Avoid Saying That You “are” Something If It Is Not Paid For.
How you think about your money has a huge impact on how you spend it. So it’s strange that we often say we “own” something before we actually do it. Break this habit to better understand your finances.
As the personal finance site My Mixed Up Money explains, most of us probably don’t fully own our homes, cars, or even some of our furniture. We say they are “ours” because who else would they be? Except that until they are paid, they are technically likely owned by a bank or other financial institution. Recognizing it and naming what it is can go a long way in changing our attitude towards money:
When did we begin to believe that everything we invested $ 500 in was actually ours? I appreciate that you are in awe of the new things you bought over the weekend, really. But I’m a little worried too. Calling something your own is something that I’m sure (not at all sure) was created by a really smart marketing and sales team.
While this may sound silly, if you called your car “the car I buy from the bank,” or if you called your house “the house the bank lets me live in until I pay,” you may think differently about borrowing money. … Maybe buying clothes with a credit card or buying a new car just because you no longer like the look of that old one won’t seem so attractive. Or, if you’ve paid off some of your assets, the sentence “I’m considering swapping my car for a new car that the bank will let me drive as long as I pay for four years” won’t sound attractive. This mental barrier can help you keep yourself in check in a world that wants you to spend more money than you probably have.
What do you really have? | My Mixed Money Through Rockstar Finance