7 Mindset Shifts to Master Your Money Psychology

In this episode of the Personal Finance Podcast, we are going to talk about the  seven mindset shifts to master your money psychology. Watch this episode on Youtube. How Andrew Can Help You: Listen to The Business Show ⁠here⁠. Don't let another year pass by without making significant strides toward your dreams. "Master Your Money Goals" is your pathway to a future where your aspirations are not just wishes but realities.⁠ Enroll now and make this year count!⁠ Join The Master Money Newsletter where you will become smarter with your money in 5 minutes or less per week ⁠Here⁠! Learn to invest by joining ⁠ Index Fund Pro⁠! This is Andrew’s course teaching you how to invest! Watch The Master Money ⁠Youtube Channel⁠! , Ask Andrew a question on ⁠Instagram⁠ or ⁠TikTok⁠. Learn how to get out of Debt by joining our ⁠Free Course ⁠ Leave Feedback or Episode Requests ⁠here⁠. Car buying Calculator ⁠here⁠ Thanks to Our Amazing Sponsors for supporting The Personal Finance Podcast. Shopify: Shopify makes it so easy to sell. Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at ⁠ ⁠⁠shopify.com/pfp⁠ Chime: Start your credit journey with Chime. Sign-up takes only two minutes and doesn’t affect your credit score. Get started at⁠ chime.com/⁠ Thanks to Fundrise for Sponsoring the show! Invest in real estate going to⁠ ⁠⁠fundrise.com/pfp⁠ Thanks to Policy Genius for Sponsoring the show! Go to ⁠policygenius.com⁠ to get your free life insurance quote. Go to ⁠https://joindeleteme.com/PFP20/⁠ for 20% off! Indeed: Start hiring NOW with a SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLAR SPONSORED JOB CREDIT to upgrade your job post at ⁠Indeed.com/personalfinance⁠ Turn your business dream into reality! Apply now at ⁠www.oneday.org/pfp⁠ Go to ⁠Acorns.com/pfp⁠ and start automating your investments and get a $5 bonus today! Shop Data Plans and Save Big at ⁠mintmobile.com/pfp⁠ Links Mentioned in This Episode: ⁠Should I Use My Emergency Fund to Pay Off High Interest Debt? - Money Q&A⁠ ⁠Pre-Tax or Roth, How to Use Your Emergency Fund, & Building Business Credit - Money Q&A ⁠ ⁠The 1-3-6 Method For Building & Managing Your Emergency Fund⁠ ⁠How to Get a Guaranteed 5% Return on Your Emergency Fund - Money Q&A⁠ Connect With Andrew on Social Media: ⁠Instagram ⁠ ⁠TikTok⁠ ⁠Twitter ⁠ ⁠Master Money Website⁠ ⁠Master Money Youtube Channel⁠ Free Guides: ⁠The Stairway to Wealth: The Order of Operations for your Money ⁠ ⁠How to Negotiate Your Salary ⁠ ⁠The 75 Day Money Challenge ⁠ ⁠Get out Of Debt Fast ⁠ ⁠Take the Money Personality Quiz Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Andrew Giancola?

  Longtime listeners know, one of the best ways to build wealth is to increase your income. And one way to do that is by starting a side hustle. And that's one reason why I absolutely love Whatnot. Now, my son and I, we love collecting sports cards. And we've used Whatnot to buy and sell cards. It's been a really fun way to enjoy something we love together. Now, Whatnot is a live shopping platform where people sell everything from sports cards to clothing, electronics, and collectibles. And what's really cool about it is you can turn something you're passionate about into a business. And you could do it right from your phone. You don't even need a storefront or a website. So whether you're looking to make some extra money or find great deals on your next shopping trip, check out Whatnot.

• 0:44Andrew Giancola?

  Search Whatnot, that's W H A T N O T, in the App Store. Download and start selling right away. When I started the Personal Finance Podcast, I had no idea how big it could become. I just knew I had something I wanted to share, so I started putting it online. And looking back, I definitely wish I would have started a decade earlier. One of the horror parts about building something online, though, is making it look professional. A website used to mean hiring a developer, figuring out design, and potentially spending thousands of dollars. In fact, on my website, I spent tens of thousands of dollars. That's what impressed me when playing around with Hostinger's AI website builder.

• 1:27Andrew Giancola?

  I told it what kind of website I wanted, and I built the first version in minutes. No coding, no designer or developer needed. And Hostinger doesn't stop at launch. Their AI can help with SEO, website copy, email marketing, and more. Plus, your domain, website, email, and marketing can all live in one account, with plans starting at just $3 every single month. Hostinger builds your vision step by step. Create your website today. Go to hostinger.com/pfp and use code PFP for 10% off now. On this episode of the Personal Finance Podcast, seven mindset shifts to master your money psychology.

