Money Mindset Makeover: Breaking Free from Scarcity Mentality and Healing Money Wounds with Linda García
The emotional chains tied to money and wealth
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At this point in the interview, author and financial educator Linda García has defined what a wealth warrior is, but not how to overcome “money wounds.” To quote from the Wealth Warrior: 8 Steps for Communities of Color to Conquer the Stock Market:
The power you need to liberate yourself from your money wounds is currently blurred by your own set of false beliefs.
The 4 most common false beliefs are:
I have to work hard for money.
I’m not good with money.
Wealthy people are greedy.
Money is the root of all evil.
For each of these beliefs, Linda provides a “wealth warrior truth” to reframe the argument and help “liberate yourself from your money wounds.”
Overcoming False Money Beliefs
Paulette: So going back to the book, there are several false beliefs that you walk people through and you shift the perspective to warrior truths, Wealth Warrior truths. Which one of those do you think is the hardest or which one was your favorite to overcome?
Linda: My favorite to overcome was wealthy people are greedy. And that was my favorite because that one really resonated with me. At the time, I was working on creating content that was rooted in spirituality and intuition. And there was this feeling of like if you are spiritual, you're definitely not an investor in the stock market.
And so I felt like it really contradicted who I was at the core and almost like I was living these two completely separate identities. And when I knew that I wanted to speak up on the stock market, I had to do a lot of thought work through that belief of wealthy people are greedy. And one of the things that was very clear to me early on was that if I didn't work through this belief, I would never be wealthy because in my core, in my subconscious, I wouldn't wanna be something that is bad, right?
So I'm navigating this thought pattern of mine, and I'm asking my intuitive voice—my intuitive self—I'm asking myself, please explain how I am not greedy, or explain why only wealthy people are greedy, or explain how I can make sense of this belief not being true.
And my intuition was very clear on this belief.
It posed a question, which is so interesting. I talk to [my intuition] a lot, which is what that podcast [Ed note: In Luz We Trust, which ran for 101 episodes, ending in 2020] was about. It was about me listening to my intuition. And my intuition said, "if someone isn't in a relationship, if they are not coupled, are they not capable of experiencing jealousy?"
And I'm like, no. Everyone can experience jealousy. You don't have to be in a relationship. You can be jealous of your cousin, of your sister. All of these examples of how you can be jealous of somebody. And then my intuition asks, "then, why do you believe that only wealthy people can be greedy? And if you open your eyes, have you not seen greed in poverty? Have you not seen greed in your spaces?"
And I was shook. I was mind blown. And I sat with that for a really long time, and I thought, how in the root of scarcity, how in places of poverty we hold on, even just growing up as a child and growing up with very, very limited resources, how tight I've seen people hold on to money and not let it go.
To me that is an example of a form of greed. Maybe not in the form of greed that we see greed as like corporate greed in that type of setting. But it is a form and it made me realize, wow, greed is something that belongs to all of us. No one is free from it, and it doesn't only belong to a social class.
It is something that all of us can experience no matter who we are. Like it's a human experience. And so that's why that's one of my favorite ones because I had to work so hard in my own personal thought work to overcome that.
Paulette: Yeah, I [like] that one and how you talk about money, well, the way you turn that around is that money's just a tool. Like a hammer is. We understand the function of a hammer, but we also work for money. And money is what provides the roof over our head and all that. But if you think about it, a hammer is a multifunction tool as well. A hammer helped create the roof over our head, but it's just a tool and it has a specific function.
Just like money can have a specific function, but you can be afraid of hitting your hand when you're hammering nails, right?
Linda: Or you can hurt people with it, right? A weapon.
Paulette: Yeah, it's definitely a weapon as well, just like money is. Money has been weaponized to keep people who look like you and me, and other people of color, to remain quiet and remain chained to this capitalistic ideal that they must work hard and you don't, right?
Linda: Yeah. It turns out that the harder you work, the less wealth you're most likely building. It turns out that the more time you are exchanging, the more you're actually just hurting yourself versus actually creating wealth, which is something that has never been taught to us. We've been taught the opposite via watching our parents, via the chains that the system has over us, and that we are being trained via the schools as well to exchange our time for money.
