5 Money Scripts That Could be Sabotaging Your Success

Have you ever stopped to consider if your own beliefs about money could be hindering your financial success? In the latest episode of The Lawyer Millionaire Podcast, host Darren Wurz dives deep into the concept of money scripts and how they may be quietly dictating your financial destiny. Let’s uncover what money scripts are, how they affect you, and how changing them might transform your financial future.

In this episode, Darren discusses the profound impact of money scripts on personal and business finances, including their influence on spending, saving, and business operations. He delves into specific money scripts that might be holding you back and offers practical steps to begin unraveling and rewriting these beliefs. Ultimately, understanding and modifying your money scripts can lead to new levels of success in both your personal and professional life.

In this episode, listeners will learn:

1. The concept of money scripts and how deeply ingrained beliefs about money shape financial behaviors and attitudes, often without realization.

2. The potential personal and business effects of money scripts, including overspending, difficulty saving, and impacts on law firm financial management.

3. Common money scripts, such as “money is bad” and “more money will make things better,” and how they may be influencing financial decisions.

4. Practical strategies for reflecting on and analyzing personal money scripts, including techniques for identifying and discussing these beliefs with others.

5. The importance of seeking professional guidance, whether from a financial planner or a financial therapist, to guide the journey of uncovering and rewriting money scripts.

Ready to take control of your financial destiny? Listen to the full episode of The Lawyer Millionaire Podcast now to begin unearthing and understanding your money scripts. Don’t miss this opportunity to gain financial clarity and embark on a path to success for your law firm.

Understanding Money Scripts

Money scripts are formed early in childhood or early adulthood and are influenced by family, culture, and personal experiences. These internalized beliefs can have a significant impact on personal finance and business decisions. For instance, if you were raised in a religious household with the belief that money is the root of all evil, you may unconsciously shy away from pursuing wealth.

Potential Effects on Personal and Business Finances

Money scripts can lead to various financial challenges, including overspending, hoarding money, and making poor financial decisions. In the context of a law firm, they can affect how you manage your firm’s finances, pricing strategies, staff compensation, and even your performance as an attorney. By recognizing and addressing these money scripts, you can overcome patterns of behavior that are hindering your financial and professional growth.

Common Money Scripts

Five common money scripts that may be affecting law firm owners include beliefs such as “money is bad,” “more money will make things better,” “I don’t deserve money,” “there will never be enough money,” and “money is unimportant.” These scripts can stem from childhood experiences, cultural influences, or observations of financial struggles.

Taking Action to Overcome Money Scripts

To begin the process of understanding and overcoming your money scripts, consider the following actions:

1. Reflect on your financial history and early memories of money.

2. Examine your emotional reactions to money and financial decisions.

3. Analyze your financial behaviors, patterns, and habits.

4. Engage in conversations with others about your financial mindset.

5. Keep a money script journal to track your thoughts, emotions, and observations.

6. Seek professional guidance from a financial planner or therapist specializing in financial matters.

Empowering Law Firm Owners With Holistic Financial Planning

At Wurz Financial Services, we believe in empowering law firm owners through deep, holistic financial planning. Recognizing and addressing money scripts is an essential part of a comprehensive financial strategy. If you resonate with the topic of money scripts and seek clarity and success on your financial journey, consider scheduling a free call with us to collaborate on understanding and rewriting any money scripts that aren’t serving you.

Unlock Your Financial Success Today

Don’t let money scripts dictate your financial destiny. Unearth and understand your money scripts to pave the way for financial clarity and success. By recognizing and transforming these deeply ingrained beliefs about money, you can focus on growing your law practice and living the life you dream of.

Take the next step towards unlocking your financial success by scheduling a free call with us. Let’s collaborate to give you a clear path towards financial clarity and success. At Wurz Financial Services, we’re here to help you master your finances with clarity and confidence. Keep forging ahead and remember, you’re a winner.

Unlock Financial Success Today. Schedule Your Free Call Now.

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Transcript:

Darren Wurz [00:00:39]:
Hey, law firm owners, guess what? The biggest obstacle to your financial success might actually be your own beliefs about money. Welcome to the Lawyer Millionaire podcast, where we deliver financial planning insights for ambitious law firm owners so you can enjoy more time, more abundance, and less stress. Even if you’re still growing your practice, have you ever found yourself puzzled by your own financial decisions? Or wondered why growing your wealth feels like a constant uphill battle? It could be that your own financial behaviors are being quietly dictated by something called your money scripts. Let’s uncover what they are, how they affect you, and how changing them might transform your financial future.

