Survival to expansion mode

* Transcript created by AI – may contain errors or omissions from original podcast audio

If you’ve been feeling like you were in survival mode when it comes to money just getting by, paying the bills, trying to get through the next week, you might have forgotten what it feels like to dream. To feel expanded and excited about money. In today’s episode of the podcast, I’m gonna talk about how you can shift from survival mode to expansion mode when it comes to your money and get you excited about wealth creation again.

Just a quick note before we dive in. Everything I share on this podcast is general in nature and does not take your personal circumstances into account. I’m not a licensed financial advisor, and nothing you hear on this podcast should be taken as personalized, financial, business, taxation or investment advice.

Before you make any financial decisions, please seek guidance from your accountant or a qualified licensed financial advisor who understands your specific situation.

So when we talk about survival mode, when it comes to money, what exactly does that mean? Survival mode is where you are in a defensive mode. You are avoiding looking at your bank accounts. You’re feeling overwhelmed when it comes to money. You might be living week to week or month to month with your pay, and particularly with all of the noise and news and fear that’s going on.

You might be in a space where you are making decisions based on. Fear rather than based on expansion and where you really want to be. Now, there’s a couple of reasons why people can end up in survival mode. Firstly, you might genuinely be in survival mode. There is no buffer. There’s no way around this.

Like literally, I’m gonna need to be selling assets or digging into my savings just to get by at the moment. But also there might be a circumstance where you do have a bit of financial safety or a bit of a buffer there, but you are scared to touch it or tap into it. Maybe you’re making decisions like, quick, we need to sell the house, or sell the shares, or refinance, or whatever that might be, because your body is in survival mode.

Your subconscious mind, even if that’s not your actual reality. And so how can we start to shift from a place of playing defense to actually playing a game where you are trying to get ahead regardless of what  is going on in global markets. So what exactly does expansion mode look like? Expansion mode is where you have the space and the capacity to think long term when it comes to your money.

This is where you’re starting to make decisions from a place of desire, not panic. So expansion mode is when you are investing, you are upgrading, whether that’s your wardrobe or your house, or you know your kid’s schooling. Because you are in this expansion mode, you have the capacity to choose differently.

And when you’re in this space, money becomes a tool rather than a source of stress. And here’s the thing, regardless of your actual financial circumstances, you may find yourself slipping into survival mode. Because of noise, because of other things that are going around on around you, rather than being able to stay focused on your long-term goals.

I’ve spoken about this before in the podcast, my brother works for a prestigious investment bank. He has very wealthy clients and when they first sit down and talk about wealth creation investment strategies, they’re very aligned. Yes, I understand this is a long-term game. However, when markets start to crash, when they start to see the value of their portfolio decreasing, he said they panic.

They’re like, sell, get rid of it. I don’t wanna go and do that now. I’m not gonna go buy that property. Because even though their financial circumstances have that buffer, they are feeling the subconscious fear. And making decisions from that point. So here’s the thing, if you are in a scarcity like fear, survival mindset, it’s very hard to be thinking about expansion and building a big, beautiful life if a lot of your energy is going into just staying afloat.

Let’s start with a bit of a reality check. What we’re gonna do is have a think about what is in your control versus what is outside your control. Now, at any point in time, there are always economic factors at play, global markets moving around, things that we have no control over. And then there are the internal factors.

So the internal factors are things like, whether you have a job, how hard you’re working, if you’re running a business, how you’re showing up in your marketing, your pricing, what your earning capacities, what your financial habits are, what your willingness is to grow, educate yourself. Invest, take chances.

When I, a lot of times I’m working with people on their budgets, whether it’s in their business or in their personal life, and they’re like, I don’t know what the future holds. This is impossible. And I kindly remind them that no one ever knows what the future holds. I’ve worked for some really big global names, and when we’re preparing our budget, it was exactly the same.