And the only way you can build wealth is by investing. The only way you can build wealth is by emotionally letting go of money and using it for the tool that it is. Instead of holding it tight like scarce and not letting it go, you cannot build wealth in that way.
Wealthy people had to let go of a lot of money in order to begin generating wealth, whether that's investing in themselves in real estate, or in the stock market. And really the intention is for us to understand that this is possible for us too.
Paulette: I think you're right. It's a huge mindset shift. You talk about how there's the gatekeepers, but also people in our own environment whose beliefs are the gates against which they will ever be able to believe this.
So you mentioned a lot of family members. Have you been able to change your family member's minds about this now?
Linda: Yeah, so it's very interesting. Not everyone is on board, like my mother is not on board. So I have close relationships that are not on board. But what has begun to happen is that by osmosis, even by just being in close proximity, that's actually what's changing mindsets around me.
It's not the threatening my family members, “you gotta do this or else!” It's not by bullying them, it's not by any of that. It's just by simply living as an example. That's it. I just do my thing and invest. And it's by living as an example that they begin to absorb that by osmosis and naturally on their own, come and ask questions.
"So what are you doing again?" And you know me explaining this is completely different than the way I first approached it, which is [that] I have to save them. You know, I almost felt like every Sunday knocking on the door, “have you read my book yet?”
Paulette: It does kind of feel like once you finally grasp the truth. Once you finally see it for what it is, you want everyone in that boat. You want everyone to see it, but not everyone's ready to jump in, right?
Linda: Yeah, absolutely.
Living By Example
I want to highlight what Linda said about living by example. That's why this podcast (and Substack😁) exists: at the most basic level, I want it to be an example of what living your best life, tu vida más chévere, can look like.
And as you heard her say, sometimes that's all it takes to get people to change their minds and change their ideas about what “normal” is. You won't get to everyone. Like she said, her own mother is stubbornly opposed, despite seeing how successfully Linda has generated her wealth.
But you will reach some.
And I think that's what has made my childfree journey less scary or isolating than it might be for other people. My entire life, despite what messages society was telegraphing about gender norms or what a good little girl was supposed to do, I had silent role models who didn't do those things. And they seemed completely happy and fulfilled.
So here's me doing that, for the next generation.
Back to Linda:
Linda: And the great news is that that's okay. We all have our own journeys, but I'm telling you, when you start to change your mindset, you will begin to see the people around you change their mindset. And for those that are not aligned, you'll begin to attract people that do have your mindset and come into alignment with you that you can have these types of conversations with. Your entire setting begins to shift.
And I find that extremely powerful because those types of relationships, once you're in alignment, emotionally and mentally when it comes to money, your level of awareness will begin to expand even more.
Like Attracts Like
Linda mentioned how once you recognize your own path, how eventually you start attracting like-minded people. It's funny because one day, a few years ago, my husband and I realized that all of our friends are childfree. We didn't actively plan that. But I do joke that we did manifest it.
What happened is we somehow found ourselves orbiting circles of people without kids and naturally became better friends with them. So there is something to the idea that once you figure out your truth, you'll start attracting or manifesting other people like you. Like attracts like. Like likes like.
More on how that’s playing out right now:
Paulette: So between you and Ramit Sethi (his Netflix thing came out, your book came out the same week), I feel like I'm being bombarded1 with all this really positive information about wealth generation and wealth management, which is the next part. Once you get the money, then you have to figure out how to make it work for you.
And what I like about his approach is that he says the same thing: it's different for everybody. Whatever my vida más chévere is isn't necessarily yours. But we still have the common goal of wanting to live our best lives, our most rich lives, our most wealthy lives.
And the money wounds. We have real emotional responses to money that causes us to hoard and to hold on very tightly. Did you ever have to learn how to spend it? After years and years of like holding it so tightly?
Linda: Yeah. I was in the space where I couldn't even get a credit card because I was afraid of being irresponsible with it again. I was afraid to purchase nice things like. I would have all the same as you, I didn't repeat an outfit. That was very expensive. But also really cheap in the sense that I was buying junk clothes. In order to maintain [that] I had to go shopping continuously and so I had to strategize with my budget, [buying at] forever 21.
