There’s more to life than money, right?
Of course. And you want your kids to understand this, just as you want to them to be smart about money and learn to budget and spend wisely.
But wouldn’t you also like to help give them a chance to have an abundant financial life in the future, one where they won’t find themselves feeling stuck or frustrated or lacking?
Well, even if you don’t have a penny to pass on to them, you can. Because you do have the power to pass on a set of core beliefs about money that’ll help them become receptive to opportunities for creating abundance on their own. We live in a world overflowing with possibilities. Why not help them see these and have the courage to seize them?
Deeply-rooted beliefs about money tend to be self-fulfilling prophecies. So if you repeatedly tell your kids “there’s never enough,” or “money can easily slip away,” and act accordingly they will inherit these notions as beliefs — often with an undertone of fear. Even the notion that “there’s more to life than money” can suggest that having money is somehow undesirable, or bad. These beliefs will then limit what they strive for and attain.
To move toward preventing this, you can help them develop a healthy and right money mindset that will leave them open to the possibility of abundance by following these 4 simple steps:
- Try not to make the concepts of lack and scarcity dictate money conversations with your kids. When these topics do come up, keep them in perspective by balancing them with stories of hope and progress.
- Talk together about technological innovations and how they can help increase abundance and well-being throughout the world. Magazines like Discover and Scientific American are rich with examples.
- Brainstorm about creative ways to make out-of-reach or wish-list budget items accessible rather than saying, “No, we could never afford it.”
- Encourage kids to be generous by sharing and giving, emphasizing that what goes around comes around and that participating generously in our interconnected ecosystem helps make it — and our own lives — much better.
Bear in mind that the language you use when talking about money with your kids matters. Phrases such as “money doesn’t grow on trees,” “time is money,” and “money is the root of all evil” — just like “there’s more to life than money” — can instill fears, anxieties and limiting beliefs that your children will internalize. This will shape their expectations and behavior in ways that could potentially undermine their prospects for financial success.
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Julie Ann Cairns is the author of The Abundance Code: How to Bust The 7 Money Myths For A Rich Life Now and has spearheaded The Abundance Code Documentary to help people everywhere make a shift to the abundance mindset and seek joint solutions to our planet’s most pressing challenges. She is co-founder and managing director of Trading Pursuits Group in Sydney.
