Section Review — Know Thyself

Check out Episode 2 of our podcast Nourish Your Worth where we discuss this section and begin to explore the idea of connecting to your identity to understand your finances!

In the first section of the Financial Wellness book―Know Thyself―we invite you to explore some soft thoughts around personal finance. Soft thinking is more playful, spontaneous, unconstrained, and much less concerned with finding the “right” answer.

Did you know that your money mindset is set by the age of 7? I was raised in a family that didn't talk about money. It wasn't taboo to bring up the topic, but it was not something we discussed at length. This is typical for many families who did not grow up with wealth or were taught not to discuss such things in polite company. However, as an adult―especially in my chosen profession―I have learned that talking about money can benefit everyone involved.

As you develop knowledge around the psychology of money, we invite you to explore your unique cultural identity, strengthen your self-worth, and build goals for your future to connect your intentions to your financial actions. What's your money mindset?

The Currency of Time, Not Money

You can't buy time. You can't get more time. Time is the currency of life, and it is precious, but not in the same way that money is precious. With money, we want to quantify it and keep track of how much we have or don't have. We want to grab as much as possible before it runs out. You don't want to miss the train, but if you do, you want to get another as soon as possible.

Money is easy to measure. How much do you have now? How much did you make today? What does this mean for you? But what about measuring your life? How many hours did you work today compared to yesterday, last week, or last year? How many times did you smile at someone today versus last month or year? As human beings, our brains are hardwired to think about money for survival needs rather than hours (or minutes) that we could spend towards our quest for meaning. Why do our brains work this way?

What if we could give ourselves more time—time spent with our families and friends, doing things we love, and being productive members of society—by simply changing how we think about money? The overarching goal of Financial Wellness is to help you help yourself by informing you of ways to manage your money more efficiently, thus freeing up your time to pursue your quest for meaning.

Goal Setting

Goal setting is a process, not an event. We encourage you to make goals to satisfy both human needs of survival and meaning. Planning goals establish measurable and time-sensitive objectives that allow you to take calculated risks and achieve optimal results. Since you can't achieve a goal unless you know what it is and how to achieve it, let us guide you through some of the basics of managing personal finances so you can formulate goals that improve your financial well-being.

The trick is to find a good balance of goals that are achievable but challenging. If they're all too easy, they won't motivate or inspire you, and they'll feel like meaningless chores instead of accomplishments. If they're all too hard, this will only cause frustration and feelings of failure—not exactly the stuff that dreams are made of! But how do you find that perfect balance between difficulty and ease?

It's all about creating a mix of goals that span the difficulty spectrum and address the different things that you care about most in life. It’s a good idea to include some goals you know you will achieve so that you can continue to build confidence in your abilities and engage with your progress. It can also be effective to have goals that may not be achievable but encourage you to believe you can reach farther than you would have thought. Afterall, you will rarely reach heights that you don’t set out to. Setting intentions through goals is about your aim, not always your endpoint. It’s perfectly fine to adjust your expectations in the future or try something else that suits you better.

The majority of your goals should be somewhere mid-range: challenging without being overwhelming; ambitious but not impossible; specific and also flexible; and realistic yet aspirational. The best way to make goals worth sticking to is by taking time to reflect on your values and priorities in life. This will help you determine what truly matters most to you and what steps to take to achieve those most important to your happiness (and success).

You are Awesome. Own it.

When it comes to money, there's a lot of shame and insecurity. It's easy to think that the value you bring is equal to what you make, but the truth is that money isn't everything, and life is unpredictable. You are doing your best, and reading this article is a step toward learning new finance skills. There should be no shame in your finance game.

It's simple: you are awesome. You are worth a lot. Your money is not everything, and it doesn't define your value as a person, but there will be times when you don't feel like this, or you believe that what you make isn't good enough for someone else's standards.

That's okay; we all have days when we doubt ourselves and feel like we aren't enough. But remember, when it comes to money, there should be no shame in your finance game. Know your worth! Did you know there was a simple way to measure your worth in financial terms? It's called net worth and is a simple calculation of taking the value of everything you own and subtracting the value of everything you owe. Setting goals or an intention around improving your net worth can help your feel more confident and secure in your finances!

Go ahead, attach some of your goals around your finances and project your net worth over five, ten, and even twenty years. As you see your net worth grow, you'll soon feel the confidence that a plan for spending, saving, and investing your money will bring.

Conclusion

It's time to get to know thyself through exploring your unique cultural identity, strengthening your self-worth, and building goals for your future to connect your intentions to your financial actions. You are worth it; your future selfie thanks you.