The Underlying Source of Your Financial Stress

In this segment, I want to talk about the core source of why you’re dealing with so much financial, pain stress and anxiety. You’ve been programmed to fail financially … and it’s not your fault! 

If you’re like most people, it’s likely you’re living on what I call Pain Island. More than 78 percent of people in this country are living paycheck to paycheck and fighting every day to keep their heads above water. And over 90 percent of people claim that money has a significant impact on their stress levels. 

Those are staggering numbers 

Think about this: 

Money is the number one cause of stress in society. And stress is the number one cause of our most deadly diseases and health ailments. 

This problem isn’t just about people being unable to pay their bills; this is a health crisis that is affecting more people than all diseases combined. 

The issue is that current solutions do nothing to provide meaningful and lasting change people need in order to escape this dreadful treadmill. I’ve been involved with the financial industry for over 25 years. I’ve worked with thousands of people through the years. 

During my time counseling people, no matter how much advice and guidance I gave them and the planning we did together, and despite their absolute commitment to the agreed upon plan, nothing changed. Within a short period of time, they were back to making the same mistakes that got them in their mess in the first place. Very quickly they were spiraling out of control once again and back on Pain island. 

What I realized was the problem isn’t in creating a financial plan, designing investment strategies, or offering debt payment strategies. The real underlying problem sat much deeper. And it clings to people like a virus. 

It is literally killing more and more people every day. 

If you’re like most of my clients, you’re smart enough and want to do the right thing with your money, but somehow you never seem to get your financial house in order. Because, in fact, everyone has the exact same problem when it comes to money. 

Most people have an unhealthy relationship with money – and they’re using money to dull their pain rather than using it to fulfill their purpose.   

So How Did We Get Here?

We didn’t get here by accident. It was slow, methodical, and rife with a lethal combination of little-to-no financial education, a government unwilling to require financial education, social media and other marketing efforts designed to hypnotize its audience, and a financial industry that completely misses the key problem people are facing.   

No matter what your financial situation, no matter how much stress you’re feeling at the moment, keep in mind … it’s not your fault. 

But I can assure you it’s not all doom and gloom. There’s a lot of hope and possibility. You just need the right solutions. 

Financial planning has traditionally centered around the “three-legged stool”:

• Private pensions,
• Private savings, and
• Government sponsored benefit plans. 

But all three of those are not doing well. In today’s age, it’s no longer a three-legged stool –it’s more like a circus high-wire you’re balancing on, hoping you don’t fall off.   

Let’s face it: the world has changed. Twenty or 30 years ago you could fake it. The way finances were tied to life was a lot less complicated. By simply going through the motions, you could achieve the financial future you wanted. All you had to do was go to work. People’s jobs were safe and you had a guaranteed pension for life. 

Not today.

• Pension plans are no longer guaranteed
• Private savings barely exists
• And the government trust funds are running dry. (In the US, Social Security is expected to run dry in 15 years.)   

We have a new paradigm. We can no longer operate as we once did—or at least how we want. We can no longer count on those old-school beliefs. The paradigm has radically changed. This new paradigm will affect everyone regardless of his or her financial situation – rich or poor. And old solutions to new problems do not and will not work.   

Adding to this perfect storm are three more reasons people suffering:

1. The School System

Let’s face it – the school system has completely ignored financial education. Think about it, money is interwoven into almost every aspect of our life and this subject is ignored in school. Money can be the source of freedom, joy, and fulfillment, yet for most it’s the source of stress, pain, and despair and the schools ignore it. 

By the way, it’s not on accident. The government designed it that way. It’s criminal, in my opinion. I’ll save that for another blog.  

2. The Financial Industry

The financial industry primarily focuses on a smaller segment of the population: those with a lot of money and their primary focus is to manage people’s money with investment strategies and financial products. 

That’s fine for those with money, but too many people are suffering every day with mounting financial stress and anxiety and a product – a mutual fund – that’s not what they need!  

 Let me add a third phenomenon people are faced with unlike any other time in our history… social media and other media outlets that pump temptation into our brain 24 hours a day through smartphones and tablets like hypnosis, whose sole goal is tricking us into buying stuff we don’t need with money we don’t have in order to impress people who really don’t really care.   

That’s why I call this the perfect storm. 

Put all this together and people are falling further away from the financial peace they so desperately need. They are literally trapped. 

Any success you desire in life starts in the mind and it’s no different when it comes to your financial life. 

That’s the missing piece.   

This is no different than trying to get in shape. You can read all day long on best exercises and diets to use, you can hire the best trainers and join amazing health clubs, but if you don’t have the mindset and process in place, your attempt to get healthy won’t last long.

 It’s the same with your finances. 

Changes to your circumstances are in direct proportion to changes in your mental state of mind or being. 

Based on what we’ve learned, I’m going to tell you why there’s simply no other way to achieve true, lasting financial peace without incorporating a process that taps into your brain and makes changes at the core of your mental programming, 

There simply is no change unless biological change in your brain occurs. It’s impossible. 

Now, it’s important to remember that transformation does not just happen automatically nor does it overnight. Like seeds to flowers and coal to diamonds, transformation is a process. 

Events on their own do not cause transformation. Books, podcasts, and this blog won’t cause transformation. But they have the power to ignite that spark within you and trigger the beginning of your transformation – that’s why they’re still important.   

But you must take action from here. Simply walking away and going back to your old routines will not get you to where you want to be.   

I’m going to be talking a lot more about a process of transformation that you can utilize to affect the biology in your brain so you can once and for all discover true, lasting financial freedom and peace of mind.   

For now, I want you to realize that you do, in fact, have the power to make the necessary changes in your life. It’s buried within you. Right now. And now is the time to unleash it.   

Going forward, I would encourage you to take the first step and take the free ThrivePath Personal Assessment. Click here to go to my website. It will give you some insight into how wired you are for wealth and how much closer you actually may be to financial freedom and peace of mind than you think you are. 

What we like to say is the what you are not aware of controls you, and you are aware of you can control. 

The more aware you can be about where you are as it pertains to where we want to be, the more likely you’ll start that journey of transformation to where you want to be.  

So you can start using money to fulfill your purpose and not as a tool to dull your pain. 

It’s not about working harder or sacrificing or even hustling to get where you want to be. It’s a change in your mindset.   

I think it’s very important for you to realize that you’re currently a shell of your future potential self. From what I’ve seen over the years, most people are a mere reflection of what they could be and deserve to be. The old methods won’t get you where you want to be.  

The greatest power a person possesses is the power to choose. Once you decide you’re ready to transform, your destiny is not matter of chance. It’s a matter of choice.