15 Money Mindsets That Speed Up Your Growth

Do you know what your money mindset is? You know research shows that most people have four core money beliefs: money avoidance, money worship, money status, and money vigilance. Those beliefs often, especially when you don't understand where they come from, create stress, anxiety, and financial insecurity. So many people are operating on financial autopilot, doing the bare minimum and wondering why they're struggling to keep up when there are so many stories of other people doing well. Well, it's their money mindset.

Everyone's original money mindset is shaped by their experiences in childhood and adulthood. Even the smallest influences shape how you respond to your financial situation now. Some mindsets will hold you back; others will push you forward. These are the mindsets everyone needs to develop to be financially free. You start small with basic mindsets to create a strong foundation, and then you build.

The first thing you need to know is: Number one, money follows your mastery of valuable skills. Research shows that better math skills can increase your salary by $21,000 a year. Those who are invested in upskilling themselves in artificial intelligence will be able to demand salary increases of 40%. Why? Well, because these skills are valuable, and when you distribute value, money will follow you. It's like you're throwing breadcrumbs on the ground, and a pigeon is slowly following you, picking up what you've given.

So here's how this mindset starts off for most people: Most people start earning money at their job; that's their first paycheck. It's when you first realize that you've traded your labor and time for money. From this, there are two different types of people: first, those who now understand that the more skilled their labor, the more money they'll make; and secondly, the others who forgot about all of that or maybe they don't care about making more money. Unfortunately, it often catches up later when they have to deal with financial insecurity.

Though luckily, we live in a world where you can take online courses to upskill yourself and go for better job opportunities so you won't be stuck in a rut forever. You always have to remember: the more value you bring to the market, the more money you'll make. Getting a good job is your first step toward having some breathing space with your finances. It doesn't take years of studying to do this; you can start right now by being strategic with your skills, where you work, and taking advantage of other opportunities.

Think about how you can create value for others. Which skills are in demand right now? Number two, know and challenge your limiting beliefs around money. Have you ever heard someone who worked for their wealth say, “I'm not good with money”? It's not just because being financially comfortable shows that obviously, they're good with money. They never believed they were bad with money, or they did at one point and realized how much that belief was holding them back. So they changed it.

It's not that you're not good with money; it's that you're not in control of your money. When you put it that way—when you say, “I'm not in control of my money” instead of “I'm not good with money”—it sounds ludicrous because it is. You're essentially saying the same thing. Because if you're not good at something, then it's because you're not in control of it. You're using the second, more passive "woe is me" excuse to shrug off your responsibilities, because clearly you can control your money. You're the one pushing the button saying “accept payment.”

When you keep reminding yourself of that, you start pausing more before you make a stupid purchase, and you look for ways to make more money because you're the one who has the final say. And it's not some manifestation or affirmation that you're saying—although it doesn't hurt—it's just reminding yourself that you are the one in the driver's seat.

Number three, security is better than status. When you make the commitment to grow your wealth, you'll hear a lot about making sacrifices. Even just the word can be kind of scary; it makes it sound like you're going to have to go without things that you love, like they're scarce and unreachable. Now, you have to move through those lessons to get to the other side where you don't feel like you're making a sacrifice. It's just that your priorities have shifted; you're not that concerned with how successful you look to other people.

You'd rather feel secure and safe with yourself. It's a much better feeling, and once you understand that, whatever money moves you have to make, they don't seem like hard labor anymore. Number four, focus on earning, not just saving. Saving is important, yes, okay, absolutely! But you can't save your way to wealth. When you're building your foundation for your mindset around money, you have to include this one; otherwise you'll become stuck in that "save everything, spend nothing" hole, and that's no fun at all.

You always have to remember to put your focus on earning more first. These are your prime earning years; the world is your oyster. It takes more work and takes you longer to reach your financial goals if your plan is to do that by staying in one job, living cheaply, and saving everything you can. Your focus should be on making more money through side gigs, investments, or whatever odd jobs that pop up that you can get into. Grab those opportunities wherever they are and at whichever point in your career you are, because they will always come in handy.

Now, you might think this next one sounds kind of opposite to what we're saying here, and if you do, then you need to keep on listening. Number five, making more money isn't about working harder. Increasing your income doesn't mean adding more hours to your workday. Working harder has diminishing returns, okay? Beyond a certain point, your input will increase while your output decreases. To generate real wealth, you have to make money without trading more of your time.

