The Money Fears #WealthWound and How to Overcome It

Do you have money fears? We all live with limiting beliefs, and most of us have had limiting beliefs around money and our ability to experience abundance. I refer to this as a #WealthWound, and you can take the #WealthWound quiz here to find out which of the five main beliefs are your current bottleneck.

Do you resonate with any of the following?

• I fear failure
• No matter how much I make I value work above everything
• The other shoe will drop
• Some day I could still lose it all
• I avoid looking at my money
• More money more problems
• I keep it all

These are all beliefs that stem from a Fear #WealthWound.

What Are Money Fears?

When you have fear around money, you experience fear related to money and finances. This usually manifests as feeling fear that money will go away, you’ll never have enough or you’ll never be in control.

They can manifest as:

• Fear about not saving enough, and not having enough money for retirement
• A lack of understanding of finances and wealth in general
• Fear of losing your job
• Fear that you won’t be able to work one day
• Fear that you’ll lose all of your money
• Afraid of having to take care of your parents
• Anxiety about not saving enough money for future expenses, like your child’s education
• Anxiety around talking about money with your partner
• Having to declare bankruptcy
• Fear of having your identity stolen
• Never being able to pay off your debt

Let’s dive deeper into a few of these…

Common money fears:

1. Fear that the Other Shoe Will Drop

This is sooooooo common, especially as an entrepreneur or business owner where you are responsible for your own income.

So many of my clients have experienced this fear, and I have as well to an extent. You’ll have a great launch or a great month of sales, and then immediately start feeling afraid you’ll never repeat the success again.

Or in the case of social success or Facebook ads, you feel like the abundance you have now will inevitably dry up.

I’ll talk more about courage below, but one question I would ask here is: so what if it does? There’s no limit to the number of things that can change in your life and business, and I know that’s scary. BUT, there’s also no limit to the number of ideas and pivots you can make! And it can get better and better and better…

Root of the fear

A lot of times, the money fear #WealthWound is rooted in either childhood experiences or the current economic climate. In more rare cases, money fear might be more pathological (financial disorders such as compulsive hoarding or spending).

The impact of fear

People who experience fear about not having money and abundance struggle to make decisions about their finances. Sometimes that becomes avoiding dealing with money altogether. (Read more about the avoidance #WealthWound here.)

Or, they may go the opposite route and be a little obsessed with their career, always afraid the other shoe will drop.

Alternatively, they may feel like they’re always behind. Or will “never be able to catch up”.

2. Fear of Success or Failure

For a lot of people, this fear manifests in the form of anxiety. But, there are other types of fear associated with money as well. For example: your money anxiety may cause both fear of success and fear of failure.

Fear of failure (and success) is related to the fear of waiting for the other show to drop.

Fear of success is the feeling that achieving certain goals will bring unwanted attention from others. Or, that it won’t be possible to maintain the lifestyle attained once achieving those goals.

Fear of failure may lead individuals to not take risks. A lot of my clients, for example, might hesitate to sell something because they’re afraid it won’t sell. Or you might be afraid to change jobs for a higher salary because you’re afraid you won’t measure up in some way.

This can also manifest by being afraid to be more intentional with your money. You may avoid things like budgeting or making financial decisions out of fear that your decisions will fail.

3. Fear of Loss of Control

Lastly, another super common fear is the fear of not feeling a sense of control. And/or being too dependent on others for financial security. This leaves people with money fears feeling powerless when it comes to making any changes in their financial lives.

All of these are destructive.

The fear is causing behaviors that are making you feel safe. But, the problem is that they also prevent you from taking the actions you need to take to become abundant!

The Antidote to Money Fears: Courage

The antidote to fear around money is building courage and trust.

Courage helps you manifest by replacing fear with deep trust and positive expectation.

When we first learn to achieve goals, we go after them with action. And this obviously works. But unfortunately, we rarely learn the balance of how to lean back and receive.

This takes courage, because it requires trusting your life, and not always knowing outcomes.

Having courage means making decisions based on what we truly want, regardless of the potential outcome – knowing the best outcome is coming. Being courageous also helps us stay in alignment with our values and purpose, ensuring that we are living a life of integrity and meaning. We become more creative and open to taking risks which opens up opportunities for growth and learning.

It encourages us to remain resilient in the face of not knowing. Ultimately, courage is all about believing in your life enough to go forward despite any uncertainty or obstacles you may encounter along the way.  It helps you manifest by replacing a fearful mindset with one of hope and positive expectation.

Mindset + Practical: Financial Planning

Obviously courage isn’t enough to resolve your fears around money, because there is a practical component too. There’s the mindset side of learning to feel safe, and the practical side of actual financial planning.

On a personal level, once I was able to start feeling more comfortable looking at my money, I also hired a finance coach / financial planner to help me look at my income and expenses and start financial planning. This was a big step for me: learning to become more intimate with my bank account. Learning more about personal finance was a HUGE part of my healing around money anxiety. I got more comfortable with how I spend money, and learned to keep more of my money as well.

Spending Money

Being responsible with spending money was also critical for me in developing a healthy and sustainable relationship with my bank account. Here are some of the things that helped me:

Create a Budget.

A budget helps you identify where your income goes, how much goes towards expenses, and how much you have left over. For people with previous anxiety around money, this might feel terrifying. I suggest easing into it! This is where hiring a financial coach who is gentle with you can be really supportive. You’ll get a clear idea of where your money is going. Then, identify areas for saving money or redirect more funds towards savings goals.

Set Goals.

Once you’ve created your budget and identified areas where you can save money, it’s important to set realistic financial goals for yourself.

For example, what is your next big big purchase? Are you saving up for something? If you want to save up for a down payment on a house, decide how much money you’ll put away each month. If you want to buy a car – do you want to finance it, or try to save to pay in cash? Do you want to go on vacation next year? If so, it might make sense to start putting away monthly for that.  Then set reasonable goals for yourself such as putting aside X amount each month.

Create habits.

Finally, it’s critical to develop good habits when it comes to spending money. Now that we feel courage, we still have to be responsible with how it’s used. This includes only making purchases when they are thoughtful (rather than buying items on impulse.)

Good shopping habits include:

1. comparison shopping to get the best deals
2. being mindful of subscription services
3. avoiding taking high-interest debt
4. disabling automatic renewals on services that may not be worth keeping
5. resisting peer pressure when it comes to splurging on items that aren’t necessary,
6. setting limits on categories like dining out or entertainment
7. taking advantage of discounts whenever possible
8. using cashback rewards platforms when buying things online
9. paying off any balance in full each month so as not incur credit card interest charges;
10. and generally limiting luxury expenses until savings goals have been met.

Next Steps

To begin elevating your mindset, learning more about your #WealthWound and utilizing fun tools for creating more abundance in your life, check out the Abundance Mindset Bundle. Go here to learn more.