If you’re an Overextender Money Habit Archetype, then you know the pattern.
There’s always more money flowing out than there’s money coming in. Say you win money or have some windfall.. you usually manage to put that money into something but still have to borrow more money to get the ‘something’… maybe new car, a holiday, something like that.
I know all about it because I was raised by an Overextender. My father was the typical example of an Overextender and so I know that pattern really, really well, and I know how frustrating and stressful it can be.
Now, if you’re an Overextender you also know that you’ve tried to budget in the past, and it just doesn’t work. In fact, every time you try to budget, things get worse! You have these massive budget blowouts and you actually go backwards even faster than when you were just doing your normal thing.
The thing with Overextenders is generally they’re also caught in the thinking that, “The quick win will fix everything.” My dad was the perfect example. He’d talk about how he’d win cross lotto and always look for things that would be the magic bullet, “We’ll buy this house. We’ll renovate it (even though we’ve never done that before and don’t know anything about it), and in one year’s time we’ll have made $30,000 or $60,000,” which was totally unrealistic. Or he wanted to import duty free cars from Europe and sell them.
He’d always have some scheme. Savings were not on the agenda – it was always something else that would give him the quick BIG amounts of money.
Unfortunately, it just never actually happened and that tends to be the pattern for most Overextenders.
It is a pattern and money has very little to do with it.
WATCH THE VIDEO :
OR LISTEN TO THE AUDIO:
OR READ THE TRANSCRIPT:
It’s a pattern where what comes in is never enough and, in fact, you have to borrow or go into debt to get to where you want to get to. The expenses increase faster than your income. That’s super stressful, because you’re constantly going backward. Even though you’re making more money 10 years down the track, you actually feel like you’re in a worse position. So it’s a pattern, and it’s not helpful.
Let’s talk about 5 steps to turn that around as quickly and easily as possible.
The first and most important step is you need to start changing the story sitting beneath that pattern that is fueling and creating the pattern. The story at the unconscious level that makes you do these things and behave in this way, and attract circumstances to you that keep recreating this pattern over and over and over again.
The quickest and easiest way to change the story, is by recognizing the pattern, and then using it to find your way down. The pattern is kind of like the tip of the iceberg poking up above the surface and you go, “Okay, cool. I’m an Overextender,” but that’s not what this is all about – that is just the start.
You then use that knowledge to drill down and find your way down beneath that surface pattern to the truth of what’s going on – which is that old story, those limiting beliefs around money, what you (at the unconscious level) have been programmed to believe about life that is constantly creating this reality, these kinds of circumstances, where you’re always going backwards even further.
Start with that, do my Money Habit Archetype Quiz (I’ve put the link the description for you). That will help you to uncover and start to shift the limiting belief that’s been creating this pattern within you. Once you complete the quiz, I’ll send you a series of emails to help you uncover the underlying story and start to transform it into a much more empowering story.
That’s a very important step number one, but there are five in total!
The second step is making sure you’ve got a really big, “Why.”
The thing with Overextenders is they tend to be very short term focused, and the long term is like, “Meh, that’s future you’s problem, but current you wants to have some fun.”
You really need to make sure that you have a really big “why” – something that’s so exciting that really lights you up, that’s going to absolutely be worth it.
If it’s something monetary, say you want to buy a house, you want to go on a certain holiday, there’s something there that is really calling you, break it down and figure what it actually takes.
If you want to buy this house in two, or three years time or whenever, how much do you need, what does that break down to? Break it down into the smallest amounts possible, ideally weekly amounts. Get really excited, and really into why that is so important, and then figure out in terms of dollars what it will actually take. If you break it down into little amounts, weekly amounts, it’s never as big as you think, and that helps you kind of shift that point of view of, “Oh I have fun now, and that’s future me and future me will work that out,” and start to merge the two and bring them together and help future YOU step into here and go, “Honey, you’re the one that’s gonna help me be the future me that you wanna be, so let’s work together.”
That’s why it’s really important to have that “why,” find the big exciting goal, and break it down into little baby steps so you know what it is you’re actually looking at… how much money you want to accumulate.
Whatever the goal is, break it down into little chunks – that is step number two.
Step number three:
You really need to remove the temptation to give into that habit of overextending. So cut up your credit cards or reduce the limits on them. if you’ve got a credit card with a $10,000 limit and you owe $4,000 on it, reduce the limit down to $4,500 and start paying it off. You need to remove the temptation so that you can’t keep perpetuating that pattern.
I know it’s going to freak you out at first, but it will be okay and you will totally normalize to it. You absolutely will get totally used to it.
Now, the fourth step is you need to really eliminate the sense of deprivation, because that’s why whenever you’ve tried to budget before it’s backfired in a big way and you’ve had the biggest blowouts ever.
That’s the rebellion, “I don’t wanna budget. I don’t wanna deprive myself. I wanna have a good time and enjoy my money, and future me will sort that stuff out.” Make sure you eliminate that sense of deprivation by having a really good, realistic amount of money set aside for you to have fun with every single month and week.
You say, “This is a good amount of money. I know I can manage it, in fact I’ve probably been blowing more than that because I haven’t been paying attention, but this let’s me know that I’m having a good time and I’m not at all feeling deprived.”
The problem with budgets is that they make you feel restricted.
They make you feel like you’re being deprived and you’re being punished.
I don’t like the word “budget,” I like to think about you managing your money wisely.
So you decide how much “fun money” you should have, and then have fun with it! You have fun with it and you really enjoy. When you spend it you go, “This is my fun money, and I get to choose what I want to do with it!” By being much more conscious and mindful of it, you’re actually going to enjoy it a whole lot more.
And then the fifth step is REWARDS, because Overextenders are all about the rewards.
Set up some sort of reward system for yourself.
Set that goal of the money that you’ll be putting aside for the long term goal, the fun money that you’re going to stick with that is a generous and reasonable amount so that you don’t feel deprived, and then go, “Okay, every three months or so I’m going to have this other pool of money and when I’ve stuck with my system for three months in a row, I get to have this extra bonus money and have the big fun!” That might be a weekend away, or something like that. Something that is a reward for you being such a great custodian of your money.
So those are five really powerful steps.
I want to make sure you start with step one, which is doing the quiz.
When you do the quiz, and follow the guidance and steps I give you in the emails that you’ll receive afterwards, what you’re actually doing is you’re starting to drain the fuel out of the engine that’s been creating this pattern.
So the energy goes out of it and then the pattern weakens, which means that all the other stuff we’ve just talked about in steps two, three, four, and five becomes really, really easy.
So number one, the first step is doing the quiz and starting to change that money story. It’s like you’re letting air out of the balloon and then it becomes so, so easy from there.
Make sure that you approach all of this from the point of view of starting to see the fun of being in charge of your money.
Make it a game, have those reward systems, have those parameters in place, have that long term plan and make it a game.
You’re heading towards that, you’re setting the scene, you’re the general in charge of all the pieces of the puzzle moving, you’ve got your little reward system in place.
Have loads of fun with that and start really appreciating the joy of being in charge of your money.
That is how you start turning that Overextender archetype pattern around so that you can start to thrive and grow in financial abundance and move towards the financial freedom and stability you’ve been looking for.
Don’t forget to do the quiz! The link is the description.
I’d really like to hear your feedback as you move through the steps, so maybe pop the link to this in your calendar and report back in a month to let me know how it’s going.
Until then, keep on embracing your beautiful and unlimited potential.
READY TO GO DEEPER?
Take the Money Habit Archetype Quiz so you can clear your biggest money block.
