How to Build a Money Mindset

What Is Money Mindset?

By Sam Swenson, CFA, CPA – Updated Oct 12, 2025 at 11:18 PM

Key Points

Adopting a positive money mindset can transform negative financial beliefs and behaviors.
Learning about money and acknowledging small financial progress aids in developing a healthy mindset.
A proactive approach to financial education and positivity can significantly impact investment success.

A money mindset is a manifestation of your attitudes and beliefs about money. A positive money mindset can help guide your behaviors in an unusually powerful way, while a negative money mindset can produce equally negative effects.

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Money Mindset

Having a clear and healthy money mindset can benefit you not only financially but also in the investing realm.

The good news is that, regardless of your background, your money mindset can be strengthened and/or changed depending on the information you consume today. Developing new attitudes -- and reforming old ones -- is most definitely possible by adopting a more positive outlook and retaking control over the factors in your financial life that you have the ability to change.

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Chart by author.
Bad Money Mindset	Good Money Mindset
Fear and anxiety Feeling a lack of control Negativity around the concept of money Feeling intimidated by difficult concepts Defeatism ("I'll never be good at this") Procrastination ("I'll get to it eventually")	A willingness to tackle difficult problems Feeling in control of behaviors and decisions General optimism in the face of uncertainty Openness to learning new things Solution-oriented attitude Acknowledgement of incremental progress

A bad money mindset tends to breed a worse money mindset. Once you find yourself in a spiral of negative thinking, it's extremely easy to catastrophize. You might feel that you'll never be "good at money" or feel anxious about even the prospect of doing the work to become proficient.

Simply reading the column on the right can help reframe your perspective around money. If you're someone who's willing to go after the difficult issues in your financial life and do so from a position of independence and strength, you're already putting yourself at an advantage. Having belief in yourself can go a tremendously long way in developing a healthy money mindset.

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