5 Money Beliefs That Are Keeping You Poor

Summary

• Pursuing money is not inherently selfish; rather, it allows for greater impact and ability to help others. It amplifies who you are.
• Money doesn't directly buy happiness but does buy freedom and choice, which correlates with happiness. Money also relieves stress and the pain tied to financial instability.
• The hard work does not equal more money; instead, you are compensated for the difficulty of the problem you solve. Work smarter by solving difficult problems efficiently.
• More money does not mean more problems. Challenges change with wealth, and it's about managing your relationship with money and understanding psychology and uncertainty.
• Being "not good with money" is more a matter of inexperience than inability. Learning to manage money effectively is a skill gained through education, practice, and consistency.

Video

How To Take Action

I would suggest first understanding that making money isn't selfish. You can do more good if you have more money. So, try to shift how you think about money.

Start by setting small, achievable financial goals. This could be as simple as saving a little each week. Over time, the little savings add up and give you more freedom and reduce stress.

I would also say work smarter, not harder. Look for a hard problem you can solve easily. This could mean learning a new skill or improving how you do things at work.

Remember, more money does not mean more problems. If you get more money, learn how to manage it well. This might involve reading books about money or talking to someone who’s good with money.

Finally, if you're "not good with money," don't worry. Just like any skill, managing money takes practice. Keep track of your spending, make a budget, and stick to it. Be patient with yourself. Money management takes time to learn, and it's okay to make mistakes along the way.

By slowly changing your beliefs and habits about money, you can start to see improvements in your financial life. Remember, each step towards better money management is a step towards greater freedom and happiness.

Quotes by Leila Hormozi

"Money only amplifies who you already are"

– Leila Hormozi

"Money can't buy happiness, but money can buy freedom"

– Leila Hormozi

"You are compensated in accordance with the level of difficulty of the problem you solve"

– Leila Hormozi

"More money equals more problems"

– Leila Hormozi

"Money management is a skill it can be learned through education, experience, and effort"

