In life we are always held back by our beliefs. One man believes that he can climb the Everest and does it and another man believes he needs help to cross the road. Both of them could be the same age, but their beliefs are different. Remember what Henry Ford said “If you believe you can, you are right. If you believe you can’t, you are right”.

Now your financial beliefs too hold back your progress in life. If you have seen your parents struggle you might grow up stingy, and if your parents were very prosperous you may feel far more secure in your life. It is difficult to say what you would have picked up from your parents. I know kids who see their parents smoking – and decide to smoke or HATE smoking. The final decision of course is yours.

So some of the myths that I have seen people grow up with…

• Government jobs are the safest, so you should find one
• Once you have a govt job, you should NEVER leave it
• Once you get a job in a big company you should stick to it for life
• Rs. 1 crore is a very huge amount and is MORE than enough for retirement
• LiC is the safest INVESTMENT
• Real Estate can never go down in value
• Earning money is very difficult, but managing money is child’s play
• Never trust anybody with your money
• Share market is for certain communities
• We are middle class people
• Middle class people should stay away from equities

Some of these beliefs are told to you, and some you just ‘learn’ or ‘imbibe’. If you father lost money in the Harshad scam or Ketan scam you believe that “the market is a den of thieves”. If your father made money in Colgate and Siemens you believe that “Mncs ALWAYS make money for you”. Nothing right or wrong, it is just that you have come to some such conclusions based on inadequate data. It could be just sheer luck that your neighbor asked your dad to buy Colgate and Siemens shares were offered to you because your mother was working there before her marriage!

If you went through very difficult times because your father died young and he did not have life insurance, you will buy life insurance as soon as you start earning. You may not want your mother to suffer if you die. Again a defense mechanism kicking in.

You may have completely different negative beliefs about money. Some people may feel working a second job or taking up a side business are bad ideas and to do that to make ends meet is beneath them. Or some may believe they’ll never be able to change their career at some age. We use examples of how this is true to reinforce our junk ideas about money, and we make excuses for why stories that don’t are exceptions. Once we believe a story we find data and stories to keep those beliefs going!

I wish I had forced some MORE friends, readers and clients to open their mind a little more about the possibilities. I am very happy that we stayed in a place where equity was second nature to most of my friends. I still had friends who would not touch equity, and it is of course their call.

For any negative money belief, there’s probably at least some scenario you can realistically picture where your belief isn’t valid. It may take a ton of work to make that scenario happen, but it’s not as impossible as it may seem. Realize that there’s actually a huge difference between barely possible and impossible. Your parents, teachers, books, television should not cloud you about money.

Go clear the cobwebs and junk in your FINANCIAL HEAD.