• 2:24Andrew Giancola?

  What's up everybody and welcome to the Personal Finance Podcast. I'm your host Andrew, founder of MasterMoney.co. And today on the Personal Finance Podcast, we're going to dive into seven mindset shifts to master your money. If you guys have any questions, make sure you join the Master Money Newsletter by going to MasterMoney.co/newsletter and follow us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or whatever podcast player you love listening to this podcast on. And if you want to help out the show, consider leaving a five-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast player. Now, most people don't struggle with money because they're bad at math. Most people struggle because they don't know how to feel

• 3:09Andrew Giancola?

  and think about money. Now, I say this all the time on this podcast, but money truly is 90% up here. It's 90% in your head, and it's 10% what you actually know. Your emotions matter more than anything else. And regulating those emotions and making sure you have the right money psychology is the most important thing. So today, what we're going to be doing is I'm going to dive into seven mindset shifts to help you master your money and help you master that financial psychology. And it's going to be very, very important for most people to go through this process and understand how they can build some financial confidence with their money psychology. Now,

• 3:52Andrew Giancola?

  one of the biggest things and the guidelines that I have, if you want to master your money psychology, is to make sure that you're continuously learning. If you continuously learn about money, the more you understand about money, the more you're going to be able to regulate those emotions. So what I realized very early on, for example, is that when the market would go down, I would feel some sort of emotion. And I would feel an emotion when the market would shift, or when the market would go up, I would also feel emotion. I'd feel excitement. I'd be so happy that the market is moving up. I'd see my bank account going up. I'd see my balance going up, and I got really excited. Then the market would go down, and I'd be like, oh, my goodness, I am Losing money every single month, what the heck is going on here? And so with a financial education, I started to learn more and more about the market, how the market moves, gain more experience investing in the market.

• 4:37Andrew Giancola?

  And all of a sudden now, when the market moves, I feel literally nothing. In fact, when it goes down, I get a little excited because I get to put a little more money in and stocks are on sale. Now, this comes with experience, but this also comes with furthering my financial education. Those two things will help you master your money psychology. And for some of us, you may feel like, well, I know a lot about money. I know a lot about finance and I really don't need to continue learning because I feel like I know everything I want to know and I'm going to go as far as I want to with this. But typically, what you need to be doing is continuing that education because it helps motivate you, it helps keep you level and it helps keep you grounded. And so all of these things are really important to make sure that you are mastering your money psychology. So I want to talk about that up at the top of the show.

• 5:20Andrew Giancola?

  Now, let's get in to the seven key mindset shifts that you need to have to master your money psychology.

• 5:28Andrew Giancola?

  All right, number one is to understand your money story. So your money habits are going to always start with your money story. What beliefs did you grow up with around money? So I have talked to so many different friends and they have these certain beliefs around money. And typically, those beliefs around money, sometimes they're unusual and sometimes they're pretty normal. But if they do have some sort of unusual belief around money, I'll ask, well, where did you learn that from? And it's always from their upbringing. It's always from their parents and how they grew up with money. Maybe you know someone who is really frugal around money. If you turn the lights on, they want the lights turned off every single time they walk out of a room. Or maybe you know someone out there who does not want to waste a single cent.

• 6:11Andrew Giancola?

  Well, the odds are they either likely grew up with someone who also shared those same values or they're rebelling against someone who did the exact opposite. And so sometimes this can come out of scarcity mindsets, but this can also come out of mindsets from people who maybe their family lost it all. There's a lot of different beliefs out there and how people grew up with money is going to have a huge impact on how you think about money. Now, sometimes this is wrong where I've heard people say, for example, Oh no, you can't invest your money. You need to keep it all in cash. Well, that typically for most people is the wrong answer. And that's because maybe your parents lost all their money or their parents lost all their money in the Great Depression, or whatever else it could be. And so what you need to make sure that is happening here is that you understand and have the ability to identify

• 6:55Andrew Giancola?

  what areas of my upbringing maybe are causing me financial harm. And so I want you to think through, how did your parents or caregivers treat money? What did they do around money? Did they spend a lot of money? Did they overspend all the time? Did they hoard it all and they were super frugal? How does that impact the way you think about money? Now here's some common things and common money scripts that you know, maybe parents have said to you. We can't afford that. Or you've had parents say money is evil. Or they'll say something like money makes everybody greedy. All of these are just scripts that people are stating, but they are not always true. And so you have to make sure that you identify those. Now, are you replaying any patterns in your life from your upbringing?

