Beliefs are our conclusions about what we have seen, heard, and experienced. They may be accurate or not, but they are still our beliefs and we build our behaviors on them. Our money beliefs or ” misbeliefs”govern our financial choices and patterns.

Sometimes our beliefs are in line with those who have influenced us, like Monica, and sometimes we take the opposite extreme and vow to never live like we did when we were children, as Nancy did.

Nancy, brilliant and creative, was raised by a tight-fisted mother who always undergave. Nancy was embarrassed by her mother’s seeming selfishness. She made a private vow to be generous. As an adult, Nancy launched a pattern of excessive gift-giving. She was continually surprising friends and family with unexpected gifts, even though she couldn’t afford them. Her credit card debt was out of control, jeopardizing her family’s financial health. Nancy is dynamic and passionate about life, and it is easy to picture her spontaneously buying wonderful gifts for the people around her.

Life circumstances forced Nancy to realize that her belief in generosity at the expense of one’s own family was wrong. She faced it and corrected it. She built a new pattern of behavior and removed a great deal of internal as well as financial chaos from her life. She has found other ways to express her joy and love to people around her.

Our beliefs either help us or hurt us. It is important to determine what beliefs are governing you and supporting your patterns. Look over the following misbeliefs to spot those you have adopted. If you don’t find beliefs that resemble yours, ask yourself what misbeliefs you hold about money. The following is a list of common money-limiting beliefs:

Managing money is complicated (boring, tedious, frustrating, useless).

• A person needs to be good at math to be good with money.
• Others need my money more than I do.
• There will always be someone to take care of me.
• I’ll learn what I need to know about money when I have to.
• I’ve always managed on what money I have and I always will.
• I can do without.
• I wasn’t destined to have a lot of money.
• The rich are snobs.
• My friends would leave me if I earned more money than they did.
• Poor people know how to appreciate life more than rich people.
• I wouldn’t know what to do with extra money if I had it.
• You can’t have wealth and strong values at the same time.
• It takes a lot of money to invest.
• My debt is too big to do anything about it.
• I trust my husband to make good choices for me.
• Married women who insist on being in on financial decisions (like insurance and investing) don’t trust their partners.

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