Below are 6 quick tips to help you identify what a poverty mindset looks like and how to break it once and for all, ensuring that it doesn’t destroy you and your family!

1. Your Environment Is Everything!
I grew up on welfare with parents who continuously ran out of money 4-7 days before the next set of food stamps came. I also watched them use the money for drugs which is why they never had money for anything other than basic food and shelter. There was also a lot of abuse: violent fights & screaming. No peace. No security. We would often eat ‘wonder bread’ and marjoram with garlic salt on top and that was dinner. Growing up in that environment ABSOLUTELY shapes one’s mind about money and life. I would hear from my parents that “we can’t afford this and can’t afford that”, as if there was no other way to get money other than welfare. There was no budgeting to help make the money last the full 2 weeks. They would get their check and blow it on junk food, alcohol, drugs etc. Then act like victims for the rest of the days while waiting for the next check or shall I say, the next binge. Change your environment, and you change your financial future.

2. Don’t Speak The Language Of Poverty!
There are things that can impact our financial mindset as an adult, both good and bad. Let’s start with the bad, it is the most common. When you as a child see the patterns of adult spending habits, it clearly teaches you how to spend. Out of fourteen thousand hours of school we all had from kindergarten to grade twelve, how many hours were spent on teaching you and me financial wisdom? A BIG FAT ZERO!!! So where did you learn your financial habits? Other adults: primarily your parents. We spend the way they spend. We value what they value. We carry their views on most things. So if your parents spent foolishly, their actions taught you to spend foolishly. If your parents spent wisely, you would gravitate towards wisdom in finances.  If your parents were really wise they would have explained why they spend the way they do and how to by-pass financial failures through proper money management. I grew up hearing a language of poverty that sounds like this: “we can’t afford it”, “we don’t have the money”, “that’s for the rich people not for us”.  All of those statements are victimized, poverty statements. Change your language, and you change your financial future.

3. Eliminate Unhealthy Financial Traditions!
I am living proof that the unhealthy traditions that ARE passed down from one generation to the next CAN AND WILL be broken, if you are serious about BREAKING THEM! I went from welfare to multi-millionaire.

1. First, it starts with making a decision. So do you like where you are at financially? Are you tired of the excuses of being broke? Tired of the pressure of debt? Do you not want to live the way you were taught and are you ready for a serious change? If so, then make a decision today to do whatever it takes to take action towards financial independence.
2. Second, you MUST learn some new skills to replace the poor skills you may have learned from those around you.
3. Third, realize that repetition is the mother of skill. Through repetition you have learned poor financial skills and through repetition you will learn great financial skills. Be careful who you learn from. If you want to become financially independent you should learn from someone who is, not someone who looks like they have a lot of money. Most people that “look” like they have a lot of money, often, do not.  Most people are far from reaching their goal of financial independence.

Change your traditions, and you change your financial future.

4. Understand The Power Of Repetition!
We are all products of our environments. We learned how to walk, talk, and eat from those around us. Everything we know how to do we learned, or at the very least we were influenced by those around us. We typically do what we see others do, even if it’s not good. Have you ever said ‘I will never be like…’, or have you ever sworn not to say and do things that your parents said and did, only to find yourself doing and saying the same things? Well there you go! History is repeating itself, again!  Decisions made without establishing new skills will lead to failure of the decisions becoming a reality. Change your habits, and you change your financial future.

5. A Solid Financial Foundation Starts Early!
Your children are always listening and watching, whether you realize it or not.  They see everything and they learn so much faster than we as adults do.  Groom them for Success instead of unintentionally grooming them for failure.  If your kids are going to succeed it is going to have to come from you. Do you want them to suffer financially in the future?  Do you want them to have the same struggles you have had? Or do you want them to have the best shot at success? Grooming the Next Generation for Success will help you teach kids to succeed now and in the future.  When they learn while young, success becomes a part of their very fiber instead of hoping they will succeed they will be groomed to succeed! Help someone else succeed, and you change your financial future.