When you get your paycheck, how do you feel? Are you confident that you’ll not only have enough money to pay all the bills that are due before your next paycheck, but that you’ll also be able to put aside some money for your savings and have enough left over to enjoy yourself? Or do you feel stressed out about what bills need to be paid and whether you’ll have to rely on your credit cards to get you through to next payday?

If you’re like most people, you’re probably nodding your head in familiarity at that last part. Unfortunately, people don’t tend to have control of their money. Instead, it’s the other way around.

The good news is that you don’t have to let your money control you. You can take control of your money and your life, by developing a positive money mindset.

How to create a positive money mindset

What is a positive money mindset and how can it benefit you?

A positive money mindset is a belief system and attitude towards money that promotes healthy financial habits, abundance, and a positive relationship with money. It can benefit you by reducing financial stress, attracting opportunities for wealth, and empowering you to make smart financial decisions.

The Problem With a Scarcity Mindset

Unfortunately, many people have a scarcity mindset when it comes to money. They're worried about never having enough money to cover their expenses, and as a result, money controls them instead of them controlling their money.

Having a scarcity money mindset is stressful. Worse, it can lead you to two equally bad money habits.

The first bad habit is that you'll avoid putting any money in savings, since you’ll be more worried about what expenses lie ahead. However, instead of constantly hoarding your money to deal with unforeseen expenses you might also fall into the second bad money habit of splurging, since you’ll want to use any money you have on something nice for yourself before another expense claims it.

You might think more money would solve this problem. As it turns out, though, a scarcity money mindset doesn’t care if you make $500 a week or $5,000 a week. You’ll still be worried about whether you have enough.

How do you Create a Positive Money Mindset?

If you want to break out of a scarcity money mindset, you’ll need to create a positive money mindset and take control of your finances.

Make a Monthly Budget

There are a lot of guides available that will show you how to create a budget, but the basics are pretty simple: Write down a list of all your monthly expenses and how much you spend on each. Then add up those amounts and subtract it from the amount you make each month.

If the sum of your expenses is higher than your monthly income, you’ll need to figure out how to cut back your expenses each month. On the other hand, if you have money left over, you can add it to one of your existing budget categories or create a new category for the money, like savings.

One important point to keep in mind is that budgeting does not mean you never get to have any fun with your money. In fact, you should make a budget with your happiness in mind. Create categories for things that make you happy, such as: 

• Movies
• Vacations
• Clothes
• Coffee
• Books
• Video games

Granted, you might not be able to spend as much each month on these categories as you’d like to. However, making a budget gives you the advantage of knowing you can spend the money you allocated to that category without worrying if you’ll need it to cover another expense.

Once you’ve created a budget, take some time to figure out how you’re going to stick with it. One of the best ways to do that is to stop impulse buying. You can start by figuring out which items you’re most likely to buy on impulse, then limit the temptation to buy those items, either by avoiding the stores that sell those items, unsubscribing from store mailing lists and even deleting shopping apps from your phone if needs be.

Create your new budget today. 

Set Some Financial Goals

Once you have a budget in place, take some time to set up some financial goals. When your money has some direction, especially a direction that's meaningful to you, you'll start making better decisions about how to use your money to improve your financial well-being, instead of just surviving until your next paycheck.

Setting financial goals isn't difficult. Think about what kind of financial goals you most want to achieve, prioritize them and pick the goal that's most important to you, then make a plan for how you'll meet that goal. If you really want to set yourself up for success, make your goal a SMART goal--Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-Bound.

If you're new to financial goal setting, it's best to start with a small goal, like putting a portion of each paycheck into a savings account for an emergency fund. This won't just help you develop good money habits--it will also have a positive effect on your mindset. After all, when you know you have some money set aside to help you deal with an unexpected expense, you'll be a lot less stressed about emergencies.

Stop Comparing Yourself to Others

Finally, don’t compare your finances to other people’s. One of the quickest ways for a scarcity money mindset to reappear is when you see all the nice things your neighbors, friends and family members have. This creates feelings of envy, despair and the fear of missing out which can lead to emotional spending and abandoning your budget trying to “keep up with the Joneses.”

Instead, focus on what financial goals are most important to you, not what you think are most important to other people. Remember that your financial situation isn’t the same as your neighbors, friends or family, and even if it was you would still have different values and definitions of financial success.

Once you stop worrying about what everyone else has, you’ll appreciate what you have a lot more. You’ll also be able to focus on your personal financial goals, which will mean more to you when you meet them than any artificial goals set by other people.

Create an Abundance Mindset With First Alliance Credit Union

If you're feeling like you never have enough money, you might be suffering from the negativity of a scarcity mindset. Once you improve your money mindset, though, you’ll be surprised at how quickly your scarcity money mindset is replaced with a positive one. You’ll be able to know for sure you have enough money to pay your bills each month, you’ll have money to put toward your financial goals, and best of all, you’ll be able to spend money on yourself guilt-free.

You can jumpstart your positive money mindset creation when you become a member of First Alliance Credit Union today. In addition to having several guides to saving money and creating a budget in our resource center, we also offer great rates on our traditional saving accounts. You can also get a higher interest rate when you invest in a money market account or a certificate of deposit.