Top 10 Questions You Should Ask Yourself Around Money In 2022

“How you were glued together has everything to do with how you spend your money”.

Dr. Henry Cloud

Financial independence, financial stability, and financial security are words often said to depict what we wish for with our finances.

Unfortunately, it’s not the reality for many. Most people are in the woods.

With little mentorship and guidance around how to handle money, most of us get into a relationship with money unprepared.

As a result, we make mistakes and too costly mistakes at times but hey! Mistakes and problems are the portals to growth and success.

The biggest bummer for me was that financial literacy didn’t mean you’d have lots of money.

It only meant that you’re smarter with the way you handle your money in a way that makes the money work for you.

However, if one can avoid making these mistakes it would save them a great deal of time, energy, and money.

That being said, what would you say is your number one struggle with money?

I have listed a couple of questions that we should ask ourselves and a few that are FAQs that’ll help you make better decisions with your money.

Keep in mind that money is neutral, it doesn’t play favourites, it will respond in the way it is handled.

Key Questions to Ask

1. What makes us productive with finances?

Your money blueprint “Money is 80% behavioural and 20% technical skills”

I’m talking about your brain wiring, the neuropathways that make it possible for you to behave in such a manner without having to think it through.

To make it easier I renamed it to “Automatic money behaviours”

These automatic money behaviours or what we manifest are all rooted in our background.

The environment you grew up in shaped your beliefs around money and how you handle it in specific ways that are unique to you.

For instance, if money was never talked about but all “hush-hush” you’re probably uptight with holding an open discussion about the state of your finances, it almost feels like a “sin” when you do.

So, these early experiences you had were in the classroom and so if there’s anything to change, it’s the lessons learned from that classroom. That’s what you need to deal with.

Your caregivers’ perspective on the different elements of money i.e. Budgeting, debt, spending, saving, and payments has a huge influence on the way you approach those elements.

What makes us productive with money isn’t the activities that generate money in isolation but it is a combination of the money blueprint (internal systems/behavioural) you have as an individual and the practices (external systems) that makes it work.

As an individual, you can make money, you have been resourced with gifts to enable you to make a life for yourself.

There’s nothing wrong with you, it’s just the program that was installed inside of you that controls your behavior.

2. Why are finances such a tricky space for some of us?

I am not in any way trying to make this sound easy as many of us strive with the issue of finances but I have discovered the following as I have tried to make sense of my own financial situation.

It all has to do with:

1. Upbringing which formed the basis for our core beliefs about money. We try to either live according to what we saw or against what we saw with the hopes of creating a different reality. Either way, we’re aiming for something.

2. Society and culture lie to us that we should always have and make money and without it, we’re floundering. In fact, money is a determinant of self-worth which has corroded people’s esteem.

3. Peer influential forces. It is true that your net worth is connected to your network. Your company greatly influences your finances. We sharpen each other either in the right or wrong way.

The point is to discover what you want out of life and sometimes that means changing the kind of people that surround you.

From the 3 points above there’s a common thread which is that they’re all emotionally linked.

Emotions are involved and that means our money is linked to our emotions. Saying we should only be cognitive about it is the tip of the iceberg.

So much of it lies in the field of emotions which is what makes finances a tricky space.

3. Why do we go for the money and not for purpose?

Because we have been prepared to believe that having money is the goal of life.

That money brings happiness, with money you can have the kind of life you want to have.

Whereas it’s true that money can afford you a lifestyle you desire, it’s not true that money gives you happiness because money cannot change you.

It only amplifies what’s in you.

Money takes the position that purpose is meant to have but money will never play that role well enough because only purpose can bring true fulfillment and joy.

4. What keeps me from financial prosperity?

It boils down to two major mindsets i.e. scarcity mindset and the abundance mindset.

The scarcity mindset is where all fears/woes abound.

So any fear you have around money dwells in the land of scarcity mindset whereas any faith/confidence you have around money dwells in the land of the abundance mindset.

The scarcity mindset says there isn’t enough and so I have to grab, hoard, pinch out a little, little to no giving.

The abundance mindset says there’s more than enough for everyone. In fact, the more I give, the more is given back to me.

See the difference? The 2 are exact opposites of each other and each motivates someone from the inside to act out in ways that demonstrate the dominating belief systems.

To list out common money fears, I’ve shared a link from a Kenyan blogger that does an incredible job of bringing out those fears and describing each well.

Check out this link for the common money fears https://www.money254.co.ke/post/10-common-money-fears-and-how-to-overcome-them-money-psychology

5. Why do I think that having more of it will solve my problems?

It’s an illusion we pursue. We pursue it because of once again what we have been prepared to believe about money.

Just think about it, from all the television shows to movies you have consumed since childhood, they all made you believe in the fairy tale story of life is good with money.

No wonder the hot pursuit of money.