Darren Wurz [00:01:46]:
Welcome to the lawyer millionaire podcast. I’m your host, Darren Wurz, financial planner for law firm owners. Here’s a provocative idea. Your financial success might hinge less on your skill as an attorney or your business acumen, and more on early beliefs that you’ve scarcely questioned. What if I told you that subconscious stories about money might be quietly dictating your financial destiny? Intrigued? Well, think about this. Have you ever had an emotional reaction to spending? Have you ever done something you knew you shouldn’t with money and then wondered why? Maybe you’ve bought something and then just had a terrible feeling in the pit of your stomach? I’ve been there. Or maybe you’re like many folks, and you struggle to be able to save money even though you know you should. Well, here’s the thing.

Darren Wurz [00:02:42]:
Oftentimes when we have these irrational behaviors, what’s happening is we’re being affected by something called money scripts. So what are money scripts, you might ask? Well, I love to tell you all about them, so here we go. Money scripts are deeply ingrained beliefs about money that shape our financial behaviors and attitudes, often without us even realizing it. These beliefs are often formed early in childhood or early in adulthood, and they are influenced by our family, our culture, our personal experiences, anything that we’ve been through, how your family may have talked about money, any kind of experiences you may have had with money growing up. Here’s a great example. For many of us who were raised in religious households, we grew up with the idea that money is the root of all evil. And this leads us to think that money is a bad thing and seeking to acquire wealth is perhaps a bad thing. This affected me.

Darren Wurz [00:03:46]:
My dad was a financial advisor. He wanted me to come into the business as a financial advisor. But I was raised in a religious household, and to me, money was unimportant. It wasn’t about money. It was about a greater purpose. And I wanted to do something to make a difference in the world. And so because of that, I decided to not do things that I wanted to do, perhaps like maybe go to medical school or maybe even law school and get a career that could make a lot of money. And instead, I decided I wanted to be a teacher.

Darren Wurz [00:04:18]:
Now, I’m not saying there’s anything wrong about being a teacher, but you should be a teacher for the right reasons. You should be a teacher because that’s what you really love to do, not because you feel it’s your duty and you shouldn’t do something else because money is wrong. So that’s a whole other can of worms, perhaps, that we could get into. But that’s just one example of how our money scripts can really shape and mold and change our lives. Well, why should you care about money scripts? Why should this matter to you? And why should it matter to a law firm owner like yourself? Well, first of all, there are the personal effects of money scripts. It can be very difficult sometimes to save money scripts can affect your behaviors financially in your personal life, cause overspending. It can cause hoarding of money. You can make terrible financial decisions as a result of your money scripts.

Darren Wurz [00:05:23]:
But then, of course, because you own a law practice, we have to think about your business, and we have to think about your legal practice. And there are big impacts that money scripts can have on you and can have on your law practice. For instance, how you manage your law firm financially. Let’s think about that one. Okay. So if your law firm, financial, are an absolute disaster and nothing’s changed, right. This has been the case for a while. It could be that there are some money scripts at work.

Darren Wurz [00:05:56]:
Your money scripts could be affecting the way you run the financial operations of your law firm. If you’re prone to overspending in your personal life, you might be prone to overspending in your business, and you might spend too much on certain things, software, the trappings of a nice office. Perhaps other areas of your business could be affected as well. For example, how you price your services. A lot of times, people struggle to price their services appropriately. They’re not charging enough for the value, for the worth that they provide, for the good that they do for folks. So sometimes people can be prone to undercharging for their services. How you pay your staff could be impacted by your money scripts.

Darren Wurz [00:06:46]:
And then, of course, it goes even further than that to your own performance as an attorney, how you negotiate with other attorneys, how you negotiate with adversaries, how you advocate for your clients, what kind of settlements you seek, where you’re willing to give in, because that’s all very financial. All of that can be very affected by your money scripts. And these money scripts can affect how you perform in court. Right? So there are some very real impacts that money scripts can have in our lives. Understanding and when necessary, perhaps tweaking and rewriting and modifying these money scripts can help you unlock new levels of success, not just personally, but also for your business. What’s at stake here? Well, if you don’t address these money scripts. So for many of us, our money scripts cause us to be trapped in certain behaviors that we cannot get out of. And the problem, the consequence is that if you never really get to the core of the money script and what’s underneath there, you’re not going to fix the problem.