So I was constantly looking for how can I maximize this so I can have as much junk in my closet as possible? And I came to the space of, less is so much more and high quality is so much more. And I came to the space because my partner, he works in luxury retail, [but] I would never go into those spaces.
I felt like I was undeserving of a space like that and he would try to push me into those spaces. But I really had like a moment of healing in my late thirties/early forties on stepping into one of these places and purchasing something for myself.
It was a moment where I just cried. I knew that what I had just purchased was going to be with me forever because it was high quality and it was something I could pass down and the value wouldn't necessarily leave. And I understood firsthand how purchasing high quality materials contributes to feeding all of the families, from the person that made it to the person that designed it, to the person that sells it, because I got to benefit. I get to benefit on a daily basis [from] my partner working in luxury retail till this day. And so I had to learn that quality pieces are okay for me.
I can have these nice things and take care of them.
I find myself shopping way less and just being very intentional with what I have. So I've definitely had to go into the space where I look at things completely different than I would before in terms of not hoarding and just having a bunch of trash in my closet, to be honest.
Paulette: Tell me about it. I started making my own clothes in my mid thirties, just after I got married. And it's a very expensive hobby, especially as you're learning. When you put so much time and effort into making something for yourself and making it fit and flatter your shape. You know, you want to feel good in the wrapping.
There's different techniques and some are much more difficult than others and much more time consuming. But those are the clothes that last and I came to a point where I made a bunch of stuff as I was learning, but it was low quality. Now it's time to up the game and wear the stuff that's that's made of the silk and higher end [fabrics].
And also keep it out of landfills. There's so much fast fashion, but it's meant to fall apart, so you're constantly going back to having to replace that. Breaking that cycle can be difficult. It can be expensive.
Linda: Yeah, it's definitely expensive. It can be difficult, but I do think that there's a simple mindset change component to this. And that's why integrating my story into the book and having this type of memoir woven in was placed in there intentionally.
Because I feel like it does not matter how much financial literacy you take in. If you are not addressing your own scarcity mindset, your own beliefs with money, then it doesn't matter how much financial literacy you'll take in. You're not actually changing the core relationship you have with money and understanding how to value things and experiences.
And so that's why it was so important for me to really focus on money wounds, having it be a chapter, and then watching the story be woven through the rest of the chapters.
Paulette: It's a fascinating read. I highly recommend everybody get their copy. I'm gifting several copies to my niblings and family members because I think it's just really important. And even though I'm not having children, there is another generation of my family and their friends and whomever they marry into that I want to be well set up.
Generational wealth doesn't just come in the form of the money, the cold, hard cash. It's [also] the knowledge that we have to teach them.
Linda: And we need you to have this knowledge. I need you to have this knowledge. Society needs you to have this knowledge. Our community needs you to have this knowledge.
Your podcast listeners need you to have this knowledge and to understand money from this perspective.
It is so important, so much more than just the surface. It's contributing to the change of generations for the children that are to come. It's completely changing the game, and it's just us understanding how the system works, I truly believe will change the next generation.
It's just comes down to us. Everything else will work itself out in terms of osmosis or benefiting from you being well off. Like we want to see you in silk. Okay? We need to see that because prior to that, the images we saw of each other, if we were wearing anything nice, it was a put together maid outfit for cleaning a house. Or gear to pick fruit. Those are the images that we have of each other, and so it's important for us to start building the generational wealth and having nice things.
I think a lot of the times in financial literacy or folks that teach financial literacy, they can also be extremely restrictive, you have to have a tight budget and penny pinch, and my approach is a little different to that. I'm really focusing on not feeling scarce and I'm really focusing on identifying your personal potential in that if you want something that is high quality, you can have that and also invest in the market. It's not this or that.
It is having this and having that.
Catch up on other posts with Linda García:
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To get the full show notes, and an episode transcript, go to PauletteErato.com.
That’s called synchronicity and I doubt it’s merely a coincidence