UNIT 1
YOUR FINANCIAL HISTORY
Your first task for this program is to write a detailed financial history of your
life. Include anything of note when you were growing up. Once you started
receiving an income, state what the income was and what you did with the
money. In particular, pay attention to any patterns that have emerged.
For example: Received pocket money for helping Dad on the property. Spent
it on lollies/sweets as soon as I got it.
For example: Always got money for birthday and Christmas from
grandparents and would store it away in my piggy bank and wait for it to grow.
“What you are now comes from what you have been and
what you will be is what you do now.”
The Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama
To create a new financial reality, we need to become aware of what our
financial history shows us.
Looking back over the financial history you just wrote:
Where have you made your money?
What have your spending habits been in the past?
What led you to make the decisions you did?
What money habits do you want to change?
What new money attitude towards yourself do you want to create?
How would you rate your ‘financial literacy’, that is, knowledge and
understanding of financial matters?
Has it held you back or moved you forward?
Do you feel like you have given your money and finances any respect in the
past?
What are two ways you could demonstrate more respect for your money?
Have you been fearful about money?
Exploring Family Financial History
What are your impressions of how your mother dealt with money?
How did she feel about money?
How did she feel about her work, either in or out of the house?
What did she feel about the way your father dealt with money?
What interactions do you remember between you and your mother concerning
money?
What do remember about your father and his attitudes toward money?
How did he handle his money?
How did he feel about his work and how much money he made?
How did he feel about the way your mother dealt with money?
Do you remember any interactions between you and your father about
money?
Do you remember any interactions between your mother and your father
about money?
What thoughts and feelings do you have about these interactions?
If you have siblings did your parents treat you all the same when it came to
money, or were there differences?
What are your siblings’ attitudes towards money now?
What are the differences between their attitudes and your own?
Did any other relatives influence the way you think about money?
What specific messages did you get from each of them?
How might these messages be affecting you today?
Did either parent give you any specific information about the financial status of
your family?
Did you have a sense of whether you were poor, comfortable, wealthy, or
whether your family fortunes fluctuated?
If you did have this sort of information how did you react to it?
Is there some way this knowledge, or lack of it, is still affecting you today?
Did you ever feel guilty or ashamed about how little or how much money you
thought your family had, as compared to others around you?
Did your mother worry about money?
Was the worrying done out loud or silently? How did it affect you?
Did your father worry about money?
Was the worrying done out loud or silently? How did it affect you?
Did you ever feel there was some sort of financial problem in your family, but
you had no idea what it was? Can you remember how this perception affected
you at the time?
Did you ever find out any money secrets your parents kept from you? If so,
what was your reaction?
Did you ever discover that you had a totally inaccurate picture of your family’s
financial status? If so, when did you learn the truth and what was your
reaction?
Can you see how this inaccurate picture affected your life, both in the past
and in the present?
How were allowances dealt with in your family?
Did you have one?
Was it given consistently or on and off? Explain.
Was it ever taken away as punishment? If so, describe a situation.
Did you have to account for it or could you spend it as you wanted?
How did you feel about all this?
Are you continuing a tradition of your family when it comes to work and
money? Does keeping this tradition work for you? If not what changes would
you like to make?
Are there positive models from your childhood that seem like a burden to you
now? Would you like to change your reactions to these models?
Are there family traditions around work and money that you are moving away
from?
Do you feel proud, guilty or ashamed of your family traditions around money –
or a combination of all of them?
What messages did you learn from your religious training in childhood that
relate to money and its use?
How did you react to these messages? Are they still affecting you today?
Are you abandoning any religious messages you received in your childhood
about money? How does this make you feel?
Was there conflict between messages from your religious training and your
family? How does it show up? What would you like to do about it?
Were there any of your peers much richer or poorer than you?
How did this affect your attitude to money and your handling of your money?
When you were around your peers did you feel shame, pride, guilt, envy, or
fear around money?
Do you remember any specific incidents connected with your peers and
money that are still in your mind today? What emotions do they bring up?
How might they be affecting you today?
What positive money models do you have in your past?
What events in your childhood shaped your relationship with money in a
positive way?
What specific money skills and attitudes did these positive influences provide
you with?
Summary
What messages did you get from family, friends and religion that still affect
your relationship with money today?
Do you have any emotional or traumatic memories around money
independent of family and friends that may be still affecting you today?
What positive influences from the past would you like to preserve?
What changes would you like to make in your present life so that you are less
affected by the past?
From looking at your history, what do you think could be the solution to your
financial problems?
Insights into my life that have come to me as a result of this unit:
Concepts and actions, which I plan to put in place, based on these insights,
including the day by which time each one will be completed: