How I Stopped Mismanaging My Finances and How You Can Too

by / ⠀Entrepreneurship Personal Finance / July 29, 2014

financial mismanagement

Two weeks ago I sent an email talked about some honest truths about looking at your financial picture…. and guess what happened?

It was the lowest response rate to an email I’ve had in months.

Why?  Not because you all have it all under control… No– it’s because of what everyone told me who did respond to the email.  It sucks to look at this stuff.  

About 50 people spilled their guts about having huge mental blocks around money and personal finance including:

  • Fear, stress, and procrastination about looking at your bank account
  • Not knowing where your money goes and fear of sorting through your issues
  • Not liking money and simply not wanting to deal with it

Look– I have a confession to make.  

I was the same way for years, and even still I struggle with it at times.  Quick story:

After my galavant across six countries this spring, it was time to do my expense report for Under30Experiences.  (yes, we have expense reports)

I was absolutely *dreading* calculating how much money I had spent.  I know it sounds douchey to say that, but this is how these issues start.  We’re not allowed to talk about money, and unless we do, we’ll never come clean.

I put off the simple task of reconciling my American Express bill into our accounting system for THREE MONTHS.

Not only was this financially irresponsible, but every time I thought about it, I procrastinated and didn’t want to look at it.  It caused me a huge amount of stress and mental energy.

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“Sh*t I really need to look at my AMEX bill,” was probably repeated 200x in my head over those three months.

When I realized this mental block could be causing strain on my relationship with my co-founder, I finally cracked down.  AND, once I calculated it– which took me only twenty minutes, the amount I had been fearing was thousands less than I made it up to be in my head.

All that anxiety, stress, fear, and bullsh*t for nothing.

I don’t want to have these mental blocks anymore and neither should you.

In the Under30CEO insiders program we’ve been working a lot on this stuff, but seriously, now is the time in our life that we need to do the work.

As I’ve mentioned before, I used to be WAY worse including:

  • Hundreds in overdraft and late fees
  • Thousands because of my high APR credit card I never could bring myself to investigate
  • Black marks on my credit report b/c I never open my f*cking mail

What I did to solve my problems with money that you can put into action:

  1. Harness the mentalities of wealthy people.  Read: Think and Grow Rich.  It’s a lot like the old expression “dress for the job you want”, but this time you think like the people who have money like you want.
  2. Start examining your deep rooted beliefs about money.  Write down all the stuff about growing up that might have made you the way you are when it comes to finances.  Most of these beliefs are from your parents, not you.
  3. Get your sh*t together when it comes to managing your dollars.
  4. Read Ramit Sethi’s book I Will Teach You to Be Rich and his six week program on getting your finances together.
  5. Do some meditations around abundance and attracting wealth.  It sounds hokey, but you are re-programming your subconscious to think and act like someone who is wealthy.  I used Mindvalley’s free Omvana App.

It’s no different from Snoop Dogg saying, “Mind on my money, and my money on my mind”.  If all you think about is getting paper, then it’s going to be imprinted in your subconscious to always be seeking financial opportunity.

About The Author

Matt Wilson

Matt Wilson is Co-Founder of Under30Experiences, a travel company for young people ages 21-35. He is the original Co-founder of Under30CEO (Acquired 2016). Matt is the Host of the Live Different Podcast and has 50+ Five Star iTunes Ratings on Health, Fitness, Business and Travel. He brings a unique, uncensored approach to his interviews and writing. His work is published on Under30CEO.com, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, Huffington Post, Reuters, and many others. Matt hosts yoga and fitness retreats in his free time and buys all his food from an organic farm in the jungle of Costa Rica where he lives. He is a shareholder of the Green Bay Packers.

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