I am finally reading 9 Steps to Financial Freedom by Suze Orman. Wow- I can't believe how much I am learning!
One of the first steps is to delve into your childhood experiences with money and see how these experiences have shaped your current financial habits, opinions and practices. Then supposedly you can begin to let go of your fears about money. Sometimes people remember breaking something of value and being scolded, having to give up favorite activities due to parental poverty, or even trying to hide or downplay their parents' wealth.
It took me a few days, but I woke up this morning remembering how my mother used to deny me spending money (allowance she had promised me until she saw how I was spending it) because she knew I would buy candy and makeup with it (things she despised being somewhat of a hippy). She wanted to control how I spent everything and if I wanted something she didn't like, I never got it. Sometimes she would even take my purchases away or throw them out. When I was 10, I decided to shoplift with a friend one day and got caught (and have never stolen anything since!). So I think that when I got older, I started spending money on the things I wasn't "supposed to" have. As soon as I got money, I would "get rid of it", possibly out of fear that I would be told how to spend it! I feel so much better for having realized this about myself. Now I think I can start to grow and move past my immature fears.
If you think about it really hard and go back to your childhood money memories, what do you remember? What message were you given about money? How do you think these incidents and messages have shaped how you perceive money today? I think this is a great exercise for everyone to do, whether you are rich, poor or in between.


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