There are other ways to increase your financial flow without throwing yourself into a frenzy of work. At the back of your mind, you always need to think about how you refine the ways that you go after earning opportunities. At every step, ask yourself which efforts offer you the highest leverage. If you learn to choose the ventures that maximize the return on your effort, well then you'll eventually end up doing less work for more money.

Number six, get what you can leverage, not what you're worth. Impostor syndrome is one of the first enemies of wealth building. For some people, it takes a while for them to realize that you benefit more from overselling yourself— even being a bit delusional about it—than you do from underselling yourself. We operate in a free market; you can charge more than what you think you're worth. You might have fewer offers, but the offers will come, and you'll know that these people are serious and they're willing to invest in good workers.

Then you throw yourself into it and give it your best performance. When you've got that money to motivate you, you'll surprise yourself with what you're capable of achieving. Number seven, watching your money gives you perspective, not pressure. Money isn't the root of stress; it's the fact that you're not tracking it that stresses you out. You don't have to earn more or save more to feel less stressed about your money. You just have to pay attention.

Multiple studies have shown us that even the most basic tracking strategies help you stress less, which leads to better financial decisions, which leads to more money. To build your wealth, you have to watch your money, you have to manage it, and you have to be totally okay with that. So many people see money management as something that is stressful, but it's actually the opposite, okay? It is liberating when you've got the mindset and knowledge that the stress is coming from not knowing what's going on.

Then watching your money won't feel like you're obsessing about every dollar. It's one of the first mindsets you have to adopt when you're building your wealth, and you take it with you at every step, all the way to the top. You learn to spot patterns about yourself, ways you can improve even as you keep making more money, and you realize that getting control at the beginning is the same control you use to make that first million.

Number eight, seeing today as a school day keeps you relevant in tomorrow's market. Listen, okay, if you're not learning, you're standing still, and this applies to every part of your financial journey: your skills, which are connected to your career and your earning potential, your financial knowledge, which affects where you invest your money, yourself, and your mental health, which influences how much energy and motivation you have to gather knowledge and put it into practice.

You have to see every day as an opportunity to learn something that will help you to understand all of these elements, because ultimately they help you to grow your wealth. You don't have to take a course to benefit from the knowledge; you can build learning into your routine. You just have to draw from the right sources. You're watching this video right now, so you know you're on the right track with this mindset.

Then you could also read books, chat in forums, and listen to the right podcasts. Now, the next mindset is really important, because if you don't have all of this, you will not get the results you want from all of that learning. Number nine, if you're standing still, you're basically moving backwards. Now, the continuous learning mindset on its own isn't enough to accelerate your growth. If you don't put what you've learned into practice, then you'll stay standing still, and as the world changes, you'll move backwards.

There is a small step but a huge difference in outcome between learning and knowing and actually taking what you've learned and applying it in the real world. It's as if you're strapping on a jetpack; you filled it up with fuel, and now you're waiting to move without actually hitting the ignition. You have to realize that simply thinking that the action is important isn't enough; it's not just important—it is survival.

Every day when you're following your routine, not pushing yourself just a little bit more, well, it's like the modern-day version of waiting for a lion to get close to you before you start to run. The time to move is now, Alexir! One small step is enough to gain that momentum and keep you going. Number ten, see money as a tool, not a goal. When you treat money as a tool, you stop wasting it. You know you have to use the tool properly for it to work for you.

It will lead to the outcome you want, but it shouldn't be the outcome itself. When you treat money as your destination, you get trapped up in a scarcity mindset where you always feel like you need more, and you don't even know why. But when you think about your goal as something that money can help you to reach, well, then it becomes a tool to get something that feels even more fulfilling and meaningful. Instead of having your goal as wanting to have a net worth of $1 million, you have a goal to fully own two properties and be able to go on your own holiday wherever you want with your family.

Your mindset should be that money is a tool that helps you buy time, freedom, and security. Then you'll be more strategic about the decisions you make to reach those goals, and as you start getting a taste of those life goals, you gather up the achievements you need to give that extra strength and protection to keep you going. You know, it's kind of like that boost that Mario gets when he scoops up all those super mushrooms and Fire flowers.

Number eleven, pay yourself first. Look, paying yourself doesn't mean that the first thing you should do with your paycheck is spend it on whatever you want, okay? No. Paying yourself means that your investments and savings contributions get paid at the same time as your bills. That is what's going to help future you. You and your bills—that's your priority. In this study, researchers found that people who spend their money before putting it into savings are more likely to say that they can't save because they don't have the money.

