7 Mentally Strong Financial Traits - Dollar After Dollar (2024)

Money is a mental game. Mentally strong people use their mind to set themselves up for success. How does one do this? Through repetition, learning, and a strong desire to succeed.

#1 They Understand The Power Of Each Decision

Each decision creates a result. The collection of those results createsthe financial future for you and your family. Those who want to create wealth, understand that no matter how small a sum of money is, it will grow much larger over time.

If you spend $20 a week on something consistently, in 20 years you have spent $20,780.

If you invest that $20 a week with the market average of 8% interest, you would have $51,310.30 in 20 years.

30 years invested: 130,037.35

40 years invested: 305,139.62

Realize that the decision you make today, can have a huge impact on tomorrow.

#2 They RemoveEmotion From the Equation

This may be the most important trait that any mentally strong person can have. Emotions will destroy yourfinancialdecision making in every aspect. How many times have you gone into a store and made a purchase. Immediately after, you regret the decision you just made? 99% of the time, that is a result of a choice basedon emotion. It is the entire premise of “buyers remorse”.

Mentally strong individuals can control their emotion when making decisions with their money. This is especially important when they make large purchases(such as a homeor investment). Just because the house is perfect in every aspect does not mean you should pay above market value to have it. You can almost always find a similar house below market value for the same price. I know, I know, it has the exact granite countertops you saw onChip and Joanna put in, but it is still above what you should be paying.

Many people make the same mistake when purchasing investments. In the late 90’s during the tech boom, many people thought Yahoo would had infinite potential. It would have to be worth the Gross Domestic Product of the United States to be worth buying.Yet, emotional investors kept buying Yahoo, feeding off the media frenzy. Well, the buy train did not last forever. Their emotions got the best of them and ended up costing folks thousands if not millions of dollars.

#3 They Are Consistently Persistent

The money game is a long one. One that takes stamina to endure. Financially strong people are extremely persistent. Eachday they stick to their plan. They work at it, learn, and tweak their plan. That plan, in turn, becomes their success.

Say your goal is to simply be a millionaire. If your plan lays out a foundation of what you must contributeto your investment account to achieve that goal.Then by-golly you better contribute your planned amountto that account every month. You know that thispersistencewill get you where you want to go, and nothing should get in your way.

#4 “Can’t” Is Not An Option

Setting out to achieve your dreams is an absolute characteristic of any mentally strong individual. Fear is an emotion that can get in the way of this. Many people set out on their financialjourney, stumble into a few roadblocks, and are paralyzed into inaction because they fear they “can’t”. When you focus on fear of failure, you will never achieve your goals.

Those with astrong mentality know this, and use their failures as learning experiences. I have achieved more success learning from my failures than I can count. You need to be willing to keep trying until you get it right.

#5 They Roll With the Punches

Failure is inevitable. Everyone makes mistakes. It’s how you handle those mistakes will dictate your life.

If you overspend on your budget, don’t beat yourself up, adjust. If you buy an investment that doesn’t pan out, learn from it and move forward. Letting mistakes keep you down will never enable you to reach your goal.

6. They Aren’t Afraid To Put In a Little Sweat

Having a strong financial mentality also requires the willingness to work. Even though work ethic requires action, it is your mentality that drives that action. If you put in calculated work, the results will follow. Hard work in your early years can reap rewards that will last your entire life.

7. They Never Stop Learning

The greatest money mind of all time, Warren Buffet, is known to read 80% of his work day. Those who have a strong mentality will never stop learning. Knowledge is such a powerful tool and we have so much information at our fingertips. If you are not pushing yourself to learn on a daily basis you will fall behind. Mentally strong people know this. In the book Rich Habits, the author studies that everyday lives of the rich. Helooks for the things that they do on a daily basis thatseparatesthem from the rest of the pack. The author notices that those who have a multi-million dollar net worth all havethe same habit. They would read non-fiction books with direct correlationto their goals every single day.

Learning also helps put the person who cares the most about your life in charge, YOU!You can kiss thatfinancial advisor goodbye, which is good for you and your wallet. Financial literacy should be at the forefront for anyone looking to build wealth. Knowledge is the fuel for a successful financial mentality.

Related