“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves” Rainer Maria Rilke
Do you know, really know, how many different things have influenced your attitude about money and your financial decisions? Would it make a difference in your life if you did?
It can, and that can be both good and very helpful.
One way to understand is to write a Money Autobiography. That’s an annotated series of verbal snapshots of the financial experiences that have influenced your life choices.
Step one for most people is to describe your parents’ attitude about money. Did they ever discuss family finances in your presence? Were they tight-fisted or were they giving people? If they seemed to hold onto every dime they made, write down as much as you know about why you think they did that. On the other hand, if they were giving people, who or what did they give money to? Did they discuss their giving habits with you? 
The following list is a sample of questions from Guidelines for Writing Your Money Autobiography, a helpful tool for helping you understand how you think and feel about money, and why you spend or don’t spend it. There is no charge to download this document which is available on this website under the category WHAT WE OFFER.
- What was your attitude about money as a teenager? What role did money play in your life as a young adult? As a parent? As you grew older?
- Do you spend money on yourself? If so, do you do it easily?
- How has your approach to money and its use been shaped by being a woman or by being a man?
- How does having or not having money affect your self-esteem?
- How do you deal with the fact that 2/3rds of the people of our world are poor?
Blessings on your work to understand the role of money in your life,
Judy Osgood