But that is not the whole picture. Life has so much more in it and money is just a part of it.

I love a quote from the famous actor Jim Carrey where he says “I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it’s not the answer.”

Hearing that from a person who has had what so many of us chase, I think we should heed those words.

Whereas money will make you look glamorous on the outside, it doesn’t change your poor spending habits or your poverty mentality, money only magnifies it.

We need to quit making excuses for bad behaviour and do the work of finding out the real cause of the financial problems we have in life.

6. How do I make more money?

Money should ultimately do one thing: serve.

Money responds to a purpose, it attends and finds its place where there is a vision and purpose. That’s when it's most useful.

So we should pursue things of service or that are service-oriented in nature. How do we find that?

We need to find that which we’re willing to be submitted to or to be of service to.

What are you convicted of within yourself that is needed in today’s society? What problems compel you to action? What excites you enough to make you restless? That’s the key to finding your place of service.

You are a solution to someone’s problem somewhere.

Work towards finding what that is and the resources needed to make it possible will come because that’s a law of the universe. That’s the way God has set things to happen.

7. How soon do I need to start saving for retirement?

I would say “20 years ago”, meaning that the next best time to start financial discipline is now.

The key is to have financial discipline in its different elements such as saving, budgeting, investments, living within your means, cutting out comparison, and having SMART goals for your money.

Aim at that and not just making money for the sake of it.

8. How much should I have in an emergency fund?

It is said that 6 months’ worth of your most critical expenses should amount to your emergency fund savings.

I won’t add to this only that having an emergency fund that can cover costs such as inflation and interest rates e.g., a fund with not less than 100k is a good base.

9. Does my personality influence my relationship with money?

The answer is a resounding YES!!!

Your personality does and that being said means that you need to take a personality test to find out who you are and then take a money personality test to get more accurate.

The link provided outlines the different money personality types out there https://www.money254.co.ke/post/the-7-money-personality-types-money-psychology

10. Why do I feel stuck in my finances?

The answer is straightforward- you’re not learning and making changes.

Learning comes from self-awareness and self-awareness happens when faced with a problem that poses a question to the individual about the aspect of life that’s in trouble.

That’s why we say problems are good, they are breakthroughs in disguise.

You and I need awareness of the things that are plaguing us from within and choose differently from what we chose in the past.

It’s also true that your finances are a reflection of your belief systems about money and yourself.

So whatever state you find yourself in financially, a lot of it has to do with what you believe about money and yourself.

NB: I’m not talking about conscious money belief systems but the subconscious ones. The ones running in the background of your mind controlling what you see as outward behavior.

subconscious

The key is to find out what programs are operating in your subconscious because in so doing, you will make foundational changes that will result in lasting fruit.

The key is always you

The more you understand yourself, the more you will succeed with your finances.

Sometimes what keeps us from prospering in our finances is having the wrong goals.

An example of a wrong goal is “I should always be making money” and so you plunge yourself into situations where you have to make the money but the truth of the matter is, all you need is the knowledge of good money practices and the implementation of it.

As a side note, I want to include the disempowerment that a vast majority of young adults' face before winding this up.

By the time an individual is landing their first job, they’re too disempowered to negotiate terms of employment because all their life they have heard that a job is the gateway to a successful life.

So in all their endeavours, the point is to keep the job no matter what a grind it is.

Luckily, this generation is more informed and there are more options for the kind of job a person can do but there’s still a significant no. of us that still feel there isn’t much that they can do to direct their careers or to improve their status at work.

Hence, we end up settling for less.

In my case, financial independence was everything and it came through having a job.

That’s the way you earned respect.

In my mind, it was very clear that I had to do everything to find and keep the job but what that did to me is that I lowered myself and elevated the job so that I couldn’t become a threat to it.

That meant saying yes to nearly everything. The worst thing about this is that I couldn’t tell the difference between an unhealthy workspace from a healthy one.

Some of us may have had to start from there because the circumstances at home were terrible but that doesn’t mean we should continue settling for mediocre.

Some of us think we need to do hard and odd jobs because that’s what we saw our parents do so that we could get a meal but their reasons for doing it were purely for survival and not because they wanted it to be that way but we learn more from observation than anything else.

And so we go about thinking that the only means to get money are hard ways.

We are convinced that we must strive, sweat, and toil to get the money but that creates animosity between you and the job that brings in the income.

The lesson learned becomes counterproductive towards money.

It will take some time to undo the wrong learning but the key is to become aware of what’s eating you from the inside and then course correct.

That’s why we need to look out for what we’re passing down, especially non-verbal communication because many a time what is caught was completely unintended.

Some decisions you may have to make as a result of the awareness you have gained will cost you.

It might mean costing you a job but you know what you’re fighting for. You’re fighting for financial wellness and that is something worth fighting for.

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