Your Money, Your Rules | Financial Planning, Budgeting, Scarcity Mindset, Financial Freedom, Online Business

99 | How a Scarcity Mindset Affects Your Finances and How to Overcome It

• Erin Gray | Financial Coach, Former Certified Financial Planner and CFO

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In this episode, I dive deep into the concept of scarcity mindset and how it affects our relationship with money. Many people believe that scarcity is about how much money you have, and the truth is, it's about how you feel in your body when you think about your finances. Whether it's underlying anxiety, fear of not having enough, or hesitation to invest in yourself, these feelings are symptoms of an internal struggle that can be transformed.


Key Insights:

  • Scarcity vs. Abundance: Scarcity isn’t about the actual amount of money you have, it's about the emotional reaction you experience when thinking about money.
  • The Impact of Fear: Operating from a scarcity mindset often leads to fear-based financial decisions like hoarding, undercharging, or overworking without enjoying life.
  • Awareness & Reframing: The first step to breaking free from scarcity is becoming aware of these thoughts and triggers, then reframing your beliefs about money to view it as a flowing resource, not a finite one.
  • Money Work is Self-Work: Changing your financial mindset requires compassion and self-awareness, as well as taking aligned actions that are driven by trust rather than fear.
  • Financial Confidence: Recognizing scarcity thoughts as they arise and returning to a mindset of sufficiency can help build your financial confidence and create more peace in your financial life.

Want to learn more? Here are your next steps:

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Step 3: Ready to transform your relationship with money and build true financial confidence?

Let’s create a strategy that feels aligned, intentional, and empowering—just for you.

➡️ Schedule your 1-hour Money Mastery Call here: https://generatealifewelllived.com/11-support

Money doesn't have to feel overwhelming. Let's create a strategy that feels nurturing and custom to you.

From my soul to yours,

Erin

Erin Gray:

Today we're diving into scarcity mindset, what it is, how it shows up in your financial decisions and, most importantly, how to shift out of it. If you're like most of my clients, if someone were to actually look at your finances, look at your investments, look at your bank account, they would think that you have plenty of money and that you're perfectly okay. And yet, when they come to me, they don't feel that way in their bodies. If you've ever felt like, no matter how much money you make, how much you accumulate, that it is never enough, or if you've struggled with fear around spending, saving or investing, this episode is for you. Do you want to create a system to stop avoiding your money? Maybe you're feeling guilt and shame when it comes to finances.

Erin Gray:

Welcome to your Money, your Rules. I'm Erin, a former certified financial planner and CFO, and yet I used to avoid my money and had fear, no matter how much we had. I can't wait to teach you how I overcame my money avoidance and started consistently managing my finances in a really simple way. It's time to get comfortable with money. Before we dive into this week's episode, I want to invite you to join me for a one-on-one master your money coaching session During this hour, we'll work together to create a tailored plan that helps you align your finances with your unique goals, energy and mindset. If you're ready to transform your relationship with money and create the freedom and abundance you deserve, head over to my website, generatealifewelllivedcom and schedule your session. So, as I've shared on numerous podcasts, I used to have such a scarcity mindset and, if I'm being completely honest which I always am I noticed sometimes, when I still go back into that place and I want to say that this I think that this is normal. I think we might have this idea that at some point we're never going to deal with this ever again, and I don't know if that's actually a really helpful thought, instead of thinking, okay, your refractory period, the amount of time for when those thoughts and what you feel in your body when you're in that scarcity mentality or that scarcity feeling in your body, how quickly you can get back to sufficiency or abundance.

Erin Gray:

You know, I remember it was probably around, maybe when our assets were around like 500,000. And I remember thinking that it wasn't good enough. You know it needed to be a million. And I remember thinking that it wasn't good enough. You know it needed to be a million and I always felt like in my body that it was never enough. No matter what number we reached, I would just move the goalpost and I was constantly worrying about whether we would have enough saved and invested. You know, I was really, really focused on retirement and invested. You know, I was really, really focused on retirement and I would hesitate to invest in myself, spend any money on myself. You know we would take vacations but it was always like what's the cheapest, where's the you know least in at the time, least expensive? You know way to do it.

Erin Gray:

And because there was this, this thread, that of you know what if we run out, what if we don't have enough saved and that is scarcity mindset in action. You know, I think a lot of times when I share, you know, kind of the work that I do with other people, when I'm on their podcasts or people that I'm talking to, you know they, I think a lot of times people associate scarcity mindset with someone who may not have money. And from my experience with myself, clients that I've helped and other people that I've talked to, it definitely is prevalent in people that have money to. It definitely is prevalent in people that have money and it's not. You know, scarcity isn't just about how much money you have. It's about how you actually feel in your body. How does your body react when you think about the numbers? And when you're operating from that place of scarcity, you will most typically always feel like you're on the edge, right, even when you're financially stable, right.