Darren Wurz [00:08:03]:
You might think, let’s talk about overspending. Because overspending is one big one, right? That money scripts plays into. The simple solution is create a budget. But then the problem is following that budget. You can have the best financial plan in the world, but it makes the most sense. It’s optimized beautifully and perfectly. But if you have unaddressed money scripts that are driving your behavior, you’re not going to follow it. And as a result, a financial plan not followed is worthless.

Darren Wurz [00:08:39]:
Right? So not addressing these can cause you to remain stuck in the same pattern forever. Perhaps you’re feeling stuck today. Are you feeling like there’s a pattern of financial behavior that is keeping you stuck or keeping you behind from your full potential? Some other ways it might affect you. Perhaps never being able to shift from business growth mode to personal growth mode. That’s something I see with a lot of law firm owners and business owners in general, myself included, we’ve been prone to this problem. We are focused on growing our practices, and so we spend and we leverage and we take on debt in order to grow. But there comes a point at which it’s time to start reaping the benefits of what you have sown. Failure to build wealth, failure to enjoy life, even.

Darren Wurz [00:09:33]:
Right? So it’s not just about maybe the overspending. It could be underspending. It could be affecting your relationships with your family. It could be causing you to make mistakes that are costing you money and putting you behind. Well, let’s talk about some specifics, some specific money scripts that could be affecting you. Here are five money scripts that could be affecting you in your daily life and could be holding you behind. Number one on the list is money is bad. We mentioned this before.

Darren Wurz [00:10:05]:
Money is the root of all evil. This idea that money is a bad thing and that pursuing wealth and pursuing money is a bad thing. I have had lawyers respond to the title of my book negatively. The title of my book is the lawyer millionaire, by the way. And I’ve had attorneys reach out to me and blast me in email form or on social media. How? Darren, you write a book with the title the lawyer Millionaire. That is unethical, right? Well, there’s nothing inherently good or bad about money. Money is not bad in and of itself, and there’s nothing wrong with wanting to accrue money.

Darren Wurz [00:10:50]:
Well, we could get into a whole can of worms on that. But anyway, this feeling that money is bad could come from childhood. It could come from the way you were raised, a religious upbringing, perhaps, where you were taught to shun money. But what this leads to is this idea that if I avoid success, I won’t be a bad person. So maybe you are not achieving the success that you want. This could be at play, sabotaging you in the background. Number two on the list, more money will make things better. Oh, gosh, I see this one so often with clients I work with.

Darren Wurz [00:11:28]:
And it’s because you’re an entrepreneurial law firm owner. You’re all about building and growing and achieving and moving forward and expanding. The problem is when we start to think that that expansion will make life better, because here’s what happens when we get more. It’s not enough. And so that goalpost keeps moving further and further out. Where does this come from? It could come from. Maybe you grew up and your parents told you they couldn’t afford things for you. Maybe you took on this idea that if I just had more money, things would be better.

Darren Wurz [00:12:12]:
Number three on the list. I don’t deserve money. Now, who on earth is going to think this? Well, actually, you may not. See, these are subconscious things, right? These are underneath. And you may not think this explicitly, but it might be a subconscious belief underneath. Perhaps you grew up in a family that did not have a lot right. Or perhaps you observed that a lot of people are lacking. And so, as a result, maybe you adopted this script.

Darren Wurz [00:12:47]:
What this leads to is giving away money, not valuing savings. It could also lead to the equation of hard work and money. And so you start to take on a workaholism because you think that I don’t deserve to make money unless I work very, very hard, right? Number four on the list, there will never be enough money. And the corollary to that is there will always be enough money. And they’re kind of opposites of each other. If you have the script, there will never be enough money. You may have grown up in a less affluent household, maybe a poor household. Maybe you had this feeling, right.

Darren Wurz [00:13:30]:
Maybe your parents struggled to make money and save and earn, and so you adopted this mindset that there just will never be enough money, no matter how hard we work. And what this results in is a difficulty spending money on yourself or others. And so, rather than overspending, perhaps you could be underspending. Very interesting. And last but not least, another one on the list. Money is unimportant. This comes from, perhaps you were taught in childhood that it’s not about the money. That’s not important.

Darren Wurz [00:14:05]:
There are more important parts of life. And it’s not to say that money is or is not important, but it is an important piece of our daily lives. Well, what this leads to oftentimes is a rationalization of laziness or a lack of ambition. And there are many, many more money scripts that we could explore. Those are five very common ones. And there’s no one way that these money scripts develop. It’s different for everybody. So you really have to go deep and explore what happened in your life and maybe how that impacted your view of money.

