If you keep asking “why am I broke?” even when you’re working hard, the answer often isn’t only your income or expenses. It’s a money block: an unconscious belief or pattern that leads you to undercharge, overspend, avoid your numbers or push money away.
Rising costs and real expenses matter too. But I see the same thing again and again with entrepreneurs: strategy alone doesn’t fix a money block, because the block is running underneath the strategy. Most money blocks trace back to one of the 5 wealth wounds.
Here are the 7 I see most.
Prefer to watch? Here’s the video version. ^
What are money blocks?
Money blocks are unconscious beliefs, emotions or habits that get in the way of earning, keeping or receiving money. They show up as undercharging, overspending, avoiding your numbers or pushing opportunities away. Most money blocks trace back to one of the 5 wealth wounds, patterns that form in the nervous system.
#1: Limiting Beliefs
The first thing I wanna talk about as far as seven things that are blocking you from money are limiting beliefs. I’m mentioning this one first because it’s probably the one you’re most likely to have heard of or worked on a little bit.
Limiting beliefs are things like…
- you have to have money to make money
- you’ll never be a millionaire
- there’s no way I can save money
- there’s no way I’ll ever pay off my debt.
These are all limiting beliefs that relate to money, and around our money goals.
Affirmations can help you notice limiting beliefs, especially when you pay attention to your reaction. Try reading a statement like, “Getting paid feels natural and easy, and I feel grateful and worthy every time I get paid.” Does it feel true? Or do you immediately think, “Yeah, right”?
If it feels true, take a moment to enjoy that feeling. If it feels like baloney, get curious about what comes up. Maybe you believe getting paid requires exhausting yourself, or that charging more means taking advantage of people. Your reaction gives you something specific to explore.
Start by asking, “What am I afraid would happen if I believed this?” Then consider where that belief came from and whether it reflects your experience today. You don’t have to force yourself to believe the opposite. Try a more believable statement, like, “I’m learning to feel more comfortable getting paid for my work,” and pair it with a small action: sending an invoice without apologizing, accepting a compliment or honoring the price you quoted.
Setting goals and saying affirmations can both bring limiting beliefs to the surface. When that happens, use it as an opportunity to understand the belief and practice a different response.
Related wealth wound: Scarcity
#2: Negative Self Talk
The second money blocker is negative self-talk. Negative self-talk is saying things like…
- I’m not worthy of it
- I’m not talented enough
Negative self-talk is overly focusing on whatever gap or problem you have.
So one thing that I still kind of struggle with is that like I at one point didn’t have any debt, and now I have some debt. Sometimes it’s easy for me to focus on making money for the purpose of paying off the debt INSTEAD of making money for the purpose of increasing enjoyment or abundance.
So even though I may not be poo-pooing on myself explicitly, you can kind of manifest more of a problem when you are focused on it instead of the solution.
Negative self-talk when wondering why am I broke is a huge block to money.
This should not be confused with like toxic positivity. So when I’m talking about negative self-talk, I don’t want you to be fearful of feeling your fears, feeling your anxieties, because those are giving you important information. What I want you to be aware of and prevent regarding negative self-talk is repeating negative words and thoughts to yourself about yourself and the world over and over and over again.
If you’re feeling anxious or fearful about money – or feeling any kind of negativity – we wanna leave space for that. That’s where like somatic and nervous system work comes in. We don’t wanna gaslight ourselves into thinking that you’re positive. But you also don’t wanna create a pattern of negative self-talk (because that will become a block to money).
Related wealth wound: Unworthiness
#3: Restrictive Goals and Timelines
The third thing is money blocks related to goals and timelines.
So when I read about goal setting, a lot of people teach that in order to manifest something, you have to have a specific goal and a specific timeline.
And I would argue that that’s not necessarily true.
I would argue that it’s important to be specific about your goals, and then the timeline is that has more to do with what’s aligned for you. So if you look at human design, it’ll show you that there’s kind of two categories of people when it comes to manifesting: specific or general.
If you’re a specific manifester, that means that what works best for you for setting goals is to be very specific with the goal and with the timeline. And for many people, that’s really helpful for setting goals.
I’m a Manifesting Generator, or “Mani Gen,” in Human Design, a self-discovery system that blends astrology, the I Ching, Kabbalah and the chakra system. Within that framework, Manifesting Generators are described as people with varied interests who thrive when they have room to experiment and change direction.
That resonates with how I work. When a goal is too rigid, I can get so focused on one path that I miss other opportunities. Instead of saying, “I’m going to sell this many of this one thing this month,” I give myself a broader goal, like, “I want to increase my profit every year.” That gives me a clear direction while leaving room for how I get there.
So that opens up the goal a lot more than just saying, “I wanna make $10,000 this week”, right?
Related wealth wound: Money Fears
Lack of Alignment
So another block to being able to manifest what you want is not being aligned with the specificity of your goal or the timeline.
I do think it’s important to get clear about what you want; and I think that you can be as specific as is aligned to your personality and just feel this out for yourself.
When you’re setting a really specific goal with a specific timeline, does that make you feel really excited and energized? Or does it make you feel kind of stressed out?
If it makes you feel stressed out and constricted, you might expand the context in which you’re setting your goal.
#4: Relationships with others
Number four: this is a block for money that people don’t think about very often. The fourth block for money is your relationship with others.
So one thing that feels obvious: if you don’t like people who have money, that could be a block to having money.
Said another way: if you think that people who have money did bad things to get there, that could be a block to making money.
