struggle forever changed the way I thought about money. It changed the way I foresaw achieving financial security and led me to a career as a financial advisor. Nearly 40 years later, I've built a top-ranked financial services firm serving tens of thousands of clients around the country, teaching them an undeniable truth about their financial behaviors: They underestimate the extent to which emotion plays a defining role in the success of their financial future.
Chances are you have your own story with your own unique values, life lessons and attitudes toward money. They've taught you some valuable lessons and probably exposed a few mistakes along the way, too. It's a relationship, really. We have our own connection with money that influences how we save it, invest it, or spend it. What is so profoundly powerful about this book is that it shines a light on how you develop these postures toward money and, more importantly, what you can do to adjust your own habits so you can make your financial situation work for you.
At Carson Wealth (carsonwealth.com), we help our clients pursue True WealthTM, which is what we define as “all that money can't buy and death can't take away.” Using a holistic approach to financial planning and aided by technology, we discuss the emotions behind the decisions being made in a financial life. This experience connects the dots between life and wealth, making their financial situation easier to understand.
A top client of ours recently came into the office for her annual review and, as she and the advisor were getting caught up, she seemed flustered. Long-time friends, the advisor's and client's children went to school together. The advisor picked up on her uneasy position and asked if she was feeling okay.
She responded, “You've known me for a long time and we've trusted each other, so I'm going to be direct with you,” she replied. “I'm more scared coming in to see you than I am seeing my doctor.” Surprised, the advisor asked why.
“I just get nervous about money,” she continued. “At least with the doctor, I know my results are either positive or negative. When it comes to money, I don't know exactly where I stand, and I feel intimidated by this area of my life because of how little I know. I want to do what's best for my kids, but I don't understand any of this and it makes me really nervous.”
There are tens of thousands of stories just like this one. It underscores a scary reality about the psychological component interwoven into the fabric of our financial lives. Our anxiety over money is an issue that's as old as money itself.
So, where do you go from here? Start by recognizing that financial psychology is the future of financial planning. The author's make a solid case for this and brilliantly outlines how this issue is no longer simply an academic one. It's a personal one, and it will impact each of you in your own unique way. With every chapter, you'll be carried into a deeper layer of understanding of your own financial habits and, more importantly, equipped with an action plan on how you can make smarter decisions for your financial future.
Think about the numerous beliefs you have about money. How have they influenced you up to this point in your life? What healthier habits can you adopt going forward? How can you go about building a more secure financial life for yourself and your family, equipped with this knowledge? These are all questions that will be answered in-depth in Money Mammoth. My advice, as a financial advisor who sees just how far we've fallen when it comes to financial literacy, is to take these concepts and share them with everyone you know.
Really, that's what I see being so powerful about this book. It forces you to not only look at yourself holistically but also opens your eyes to the multi-faceted way money infiltrates your thinking, your desires, your attitudes and your future. If we intend to make smarter financial decisions and raise financially savvy children, this book makes it clear we must first start with ourselves. The more holistic your planning, the better your ability to make the right financial decisions.
Whether you're a saver, spender, or investor, we are fortunate to have so much opportunity sitting in front of us. If you get nothing else from reading this book, know this: Every piece of who you are, whether psychologically, spiritually, emotionally and physically, subtly intertwines with your feelings about money and shapes the way you see the world.
The good news is the tools, concepts and exercises in this book put the power in your hands to better understand your belief system and your habits and how adjustments can be made to live more fully. As an advisor, I wish all my clients came to the table with the knowledge this book provides.
A tip before you dive into the book. Stop defending what you think you know and embrace the unknown. Open yourself to the realization you have much to learn, and often it's sitting within the depths of who we are, the people we associate with and the environment in which we grow.
What I'm talking about here is a lesson we often share with our clients. Let us help you live your life by design, not by default. As you read on, use the principles in this book to be purposeful in your approach. To move forward in a smarter way. Because the future favors the prepared.
Ron Carson
CEO/Founder
Carson Group
Introduction
YOUR MONEY MAMMOTH
Mammoths ruled their domain. Enormous creatures and majestic in their being, they lived at a time long after the dinosaurs were gone. Mammoths roamed the land of Western Europe and Northern America, eating grass, raising their young, and enjoying life. Changes in the mammoths' environment were happening all around them, but they failed to see and adapt to the effects. Over their time, the earth cooled, and as the tundra started to freeze, their food sources began to disappear. The mammoths started to migrate to find more sources for food, but they encountered new challenges. Neanderthal cave dwellers learned to communicate within tribes and learned to work together to hunt. Prehistoric humans evolved from the scavenger to the hunter and quickly ascended the food chain. The mammoths were slow moving, large sources of meat protein, and sadly, easily killed. In the end, early human's social hunting skills, a changing environment, and their species' failure to evolve and adapt was the source of the mammoths' eventual extinction.
OUR EXTINCTION LEVEL EVENT
Throughout history, species adapt and evolve over time to changing conditions or they become extinct. It is a cruel truth of nature and natural selection of survival of the species. However, don't be fooled into thinking these events only occurred millions of years ago. In fact, they are happening every day on our planet; you just may not be aware that they are occurring. While we instinctively look to environmental changes, like climate change, for examples of these events, they are not the only signs. Historically, environmental changes were the source of many early excitation events, but they aren't the only source of excitation level changes.
Some theorize that the extinction level event that will impact humans may come from social versus environmental changes. Is it possible that the social phenomenon of not being able to properly handle our personal finances could lead to enough social unrest to cause a civil war? Can the underlying divide, or political exploitation, between the “wealthy” and “poor” grow to the point that the inequality destroys our social environment, leading to a quantum shift in our lives and society? In fact, it might not be the warming earth, pandemic disease, carbon emission, or a giant meteor that wipes us out. Consider the real possibility that our inability to address financial inequality and the number of people living in poverty as the foundational sources of our ultimate demise.
TODAY'S REALITY
When it comes to our relationship with money, we are stuck in the Stone Age.