Darren Wurz [00:14:46]:
But let’s go a little bit deeper. Now. The thing about money scripts is that they have an impact not just on our ability to accrue wealth and be financially smart. They impact our families. They impact the quality of our lives. And that is such a huge thing. If your money scripts are holding you back from accruing and building wealth, that’s affecting your family. If your money scripts are causing you to be a workaholic, that’s affecting your family and the quality of your life.

Darren Wurz [00:15:24]:
So these things are really, really powerful and have such a big impact on us. The other thing is, of course, our law practice. Your law practice. Right. How could your beliefs and your money scripts be impacting the culture within your law firm? Some of us equate. One of the money scripts that I didn’t mention is this equation of self worth and net worth, where perhaps you have this feeling that I have to acquire a certain net worth in order to be worthy. And that affects a lot of people. How could that be affecting you? If that is a part of your money scripts anyway, how can you take some action here? What should you do about these things? Are we just subject to these things and there’s nothing we can do? No, thankfully, there are some things that we can do.

Darren Wurz [00:16:21]:
And here at Wurz Financial Services, we believe that uncovering these scripts is not just an exercise in financial planning, but it’s a profound step towards financial wellness and happiness. So here are some things you can do. Number one, reflect on your financial history. Go back in time to your earliest memories of money. What lessons were taught to you by your parents, by your caregivers or your community about money? Second, take some time to examine your emotional reactions to money. Our emotions often give us clues as to what’s under the surface. If you have a strong reaction to something, there’s something deeper going on. Consider how you feel when you make financial decisions.

Darren Wurz [00:17:12]:
Do you feel anxious about spending? Do you feel anxious about just the topic of money in general? Right. Think about those feelings. Next, analyze your financial behaviors, your patterns, your habits. What are you prone to doing? Right. Are there patterns that you can’t justify logically? Perhaps you avoid debt at all costs. Or perhaps you are an impulsive spender. Right. Think about how you behave financially and how your money scripts could be driving that.

Darren Wurz [00:17:43]:
Talk to others. Engage in conversations. It’s hard to see ourselves objectively, and oftentimes other people will tell us about ourselves. So you might want to have some conversations with other people and ask them and be open to feedback how they see your behaviors. Journal. Get a journal. Write down some things. Write about your thoughts, observations.

Darren Wurz [00:18:09]:
Keep a record of your interactions with money, of your emotions. Look for those patterns. And finally, you could seek professional guidance. That could be a financial planner like me who deals with money scripts. Or it could be, if you really need help, maybe a financial therapist. Not a bad idea. There are therapists who deal in money and finances. And if you have some really deeply ingrained money scripts, perhaps some trauma there, you may need the help of a professional therapist.

Darren Wurz [00:18:44]:
Well, here at Words Financial services, we’re not just here to help you manage your investments. We’re here to listen, understand, and help you navigate this complex terrain. I want to remind you that money scripts and money script work is not about criticism or judgment. Actually, it gives us hope. It gives us so much hope. If you are stuck in a certain pattern, that’s where the judgment is right. The hope and the journey out of that is the money scripts. And to me, that is just such an empowering thing to think about.

Darren Wurz [00:19:23]:
So here’s my challenge to you. Start a money script journal today. Start journaling a few minutes each day. At the end of the day, reflect on what happened throughout the day as it relates to money and how you reacted. Reflect on your childhood. What messages were you given in childhood or even in adulthood too, that could be sabotaging your wealth journey. And of course, money scripts is at the very heart of what we do here at the lawyer millionaire and firms financial services. We believe in empowering law firm owners like yourself through deep, holistic financial planning.

Darren Wurz [00:20:06]:
That’s financial planning that encompasses everything. Recognizing your money scripts is an integral part of a holistic financial strategy. And our mission is to bring all the resources, strategies, tools, expertise we can to bear in helping you maximize your wealth from A to Z period. And that’s why our work is all encompassing, everything from cash flow to tax planning, even business planning. Whatever we can do to help you. If today’s topic has struck a chord with you, I encourage you to take the next step. Let’s unearth and understand your money scripts together and rewrite any that aren’t serving you. To do this, schedule some time with me in the show notes.

Darren Wurz [00:20:52]:
You can go right down there, click on the calendar in the show notes, and sign up for a free call with me. Let’s collaborate to give you a clear path towards financial clarity and success. Well, this has been the lawyer millionaire podcast. I’m your host, Darren Wurz, here to help you master your finances with clarity and confidence so you can focus on growing your practice and living the life that you dream of. Keep forging ahead and remember, as my dad always told me, you’re a winner. Thank you so much for being here with me today. I’m already looking forward to our next time together.