OUR MINDSET ON MONEY JULY 2025
It’s Easy to Control, So Why Don’t We?
JULY 2025
Living Paycheck to Paycheck: A large percentage of Americans (66-78%) live paycheck to paycheck, struggling to cover expenses as quickly as they earn money. This suggests ongoing anxiety about income stability and the ability to meet recurring costs. We’re spending a meaninfully less amount on our summer vacations this year which suggests worrry about our own financial stabililty. And there is an overarching worry over AI and its implications for future earnings.
LET’S GO TO THE TEXT
There are some key principles in my book related to our current thinking:
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Tracking Expenses: Start by writing out monthly income, fixed costs (like rent/mortgage, car payments, insurance), variable costs (utilities, groceries, credit card payments), and especially incidental costs (unplanned expenses, coffee, online purchases). This “incidentals” category is crucial as it reveals how much spending is driven by emotion and spontaneity.
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Self-Reflection: The exercise of tracking expenses isn’t just about listing numbers; it’s about gaining a deeper understanding of one’s relationship with money and identifying patterns and influences. It helps people question purchasing decisions and become aware of where their money truly goes.
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Challenging Beliefs: My book suggests challenging negative beliefs about money and replacing them with constructive thoughts. Recognizing that “spending is easy, while earning is hard” and that people are “psychologically conditioned to spend” is the first step toward breaking the cycle.
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Making Adjustments: Once spending patterns are identified, individuals can then make simple changes to their behaviors, which can have a profound effect on how they live. This might involve cutting costs in certain areas or reallocating funds
Money controls most of us, and I’ve been wondering why we let this happen. This book dives into how we can gain control of our money and therefore enjoy more of what life really has to offer. It is not about what to do with each and every dollar we make as it is more about our relationship with it. Money affects us from birth to death and yet we’re taught that it’s taboo to talk about it. And therein lies the rub, if you aren’t supposed to discuss it then how are you ever going to learn about it and take control? In these pages you’ll learn about the many financial challenges that you will face at some point in life, and you’ll be better off knowing what to expect and how you can then choose to deal with it. In other words, how to take control.
There’s an old saying I believe in that states “If you want to understand what’s going on, then just follow the money.” Problem is, most of us can’t.
