Money isn’t just a mental game. Your income, cost of living, how early you started saving, whether you had wealthy parents—all this stuff matters. 

But more often than not, what’s really holding people back is how they think about money and how they see their financial situation. Lots of the value I deliver to clients is helping them level up their money mindsets so they can move forward with confidence. 

Here are the most common mental traps people fall into and how you can think differently. 

Before we dive in, I should say it’s not your fault if you think these things. You probably didn’t learn the right way to think about money in school and your parents might not have talked about money at all. I was once guilty of thinking lots of these things too. 

So don’t beat yourself up. Instead, take responsibility for learning to think differently and watch what happens to your finances.

Alright, let’s go. 

1. “I’m bad with money.” Thinking being good with money is a trait, rather than a skill. 

The mistake here is thinking that being good with money is something people are born with. 

It’s not. Personal finance doesn’t come naturally to almost anyone. It’s a learned skill.

So throw out the idea that you’re not good at saving money or terrible at not overspending or could never be someone who’s good with money. That’s what companies want you to think because it makes you a better consumer. 

Instead, start looking at personal finance as something you can learn to master over time. Understand that if you put a better system into place and set yourself up for success, you could actually be great with money. It really is possible, there isn’t anything stopping you, and it’s likely easier than you think. 

2. “I could never save that much a month.” Having a scarcity mindset. 

Lots of people go their entire lives living paycheck to paycheck, scrambling to keep up with bills and stressing over every little unexpected expense. 

If you’re stuck in that situation, it can seem impossible to imagine actually being comfortable, having more than enough money for your regular bills and thousands in the bank in case of emergency. 

The problem is that it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. When you stop believing things could be better, you stop trying to make them better. You undermine your ability to improve your situation. 

And you do have that ability! It might be tough at first. Progress might be slow. But even if you don’t make six figures, even if you have credit card and student loan debt, there’s always a way to start creating breathing room, start reducing your stress and anxiety, and start creating space for you to imagine a better future, one where you have more than enough. 

One of our core values at TallKirk Financial is to Create Abundance because we know how stressful, exhausting and hopeless it feels when you start believing what’s been will always be. 

3. Assuming things will get better on their own. 

On the flip side, lots of people fall into the trap of using hope as their only strategy. They’re wishful thinkers, who somehow always believe they’ll have more money next month or next year, even though they never do. 

Wishes don’t wash dishes, and they don’t improve your finances either.

The key is to make sure that your optimism is grounded in reality, in the practical steps you’re taking to ensure the future really is better. It can be. But you have to make it so. You can’t just hope it will be.

4. “Now’s not the right time.” 

One reason people don’t take the practical steps toward a better financial future is that they get stuck waiting for the perfect time. Once they have more saved. Once they’re making enough money. Once their baby is born. 

The trouble is that there is no perfect time. When someone was late for the bus, my old bus driver used to say, “He’s a long time coming, just like Christmas,” and then drive off. The right time is a long time coming too.

Unless you flip your thinking and realize that the right time, the perfect time, the only time is now. Today, not tomorrow. 

If there’s one thing I hear over and over again it’s, “I wish I’d done this sooner.” 

No one regrets getting started, even if the timing isn’t quite right, even if it’s all more imperfect than you had imagined. Imperfect action is better than getting stuck waiting.

5. Thinking short term. Being impatient. 

If you get stuck waiting, eventually you realize you’ve fallen behind. And then the instinct is to want to catch up as quickly as possible. 

But you end up trying to do too much too fast. You set unrealistic goals. You chase get rich quick schemes that end up setting you even further back when they inevitably backfire. You act out of desperation or fear, instead of confidence. 

The antidote is to understand that building wealth is a marathon. You need to think in decades, not days. 

Once that sinks in, you realize that it’s all about consistency. Doing the little things right month after month. Year after year. 

Warren Buffett is a tortoise, not a hare. If you get the right system in place and focus on the fundamentals, time will be on your side, and then all you’ll need to do is be patient. 

6. Thinking only as a worker, never an owner. 

Most people have to work for every dollar they earn. And that’s a good thing. It’s good to work hard, take pride in what you do, and contribute to your community. There’s honour in that.

But it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that’s the only way to make money. Or even worse, that it’s the only way you should make money. 

Lots of people have an aversion to putting their money to work. They think it’s evil somehow to turn money into more money. And to be fair, at the extreme, there’s definitely people who get rich turning money into more money while contributing very little actual value to society.

But it’s also important to understand that both labour and capital are required to create value. Someone must provide the funding for the buildings and machines, technology and research. Why shouldn’t it be you? Why shouldn’t you contribute not just your time and energy, but your money too, and reap the returns? 

There’s nothing evil about becoming an owner and putting your money to work. If anything, it’s a good thing for the world for more honest, hard working people to also own capital. Why should all the profit go to someone else? 

You can be a hard worker and an owner. You can and you should. 

7. Thinking too small. 

The final thing that holds people back is not dreaming big enough or not thinking they can afford to be ambitious. 

The truth is that you have to be. It depends on your age, but realistically, if you want a comfortable retirement, you’re going to need a net worth in the millions. 

If you hear the word millionaire and think “not me,” you’re thinking too small.

It also means you’re going to need to start thinking about taking bigger steps to get there. The most important rate in personal finance is the rate at which you save. 

If you think, “I could never save $500 a month,” you’ll quickly come to realize that there’s no path to the life you want to lead. 

To start thinking bigger, you have to put all these mindsets into action. 

Instead of thinking you’re bad with money and always will be, you’ll need to start getting better. 

Instead of thinking you’ll never have enough, you’ll need to imagine a future where you have more than you need. 

Instead of thinking things will get better on their own, you’ll need to take action. 

Instead of waiting for the right time, you’ll need to start today. 

Instead of wanting too much too fast, you’ll need to think long term. 

Instead of just working hard for your money, you’ll also need to get your money to work harder for you. 

Instead of thinking about money in the ways you always have, you’ll need to level up your money mindset and watch what happens. 

Two ways to get started: either book a meeting with me directly (it won’t cost you anything) or check out our ebook Wealth Without Willpower: 10 Ways to Slowly Get Rich Without Trying for practical next steps.