Erin Gray:

So let's dive into, like, what actually is scarcity mindset. It's the belief that there is never enough, right. It's rooted in fear and lack and the idea that money is either hard to come by like you have to work hard for money, or you have to work a lot of hours to make a lot of money, and or it could even be like how quickly it could be and I'm air quoting lost right. And how does it, you know? Like, let's dive into, actually, how does it affect your finances? So, for one, it keeps us stuck in those fear-based decisions. Right, I have said before, you can't put scarcity in and expect to get sufficiency out, right. If you're making decisions from a fear-based, scarce place, the end result is not going to feel abundant and sufficient. So, instead of making empowered financial choices, what we do is we make decisions out of fear. Like lack it creates us hoarding money, maybe possibly talking to our financial planner and avoid avoiding certain types of investments because we're afraid what happens if we might lose it. Or for some of us, you know, not charging what your work, right? Well, if I charge this, then they may not want to work with me. So it's all based around fear and I want you to think about how does that actually feel in your body. You know, even though we're talking about words of like fear and scarcity and lack, I want you to really get connected of how does that feel in your body, you know.

Erin Gray:

Number two it limits our ability to receive more right. When we believe that there's not enough, that there's never enough, subconsciously we block ourself from earning, growing, expanding. And three, it creates a cycle of overworking and I think, actually under living. You know, when you are in this space of hustling and no matter how much you make, you feel like it's never enough or you don't feel secure because once again, we're putting our security outside of ourselves. We're thinking and we're attached to some number that's going to create security. But if that were true, you can think back at a time when you didn't have the amount of money you had and you were saying that when you got to this number, that would feel you would feel secure, right. And here we are and we're still not feeling this way. So we're putting our security, our trust and in something outside of us instead of bringing it within, right.

Erin Gray:

And so I think when we're in that hustle space and we're when we're in this, like okay, if we can just get to X Y Z number, if we can just get you know whatever in cash accounts or in investments, or if I can just get my business to X Y Z, then we don't actually live in the present, we don't get to slow down and actually enjoy where we are. And I think that that is, you know, they always say that, um, you know, comparison is the thief of joy. I think also, like living in the future is also a thief of joy, right, because we don't get to enjoy our present state, what we are currently accomplishing, what we have accomplished, how far we've come. So something that I've really had to work on and embody in this I don't know if this happens overnight. At least it hasn't for me, you know, probably over the last five years, for sure, this is had been something that I've had to embody, right, that money is unlimited.

Erin Gray:

That money is comes to us in all different ways. That money is provided from a place or, you know, we receive it from a place of value that we give to the world, not in how many hours we work. Right, wealth isn't just about how much you save some number in your bank account, and I think a lot of times and I'm always an advocate for financial planners and for CPAs and estate attorneys and attorneys and also when we, when we are constantly thinking that if that number is what creates the wealth, we're missing what actually, like we generate the wealth. We are wealthy because how many times which you might even be experiencing this now how many people that you might talk to that have way more money than you that don't feel secure, they don't feel safe, they don't feel at peace with their life, with their money, and so, really, me having to work through the belief that I can always generate more right, that wasn't something that I don't know. If I generate more right, that wasn't something that I don't know. If I, maybe I grew up like that and also I think it's also this place of. I think when I was investing in the stock market, I think it was like I almost had it in a way of a separation, like it was outside of me. The stock market might go up or down, and so there was lots of fear around that versus I'm always the one that gets to generate it. So, even if it all goes to shit and I have no money, I can generate it again because I have skillsets, I have value to provide to the world and I don't know if the financial industry really focuses on this right.

Erin Gray:

If we are a society of planning for our retirement and making sure that we don't run out of money, because that is what you, you know, you're accumulating assets, you're trying to get to retirement that doesn't feel like it's abundant thinking, it feels like more, it's like scarcity, like you have to, you know, get to a certain amount of money because it's going to be that amount of money that's going to last you for the rest of your life, be that amount of money that's going to last you for the rest of your life. And so when I say that, does that feel expansive and open to you or does it feel more scarce and lack? So the question always is right how do we shift out of scarcity? And I think with anything. It always starts with awareness. Start noticing your thoughts.

Erin Gray:

Where does scarcity show up in your financial decisions? What are you doing when you notice those thoughts or feelings? Are you opening your bank account? Are you paying taxes? Are you looking at your P&L? Like what is it that triggers you? And it could be some of those things, all of those things, none of those things like really get curious. When is it that I really get you know triggered and drop into that scarcity thinking and just start paying attention to it. It's coming up so that we can release it, and I think the next step is reframing the belief right, instead of saying that there's never enough like this.

