my money work for me?”

   Often, when someone wants to start earning more money, they think about taking on another job. While that can help them earn more, it means they’ll have to work that much harder for the money they earn. But one of the things I learned in Robert T. Kiyosaki’s book Rich Dad Poor Dad is that the wealthy actually look for ways to make their money work for them.
   
   When you think about having to work extra hard for money, it may take some of the fun out of earning it. It may start to feel more like a chore than a pleasure. But when you find ways for your money to work for you, you realize that you can actually relax a little.
   
   You’ll probably still have to do some hard work up front before this happens, but eventually you can get to a place where your money comes to you even while you sleep. This is called passive income, and it’s pretty impossible to become wealthy without it.
   
   This is because, no matter how hard you work, if you’re always trading your dollars for hours, there will always be a limit to how much money you can make because there’s a limit on the number of hours you can work.
   
   But if you have money coming to you in the form of dividends from investments or interest from high-yield savings accounts, for example, you can be doing anything you want and still receiving money. A positive money mindset encourages you to seek out these other options.

4. You learn to see money as your friend.

   Some people might not feel comfortable saying something like this out loud. But improving your money mindset means you’re working on improving your relationship with money. And if you’re going to have a positive relationship with money, it helps to use a term that connotes positive feelings.
   
   Too many people see money as an enemy or something to be avoided, not discussed, and interacted with only when necessary. If you were to treat someone this way, you would ruin any chance you have of ever getting to know that person well. You would forever be filled with prejudice toward them, probably passed on from people who were prejudiced toward people like them.
   
   The same thing happens with money. Parents may pass on negative money mindsets to their children who continue to operate with those negative mindsets unless something or someone comes along and encourages them to change it. But when they change it, they realize what a wonderful resource money really is.
   
   You can use whatever term you feel most comfortable with to describe your relationship with money. But when you have a positive money mindset, you see that relationship as a positive one. If that makes you at all uncomfortable, you still have a lot of work to do to shift your money mindset.

5. You realize it was never really about the money.

   This is actually one of the ironic things that happens when you shift your money mindset. The thing is, you may see money as a way to move forward in your life. And you use money as a measure of how well you’re doing. But developing a positive money mindset is really about shifting the way you view the world and the way you view yourself.
   
   This is a concept I learned from the book Atomic Habits by James Clear. We often spend so much time focused on achieving a certain goal that we forget to pay attention to the journey on the road to achieving it. But the journey is what’s more important. Who you become on the road to achieving your goal is more important than reaching the goal itself.
   
   This is how it is with money. Sometimes people want to try to aim for a specific amount of money, but they fail to pay attention to the harm they may be doing to their health or character as a result.
   
   Instead, the aim should be to become the kind of person who can generate that kind of money. That requires patience, discipline, consistency, and trust—in both the universe or your Higher Power and yourself. These are the kinds of changes that can happen when you take the steps necessary to improve your money mindset.

Final Thoughts

Many beautiful things can happen when you develop a positive money mindset. I’ve only given you a list of five of them. But these five mental shifts should give you an idea of the benefits that come with this kind of mentality.

When you shift your money mindset, you learn to see money as your friend and you view it in a positive light. This encourages you to welcome more of it into your life without having to work so hard. And it encourages you to be kind to the money you do receive by learning how to manage it better. And, most importantly, you learn that the journey to shift your money mindset isn’t really about the money at all.

Now it’s your turn. What do you consider to be some of the mental shifts that can happen after you develop a positive money mindset?

~ Ashley C.

Note: The advice presented here is for informational purposes only. If you’re in need of professional financial advice, please see a qualified professional.

Last updated: June 21, 2024