What Is Your Relationship With Your Savings?

Savings is an important aspect of your relationship with money. You may earn a lot of money, but if you don't have a strong money mindset, you may not actually save any of it. You may spend everything that you earn and potentially even have debt around that, too. For that reason, saving is a good indication of the strength of your relationship with money.

I want you to keep in mind that we all have what's called a mind-body connection around savings. What this means is that you currently have certain beliefs around savings and you also have certain feelings and emotions about savings.

A good way to find out what those feelings and beliefs are is by answering a few quick questions: 

1.  How much do you have currently in savings?
   Make a mental note of that.
   
   
2. How much would you like to have in savings?
   And particularly note if there's a gap between what you have and what you'd like to have.
   
   
3. The third part is, based on where you are right now, so you know, your current level of income, wherever you are in life, how much do you think you should have in savings?

So potentially, there is an expectation gap between what you'd like to have and what you think you should have, and where you are right now. 

Now, in reflecting on these questions, what feelings or beliefs have popped up to you?

One thing to note is some people are more feeling-dominant and some people are more thought-dominant - this means some people will react with emotions straight away and other people will start to process it in a logical manner. If that's the case for you, that means you're more thought-dominant.

As you’ve read these questions, particularly how much you have in savings right now versus how much you think you should have, how does that make you feel? Do you feel really happy with where you're at? Or do you feel disappointed, maybe even embarrassed, maybe angry? What feelings start to pop up? Does it stir anything up within you? Do you wish you were in a better place than where you're at?

The other way to reflect on this is to think about your thoughts or your beliefs around it.

A good way to work out what those beliefs are is to ask, well, what does this say about me? So if I only have this much saved, but I really think I should have x amount, or double what I've got, then what's that saying about me? Why is it that I'm not doing as well as I think I should be?

These are examples of the different thoughts and beliefs that you might have around savings.  

You may feel you're happy with savings but need to grow your income. That's why I talk about the six types of money, because you might find that you're really strong in one area but not so strong in another area, and it's really that combination of all the different types of money that shows you how strong your overall relationship with money is. We're seeking to have balance across all of the types, so that's why I'm going to cover all of them in the next few videos.

The significance of savings is that it actually speaks to how safe and secure you feel in the world. If you've faced a lot of disappointment or sadness or loss in your life, then chances are you're more highly likely to struggle with savings overall. What tends to happen is because you've held onto those feelings and they run through your nervous system, you would build your habits for savings around those feelings and those beliefs of disappointment and sadness. What we’re doing is to set up these habits that are counterproductive, but we do it as a way of giving ourselves a reminder that life is hard. If your life was really tough when you were younger, you may set up these habits that will keep you stuck in those emotions.  

Are you someone who is really disciplined and with every pay check you put something aside, whether that's a set amount or a percentage? Or are you a person who just saves what's left over, if there is anything left over at the end of your pay cycle?

Are you one of those people who doesn't even bother with savings, perhaps because you've got debts, so any spare money goes back to debt repayment? Which category describes you?

One thing I want you to realize is that even if, right now, you have bad habits around savings, there are things you can do to turn that around.

How do you break the cycle? Well, there are really two things that you have to do.

1. Improve your mindset around savings. Let go of all those past feelings of disappointment and loss, and once you're able to do that then you’re ready for step two.
   
   
2. Effectively change your habits: build practical and productive habits around savings.

People will often ask me, "Well, which comes first?" I tend to like to focus more on the mindset first, but in some cases, it's a bit like if you want to get into better shape, and people ask, "What's more important, diet or exercise," the answer is both, so start with what's easier, because one will cause the other follow.

We could go on and on over all of the mindset elements but this would turn into a book rather than a blog post. So what I'll suggest, is that you actually start by changing a really simple habit. If you haven't saved before or you'd like to improve your saving habits then next time you get paid, whenever that is, think about an amount of money or a percentage of money that you'd like to put aside. It doesn't need to be a super-stretch goal, because if you stretch it too far at this stage, then you're likely to be setting yourself up for failure and you won't do it.

Keep it really small, whether that's, fifty dollars or ten dollars, the point is we want to set up a habit. By setting up this habit, when you come to work on the mindset, you'll have a grounding of self-belief that you can actually make the changes because you will have started to apply some of the discipline around saving an amount of money, and again, the amount is irrelevant, it's the habit that we want to set up here.

If that's something that you're happy to do, just drop me a comment below, or if it's quite personal to you and you don't want to publicly broadcast it then feel free to shoot me a message and just share with me what you're going to put aside and how you'll change the habit.

Stay tuned for the next type of money: debt.

To your success,

p.s. Whenever you're ready to experience a massive money mindset breakthrough, here's how I can help you: 

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