I think our money mindset is a gift or a curse given to us by our
parents. Now as an adult and a parent I see how critical it is that I pass on
positive money habits to my daughter. I know in life kids will make their own
choices, but I am a firm believer that if good money habit seeds are planted
they will flourish. Let me explain a little bit about my life and when I
changed my money mindset.
I was raised in a single parent
household. According to most modern studies, this is a horrible beginning when
it comes to my possibility of becoming a millionaire. The American dream and
the possibility economic mobility declines in single parent households. My
father left our family when I was 5 years old. When I say "he left",
I really mean he went to prison. My mother was then left with 3 mouths to feed
and had been out of the workforce for almost 20 years. We also lived in the
poorest neighborhood in the north side of Long Beach California. This is what I
would call the trifecta of
guaranteed poverty. This is the foundation in which my money mindset was
formed.
I can recall an important
memory from my childhood that had lasting ramifications, even to this day. My
friends were going to see a new movie, it was the mid-90s and I don't remember
the movie, but I couldn't afford to go. Well my mother couldn't afford to give
me the money to go. When I asked her for the money, she said something that was
implanted onto my subconscious mind; she said "well if you had the money
you could have gone". As a kid I couldn't comprehend the financial
struggle my mother was in, but I did learn at that moment "Having Money =
Having Freedom".
By 10 years old I would try and
do anything to make a buck. Sometimes I wasn't proud of what I was doing but in
the big picture I was focused on making money. I would steal candy boxes from
the local grocery store and sell them at school. I would be a delivery boy for
older kids who sold weed. Sometimes legitimate work would come my way. I would
help friends who had lawn mowers mow their grass. I would help paint rooms,
garages, and even bicycles. Now this isn't the normal millionaire story of
"My first job I was a paper boy", but I think this is what makes my
blog unique from others. These early learning lessons help set the foundation
to my old money mindset.
This mindset of 'make money to
get freedom' carried me through most of my life. The problem with this mindset
was it had no long term vision. It was all about make your money and spend it.
The money would come in and it would be gone before I knew what happened. I
would constantly have too much month at the end of my money. As I got older
this mindset began to change because of certain of moments. Similar to the
childhood memory of my mom telling me money equals freedom, other life moments
created a little path to changing my money mindset. More about those in later
post.
