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Money Is Emotional
We introduced you to Doug and Sally because we want you to think about how their situation applies to you. Are you like the Hamiltons, ven in a small way? They were totally unaware of the impact that eckless spending was having on their lives over the course of their arriage. How about you?

When we are unaware of the long-term onsequences of our spending decisions, we are pulled in a variety of motional directions, spending money for all the wrong reasons.

When we spend money, even for seemingly inconsequential things, we are at a crucial moment in time that will affect the rest of our lives.
If we make the decision to spend money for something now, we will ot have that money later. We must decide if the purchase has more alue to us now than the money would have later if left alone to work or us over time. Spending money emotionally eventually forces s into a survival mode rather than a planning mode. Usually his reckless spending causes us to burn up more than we make and timately limits what we can do for ourselves and others in the uture. It also puts a lot of pressure on a family. When we define our wn needs and desires and learn how to meet those needs ppropriately, we can then create surplus to help others. That surplus s the absolute emotional thrill—ultimately more meaningful han the brief excitement that comes from impulse spending, and ertainly more joyful than the terrible feelings of fear and guilt that ome from spending more than we have.

Get in Control—You Can Do It!

Understanding that spending is emotional is the first step toward inancial control and the key to true contentment and happiness. The emaining nine Money Mastery principles are based on nderstanding this first most important idea. Having come this far with s already, you’re obviously making an effort to better nderstand your own emotional approach to money. And that means ou’re beginning to take control. Taking control is tremendously rewarding and we encourage you to continue!

To see just how rewarding it can be, let’s go back to Doug and Sally Smith. As they worked with their coach, the Smiths began to nderstand how their emotions were affecting their spending. They ealized that they had a problem telling their children no. They nderstood that they were spending money to make themselves feel etter in the short term and jeopardizing their long-term financial ecurity. They began making changes by denying their children when t was necessary. This was not easy to do in the beginning. The hildren were not used to their parents’ new behavior and
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resisted it. But in a short time, they began to accept their parents’ new way of doing things. When the Smith’s daughter had the pportunity to go to Europe for a high school academic event, instead f stressing out about how they would send her, Doug and ally encouraged her to get a job and earn the money to go herself. nce she realized her parents were not going to hand her the money, he got a job and earned her own way. Later, she commented to her arents that she had actually enjoyed the satisfaction of making her wn money for the trip and had appreciated her experience in Europe uch more than if Doug and Sally had just given her the money.

aken from : Money Mastery “10 Principles That Will Change
Your Financial Life Forever