How to have a positive mindset when it comes to money

I have a couple friends on Facebook who sometimes annoy me because they are always complaining! One of the friends is always posting updates about how she will never find a man or how miserable she is because she doesn't have a boyfriend.  A couple others will gripe about anything and everything. So I know how annoying it can be to see someone always complain about things. 

And I see it in myself when I read this blog. My last post is the perfect example of my excessive complaining. Probably half the posts are about how this and that has negatively influences our finances.  I have to admit, this has been a particularly tough year with the unexpected and uncontrollable expenses.  The rapid depreciation of our assets like our home and retirement accounts does not help either.  However, to look on the positive side, it's projected that we will make more this year than we ever have in previous years. We have also accomplished some financial goals like paying off a small mortgage which will help us save a bit every month and that will potentially help us build wealth in the future.

So I started thinking of how can I look at our finances in a more positive way?

Since I'm a glass is half empty type of person, I had to do some research on this.  Here are some ideas:

Be thankful whenever money comes to you. 
So whenever you get your paycheck, you get a rebate, earn a couple bucks of interest on your savings account, or even find a penny on the ground, take a moment to acknowledge it and feel gratitude for it.

Imagine what it would be like to be wealthy. 
Take 20 minutes of time without interruptions and imagine the house you would like to live in, or the car you would like to drive, what kind of vacation you would like to take.  You can imagine yourself checking your bank accounts - how much money is in there?  Allow yourself to feel as if these images are reality.

Create a vision board. 
I know that is stolen from "The Secret" and a little bit cliché.  But it may help you with the above suggestion of imagining what life would be like if you had abundance.

Give. 
I admit I struggle with this one. Don't get me wrong, I would love to give.  But, at this time I think, "I'll give to charity once we have a better control on our finances". However I have read time and time again how money flows back to you when you give.  So give giving a try!

Think wealthy thoughts.  
Say affirmations like "money comes to me easily" or "my net worth is always increasing" or "I always earn more money than what I spend". However, stay away from affirmations that are so much of a stretch that you won't believe them.

Read success stories.
Read the "rags to riches" stories out there.  Often you'll find people that started off in a worse position than you and were able to become wealthy.  Learning their stories can give you confidence that you can do it too.

Positive Wealth and Money Links:

What Is The Right Attitude Towards Money?

How to Develop a Positive Money Mindset

Affirmations for Attracting Money

Positive Personal Finance

Top 10 Rags to Riches Stories

Don't Look

When I heard about the stock market having it's worst day in three years, I knew I shouldn't look my IRA balance. I kept telling myself don't look because this is money I don't plan on touching for at least 30 years. But, I couldn't resist and prepared myself for disappointment. Here are the results.

Just 2 days ago is was $1,437.34 more. That is nearly all the money ($1,600) I JUST put in three days ago. I wish I would have invested today and got the better mutual fund prices.

I just can't seem to win when it comes to money.  Speaking of bad news - I found out yesterday that our insurance won't cover out sump pump incident, so I don't know how bad that is going to hurt us. Apparently if your sump pump malfunctions and overflows from the sump pump basin they'll cover it, but if the sump pump malfunctions and doesn't do it's job - i.e. get rid of excess water under our house, then they don't cover that water damage. Stupid technicalities!

IRA Asset Allocation and Balance: August

It's time once again for a report on my Roth IRA balance and asset allocation. Stock values have decreased a bit over the last couple weeks, so my account was back below $20K for the last couple weeks, but after my contribution this month it is currently at $20,954.97. Even though I added $1,600, it is only up $813.55 since last month.

I only contributed $1,600 instead of the $1,800 I had planned because life got in the way again. Last Monday was a pretty bad day. It started off with my husband finding out his uncle died and then the end of the day us having to call our insurance company because our sump pump stopped working and we had enough water in our basement to ruin the carpet and pad we just bought last November. Between that and the problems we had with the cats I guess it just wasn't meant to be for us to have nice carpet. If only we would have just waited a year to replace the old carpet. I wouldn't be as bummed out if it ruined the carpet we had wanted to replace anyway.

So getting back to the IRA. A new sump pump cost $200, so I decreased my contribution by $200 at the last minute in order to pay for that. Unfortunately the expenses are not done. We have a $1,000 deductible on our insurance policy, so we'll probably have to spend another $800 out of pocket. So at this time, I don't know if I'll be able to finish my IRA contributions by September 1st or not. I'll need to put in $2,000 to do so, and I don't know if that will happen. Hopefully we can cover the carpet cleaning/pad replacement out of my husband's income, but I doubt it.