How much is enough?
Can you enjoy money, or is it just something to fret about? Clem Felix discovered she has a scarcity mindset, and decided to change the way she views her finances, and her life
Money worries have dogged me always. After scrimping and saving during my 20s as I struggled to get my career going, my financial position is, objectively, now OK, yet it never feels that way. Awake at 5am, my brain whirrs into the future. What if all my work disappears after Brexit? What will become of me when I am old?
“Your fear has served you well; you have been sensible and saved, but you don’t need to work from a place of fear any more”
An emotional price
‘If only I had a safety net!’ I wail to Kelly Hearn, a financial coach who has offered to help me. ‘Then I could relax and enjoy life.’
To me, this is the root of my problems. My parents were always hard up, and it was made clear that they could not help me. I think it had a profound effect on my psyche: growing up with the sense that I was on my own has made me cautious, not only about money but also how I live and the risks I take. Should I speak my mind at work? What if I get fired? I can’t take the chance! God forbid giving it all up to travel and ‘enjoy life’ – are you mad?
It doesn’t take Hearn long to dig down to the existential fear: that I am always just a few steps from homelessness. She is familiar with this, as she coaches wealthy people who have never managed to shed their scarcity mindset. In the end, it is not about money, she says; so much gets put on cash when it is really about emotions.