Jen Sincero, best-selling author of You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life has bestowed a second book on us: You Are a Badass at Making Money: Master the Mindset of Wealth.
In the new book, Sincero, who I had the opportunity to chat with recently, gives the reader permission to desire wealth. Instead of viewing money as a taboo subject only to be discussed in quiet corners with your accountant or spouse, she’s all about putting it on the table.
Negotiating a better salary isn’t a dirty subject. Neither is taking on a lucrative side gig, to supplement your income. Long story short: It’s OK to say: “I love money. Hell yes.”
Figuring I could learn a thing or two about my own personal finances, I asked Sincero if she saves or splurges, if she keeps a budget, and if she deprives herself in order to invest more.
But Sincero describes herself as someone who once belonged to the “hoping and pray camp of budgeting” (meaning she lived paycheck to paycheck each month and prayed that the numbers would all work out), and no longer lives by that anxious thread.
Nor does she choose between saving or splurging: She does both. Phew—my non-budgeting ways aren’t necessarily a bad thing. Nor is my predilection for nice things, so long as I continued to keep a watchful eye on my retirement savings and investments.
It was refreshing to hear Sincero talk about wanting to make more money in large part because of the freedom to spend and save it afforded her. As she explained it, once she allowed herself to admit that she wanted to make money, she started to do just that. It was, as she pointed out, a far better alternative to deprivation.
“For 40 years, I never made any money,” Sincero shared. It was in “studying my mindset” that she finally got over and past that negative loop. Basically, getting over and past that way of thinking is what will enables us to be more financially successful.
What’s your negative loop? Do you tell yourself you’ll never get promoted? That you’ll never see a bigger paycheck? Never make enough bank to invest in a 401K? That’s got to stop. Immediately. Sincero conjured up the money mantras because they’re the opposite of pessimistic statements that make you “stuck in a rut.” Instead, they’re freeing, offering you permission to want more. What are you waiting for?
