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Words By Tara Wagner

Money Mindset: 5 Money Habits You Need to Start BEFORE 2020

Tara out of focus holding money in focus

Last week, we talked about 5 habits to start before the new year, new decade really. In this video though, we’re looking at this from the angle of your money mindset with 5 money habits you need to start right now.

Watch here or read below.

Money Mindset: 5 Money Habits You Need to Start BEFORE 2020 Click To Tweet

Now, before we jump into these 5 habits, I’m assuming that you already have a personal and a business budget set up, so I’m not going to include that, but if you haven’t, consider that a bonus habit because it’s going to be so crucial and so helpful with some of the habits we’re going to talk about in this video.

If you’re not sure how to set up a budget for your business, especially if you have a variable income, drop me a comment below and let me know what it is you do.

While we’re talking about money mindset, because that can bring up a lot of our junk, go ahead and diffuse Wild Orange or Citrus Bliss. These are the oils of abundance and creativity, and they’re also just going to put you in a good mood for this topic.

Habit #1 – Pay Yourself First

Money habit number one to start before the new year is to pay yourself first.

You probably have heard this in terms of personal finances where they’ll talk about taking a portion of your salary and just immediately putting it into savings or a retirement plan, and that is absolutely wonderful. You need to be doing that, but as a business owner, you also need to be paying yourself first.

What’s most common with entrepreneurs and small business owners though, is that we tend to pay all of our business expenses first and then we just take what’s leftover, which makes us feel super broke because we see the revenue coming in, but we don’t actually see any of the revenue coming in for ourselves. It may seem impossible to do this because you have all these business expenses, but the best way to do it is to create a percentage for yourself that you always give yourself and then force yourself to keep your business expenses to the minimum necessary to fit within what’s left.

Yes, it’s difficult. Yes, I can do an entire video just on this topic (and if you’d like that, let me know), but you’ve got to start paying yourself first, otherwise, you could be making 100 grand, 200 grand, 500 grand, and still be living off of 20 grand yourself.

Habit #2 – Start a financial audit

Money habit number two is to start a financial audit.

The reason that I want you to do this before the new year is so that you have time to really start catching things that have been happening that maybe you’re not noticing, specifically things like subscriptions you don’t realize you’re still paying but aren’t using.

It’s great to do this at the end of the year as well because you can really look at what your expenses were over the past year and make some shifts and changes going forward.

We want to build as lean as possible and still get the success and traction that we need by investing in the right places.

But if you’re not doing a regular audit on your business expenses, especially a big picture annual audit, it’s surprising how fast you can be spending money on the wrong things that aren’t actually moving your business forward.

Habit #3 – Invest in yourself

Money habit number 3 is investing in yourself.

You need to be investing in your:

  • Education
  • Personal growth
  • Health
  • Well-being.

If you’re not investing in yourself, you’re not going to be able to grow your business because your business can only grow as big as you.

Now, this is where having a personal and a business budget comes into play so that you can set aside money from each to be investing in yourself. From your personal budget maybe it’s something like massages. From your business budget maybe it’s something like retreats, seminars, courses, things you want to do that’s going to increase your skill particularly in your business to help you grow and scale your business.

As a business owner/entrepreneur, if you’re not investing in yourself, you are not investing in your business.

You are the most important thing in your business. It cannot grow if you’re not growing. It cannot thrive if you’re not thriving. However you feel is how your business is going to be.

Business woman using a calculator and writing
Habit #4 – Strategic Debt

Money habit number four to start implementing right away is strategic debt.

What I mean by this is most people will throw money at their business because let’s be honest, throwing money at the problem is the easiest thing we can do, but they’re not being strategic about it. So they’re racking up all this business debt, but it’s not the right kind of business debt.

What you want to do is look at things that are already working in your business:

  • What’s converting?
  • What’s actually bringing in sales or money revenue?
  • Where can you put more money behind those things that are already working?

So don’t put money behind something that hasn’t been tested and proven to actually lead to sales; put money behind something that is converting well, that is selling well, so that you’re going to see a return on your investment.

Now, going back to what we were saying about: investing in yourself, sometimes it might even be important to go into strategic debt when you’re investing in yourself. For instance, little shameless plug here, I have a mindset course that’s about to be launched. This is not something I would recommend most people go into debt for unless they know that their mindset is the thing that’s holding them back from making more money.

Unless you can show that the thing that you’re investing in is directly related to how you’re going to be able to make money, it’s not the right thing to go into debt for. If that’s the case, just save up money and invest in yourself or invest in those things over time.

All right, so we’ve been talking about a lot of money habits that are really closely related to money mindset, but this one is really specifically about money mindset…

Habit #5 – Appreciate money

Money habit number five is to appreciate money. Specifically create a habit, a routine of appreciating money.

Whatever you put focus and energy and emotion behind tends to be the thing that you get more of. You could even think of it this way; if you don’t get into the habit of appreciating money, it can’t appreciate for you. See what I did there?

What are some ways that you can start appreciating money?

Let’s say for instance, every time you get a sale, even if it’s an online sale, if you just say a quick prayer of gratitude or giving thanks to the person that has actually just given you their money, especially if that person is right in front of you; really cultivate the emotion to show gratitude towards them. When you’re paying your bills or budgeting, do the same thing.

Get into a habit of appreciating the money that’s there, not focusing on the money that’s not there yet.

You can do this with affirmations like:

  • I appreciate money and it appreciates for me.
  • “I am so grateful for the opportunities that are coming into my life to make money.”
  • “How is it that more and more opportunities just keep coming my way?”

You could even do some journaling exercises around these to just talk about the good things that you use your money for, that you plan to use money for.

We spend more time worrying about money, stressing over money, or feeling bad about having money, or not having money that we never really take the time to appreciate it. And again, wherever your energy is going, wherever your emotions are going is what’s going to grow for you.

Get into a habit of appreciating the money that's there, not focusing on the money that's not there yet. (Tara Wagner) Click To Tweet
What about you, boss lady?

I know so many of you have some great ideas on ways that you show gratitude for the abundance in your life. What are some money habits you would like to practice or are already practicing?

xoTara-teal

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Tara Wagner

Tara Wagner

I’m Tara Wagner, creator of the Breakthrough Boss®. I help small biz owners overcome burnout and create part-time schedules with full-time profits. Not with some new marketing strategy, but with a holistic approach to how you operate. Click here to learn more.
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