• 7:36Andrew Giancola?

  These are really important questions to ask yourself because you need to make sure that you understand and identify some of those. What emotions are to ID your money habits? Here's a great example from me. Okay? So in my upbringing, every single year at Christmas time, and this sounds really privileged, and it is. But every single year at Christmas time, my parents would get me gifts and they had a set amount of budget. So when we would get gifts every single year, they would spend $100 on our Christmas gifts. So I would see friends around me and I grew up in a middle-class household. But I would see friends around me and their parents would be buying all these different things and mine would stick to that $100 budget. Always was that $100 budget. If you wanted one big thing, you'd get one giant big thing and maybe a couple of things that you're stocking. Or if you wanted a bunch of small things, they'd get you all the small things, but it all fell in that $100 budget. Always. Okay?

• 8:20Andrew Giancola?

  Now, I never loved that because I saw people around me getting more and my friends and kids around me that were getting more than I was when it came to Christmas time. So one thing that happened to me is when I had my first child, which was my son, my oldest son. When I had my first child, I, every single Christmas, he'd be like two years old and I would fill up under the tree with as many gifts and toys as I possibly could. This is stemming from me early on at Christmas time wanting more gifts and I would just buy him more toys and I'd just buy him more stuff. And then my second child would come and the tree would fill up even more. My wife's like, this is getting ridiculous. Like you are, you are compensating for something here. And I would think back and I was like, oh my goodness.

• 9:02Andrew Giancola?

  This is all stemming from me because of me growing up wanting more under the tree. Now, this sounds extremely privileged. I understand that, but at the same time, this is an example of what could be something that happened to you. So maybe for example, your parents were super, super frugal and they would complain about money all the time. They would talk about money all the time and they would just say to you, we can't afford that. We can't afford this. We can't afford that. And then you grow up and you're like, well, I want to be able to afford everything. I don't ever want to say no to my kids. Because my parents said no to me all the time. So you may grow up with a money belief that is the opposite of how you grew up. But that's okay. You need to make sure you identify that and figure out what part of that is healthy. And what part of that is not healthy for your money psychology going forward.

• 9:46Andrew Giancola?

  If you are someone whose parents were really frugal and then you grew up wanting to do the opposite for your children. You need to make sure it's still within your means. And so this is going to be a situation that you can't always rely just on some of those psychological triggers. Also, just think through your past experiences and your behavior and don't let it control your future. If you feel like you're going in a negative direction and you can rewrite the story. This is what I think most people need to understand and this is what we want to work with you on. Is you can rewrite the story of what some of these beliefs are. So if you're someone out there and you know that some of these money beliefs are in your life. You have some of these things where your money story is impacting the way that you spend money. Maybe you feel like money is not abundant and you can't go earn more.

• 10:28Andrew Giancola?

  Maybe you feel like, you know, just trying to earn more money is almost impossible because forever your family has been in poverty for years and years and years. I want to tell you right now, you can rewrite your family's money story. Part of the reason why we started this podcast was I believe anybody in this world can build wealth. And if you are coming from generation after generation of people who did not know how to handle money or who could not earn more or who did not have the opportunity to earn more, maybe they weren't privileged. At all. Privilege is very real, and maybe they weren't privileged. Well, you can rewrite that story. You can make the change, and I want to encourage you as much as I possibly can to know that you can rewrite your story.

• 11:11Andrew Giancola?

  And so I want you to understand that as we go through this episode. Now, number two is I want you to shift from scarcity to abundance. So there are a lot of people out there, and when I start to talk to people about money, I can realize pretty quickly if they have a scarcity mindset around money or if they have an abundant mindset around money. Now, every single wealthy person that I know has an extremely abundant mindset when it comes to money. They think that I can always go out and earn more money. I can start another business. I can start to negotiate my salary at my career and be able to earn more there. I can increase my skill level so I can earn more at my day job and outside of my career. Hey, they're always thinking of business ideas. For example, for me, I cannot stop thinking of business ideas.

• 11:54Andrew Giancola?

  And I need to share, I have a bunch of episodes coming for you guys, by the way, of more business ideas to start, because I know you guys love those episodes. But I cannot stop thinking about different ways to earn more money and how money is abundant. But for a lot of people out there, if you grew up in a family who always talked about how tight money was and talked about scarcity, this is going to engrain in your brain that money is a scarcity thing. You always need to be playing defense instead of offense. You're trying to just fend off the bill collectors. You're just trying to fend off making sure that you can even get by the next month. This is the opposite of what I want you to think about money, but you need to make sure that you understand how it works first. So a scarcity mindset is a person that thinks there's never enough.

