Wellbeing

Money: Use your brain to boost your bank balance

Always strapped for cash? Want to overhaul your finances? The key to becoming a money magnet is to change your thinking, says Marie-Claire Carlyle

Sometimes you have to reach a point of no hope before you’re prepared to do something different. Most of us never reach that point. We just muddle along, make do and wonder why other people have more money than we have. But in actual fact you can change the way you feel about money, which in turn allows you to attract more of it into your life – quickly and effortlessly.
The first step to becoming a money magnet is to make the decision that you want more money. It’s a decision, not a wish. It’s the realisation that to turn your life around you may need to start doing things differently. You may need to start thinking differently. You may have to give up some of your beliefs around money, and this can be challenging. One woman told me that she was afraid of losing touch with her family roots if she changed her mind about money. She was used to thinking of herself and her family as “people like us who never have any money” and she had plenty of evidence to support this way of thinking.

But there are some simple steps to becoming a money magnet. Follow them and allow money to come your way. It doesn’t have to be hard work.

1. State your intention

The first step is to declare that you wish to become a money magnet. Lots of people are embarrassed to say that they’d like more money. That’s like saying you fancy someone but you won’t introduce yourself to them. You’ll spend your life in a pool of wishful thinking.

2. Learn its true value

Becoming a money magnet is a lot like falling in love with someone. At the beginning you have to take time to get to know the person. How well acquainted are you with the money you have and the ways that you could attract more? Do an inventory. Make friends with money by using only cash for a week and learn the true value of things and how much you value the money you earn.

3. Make friends with it

Ask yourself: “How do I really feel about money?” Talk to money as though it’s a good friend. For example: “What would you like to tell me, money?” Write down whatever comes to mind. Sounds crazy? Well, doing what you’ve always done sounds crazy if you want to have a different result. Talk lovingly about money.

Notice expressions like ‘filthy rich’. Just as you’d only see the good in someone you were dating, look for only the good that money can do. Imagine the dating is going well and you may wish to create space to have more money in your life. Make friends with money and money will make friends with you.

4. Clear the clutter

Nature fills a void and clearing clutter can be one of the fastest ways to attract money and new opportunities. Then simply allow money to move in. Sometimes you can work so hard to acquire money only to miss the opportunities when they arrive because you’re too busy to see them. Just as the answer to a compliment is ‘thank you’, the answer to a promotion, pay rise or gift is always ‘thank you’, because you know that you are worth it and in saying ‘thank you’ you acknowledge that fact.

The ‘be-do-have’ principle

Are you waiting to have money in the bank before you do the thing you’ve always wanted to do and be as happy as you can be?
Are you miserable in your job but waiting until things are better financially before you leave?
Have you always wanted to write a book but are waiting until you have enough time?
Are you waiting until you’re rich to be happy?

If you can relate to the above comments and you are waiting to have something before you can be happy, you have got it the wrong way round! Maybe that’s why you haven’t progressed as much as you’d like. Maybe that’s why you feel ‘true happiness’ is avoiding you.

The principle of ‘be-do-have’ is that you have to be the person you want to be first, in order to then do as that person would do, in order to then have all that you want to have.

If you start to behave as a lucky person, for example, you will start to attract luck wherever you go. You become a magnet for good fortune. You may then have the confidence to take decisions that you may not have made before you considered yourself lucky and you will attract things into your life that you’ve always wanted.

Rather than waiting until you are wealthier, you can decide to be happy and wealthy right now. Today, you can be happy if you really want to be happy. Look around for something that is good about you or your life. Look to nature and find something beautiful that will make you smile. Think of the last time you were laughing and feel that joy inside again. By choosing to be happy now, you will attract things to do and to have that make you happy. Remember, it’s all in the vibes that you’re giving out. Be a magnet for happiness and you will be a magnet for money.

If you wish to be a Money Magnet, start emitting the vibes of someone who has money. Be generous from the heart and you will naturally attract more money. Be grateful for all the amazing abundance that you already have in your life: your health, your sight, your loved ones. Behave like someone who is confident in their ability to make money, and you will attract the opportunities to make it. Bemoan your situation and the opportunities will do a U-turn at the end of your street.

Be rich in your dealings with others and you will become rich in what you have in your life. It’s the ‘be-dohave’ principle! Resolve to apply it in your life now!

Pining for what you want doesn’t work. Start being who you really want to be and you will attract what you need to do to have all that you want to have.

How I become a money magnet

Our intrepid pauper Jini Reddy went for a consultation with Marie-Claire and turned her finances around

My session with Marie-Claire is a revelation. Attracting money, I discover has everything to do with how much I value myself and how willing I am to take responsibility for my own needs and happiness (rather than subconsciously wanting to offload that job onto someone else’s shoulders). We sit down and look at the limiting beliefs that have led to my being chronically in the red – this means delving into my childhood and letting go of a block I didn’t even know I’d possessed, so deeply buried has it been in my psyche.

I experience what I can only describe as a lightbulb moment and, as a result, something has shifted within me: I am seeing everything – me, my relationships with people and the green stuff – from a new ‘can do’ perspective. I’ve learned that I have to be committed to wanting more money in order to attract it, and the best way to do that is to be clear about what I want it for, what benefit I’ll derive from having the things that money will give me and how much I want. I’ve learned to start appreciating the money that I do have – adopting an attitude of gratitude towards my money. I’ve been reading Marie-Claire’s book and religiously doing the exercises. Increasingly I ‘get’ the power of goal setting, and the liberating feeling of knowing that I am responsible for my income, my quality of life and my relationships.

Interesting things are happening – I’ve set myself a target monthly income for the next six months and, looking through my accounts, I’ve realised that this month I’ve had a series of work assignments come in which, paymentwise, add up to that target figure. In addition, I have won a small sum of money and have received two small surprise cheques out of the blue. I intend to carry on doing the exercises – and then go back to the beginning of the book and start all over again, to make sure I stay on the wealth ‘frequency’. I’ve recommended Marie-Claire to all of my friends. In my line of work I meet all kinds of ‘experts’– she is the real deal and worth her weight in gold.