In this episode, Klaudia delves into the essential practice of reflecting on your financial wellbeing.
From understanding your money scripts to visualising your future self, learn about practical strategies to enhance your financial awareness and empower you to make informed money decisions to contribute to your happiness.
Tune in to listen to the 3rd and final episode of this month’s Happiness Challenge of How much money makes us happy?
Klaudia Mitura: Hello, happiness seekers. My name is Klaudia. Welcome to the third and final part of the happiness challenge for this month of reflecting on the relationship between money and happiness. This month's happiness challenge has been inspired by Peter Komolafe, the author of Money Basics and a financial coach and speaker who in episode 114, shared his practical tips for creating more financial wellbeing.
I have learned through this [:
My first insight was that it took much longer than expected. I really thought I could just sit down and in a couple of hours have all my answers, but actually it took me a few goes to collect the right numbers and to make decisions and really reflect on the questions like, what is my financial situation now? What I would like it to be. What are the key financial goals for the next 12 months?
And I have done a similar exercise in the past. So, I have my old good spreadsheets set up with all the numbers and key information, but still took me a little bit more time than expected. So, I guess my tip number one is that set aside more time than you think you need.
research about beliefs about [:
The truth is that our subconscious beliefs had a very strong impact on our behaviours in relation to money. So, researchers call these beliefs, money scripts, and we develop these in childhood on the basis of our observations of adults around us dealing with money. And researchers have distinguished four money scripts.
First one, money avoidance. So, if you have the script, you believe that the root of all evil is money, and you associate it with greed and corruption. You tend to feel undeserving of money and guilty for desiring it. And this behaviour can result in unhealthy financial decisions, such as living in denial of financial situation or not budgeting and engaging with money.
appens when you believe that [:
A third script, money status, happens when you believe that your self-worth is tied of how much money you have. Which tends to lead to competition, constant comparison of wealth and very much can lead to anxiety about money.
And the final script money diligence is that when you are diligent about money, you tend to resonate with some of the statements, such as if you can't pay cash, don't buy it.
again, be quite stressed and [:
What struck me about these money scripts is that they are not positive and it's not that we should be aiming for one script avoiding the other. So, I guess the idea is to understand which manuscript you have and try to recognize it, how it drives and influences your financial decisions.
So, my idea for action here is to write down your recent financial decisions, and ask yourself, which money script is maybe driving these. And to be honest, when I looked at this, I'm definitely money avoider. I always think there is never enough money. And only by very much conscious effort, I started to budget and improve my financial skills.
So here we go. What script do you have?
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There are apps which can help you to budget and keep track of your saving goals and they are apps that can monitor your spending on the go and do not allow you to overspend, which is, I think is brilliant. So, my second tip here is that take advantage of technology when it comes to finances, because it can really make the process more fun, but also much more achievable and realistic in day-to-day life.
final one is that me and my [:
ate when it comes to saving, [:
And the answer is we are not very good at imagining our future self. I mean, it's really vague and abstract for our brain to think, well, I'm currently 37, but at some point, I will be 80 and how that will look like. So, in one study, for example, participants were asked to interact with their future selves via virtual reality programs, and those who did that were more likely to put aside money for their hypothetical retirement fund.
re. What helps me is kind of [:
Can money buy us happiness? Well, fascinating topic. Wealth cannot really substitute and cannot be a substitute for other important aspects of our life. However, as my guest, Peter Komolafe was stressing, having money allows us to make life choices out of freedom rather than necessity.
So, what we need to be thinking about is how does money can help you to create the world, the life, the freedom, the happiness you want.
Thank you [:
Let me know your insights. You can find me on LinkedIn under Klaudia Mitura. And remember to subscribe to my newsletter to get some extra content. I'll see you at the next episode. Bye.