• 12:36Andrew Giancola?

  And maybe you grew up forever and you've never been in a situation where there is enough. That's okay. We're going to make that mindset shift. Because an abundance mindset says I can always create more. Now scarcity mindset, I know really wealthy people who have a scarcity mindset, and they hoard their money, they're scared about money all the time, and they're always playing defense. Now, I get it. For a lot of us, one of my biggest fears in the world is losing it all. That is one of my biggest fears in the world. That is my big money fear, is losing it all and starting from ground zero. So a lot of us are going To have somewhat of a scarcity mindset, but still you can have a scarcity mindset, but still be abundant when it comes to your actions. And so I want you to try to stop playing defense and I want you to start playing offense. So an abundance mindset will invest their dollars. They will go out there and start a business.

• 13:21Andrew Giancola?

  They will go out there and try to work on their skills so they can level up in their career. And they know that there is always more money out there to be made. I want that to be you and I want you to think in that way. If you're the type of person who always comes up with business ideas and you are the type of person who doesn't take action on them. We all know this person. A business idea comes up, maybe it's like Netflix, for example. They're like, and your friend comes up and said, man, I thought of Netflix before Netflix came out. Or somebody comes out with a brand new restaurant and they said, man, I thought of this restaurant before this restaurant came out. Well, you need to take action on some of these things in order to make it come true. We all know the person who always does that. Now, abundance doesn't mean carelessly spending. It means confidently living and it's the shift starts with your thoughts before it shows up in your bank account.

• 14:03Andrew Giancola?

  If you can make this shift early on, it'll be a big, big difference in your life. Now, number three is to recognize your emotional triggers. Now, most people will make money decisions emotionally and not logically. And so I want you to recognize some of those emotional triggers when it comes to spending money. So number one is do you emotionally spend money when you are stressed, bored or insecure? So I know for a fact that when I am bored and I am sitting at home more often, or I'm looking on my phone, or I'm just kind of doing nothing, I will start to go, ah, well, what's going on online? Maybe I can look at that brand new golf club or maybe I can look for that brand new pickleball paddle. Or maybe I can go online and ooh, I haven't bought in a new polo in a while.

• 14:47Andrew Giancola?

  And so I'll go and start to just shop around online because I'm bored. What else am I gonna do? And most of you listening do the same exact thing. When you are bored, you start to shop. Now, stress shopping is another thing. A lot of people, when they experience stress, they want to relieve that stress in some way, shape or form. Some people will do a workout. Some people will go shopping. Have you ever heard of retail therapy? That is literally where that word came from. When you are stressed out or you are dealing with a lot of things. Retail therapy can help people decompress. But look for those emotional triggers because if you are in a situation where you're living paycheck to paycheck, or you don't have a lot of extra money there. See if any of those emotions are causing you to spend.

• 15:31Andrew Giancola?

  That's the first thing I want you to think through, okay? Is emotional spending. Know about emotional spending and know when it causes you to trigger spending money. Do you go on a shopping spree every single time you get stressed? Well, that's going to be a problem. We need to make sure that we get that under control so that we can get our finances right moving forward. The second thing I want you to think about when it comes to emotional triggers is avoidance behavior. So, so many people I know do this and most people I talk to or coach through their money do this, okay? Avoidance behavior is not checking your bank accounts or your budget because it's in a bad situation. So when things get bad, you don't want to feel worse and so you try to avoid it as much as you possibly can. Now, you guys who have been here for a long time have heard me tell the story about when I went to the gas pump.

• 16:16Andrew Giancola?

  The gas pump was the turning point in my life where I actually got my money together. So I had my first job. I was not making much money out of college and I had my first job. And over the course of the first six months, I was just trying to get by. I was living paycheck to paycheck. And I went to this gas pump, went to go fill up my gas tank with gas and I did not have enough money to fill my entire tank with gas. And it was at this point in time, I was at a crossroads. I could either, you know, just avoid this and try to move on with my day and hope for my paycheck on Friday to get me by once again, or I could do something about it. And if I avoided this, I would have never turned my financial life around. I would have never had my first 100K in two years and my first million nine years later. And that is because I decided I was not going to avoid this any longer.

• 17:00Andrew Giancola?

