A money problem is never about money

'A money problem is never about money' is something I first heard when I was broke, homeless and feeling extremely sorry for myself. I knew there was a science to all that was going on in my life, but what could it possibly be?

I was sitting in front of the TV screen half-listening to a popular talk show when the presenter made this amazing statement. At the time, I was spending my time, and a huge percentage of it, thinking just what I could not do, 'because I did not have the money' to do it.

Since my life goes around the topic of personal development and growth and I understand most principles are very scientific in their explanations, this statement caught my attention. Not only because it sounded outrageous but because it was said with such confidence!

I however took some time first to rage at the presenter first. Of course all my problems were about money! Where does he get off telling me my problems are not about money? Who should know better anyway?  

Does that sound familiar? Maybe you have been there or are there right in this moment. 

When I finally settled down a bit and started thinking rationally, it was as though a light bulb suddenly went off in my head.

To start to see the reality of your money life, you can start with these three easy steps.

Take stock of the money in your life

I also knew another personal development equation; the past is equal to the future. So the first thing I did was to actually sit down and take stock of the money going through my life.

It is very common for us to think, 'I have no money' until the numbers speak to you.

I used a simple Excel worksheet and started to record every single cent that came into my life from that day henceforth. It shocked me. At the end of three months, I had a definite pattern; I had a CONSISTENT monthly income of more than 200 dollars monthly.

I had taken time to dutifully tabulate what I did with that money and that leads me to the second point.

Identify your spending patterns

If you take stock for at least three months, you will be surprised that you have a very consistent spending pattern. Life is about our habits.

It was easy for me to then see how I had moved from being independent to being homeless, and here I was blaming political events in my country and all sorts of other things. The overall amount of money I had had reduced, but the spending pattern was the same.

That then brings me to the third step.

Identify your contribution to your financial present and future

Once you see the pattern, it will be easier to identify that you make significant contribution to your money life. And this is where the choices start to make or break you. The first thing I did was to choose to change my money files.

You see, all our life habits and patterns are based on the files stored within. If these files are faulty, then our daily decisions will be faulty too. And this is where most of us run into money trouble from; we have faulty associations with money.

The worst I have encountered so far, is 'money is scarce' or something close to that.

At the time, I had read this little ebook about The Science of Getting Rich once. At the time I was neither homeless nor too concerned abut money.

This time, I picked it up with a very open mind. The short, my money life changed in a little under a month. You can pick a copy of the free ebook here.