Financial Meditations: Introspections to Consider Part 1
Your relationship with money is a lifelong, ever-changing process. Reflecting on this relationship from time to time is encouraged as you may discover something you did not know about yourself. Below are several questions to ponder and observe how your relationship with money has changed over time.
(The following questions are taken from “Financial Planning 3.0” by Richard B. Wagner)
- What is your first memory of money?
- What was your happiest moment with money? Your unhappiest?
- What is your cultural heritage? How has it been affected by money?
- What do you know about the history of your family’s economic circumstances?
- How is/was the subject of money addressed by any religious traditions of your forebears?
- How did your family communicate about money?
- Which of your parents’ or ancestors’ money decisions continue to affect you today? How?
- How did your parents address money? How did they differ?
- How did they address money in their relationship? How did that affect you?
- How do you address money in your relationship with your partner?
- How did you relate to money as a child? Did you feel poor or rich? Were you anxious about money?
- Apply the same question (#11) to yourself as a teenager, young adult, and now.
- How have your attitudes shifted during your adult life?
There are no yes-or-no or right-or-wrong answers to these questions nor is it a definitive list of questions. The answers will most certainly be complex and imperfect, but the point of asking yourself these questions is to get to know your personal relationship with money better. In Part 2, we will uncover more questions to meditate on.