  And so a lot of you out there, you're like, man, I just will never be able to get it together. I can't get a budget together, or I can't start investing, or I can't get an emergency fund going, or I can't invest in my Roth IRA or my 401K. I'm just not even going to think about it. But avoidance behavior means that you will never build wealth. And I want you to remember that as we go through this. So do not avoid your problems. You need to face them head on, develop a plan, which is what we teach you here, to develop a plan. And then we're going to move on to the next step. Overspending for approval or status. Now, I'm going to say this right directly to you. If you're watching on YouTube, let me lean in for this one really quick. Stop spending money buying things you don't really care about to impress people that you could care less about.

• 17:43Andrew Giancola?

  Stop buying things to impress people you don't care about. It does not make sense. This is a huge thing that a lot of people will do is they will go out and overspend on a vehicle because they want people to think they have more money than they do. Or they will buy the bigger house that really stretches their budget because they want people to think they have more money than they do. I want you to think this to yourself. If nobody else was watching, would I actually make this purchase? Or would I make a separate decision? That is going to be a huge difference maker for most people is asking themselves that question every single time they do this. Luxury brands fall deep into this category. There is almost zero reason to buy a luxury brand unless you really feel the quality is that much better.

• 18:27Andrew Giancola?

  But typically, the mid-tier quality and the luxury brand are made very similarly. And the luxury brand just has a label on it. That label is for others' approval. And if you do not think that that is true, just look deep, deep down. If that label was not on, if Gucci was not on the shirt or on the purse or on the shoes, would you actually buy that item? And we just found out, actually, as of recent, if you've seen all of these Chinese factories coming out saying they're making all the handbags, they're making all the shoes, and then it goes to Italy and they put the final stamp on there. So this entire time, the fakes have been also the real. And so for a lot of people, if you are overspending for approval or status, you need to know that you are doing that. This is really important, and sometimes you just got to call people out. I'm calling you all out right now.

• 19:12Andrew Giancola?

  You need to understand that for approval or for status, if you are spending dollars, it is not worth it. Mercedes is for approval or status. BMW is for approval or status. Unless you're really into cars or vehicles, typically those are for approval or status. Okay, so I just want you to understand as you think through this. Track your emotional state before you swipe a card. So if you swipe a card, I want you to do something and say to yourself, do you immediately regret it an hour? If you do, then let's just keep thinking about this. Let's keep making sure that we are conscious about this and not do that again. Because if you swipe your card during an emotional state, you are going to most likely do something that you regret. Making sure that you are just aware. Awareness is step one. Judgment is not helpful here whatsoever. So you need to be aware.

• 19:54Andrew Giancola?

  You need to stop judging yourself and you need to just be understanding of what is going on here and start to fix it. And emotional regulation leads to financial regulation. So if you can regulate your emotions, you can regulate your finances. And I want every single person to understand that as we move forward. So what's your go to emotional trigger when it comes to spending? Think about this for a second. Do you spend dollars based on some sort of emotional trigger? Is it stress? Is it anxiety? Is it to feel better about yourself when things are just going wrong? Is it to impress other people? Is it when you feel guilty? Is it when you just feel like everything in the world is against you? What are some of those emotional triggers? Identify those, write them down on your phone and just have some sort of thing, just reminding yourself before you make a purchase.

• 20:37Andrew Giancola?

  Say, I spend money because of these emotional triggers. Do I still want to make this purchase? Just write them down, put them on a list as a note in your notes app on your phone. And before you spend money, just pull that up and just say, are these some of the triggers that is causing me to want to spend money? And then think through that process. All right. Now, my relationship with money has changed a lot over the years. Early on, I thought building wealth was about making more money. Now I know it's really about having clarity. When you know exactly where your money is going and whether you're on track, you make better decisions. That's one of the reasons I love Monarch. It's the personal finance app that tracks everything from your accounts and investments to your savings, goals and spending. So you can see your entire financial picture in one place.

• 21:22Andrew Giancola?

  One habit that's made a huge difference for me is my five minute drill every single morning. I open Monarch, check my spending, investments, cash flow and net worth, and I'm done in just a few minutes. It gives me confidence that nothing is slipping through the cracks. I also love the AI weekly recap because it'll flag spending changes, upcoming expenses, or shifts in my net worth before they become a problem. Instead of reacting After the fact, I can make adjustments early. It really feels like having a financial advisor in your pocket. Write your own money story with Monarch. Use code PFP at monarch.com to get your first year of Monarch Core half off at just $50. That's 50% off your first year at monarch.com with code PFP.

• 22:07Andrew Giancola?

