If you're looking to gain financial clarity for the road ahead, you must first understand what is your money script and how it's affecting your financial behaviors. In this episode of Money Script Monday, Dan explores the four core money beliefs and the steps needed to improve your net worth.

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Video transcription

Hello, there. Welcome to the very first episode of “Money Script Monday”. My name is Dan Tatulli and today we’re going to be talking about “Determining Your Money Script and Tips to Improve Your Net Worth.” So before we go into determining your money script, we really need to figure out exactly what is a money script.

What is a 'Money Script'?

A money script is a preconceived notion that you have about how money works. It was typically derived from you as a child, given by actions or some behaviors, and maybe even some things that you’ve observed along the way, and it’s taken you all the way throughout adulthood.

You see, money scripts are really partial truths. Because just think about that for a second. Along your life, you’ve probably picked up things about finances and how to budget, and 401(k)s and investments, but you never really understood the whole picture to it. Right?

Money scripts is taken from generation to generation, and outside of finance think of maybe even some of the most common household products. If somebody asked me why I use Tide as my preferred laundry detergent, I would say, “Gosh. I don’t really know. My parents used it. I grew up along the way with it. I moved on to college. I use it. Now, my family uses it.” It’s a generational thing, and that’s exactly what happens with finances, too. If someone were to ask you why you use that specific retirement account or why you budget the way you do, I'm certain there are some behaviors you do because of your parents.

Money scripts can really affect your financial outcome for good, or for bad, things like income, net worth, credit card debt, financial behavior, and overall financial health. That’s what these videos are all about, of how to promote a good financial health for you. So now that you understood that, let’s go into really the four core money beliefs or money scripts.

Four core money script beliefs

When we’re listing these core money script beliefs out, I want you guys to see yourself in one of these positions. You might fall into one of them. You might fall into two of them. Heck, you might even fall into all of them. What you’re going to realize is you probably lean more towards one versus the other.

(1) Money Avoidance

These are people that think money is bad, money is evil, money is for the selfish people, the greedy people. What they do is they typically ignore their finances, their financial statements. They might be receiving a paycheck from direct deposit, and they don’t know what money is coming in and what’s coming out. By doing that, you’re also overspending, probably because you’re not paying attention to your money. Lastly, budget difficulty. You’re just having a difficult time budgeting. Because again, you don’t know where that money is coming in and coming out, and what you’re spending it on. That’s the first one.

(2) Money Worship

These are people, much like that, who worship money. They think money is the solution to all of their problems. What you typically see here, you would think that these people have higher net worth. But really, they actually have lower net worth. Because of this, they have credit card debt. They charge a lot on credit cards. Next, work is priority for them. They’re staying late. They’re staying after hours, because they’re all about money and they’re not there with their family. This is kind of a weird one here, is that they typically give loans out to friends and families, even though they don’t have the money. But again, money is their life. Money solves everything.

(3) Money Status

These are people who connect self-worth with net worth. So these are the people that buy the expensive cars and the new iPhone when they don’t necessarily need it, but they want it. So typically, they’re going to overspend. Some of these people are gambling, and with gambling you’re typically financially dependent. A lot of times, you’re hiding purchases from your spouse. So hopefully, that’s not you guys out there!

(4) Money Vigilance

So if I had to say if there was the best one to be in, this is probably the category right here. These are people who understand that they need to save for the future and really plan for retirement. Now, by doing that, they typically have less credit card debt and they’re really anxious about the future. They’re always thinking about the future. But the thing about that is by thinking about the future, they have less enjoyment. They’re never really enjoying the moment right here, because they’re saving all their money and they’re worrying about it for the the road ahead.

So those are the four. What you need to do is kind of figure where you fit into this picture. Now, let’s go into some tips for your net worth.

Tips to increase net worth

• Observe - What you need to do is you need to observe which money script behaviors you're doing. By watching this video, you’re already doing a great job! Over the coming days and coming weeks, what you need to do is start looking at what you’re doing, what actions are you taking. Next time, when you’re looking at that financial statement, or maybe not looking at that financial statement, you need to observe where you are with that.
• Recognize - After that, you need to recognize where you are, recognize which one of these four money scripts you fall into.
• Open your mind - After the first two, what you really need to do is just open your mind to new ideas and new strategies, because it all goes back to money scripts and how they’re partial truths. Things that you’ve picked up along the way about how money works and your finances might not necessarily be the whole entire truth. There’s going to be some new ideas and new strategies that you might hear along the way, that it’s very important to keep an open mind about it.

Money Script Monday Video Series

So lastly, that brings me to “Money Script Monday”. This is the video series. This is it right here. This is Episode 1. This is the goal: we’re going to provide financial clarity and educate you on how money works. We’re going to dispel some of the myths that are currently out there in the marketplace. Lastly, we’re just going to provide that financial clarity and promote that overall financial health for you. So we’re really excited to do this video series!

You’re going to hear from a group of some of the best financial experts in the industry today. We’re going to be talking about lots of different topics in finance - things like life insurance, annuities, and investments.

The majority of these videos are going to be consumer-friendly. So we’ll be releasing them every Monday for you. There may come a time where we’ll do some videos that are for financial professional use only, but again, the majority of these videos are going to be consumer-friendly for you to focus on your money script and help promote a financially healthy life.

That wraps it up for me. I hope you enjoyed the first video here on “Determining Your Money Script and Tips to Improve Your Net Worth.” So thanks again, and keep watching these videos. Take care.