Erin Gray:

This week, several clients kept talking about how something, things are so expensive and I think that we use language that we don't even pay attention to. It's not expensive because expensive to me feels like I can't have. That it's more so of I don't have or I don't find the value in the price that they are charging and that to me and my body feels very different than it being expensive. So, instead of thinking that there's never enough, shift it to I always have what I need and I can always create more. I'm highly resourceful. Like, try on some different beliefs that feel good to you and feel true in your body, and if that feels like too much of a stretch right For your nervous system, then using those bridge thoughts, like I'm in the process of believing that I can create more.

Erin Gray:

I'm finding evidence every day that wealth is created by value, not hours worked, and that money is, you know, flows easily, Like I always think about money like an ocean it comes and it goes and it's okay, like we don't have to hold onto it. Like what does nature? You know? This is the first place that I've ever lived in that's actually four seasons and you know, in Idaho they have, like it's straight up winter, like there's snow here and the tree, completely, you know, loses all of its leaves and the tree's never thinking like when am I going to get my leaves back? Like it knows it's coming and so allowing more flow of money coming in and out. Money flows freely. Money comes and it goes and it always comes back, right.

Erin Gray:

And then the last one is taking aligned action, right, begin making financial decisions from a place of trust instead of fear, and I think this is a skillset, this is a practice. The better we get you know, the more we do it, the better we get, and the way to do this is to notice what place you're in. Now I was talking to a client the other day and she was asking me a question about some moves in her business and I said is that a question that's coming from a place of fear, or is it trust that it's actually working? And she said oh, it's totally coming from a place of fear. And I told her you know, you have to pay attention to when your brain is wanting you to make quick decisions. Quick decisions are typically coming from trying to get you out of a feeling which is typically, more often than not, those lower vibration emotions like fear and that scarcity mindset. So what decisions would you make if you knew it was going to work out? Like that's the question I asked her. I was like, would you be making a different decision if you knew that it was going to work out? That's the type of questions that we need to be asking ourselves and you know, a lot of times what I've noticed is fear comes up when we've decided to do something outside of our comfort zone.

Erin Gray:

So taking that next step and then gaining clarity is key. I think what we need to do is really start to embrace those obstacles. Like I have noticed, every time I up-level, that kind of scarcity thinking comes back in because our we are wired to stay exactly the same. Our brains want to keep us safe, they want to keep us in a little bubble, just where we are, we, they, we don't, we don't want to grow. And so every time we're doing that, you know, taking steps to grow and to push outside our comfort zone. I think that's sometimes when scarcity comes in. And so really just being mindful and aware, like I had the, I had the awareness the other night and I'm like, oh, what is this about again? And I'm like, oh, okay, I see what's happening here. I'm just up leveling again and here comes my brain right, like it's almost like the condition thought to get you to stay right where you are.

Erin Gray:

So, to recap, first step is just notice where you are in a scarcity mindset thinking and give yourself so much love and compassion. You know, I truly think that part of our work is to find more self-love and self-compassion for ourselves. You know, as we are doing this money work yes, we're doing money work, but really what we're doing is is work for ourselves, right On ourselves. Love how can we love ourselves more? How can we have more compassion for ourselves? I know that that's been true for me and for every single one of my clients that I've worked with.

Erin Gray:

And second, you know, is to reframe the belief. You have to tell yourself what you're going to create and believe. Our default is to stay exactly where we are, and this is a skill. The more you practice, the easier it gets. It's still going to show up, but the refractory period is is smaller, I think, and it doesn't feel as intense in the body because you're used to doing it.

Erin Gray:

And the third action is to take action from trust and devotion, not from fear. If fear is coming up for you, then let that be an invitation to talk to those younger parts of you that might be feeling really scared. Right, what does that younger version of you need to hear? Tell her she's going to be okay and we're still going to take the action and I'm going to be here for you and we're going to work through it and we're going to figure it out together, right, a lot of times some of this scarcity mindset stuff really comes up to really help work through and heal our inner child. What does that little girl you know? What does she need to hear that maybe she didn't get to hear when she was growing up? You know, clarity is gained when we take action. So if you're ready to break free from some of that scarcity thinking, start building wealth with ease from a place of confidence. I would love to have you join my free Facebook community.

Erin Gray:

Inside we go deeper into money mindset, financial strategies. I ask lots of questions to get conversations going and creating true wealth that aligns with your life, not just some number. You can click the link in the show notes money mindset tips for women in business, and that's what it is called on Facebook. That's all I have for you today. Thank you for being here, for letting me spend time with you, and I'll see you in the next episode. Did you learn something today? Do you know another female entrepreneur who might be avoiding her money? Will you send this episode over to her for me and, if you have it in you, please leave me a review for this podcast. It helps the show grow and I love hearing from you. See you next week.