  It's kind of amazing how much can change in just a single year. Every summer, the kids are a little bigger, a little more independent, and life looks a little different than it did the year before. And it reminds me that while we can't predict the future, we can prepare for it. That's one of the reasons I like PolicyGenius. See, PolicyGenius isn't an insurance company. They're an online marketplace that lets you compare life insurance quotes from some of America's top insurers side by side for free. And their licensed team helps you compare coverage, prices, and terms, answers your questions, and even handles the paperwork so you can get the right policy without the hassle. For me, having life insurance isn't about expecting something to happen. It's about knowing my family is protected

• 22:51Andrew Giancola?

  so I can actually enjoy these moments together instead of worrying about what comes next. And with PolicyGenius, you can find 20-year life insurance policies starting at just $276 a year for $1 million of coverage. Head to policygenius.com to compare life insurance quotes from top companies and see how much you can save. That's policygenius.com. If you've been listening to this show for a while, you know it's not just me anymore. It takes a great team behind the scenes to make everything happen. And if I had to hire someone tomorrow, I'd want someone who could jump right in and make an impact. That's why I'd use Indeed Sponsored Jobs. When workplace chaos hits, Indeed Sponsored Jobs helps you reach qualified candidates faster.

• 23:35Andrew Giancola?

  Your job gets boosted in search results so you're spending less time searching and more time interviewing the right people. Plus, you only pay for results, which I absolutely love. Sponsored jobs posted directly on Indeed are 95% more likely to report a hire than non-sponsored posts. That's a huge advantage when you're trying to grow your business. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all of your boxes. Less stress, less time, more results. When you need the right person to cut through the chaos, this is the job for Indeed sponsored jobs. And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to help get your job the premium status it

• 24:17Andrew Giancola?

  deserves at indeed.com/podcast. Just go to indeed.com/podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com/podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? This is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs.

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• 25:03Andrew Giancola?

  Number four is to upgrade your money identity. So your words have a major impact on how you think and how you think is what you're going to end up doing. And I want you to understand this very deeply here. Your words matter and how you think matters. Proverbs 23:7 says, "For as he thinks in his heart, so is he." And this is something I think most people don't realize that your thoughts need to be controlled and they need to be regulated. If you say, "I'm bad with money," this can become a self fulfilling prophecy. So one of the things that I think most people don't understand is the power of motivating yourself. Okay. And when it comes to motivating yourself, I'm not going to do some rah rah

• 25:45Andrew Giancola?

  hoo-ha thing here. I'm going to give you an example. So when I was in college, I ran the New York marathon. Now your boy ran the New York marathon without training. The longest I had ever run before that was six miles. Now I could not do that today, but when I was college, I was a spry young individual. I probably weighed 205 pounds. Now I weigh 230 pounds. I'm six foot four. I weigh 230 pounds now. Been lifting a lot more weights. Your boy's been getting into the gym a little bit. And so this is something where probably now I could not do it with the extra 25 pounds. But I ran the New York marathon, the longest I had ever run. I did not train at all. And the longest I had run was six miles. So I get to the starting line of the race. Okay. And I start running the race and I'm feeling pretty good. I get to mile five, feeling great.

• 26:29Andrew Giancola?

  Get to mile six. And if you've ever seen the New York marathon, there's people the entire way on each side. They help kind of motivate you to continue on. Get to mile seven, mile eight. I am still feeling good and I'm amazed that I'm still feeling good. And I'm running, keeping the same exact pace. I'm moving forward and I get to mile 13. And at mile 13, boom, I hit a wall and it hit me pretty hard. But I continued on running. And so now the next 13 miles are a huge psychology game for me. And I had to continually tell myself, I am going to finish this race. I am going to finish this race. I am a marathon runner. I am going to finish this race. You will not stop while you're running on this race. You will not stop running. So most people pass mile 13, they will stop, they will start walking.

• 27:13Andrew Giancola?

  And I knew if I stopped and started to walk, my legs would be completely jelly and I would not start again. So I continuously just kept running and running and running. And I kept the same exact pace as when I started. And then finally, when I finished that race, it was the best feeling in the world to finish that race. But I did it in my mind mentally. Guess what happened after? I literally could not walk for three days because I did not train for the race. I felt sick after and all these different things, but mentally I got my body to finish that race. I want you to do the same thing when it comes to your money. This is the long game when it comes to money. You are going to get hit left and right with different things that are going to try to derail your path

• 27:58Andrew Giancola?

  to financial independence. Something's going to happen where you're going to get a big unexpected bill. Maybe you get sued. Maybe something else comes up and it derails your entire emergency fund. You lose your job, but you'd say to yourself, I am good with money and I am going to continue on this financial race. If you continue to tell your I'm bad with money. I'm never going to be able to get through this. How am I going to get through this? That is one of the worst things that you can do for your money psychology. Shift to I'm a wealth builder, I'm learning and I'm capable. I'm a wealth builder, I'm learning and I'm capable and you are going to get through this. Now, identity shapes your behavior more than your motivation ever will. And that's what most people fail to realize is that your motivation is fleeting. That's why we have you automate your money because your motivation is going to disappear.

