Empowering Your Finances: Breaking Free from Limiting Money Mindsets
As a first-generation Latina, I understand the unique challenges we face when it comes to money, from translating the bills to translating at the bank. I've been there. These unique experiences can impact our relationship to money. It can create a money mindset filled with anxiety, stress or a general overwhelming feeling about money. But you aren’t stuck with the same beliefs forever, you can change and rewire your beliefs to help empower your relationship with money. The goal for our community is to feel empowered with our finances so that we can build generational wealth for our families.
The Significance of a Positive Money Relationship
Creating generational wealth is a dream for many of us. We have heard the stories of our parents and the struggles they had to face to create their American Dream or just to put food on the table. We know what it is to be in survival mode, and we may not fully understand that those overwhelming feelings stem from these past moments..
Having a healthy relationship with money is all about laying a solid financial foundation for ourselves, our families, our children and those who will come after. Think of it like planting a tree whose shade you might never rest under, but your descendants will. It's about securing their futures and breaking cycles of financial struggle.
Decoding the Limiting Money Mindset
The limiting money mindset is like a persistent shadow that taints our financial journey, even cuando estamos en las buenas ( when we are in our good times). It often convinces us that money is scarce and that financial success is reserved for a privileged few. This mindset is a common companion for many in the Latinx community and it's time to understand its origins and its impact.
Why is the Limiting Money Mindset detrimental?
A limiting money mindset holds us back from realizing our full potential. It makes us second-guess opportunities and can lead to financial self-sabotage. When we believe money is scarce, we may miss out on job offers, salary negotiations, investments, business ventures and other financial opportunities.
Why is the Limiting Money Mindset common within the Latinx community?
There are a lot of reasons why we have limiting beliefs. One of them is that our community often finds it challenging to discuss money openly. Some families find it taboo, bad luck or even something you don’t even discuss as a woman. Unfortunately, that is how we build our limiting beliefs, because when we lack knowledge, we gain fear.
We have to break the silence by seeking financial support and sharing financial goals with friends and family as a way to help us start easing the conversation of money and help overcome these beliefs.
Overcoming Financial Trauma
Financial trauma can come from systemic barriers, culture, society, immigrant trauma and more. These scars can take many forms, from missing out on birthday presents to experiencing food insecurity. In our community, especially immigrant households, we often bear this weight.
Discussing financial traumas with our parents can be challenging but healing. It can provide insights into the financial experiences that shaped our families. These conversations can bridge generational gaps and help create healthier money mindsets. In some cases, there might be obstacles preventing our community from healing from financial traumas. These obstacles could include a lack of access to mental health resources or societal stigmas against discussing money challenges.
Tools for Overcoming Financial Traumas
Various tools and resources are available to help us overcome financial traumas. I like to start with self reflection,journaling your first experiences with money and how they have impacted you today. This is a way to discover some of those money wounds or traumas that have impacted your current limiting beliefs.
5 Questions to ask yourself and Journal:
- When was your first encounter with money?
- How were your parents with money?
- How has that impacted you today?
- When you think about money, what comes to mind?
- If money wasn’t a problem, what would your life look like?
If you feel like you have a lot of anxiety around money do not be afraid to ask for help. Financial Therapy is an option for support, either through your therapist or looking at the directory of Financial Therapists from the Financial Therapy Association. There is also a book from Lindsay Bryan-Podvin, a Financial Therapist, called the Financial Anxiety Solution that also guides you through your emotions around money. If you are looking for support groups, you can look into the Trauma of Money led by Chantel Chatman, a group course to help you discover your relationship with money with teachings from various experts about the brain, money disorders, systemic issues, the impact of racism and so much more.
Those who want to start applying financial knowledge in their life to relieve anxiety, I like to start with an expense inventory and creating your first financial budget. This means you make a list of all your expenses and then start categorizing them by essential, lifestyle, savings, investing or debt expenses. This will help you create your first budget.
The basic formula to budgeting is income minus expenses (essential, lifestyle, savings, investing, debt). I highly recommend using budgeting apps or an excel spreadsheet to help monitor your spending. Budgeting apps you can look into are: Mint, Cleo, CoPilot, RocketMoney.
Your relationship with money starts with you. Having a positive relationship with money is how we can regain our economic power. Being financially confident allows you to be able to make big financial decisions, invest for your future and build your legacy. But remember, the goal isn’t to heal and make your financial triggers go away, the goal is to identify your financial triggers and learn how to confront them when they come up. Start your financial journey with grace and know it’s never too late to start breaking free from those limiting beliefs.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
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Lea Landaverde
Lea Landaverde is a first generation, Queer Latina content creator and wealth coach.
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