The biggest mistake people make with money is not what you think.
It’s not about spending, saving or investing.
It’s not about budgeting or debt.
There are financial implications to all the above, but they are the results of of your behaviour.
The biggest mistake people make with money is not understanding what drives their money behaviour.
Why does this matter?
Because money touches every part of our lives and we can’t avoid interacting with it. Ten thousand years ago, money didn’t exist. Everything we needed was provided through the communities we lived in. Now, we use money to provide everything we need.
And our financial lives are getting more complex and less certain.
But almost nobody has ever been shown how to understand or manage money. And when we try, we focus on how money works.
But we’re looking in the wrong place. We’re looking at the engine, not the driver.
The key to understanding money behaviour is understanding where behaviours come from. You can’t change a behaviour when you don’t know what’s driving it. And it won’t fix itself.
When you understand what drives your money behaviour, you can make different money choices.
You can choose outcomes that make the future easier, not more difficult. Outcomes that reduce suffering rather than increase it. Paths that take you towards the person you want to be, rather than away.
As well as better outcomes, you also build a sense of agency. And that’s really important.
The two biggest stressors for humans are uncertainty and lack of control. And that’s where most of us are with our finances.
If that sounds like you and you want to change, get in contact and find out how. Changing your money behaviour is really hard when you don’t know what’s driving it.
To explore your money behaviour, let’s start with a chat.
If you want to explore money behaviour with your clients, please get in contact.