• 28:42Andrew Giancola?

  But you can still run this race and win with money by just having the right mindset. Now wealthy people see themselves as capable even when they mess up. So have you ever met a really wealthy person and they're kind of cocky? And there's someone who you're like, man, that person is super cocky. Well, this is probably most likely people who have taken this concept too far. Where they believe in themselves, but then they also believe in themselves so much they think they're better than everybody else. But part of the reason why they got there was because of their mindset. Now, I'm not saying to be cocky whatsoever. You need to be humble throughout this entire process. But you also need to feel confident and you need to act confident. This is one of the most important things that you can do. Now, every smart money move is a vote for the person that you're becoming. Your behavior dictates a vote towards who you want to be.

• 29:28Andrew Giancola?

  And I want you to remember this over and over again. Every single action I take is a vote for future me. And that's how you need to think about this. So you need to shift your identity. When I was at that gas pump and I was filling up my gas tank and I did not have enough money. I shifted my identity to someone who I am good with money. And I'm going to figure this out and I did. And that was the thing that I think most of you need to understand as well is you can figure this out. Number five is I want you to practice financial discipline and not deprivation. Now, Jaco Willink, who is a great author, he was a Navy SEAL, he's got a great podcast too. He has this saying and he has an entire book titled this called Discipline is Freedom. And I think that is one of the most powerful statements that you can have because it creates peace. It creates margin.

• 30:12Andrew Giancola?

  Discipline equals systems, not stress. So discipline is going out there and automating your money. So you have a system in place to just take care of everything. Automating your savings, your investing, your bills, all of those are really, really important. And the key to this is you're saying no now, so you can say yes to everything later. Your future self is going to be so incredibly happy that you did this. One of the biggest pushbacks I get when I talk about investing, or when I talk about making more money, or when I talk about building wealth, is the long game. And I'll get people, for example, will put a video out on TikTok and everybody will say, oh, it's going to take you 20 years. You're just going to be an old person with a lot of money. Would you rather be an old person with no money? Because that's what's going to happen if you follow the path that you are taking.

• 30:56Andrew Giancola?

  And so what I want people to understand is building wealth is a long game. And you have to have the discipline to stay in the game. You have to have the discipline to go out and pursue wealth for the long run. Most people don't have it. This is why retirees, most retirees are on a shoestring budget because someone told them to invest their money every single month. And they said, oh, that's way too far out. Now they're living a retired life that is no fun. They have no way to travel. They have no way to do anything. They're living off social security and maybe a couple hundred thousand dollars or less. And that's all they can do. They're stuck in their house. They cannot pursue their hobbies. They cannot pursue their interests because they did not take action.

• 31:36Andrew Giancola?

  And just taking small actions every month and still living your life today is the best combination that you can absolutely have. So rewarding yourself with intention and not impulse is a huge key here. And discipline is the muscle behind abundance. Every single person that you know who is building a business or they're building tremendous amount of wealth. They have discipline, but they do not have to exercise that discipline every day if you automate your money. It is not about restriction. It is about alignment with your goals. It is about aligning your intentions with your goals. That's what discipline is when it comes to your money. All right. Number six is to kill comparison. Comparison will derail your financial clarity if you compare your life to other people. Every single person in your entire life is on a different financial path than you.

• 32:19Andrew Giancola?

  And truthfully, you have no idea what their real financial situation is. If you have a friend who you see go to Barbados and then you see them go to Mexico, and then you see them go overseas to London, and then they go to Italy, and then they go to France, and then they go travel all over the place, and it seems like they have no job. And it seems like they really are just doing well financially. Well, guess what? You have no idea what underlying is happening with their finances. And if you try to match them, or if you try to compare yourself to them, or if you try to say, man, I am way behind from this person, that is the thief of your joy. Comparison is the thief of joy. You need not to be doing that because instead, what you should be doing is focusing on the things that you can control,

• 33:02Andrew Giancola?

  which is your variables. Meaning that you can work on your personal development. You can work on yourself when it comes to developing more skills so that you can earn more money. You can work on doing the best at your day job so that you can negotiate your salary so that you can earn more at your day job. You can work on building up that side business. You can work on becoming the best possible person that you can be. But what you can't do is compare your start to someone else's finish line. If you're looking at some of these entrepreneurs out there or people out there who are way ahead of you, but they've also been doing this for 25, 30 years, that is the most ridiculous thing that you could ever compare yourself to. They started 25 years ago. There is no way, shape or form that you should even be close to the same level as them.

