3 Money Myths: Uncovering Money Obstacles

Our guest blogger today is Derby Chukwudi. Derby is a contestant in the Miss New Jersey USA competition, and she is passionate about travel, education, reading, writing, and also the power of financial literacy. Here, she shares some money myths that she’s identified and eliminated on her path to financial wellness.

I grew up hearing that knowledge is power and there is truth in everything those words carry. Moreso, I have come to learn that lack of knowledge or the awareness of something is even more dangerous than the power knowledge carries.

Understanding this lesson was critical for money matters in my life. In my short time on earth, I’ve interacted with money, money beliefs, and ideologies in different forms and through many people. In this piece, I will be sharing my five money myths and how I was able to uncover them.

Before I dive in, it is important to emphasize the power of the human mind. The human mind can create and destroy. We want to be in situations where our minds work for us and not against us. To achieve this, we need to be honest, transparent, and ready to take action.

Money Myth #1: Money is not important to achieve happiness.

While money does not answer all things, and my bible tells me that the love of money is the root of evil, I had to realize that money issues were one of my number one stressors. Money is not everything, but everything somehow requires money in some capacity. Recognizing the critical nature of money made me realize that to be successful, I need to take money seriously and work hard to understand how it operates.

Money Myth #2: Hard work leads to great riches and large quantities of money.

I’ve always been a hardworking individual and as a result, it has been an easy trap for me to believe that if I work hard always then money will automatically come. While it sounds logical, I have come to learn that hard work coupled with the understanding of how money operates are key ingredients for how to generate inflows, not just merely working hard. There are many hard-working people who live in poverty. Work smart and not necessarily hard all the time.

Money Myth #3: My experience about money can be gained from only reading books.

As an avid reader, you can imagine how disappointed I was when I uncovered this myth.  It is very good to read books about money and to learn from diverse perspectives. However, that is just the beginning. A mindset shift needs to take place for all of that knowledge to be put to good use. I found that I had limiting beliefs that were obstacles regardless of whether I was amassing a wealth of knowledge.

These are some money myths I have uncovered and I am always looking to identify more of these because the more I identify, the more room I have to grow.

 When I think of financial wellness, I believe that uncovering myths and limiting beliefs in my life is a critical step for gaining clarity about the path I need to create for my financial life.