– Leila Hormozi

Full Transcript

beliefs that are keeping you poor so the first money belief is that the pursuit of money is selfish I used to think that pursuing money was like it made me a bad person I was just this selfish greedy who was trying to make money most of my life I actually grew up thinking that trying to make money was the wrong thing to do what I thought I wanted to do with my life always revolved around not making money helping people making an impact doing something I feel passionate about I don't disagree with that however money only amplifies who you already are and so the argument that I've made to myself of why I want to make money is because I really do want to help people I really do want to make an impact and I have seen with my own eyes and experienced in my life now after making money that I've been able to do way more of that having money than I have been able to when I didn't have money now I can donate to charity if I want to build a hospital if I want to build a school if I want to change the dynamic of an industry I can't do it where it's much harder to do if I don't have money the second money belief that is keeping people poor is that money can't buy happiness now what I want to find is what is a belief a belief is just an assumption and so what I've noticed is a lot of people have false assumptions about money and as somebody who has had very little money and then a lot of money I feel qualified to talk about this because I used to have so many false assumptions about money about how to make money about how to think about money about what money does and doesn't do money can't buy happiness but money can buy Freedom the more money you have the more options you have is that happiness exactly no but there's a high correlation with people who have high levels of freedom and autonomy and people that have high levels of happiness now on the other side of that was that money can save you from Pain it gives you the stability and the security to pay attention to more meaningful areas of your life if you have a lot of money you don't spend time thinking about money you don't spend time thinking about can I buy this can I not buy this can I live here can I not live here all of that pain all that suffering is gone all the arguments you have with your spouse and with your family about money gone think about a wedding for example how often do you see people that it's like what's the price of the Ring oh my God I want this one but oh we can't afford it we agreed on this price and now the woman feels shitty and now it turns the whole experience negative and then oh we want to invite all these people to our wedding but oh my gosh we can't afford more than 50 people when you have money none of that matters money is the number one reason people get divorced money is the thing that people argue about money is a huge source of pain in this world having a lot of money does often lead to a happier life you can focus on really creating a meaningful relationship with your spouse with your kids with your friends with your employees because you don't worry about money when I didn't have money it was like I saw my family once a year I would fly back home and it was like a big thing I had to take time off work it was a pain in the ass and it was like always stressful because I'm not only just taking time off work but I'm also having to pay for flights and travel to get there now I can fly my family wherever I want I can go pay for us to stay in one of the nicest resorts in the world and we can go have Christmas there and nobody has to worry about arguing over who pays for what because I have so much money I'm just like let me pay for it money has allowed me to create more meaningful experiences in my life the third money belief is keeping you poor is that you have to work hard to make money okay let me tell you this is something that I believe for a long time in fact up until I even was making a ton of money when we had our first company gym launch I believed that my hard work and working so long every day was the reason that I was able to make a lot of money until I got to a point in my business where I was actually working less than I was in the beginning and making more money and then I started looking at people who were successful and who'd made a lot of money especially within acquisition.com and what I've come to realize is that hard work does not equate to making more money I worked way harder when we were starting gym launch and when I was a personal trainer when I was a personal trainer I'm getting up I'm opening the the gym and doing classes at 4am and I'm leaving by like 9pm I worked way harder than I do now but I make way more money now than I made then and so a lot of people like to argue like who's working harder that's not how money's made so how is money actually created I believe that you are compensated in accordance with the level of difficulty of the problem you solve now does that mean that you need to work very hard to solve that problem no some people can solve a very hard problem very easily with little effort and ideally what you want to do is pick a problem that is very hard to solve and then solve it in the most efficient way possible so if the problem that you solve is that you're a grocery store cashier and the world has not yet automated buying groceries and so you're checking people out every day you're going to get paid way less than somebody who is say a tax lawyer who can help a small business owner save on taxes however if you can say automate the buying of groceries so that nobody ever has to use a cashier again you're gonna make way more money and somebody who's solving taxes for a small business owner the reason I think a lot of people get stuck in this belief is a couple things one people feel morally Superior for working hard this is something that I had to detach from years ago because I used to think that working harder and longer hours may be a better person I no longer believe that I think that sometimes I actually like it too much because I like working hard and I like working long hours and it's stupid it's not a good use of my time because I should be spending more time thinking you know ideating and really thinking of ways to be more effective now the second thing is that we're used to it we don't know how to not do and a lot of people to make their first amount of money which is not a ton but like enough they usually work really hard because it's hard to learn a new skill however then they get stuck in that cycle of working hard and what they don't realize is they haven't taught themselves how to think quality decision making leverage how can I grow my business without working harder like asking yourself good questions how could I make two million dollars more this year without adding any operational drag to my business the fourth money belief that people have that keep them stuck is that more money equals more problems okay this is something again I used to believe before I had money I used to see people with money and their society creates the stigma around people with money and it's like oh people with money are just they have more problems there's look at all the stuff you know what it really is you don't pay attention to poor people you pay attention to rich people but there are tons of miserable rich people as well and you're actually paying attention to them because they're rich there are just as many miserable poor people as there are miserable rich people when it comes to More Money More Problems I think I did used to feel this way because as I started making a lot of money the money itself became a problem what do I do with the money how do I protect the money what if I lose all the money it became another thing in my life for a short period of time I want to say about 18 months where the money actually took attention from me and this wasn't because more money created more problems it was because I didn't have a good relationship with money I didn't understand that this is just human psychology and that anything in life can be lost there is no certainty and I needed to create a better relationship with uncertainty T of like hey I could lose all my money tomorrow not that the money's a problem right your spouse could also leave you tomorrow your best friend could die tomorrow your employees could all quit Tomorrow there's a lot of uncertainty in life people would argue well Layla if you have more money there's lawsuits there's people trying to take your money so yes there are new problems I would say that you're upgrading your problems or you're trading your old problems for new problems now there was a study done that I found very interesting where they were showing people the faces of criminals they would show people like I think it was like a somewhere around 100 at a Time faces of people and in that study they would say pick out the criminals so the first group they had 100 and they had I want to say about 50 were criminals people picked I want to say I can't remember the exact number say 30 faces and said these 30 are criminals the second time they showed them a group of faces they took out like half the criminal and they said pick out the criminals again they picked 30 faces then again they dwindled it down and they took out all the criminals again the group of people pick 30 criminals so what they realized is that the brain every time you enter a new situation the brain runs out of problems but what happens is that when you accumulate more money there's a new threat that used to be that not having money was a threat now it considers having money as a threat what you have to understand is this is just managing your mind the fifth bunny belief that keeps people poor the phrase I'm not good with money I used to say this all the time and here's where I see it the most is people that are fresh out of college they're getting their first job they start making money on their own and everyone's like listen I'm just not good with money cross out the word good with experienced you are not experienced with money look at people who had jobs when they were 12 13 14. I don't know if anyone has one they're 12. but those people typically are really good with money by the time they're 20. they're buying real estate why is it that they're so much better at money than me because they've had more time and more experience magically right like how much time have you spent educating yourself about money how many books have you read how many articles have you read how many mentors that have a ton of money have you talked to second is do you have any experience with money right like did you have to save money and pay for things and pay and all that before in your life if you never have then you're probably gonna suck at it at first I did I was horrible with money the truth is money management is a skill it can be learned through education experience and effort it's like well I'm not good at working out no you've never worked out you've never hired a trainer you've never researched it you've never tried right you've gone to the gym like off and on a couple times in your life and that's also the next piece which is once you educate yourself and you're experimenting a lot of people don't stay consistent you use mint for a few weeks and then you stop using it you save your money for a few paychecks and then you stop doing it but like the reality is until you're consistent with your money habits you're not mastered it and that's okay it takes time and I look at it like this if we can just shorten the time of being inconsistent like consistency inconsistency consistency inconsistency I'm just trying to shorten those valleys of inconsistency I'm not trying to eliminate them that's not reasonable why you step terrible money believes you don't have to change a belief to make money but it certainly makes it much easier and less painful because if you have positive beliefs about something it's just like you don't have to believe that you can have a girlfriend or boyfriend to get one like there's people who are going to date you whether you believe it or not and have low self-esteem or not but it's going to make a more healthy relationship and a more productive relationship if you do have good beliefs values and practices around a relationship and so I look at money as just like a relationship in my life I think that having a good relationship with it and having positive productive beliefs about it is helpful for everybody