• 33:47Andrew Giancola?

  Now, let's come down to the people who are the same age as you. If you're comparing yourself to people who have different privilege, they have different starting points, they have different things that have happened in their life, there is no comparison. And if you make yourself feel bad because you're comparing yourself to someone else, that is the wrong way to look at this. You have no idea what their financial life is. And for the majority of Americans, if you look at the stats, most of them are in financial derailed situations. They just don't show it. What they're showing you is a facade of what is actually happening behind the checking account. And so you need to understand that as time goes on. Social media shows highlight reels and not real life. And so a lot of people will see social media. They think everything is absolutely amazing, but it is not real life.

• 34:30Andrew Giancola?

  They may be driving a nice car, but living paycheck to paycheck. In fact, most people who have a Mercedes or a BMW are living paycheck to paycheck. And most people who buy designer are living paycheck to paycheck. I want you to notice this. Go look at the statistics and see what is actually happening there. So you want to stay focused on your own journey. Your journey is what is matters. What is your financial goals? Let's map those out and let's go get them. Let's go attack them and get after them. Have that abundance mindset to chase after them. Have the discipline to chase after them, but don't compare yourself to somebody else. Who cares? Who cares what somebody else is doing? And the last one is I want you to build confidence through action. Okay, so this is number seven is confidence comes from taking action even when you're scared.

• 35:15Andrew Giancola?

  So you don't need to know everything to get started. Okay, if you are scared to get started investing, take our investing for beginners free masterclass. If you go to mastermoney.co slash investing for beginners, that's where you can start there. If you don't know how to start saving for an emergency fund, listen to a couple of podcast episodes and try it out. If you don't know how to automate your bills, that's okay. Open the account, invest the $50, automate the bills, just get started. You don't have to know everything to get started. When I started out in my real estate investing career, it took me three years to get started. Why? Because I thought I needed to know everything. I need to know every single thing on how to tackle every single problem. And this caused me a three-year delay when I could have been buying houses for like $100,000.

• 35:56Andrew Giancola?

  And so the market went way, way up and I lost out on tons of deals because I thought I needed to know more. And I thought I needed to know more and I thought I needed to know more before I get started. No, you need to start. And analysis paralysis will destroy your financial decisions. You need to know enough around what you're doing, but you need to also take action. Now, small wins compound and so does belief in yourself. You need to make sure that you have financial confidence. You are starting to believe in yourself. Where does financial confidence come from? It comes from your financial education and mastering this psychology. So the more that you know, the more that you learn, the more that you understand, you will start to feel confident around money. But you know what else helps with financial confidence? Experience. I cannot stress this enough.

• 36:37Andrew Giancola?

  The more you experience, the more you try things and you could take small, little experiments. But the more you do it, the more you realize, oh, this isn't that bad. I can invest 50 more dollars or I can invest $100 a month or now I'm going to invest 200 a month. Now I'm going to invest 500 a month. It starts to grow over time because you are confident in what is going to happen. And the only way to become confident with experience is to take that initial action. Every action is another vote for the identity you want to step into. And I want you to continue to remember that. And the real way to become confident is by doing and not waiting. So the more you wait, the less confident you're going to become because you haven't tried it yet. And so if you haven't tried it yet, you will never be able to get over that finish line and that hump. So if there are things out there that are scaring

• 37:20Andrew Giancola?

  you about money, maybe it's taking that first investment, maybe it is starting a budget. It doesn't matter what it is. Start today. I'm telling you, you can do this. And so give yourself the confidence to get started because you need to start today. Proverbs 21:5 says, "The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance." And so that is what I want you to remember as we go through this. So again, here's the things we talked about. I want you to understand your money story. I want you to shift to an abundance mindset. I want you to recognize your emotional triggers around money. I want you to upgrade your identity. You can do this. I want you to practice discipline. I want you to kill comparison. Do not compare yourselves to others. And I want you to build confidence through action. Listen, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode. I hope

• 38:04Andrew Giancola?

  it brought value to you. If you got value out of this episode, please share it with a coworker, family member, or friend. And also, if you enjoyed the show, consider leaving that five star rating and review. It really does mean the world to us. Now, take one of these mindset shifts today. Go out and take action on that. Thank you guys so much for listening and we will see you on the next episode.

• 38:37Speaker 02

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