That’s kind of an obvious thing that you might have heard me say before.
If you think people with money are bad, you will avoid money subconsciously for fear of becoming “bad”.
But you can also block money in abundance by having other kind of problems and blockers in your other relationships. So for example, if you’re not in integrity in your relationships, or if you resent someone, or if you’re really judgmental against people? All this can block you from money and abundance.
Relationship inventory
So one really good routine to have around all of this is just doing kind of a check before bed. At the end of the night, every day, you can have a journal by your bed and do a mental check of how your day was and how you treated people.
How were your interactions today with other people? Did you feel loving and integrity? Or were there moments where you were resentful or judgmental or dishonest that you need to clean up the next day?
This isn’t for the purpose of shaming yourself or doo-doo’ing on yourself. This is just for the purpose of keeping our side of the street clean. And if you can keep your side of the street clean in your relationships, you can ensure that this won’t be a block to you having more money in abundance.
Related wealth wound: Martyr
#5: Lack of self compassion
The number five hidden block to making more money is a lack of self-compassion. Or a lack of self-forgiveness is another way to say this.
This could have to do with anything generally in your life like a mistake that you made that you’re judging yourself for. Or most more specifically, this could have to do with your past behaviors and patterns and mistakes around money.
So for example, if you are someone who has debt and you feel a lot of shame around that, that could be preventing you from abundance. It’s important to recognize that debt is often not an ideal situation, but feeling shame around it doesn’t help pay it off any faster.
Feeling shame around debt or your past doesn’t help you resolve it any faster.
Compassion inventory
Another great check for this is – again – to do an inventory. Checking in on any resentments I have, any judgments or shame I have around myself, and then doing some exercises around those things to create space.
With number four and five when it comes to your relationships with others and self-forgiveness, you wanna make sure that you take some kind of action around those things to create space.
Related wealth wound: Unworthiness
#6: Money avoidance
Number six, another block to understanding why I’m broke, is avoiding money.
It is amazing how many people both with and without money I encounter that are not comfortable looking at their finances.
And so if you’re someone who’s already great at looking at your finances, that’s wonderful. Keep going.
If you are someone who feels a lot of anxiety about looking at your finances, you might consider easing into it. So some of my clients, I just have them start like looking at your bank account once a week or once a day. Then before we do really intense spreadsheets or other trackers, we’ll just start tracking my client’s income in a notes app.
Making sure that you are paying attention to money is one way to start attracting more of it.
But you have to get comfortable with that relationship with money and looking at it. If you think about money like a relationship: if you were in a romantic relationship with someone, you know avoiding them is not a way that we show them love. Same with money.
Related wealth wound: Money Avoidance
#7: Forgetting purpose
On the other side of the coin, obsessing over a person, or money, is also not a way to show love effectively.
And that’s number seven: where we can actually push money away if we are worshiping money (if money is too much of the focal point).
The point of making more money, of having more abundance, isn’t just to have more money, right? The purpose of making more money is to give us more options to enjoy life more. To be of better use in the world. So if you are obsessed over money in and of itself, rather than what money will bring you, you can block money.
Your motivation for making more money and bringing in more abundance needs to be around passion and joy, not in the money itself.
And then focusing on the joy and the passion that money allows you rather than focusing on having the money itself will help you expand and bring more of it into your life.
Related wealth wound: Scarcity
Money Blocks Are Real
So money blocks are real. And the thing is, even if you’re great at looking at your finances and you have really good habits, if you’re not focused on your mindset, your subconscious can hijack all of your best plans.
And I’ve seen this over and over again, which is why when I’m helping entrepreneurs to have more success, we wanna talk about the ways they’re making more money, what they’re selling, how they’re selling it…
…Then eventually we talk about building resilience and allowing more of your success through energetics.
But the first thing we have to address is the mindset, because that is the first bottleneck to creating more abundance.
FAQs
Q: What are money blocks?
A: Money blocks are unconscious beliefs, emotions or habits that get in the way of earning, keeping or receiving money. Common ones include limiting beliefs, negative self-talk, shame about debt and avoiding your finances. Most trace back to a deeper pattern called a wealth wound, which forms in the nervous system.
Q: Why am I always broke even though I make good money?
A: Usually because income isn’t the only thing that matters. A money block can show up as overspending after a big month, undercharging, or never building savings. If more money hasn’t changed how money feels, the pattern is likely in your nervous system, not your bank balance.
Q: What are the signs of a money block?
A: Signs include feeling anxious when you check your accounts, avoiding invoices, feeling guilty about charging, spending to feel better, and income that keeps hitting the same ceiling. Another sign is feeling that no amount is ever enough. If you notice the same money story repeating, there’s probably a block underneath it.
Q: How do you clear money blocks?
A: Name the block, then work with both your mind and your body. Journaling and affirmations can surface the belief, but nervous system regulation is what lets a new pattern feel safe. Pair that with one practical habit, like a weekly money date, so the change shows up in your actual numbers.
Conclusion
If you’re wondering why am I broke, I hope this post was helpful for you. The beautiful thing about creating a routine around mindset is the ability to work on your mindset as a daily practice. This is what eventually becomes embodiment. The purpose of having the routine is so that eventually you don’t have to rely on the routine as much. So this is something I’m really passionate and excited about: starting your own mindset routine.
Not sure which money block is running the show?
Take the free quiz in the Wealth Wound Antidote Kit to find your wealth wound and its antidote.
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