Write your money story

Contemplating one’s finances is not fun for many yogis. To get a better understanding of your attitude toward money, Kate Northrup in her book Money, a Love Story asks you to answer three questions:

1. What is your first money memory?
2. What is your number one financial frustration today?
3. Can you see a connection between your first memory and the financial situation you are in now?

This week I invite you to recall your earliest memories around money and reflect on how those memories might affect your subconscious ideas about money today. What kind of message did you get about money from your family? Was is “easy come, easy go”? Or “you have to work hard for every penny”? Or that “there is never enough”?

For example, in my formative years in Russia my dad was an engineer who worked for the city government. The economy was in poor shape and city government would withhold his salary for months. So even though he diligently went to work every day, my family had no idea when and how much he would get paid. This was the case for many workers at the time and people would put up with it because there were no other jobs. So the messages that I got from that time were “We never have money”, “You should expect not to be paid even if you work hard.” Then the financial collapse happened and money lost all value in Russia, which in my mind became “Spend money now, otherwise it will be worthless.”

I carried those ideas with me well into my adulthood, accepting as a given that I would work for free, never have savings and spend whatever came my way immediately. It took some serious effort to face those subconscious perceptions and change my attitudes and behavior. What is your money story? How does it impact your decisions and attitudes today?