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Saving money is as mental as it is fiscal. Here are what the experts are saying about training your mind to stash more cash.
By Jasmine Browley·Updated April 9, 2024
If you’ve ever heard the adage, “mind over matter,” then you’re aware of how important it can be to practice mindfulness in every aspect of life. Finances are no exception.
About 70% of Americans shared they are mentally distressed or intimidated at the thought of managing their personal finances — and another 52% of U.S. adults said their financial stress has increased since before the Covid-19 pandemic began in March 2020, per the 2023CNBC Your Money Financial Confidence Survey.
If you fall into this group, fret not. There are tactics to get your finances in better shape, but your thinking patterns have to lead the way first.
Mind over money
The relationship with money woes and psychological anguish is extremely correlative. A litany of studies have suggested that financial insecurity can affect the brain, cortisol levels and increase stress markers. Quite literally, money issues can affect your mind, and the best way to conquer that fear is to come to an understanding about it.
Jacqueline (Jack) Howard has built a career around this. Howard serves as the Senior Director of Financial Health & Wellness, PR atAlly, the world’s largest digital-only. She says that our money mindsets, particularly Black people’s, are informed by financial flashpoints, which is essentiallymoney version of trauma.
Howard explained in a 2023 interview thatmoney scriptsare “essentially our subconscious beliefs about money that are rooted in your childhood.”
As ESSENCE previously pointed out, financial psychology expert Brad Klontz says these scripts fall into four areas:money avoidance,money worship,money status, andmoney vigilance.
“I lean towards money worship,” Howard admitted. “That’s where you think that money will essentially be the stabilizing force in your life. It’ll solve everything. I learned that from my mother. And my mother is deceased now, but I bet if she were alive, she’d say she’d say she received those same beliefs forhermother.”
As Howard points out, essentially, it’s important to understand how your early relationship with money shapes your current behaviors and what can be done to change it.
Flip the script
Once you’ve identified which script most aligns with your pathology and why it’s not serving you, flip it on its head. That can start with how you speak to yourself about money.
For example, much like me, if you’re the type of person that spends too much physical cash because its something you can touch and feel, you may have to adopt the “out of sight, out of mind” mentality by telling yourself “if I can’t see the money, I don’t have it spend.”
The way to put this into practice may come by way of implementing automated savings systems and ensuring that you can’t easily access the money. Arranging with your bank that a pre-set amount of money is transferred directly from your checking account into separate savings or retirement savings accounts is the most obvious way to do this, but taking a step further and putting withdrawal restrictions in place can be a good way to help yourself in the long run.
Time is money…literally
Another message you can tell yourself is how “time is money,” or think about how much time it took to earn the money you’re about to spend, and how much more time it would take to replace the sum.
For instance, if you earn $40/hour, and you’re contemplating ordering UberEATS that totals $37.50, tell yourself that you’re spending an hour of life on a meal. Dramatic I know, but drastic times call for drastic measures.
Using apps like Rocket Money and Oportun are easy ways to pull money into savings without even thinking about it.
Worthiness
It’s easy to detach yourself from your financial situation by avoiding your credit card statements or turning a blind eye to your banking alerts, but burying your head in the sand is only effective but for so long.
Reminding yourself of the life you deserve to live, and how much your financial situation doesn’t define your self worth is a necessary message in sparking your savings journey. Remember, although money isn’t everything, it can be the tool you can use to lead the life you want.