And yet there are people in similar economic situations—same income and essentially the same expenses—who are able to save around 20% to 30% more. The difference? Well, the second group paid themselves first. It's such a simple strategy that clearly works out well, but only about 30% of people save a fixed amount every month. Everyone else is playing this all "loosey-goosey." Most people save and invest whatever they have left at the end of the month, but by then your plans and budget have flown out the window, okay?

And look at the difference in stress levels: 20% of spenders are extremely stressed compared to 5% of the savers. You pay yourself first, then you're left with a little less than usual during the rest of the month, but you can work your way around that. If you don't pay yourself well, you spend without thinking, and when you want to put money away, there's nothing left. Your current bills and future self are your top priority; they should get first dibs on your paycheck.

Number twelve, you will hit a glass ceiling working for somebody else. Always remember that if you work for a company, then your earning potential is limited to the time you put in. If you want to break that limit, you have to be the boss. You don't have to go out and try to start some multi-million-dollar company, but having a side gig that doesn't trade every dollar for your time is the best way to scale your earnings. You might not be able to start that side gig right now, but if you move through life with this mindset, then at some point, when you have the right idea and you're ready, you'll already have the mindset that will help you step on the gas.

You are the asset, and when you own your time and skills, you control how much you make. Number thirteen, fail forward quickly and often. Listen, okay? You're going to fail; it is inevitable. Hopefully, it's small, but maybe it's going to be a big one! The quicker you fail, the faster you can get back up. The more often you fail, the faster you'll learn. So failing quickly and often will accelerate the speed of you getting back up and the speed of you learning from whatever mistake you made.

It's like runners who throw themselves forward over the finish line so hard that sometimes they fall. That's what you have to do with whatever you're working on. Go all in, expect mistakes sometimes, fix them as quickly as possible, and just move on. You might make a bad investment. Oh well, you fail forward; get back up! Don't think too much about what you've lost, and focus instead on what you've gained—what you've learned in this process. Every mistake you make is a chance for you to gather more data, but if you focus on how bad you feel about your situation, then you're losing valuable time and information.

Failure isn't that bad. Most people are way too scared of it, and you need to get past that if you want to grow your wealth. It's all about momentum, okay? The more you try, the more you fail, but the quicker you learn, and the quicker you'll eventually win. Number fourteen, be patient but persistent. When you've got patience, you strengthen all the other mindsets that we've spoken about today. They all take time to learn, adopt, and to put into practice.

If you get bored because you're not seeing the results immediately, then it's all going to fall apart. At the top of your mind, always, you have to remember that building wealth is a series of incremental steps and habits with an impact that you might not notice at first. When you don't see the results that you want as quickly as you want it, this is the mindset that's going to help you to ignore that and focus on putting one foot in front of the other. You can't keep looking up at the peak of the mountain and getting frustrated because you're not there yet.

That's going to slow you down. Keep the bigger picture at the back of your mind. Make sure your eyes are on the ground, and know that your only job now is to put one foot in front of the other. It's so important when it comes to investing, because the longer you stay consistent, the more effort you put in compounds. Have patience, Alexir; be persistent.

Number fifteen, celebrate every victory. Every mindset that you've adopted on this list is a victory that you should celebrate. It means that your decisions and actions are going to fit the bigger picture that you want for yourself. It means that you're taking control of your life and not just living on autopilot. Write yourself a congratulations card, buy some streamers and balloons, and have a celebration for your victories if you'd like.

Each time you reach a new pit stop on your financial journey, pause, reflect on how far you've come, give yourself a pat on the back, a good pep talk, and a fun treat. Celebrating the milestones is what makes that journey seem more fun, because the journey is the part that’s important, okay? Not just the destination. It takes away from the seriousness and stress that we often associate with saving and investing and being financially responsible.

In the end, it's all just a game of survival, and all you have to do is play. You can't win if you never play, so create your map and follow the rules, and you'll win. Walk through that game aimlessly though, enjoying things as they get thrown at you, and you'll stay at level one, distracted forever by all the nice things. Mindsets matter, Aluer; they're the foundation of what you do in the real world, so get yours in line.

That's all from us today, Alexir. Thanks for joining us. Let us know in the comments: what are some mindsets that have helped you on your financial journey? Enrich the community by sharing your knowledge with it. We always love to hear what you have to say. We'll see you back here next time, my friend. Until then, take care.