4 Powerful Money Habits and Mindset Shifts to Increase Your Net Worth

Success is strongly correlated with our habits, behavior and our mindset on achievement.

Your subconscious thoughts around your ability to gain and keep money will either propel you forward into wealth, keep you stagnant or, worse, take you down a spiral of debt that could potentially lead to bankruptcy.

If you are not intentional with your mindset and your use of money, you will lose control. Here are some powerful habit and money mindset shifts to start working on today if you want to see your net worth grow.

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You’re focused on increasing your income, but not your budgeting strategy

Being in good financial standing is 90% mindset. This is why people win the lottery, then go broke within five years. In fact, one-third of lottery winners have declared bankruptcy in the United States.

Sure, increasing your income will give you added wiggle room for your spending but if you continue the same behaviors of the past, you’ll still find yourself living very close to or above your means. In addition to earning a livable wage, adopting good budgeting habits, and consistently revisiting your budget will go a lot further than increasing your income alone.

You look at your available credit as money available for you to spend

According to a survey on credit card preferences and habits conducted by The Ascent, approximately 52%

of respondents have maxed out their credit cards at one point or another.

Repeat after me: your credit card limit is not money you have to spend. You do not have this cash. If you cannot back up a purchase with cash, do not spend it on a credit card, unless there is an emergency.

Not only are you entering a vicious cycle of spending, and paying down, and spending again, but you are also causing damage to your credit score.

Instead, what I do is use my credit card only for like large purchases that I already have the cash for, and immediately pay back the credit card. This way, I do not increase my credit card debt, my credit score is happy, and I gain travel points.

By the way…

The same goes for using your friends as credit cards. You know that friend that always says they’ll cover you and you can just pay them back later? While well intentioned, that friend is enabling your poor behavior. Ask them politely that they stop offering to cover for you so that you are not tempted to agree.

You‘ve placed a ceiling over your earning potential

I have a friend who took a $10k pay cut to a $30,000 salary job. During a conversation, she expressed that she only needed to figure out a way to make $10,000 more a year in order to live comfortably. She set a mental limitation that she only needs $40,000 a year.

Behaviors are reflections of our thoughts, and you attract what you focus on.

Her mind will subconsciously steer away from opportunities that allow for more than her ceiling.Not only did she place a limit on her income potential, but she also placed limitations on her dreams and desires.

She couldn't even imagine an elaborate trip or the home of her dreams, because she’d limited all her desires to what could be achieved with a $40k salary.

If you want abundance, focus your mind on abundance. If you want scarcity, focus your mind on scarcity. Instead of focusing on needing X amount per year to survive and live comfortably, focus on infinite earnings potential.

You created a script that you are poor

A mental script is an algorithm you have created for yourself, or that could have been implanted in your mind by hearing the same dialogue over and over again. This algorithm is embedded in your subconscious mind and your behaviors are what come out on the other end of the equation.

If you came from a poor family and tell yourself that you are poor, you will continue behaviors that will keep you poor. Instead of telling yourself that you are poor, reprogram your mind by repeating over and over that you are wealthy, you attract money, you are good at managing money, and your income is on the rise.

When you tell yourself this enough times, your subconscious mind rewrites your algorithm and your behaviors will shift to reflect the update in your software.

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Keep in mind, creating wealth isn ‘t about having more money. It is about the opportunities money can create, and what you can share.

“Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.” Franklin D. Roosevelt

If you posses a lot of money, you can lose it. If you posses a mindset of abundance and a strong locus of control, you can lose everything and gain it back.