We didn’t know whether oil prices were gonna skyrocket or global markets were gonna crash, or there was gonna be an outbreak of a pandemic. You are only ever able to make decisions based on the information available to you at a point in time. And something that I learned from working in corporate finance teams for many years is that you can’t decide that because there’s external factors going on that you put your hands up and say it’s all too hard and you walk away.

One of the big things that we always used to do was we are like, okay, we’ve been dealt a crappy set of hands. What are we gonna do about it? Crappy set of hands, a crappy hand. What are we gonna do about it? And focusing on the things. In our control rather than outside our control. So what I want you to do now is have a bit of a think about what money actually means to you right now, and specifically what more money would mean for you right now if you were suddenly having a surplus each month.

By surplus, after you take out your expenses, what’s left over after your earnings, what would more money change for you in the next 12 months? What would it remove? What would it allow? Maybe you’re in a mode where you’re like, you know what? I just love to have a buffer so that I don’t need to stress about cash.

Or maybe you’re in expansion room, you’re like, oh my goodness, I am so ready to upgrade our car or renovate our house, or whatever it might be. We are constantly making decisions around money, and I know I’ve said this many times on the podcast before, money isn’t the most important thing in the world, but money is important.

It affects so many areas of our life. So just take a moment and shut your eyes and think, what would more money mean for me? And get excited about what that success could look like. Because here’s the thing, when you are in a place without money, you can be caught. Delaying decisions. So even if you really know you need to upgrade the car, you’re like, oh, we don’t have the money.

Oh, just, we’ll just keep chugging along with this. You might be staying in a situation for too long. It might be the relationship, it might be the job. You feel like you’re stuck because you don’t have the financial means to make a decision. And what this all leads to is this constant. Yucky. Anxiety, stress, feeling in your stomach, and it just lingers there all the time. Let’s just pretend that tomorrow I transferred $2 million into your bank account, no conditions yours to keep. How much would your life change? What would the things be that you’d be able to say yes to? Would you book that holiday that you’ve dreamed of for years without spiraling and panicking?

Would you invest in some support? Would hire a nanny or a cleaner to help around the house? Would you finally set up that business that you’ve dreamed of or would put it in an offset account so that you actually had some breathing room with your mortgage? This is not just about the actual money, it’s about what money gives to you.

And what I wanna do now is give you permission, even in an economy that’s contracting, I wanna give you permission to want more. Because so many times we think we, I know I feel like this. We feel we’re so privileged. Who am I to want more? But here’s the thing, more money leads to more ease, more choice, more experience, and I believe the potential to create more positive impact on this planet.

There’s a saying I heard many years ago, which is that money doesn’t change you. If you are someone who is generous and empathetic and who really wants to make a positive impact in this world, or money will just amplify that, it means that you’ve got more financial resources available to help other people.

If you are someone who is greedy, selfie, self greedy, selfish, all of those awful things, more money will probably amplify that. So here’s what I want you to remember and take away from today’s episode. Regardless of what’s happening globally, your focus and your mindset matter Now more than ever. The decisions that you make now have a knock on effect in the months and years to come.

So here’s what I encourage you to do. Go and look at your numbers, especially if you’ve been avoiding them. Get intentional and make some decisions around expansion. Obviously, I don’t want you to be reckless when it comes to your money, if you weren’t feeling activated, if you were feeling expanded, what are some of the things that you might do?

Would you start the side hustle? Would you invest in the shares? What are some things that you really desire? That you can lean into. And again, please don’t do this in a reckless way. Obviously, live within your means. And I don’t think that you should be doing anything super risky, but also don’t, I think that in times of contraction of fear, people often are, really hermiting and not focused on the, their long-term objectives.

And the biggest thing I want you to take away from today, stop avoiding your money. So hopefully today has inspired you to step back, get excited again about what is possible, what you would love to do if you have more money, and start taking action towards that, huh? Fabulous week. And I’ll chat to you again next week on The Intentional Money Show with Clare Wood. Adios.

* Transcript created by AI – may contain errors or omissions from original podcast audio