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Millennials' Most Common Financial Management Mistakes

Julie Murphy • Oct 11, 2022

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Are you a millennial reading this and wanting to create a life of financial freedom? A life of Real Wealth?


Let me ask you; what’s stopping you?


Do you perhaps feel let down by the macro-economic environment? 


Or finding it tough to stick to a budget? 


Totally confused about which financial advice to follow?


First of all, let’s take a deep breath!


It’s no surprise that so many millennials' financial problems exist, because we live in a world filled with noise and distraction. 


Constantly bombarded by the career paths we should follow, the type of house we should own, the impressive wardrobe, the investment portfolio we should be building……


This is about learning to tune out the noise of the outside world. Of course, having awareness of what’s happening in the financial world at large, but not letting this drive the engine towards your own life of financial freedom.


Not letting others dictate the type of life you want to build and create. 


Today, I want to break down some of the most common money management mistakes I often see, and regardless of whether you’re a millennial reading this or not, the same applies wherever you are in life. 



Let’s Let Go of Budgeting!


So many people have an immense sense of shame, blame, guilt and judgement if they can’t stick to a budget. 


Maybe you’re trying so hard to stick to that spreadsheet, but month after month you find yourself exceeding it and overspending?


Well, let me ask you; does the word ‘budget’ make you feel like there’s a cap on your life? I know that for many, it feels restrictive and it makes their nervous system contract. 


That’s not going to make you feel good about your money! The solution? I’d like you to take the word ‘budget’ out of your vocabulary. You have no budgets but what you do have is cash flow, and you choose how you want it to flow. 


Instead of budgeting, I encourage you to take yourself on a financial date night every quarter. 


During this time, write down in the exact amounts, what gets deposited into your checking account and what comes out. 


Write down every single piece of income and expense down to the dollar. 


What this process does is create awareness around the flow of your money. You get to see a solid picture of everything that’s coming in and going out on a regular basis, and you get to consider how to make financial choices that are aligned with what you want to create.


Making those tweaks within your monthly spending won’t feel like a restriction. Instead, it will feel empowering! You’ll easily get to see where you can make savings and reduce costs on subscriptions or cell plans, or where your spending choices no longer fall into alignment. 


When you shift your perspective entirely on what you want to create instead of remaining in the story of scarcity or budgeting, you can embark on this quarterly financial date night exercise from a place of neutrality and flow. 


It’s as simple as changing your relationship with money and asking where do you want your money to go? Thinking about your income potential and your ability to save and build wealth from a place of expansion!



Recession Proof Yourself


One of the most common financial mistakes I also see, is neglecting to create a safe financial container around you to insulate you from whatever is happening in the economy at large. 


Like right now, with inflation and interest rates on the rise, perhaps you’re really feeling the impact?


Well, let’s make sure that you start to, instead, protect yourself in the future so that your life doesn’t have to be driven by the financial institutions, your employer or something outside of yourself. 


Real wealth and building wealth from the inside out, is about shifting your financial perspective and creating the power of choice. It’s learning to build your financial muscles so that you don’t have to pay today for the choices you made yesterday out of feelings of scarcity. 


You’re simultaneously taking care of your future and so you are free to truly live in the present moment.


How? Well, you start to allocate your money coming in every month into different buckets to build a reserve of funds allocated for the short-term, mid-term and long-term. 


These buckets can then be used for your desired fun purchases (outside of your cash-flow spending), but also, towards unexpected expenses such as car or home maintenance costs and taking care of those unpredictable financial variables.


They can also help you build a longer-term reserve of funds to live on if you so need to. 


Even if you can only allocate $5 into each bucket per month, the amount isn’t important. This is about creating that energy of abundance! 


It’s about stepping into your power and choosing not to plug into the world that encourages you to default to loans or credit cards when unexpected expenses arise. When this happens, you end up with debt, which means creating a financial past, preventing you from living in the present moment. 


It’s about knowing that you don’t have to continue to work in a job you hate, even if a recession is occurring. 


It means your heart gets to drive the engine! It means you get to choose how you design and live your life. 


Don’t Play by Someone Else's Rules


I also want to really encourage you to tune into your own heart desires when it comes to what you want to create financially. This is the cornerstone of my Julie Murphy work because when we neglect our heart, our income and wealth suffers. 


So what does this mean?


It means not making knee-jerk financial decisions based on what’s trending or what you’ve been told to do by someone else. 


It means focusing solely on what you want to create. Leading with your heart to determine if that financial choice really aligns, and then bring in the smarts to assess the viability and the potential strategies. 


Playing by someone else’s rules is something that can also happen on a subtle level. Start to look and observe where you’re engaging in ideas set by someone or someplace else. 


I like to give the example of Starbucks. They regularly hold ‘deals’ during specific days or times of the week where it might seem like an opportunity to go and get your fill of that new drink that everyone is talking about, but oftentimes, when we show up to take advantage of that deal, it’s not actually aligned with what we want to create in our financial life. 


Yet, we still plug into that and operating in this type of reactive mode can be at the core of many millennials’ financial problems
. 


And I get it because I’ve done it too!


So now, stand in your power! You deserve better! Take your control back and notice how when you lead from your heart and then bring in the smarts, that incredible life of Real Wealth really begins to unfold!

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