Growing up with a scarcity mentality and slowly shifting to an abundant mindset was subjectively one the most difficult parts of my personal finance journey. There are many aspects to a scarcity mindset and many of these held me back for a very long time including believing I wasn't worthy of creating wealth or not even being able to fathom something more than what I had known and seen around me, creating "efficiencies" wherever possible and not spending much on anything to just focus on saving, thinking investing was reserved solely for very wealthy people that could afford to lose large sums of money, not spending on things that would add value to my life or give me time back because that would be wasteful if I could just do things myself. These were just a few of the engrained beliefs I had to consciously acknowledge and be willing to let go of to create new mindsets that would open up more opportunities for me and remove a mentality that kept me in a prison of my own making and upbringing.
While conscious spending is not equivalent to depriving yourself of anything that brings you joy for the sake of future you, there are a few things that are not worth skimping out on:
Health: as a woman, it's not lost on me that health and beauty are lumped into one monolith to reinforce that if you look attractive, you must be healthy and I've seen no correlation to prove this. We are conditioned to spend money on make up and hair products and any other trend that will continue to make us believe we need to be young and thin to be healthy, beautiful, desired, and happy. I say forget all those limiting expectations society places on us and truly focus on our health in every sense of the word: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. While much easier said than done, we should invest our time, energy, and heard-earned money into our health, prioritizing strength training as women begin to lose as much as 3-5% muscle mass per decade after age 30, eating well, exercising our minds and overall finding support systems and leveraging our money to become the healthiest version of ourselves so that our glass can become full before we help others. Health equals wealth.
Education: learning and investing in education is a sure way to help you build wealth and create opportunity for yourself and those around you. Millennials were sold the package that if you work hard, go to school and get a job, you'll be happy but we realized too late that being in debt for years and decades was the fine print in that deal. Education doesn't have to mean traditional four-year degree, but rather investing in any type of learning that will improve your skillsets. This includes certifications, books, and trainings that will open up your mind and create opportunities for you.
Outsourcing: once your budget is in place and you have discretionary spending available, think about how you'd like to spend your time and what can be outsourced to help free up your time to enjoy how you'd like. Is that hiring someone to clean your home once a month? Spending extra on food delivery once a week to not have to worry about cooking as much? This doesn't mean not focusing on conscious spending and using outsourcing as a way to overspend on every pesky task you don't want to do but if you truly reflect on where outsourcing would make the most sense for you and how much you'd like to dedicate to that to free up more of your time, you'll find that those efficiencies can have a significant impact in your life and in your relationships as you're able to spend more time on things and people you love.
The goal is to first create your financial foundation to the point where you're able to free up some mental and financial load to consider important areas in your life where leveraging your money can greatly improve your life. This is how you start shifting to your abundant life mindset and create building blocks to achieve the life you always dreamed of, using money as a resource to build a soft and simple life or whatever kind of life you aspire to create for yourself and your loved ones.
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