Student Money Mindset Shifts and How They Help
This article dives into 5 crucial student money mindset shifts if you want to become a millionaire. If you’ve ever dreamed of becoming a millionaire but you can’t see how it could ever be possible, you’re just a student after all, you’re in the right place. These are the money mindset shifts that every millionaire has in common.
Wealth comes at all ages. There are 18-year-olds with millions of dollars as well 50-year-olds that slowly invested paycheck after paycheck. Whatever wealth path you are on, there are millionaire mindsets that are essential to making you wealthy. You don’t have to wait for old age to get wise. These 5 student money mindset shifts, given time, will set you on the right path to becoming a millionaire.
Why are Student Money Mindset Shifts So Important?
You might be thinking, why is mindset so important? Can’t I just make a lot of money and save it? I suppose you could do that, even though that’s not as easy as it sounds. The most important part of building wealth is your mindset. Broke people have broke mindsets. Wealthy people have wealthy mindsets.
The way we view money, ourselves, or the world around us shapes how we behave, think, and believe, and how we behave, think, and believe shapes the outcome of our lives. There isn’t a single wealthy individual that believed they would fail everything they did. Mindset matters. That’s why it’s important that we shift our mindset. Remember, broke is a mindset, before it’s a condition.
Laying your foundation with a good mindset will bring plenty of success to every area of your life. Now let’s get into the millionaire mindsets that you can develop as a student.
Money Mindset Shift #1: From Earn to Learn
Every successful entrepreneur, investor, and business owner started at the same place that you are as a student. Most of them didn’t know exactly how to run a business or buy real estate, but instead they became avid learners.
Being a constant learner is something that separates the average person from the successful person. Warren Buffet famously told people that one of his greatest secrets to success was spending 80% of his time reading. That is a lot of time reading and that’s a lot of learning.
If you’re already reading this far then I applaud you. You’re doing the hard work already.
As a college or high school student you have a unique opportunity to learn more than the average person. This could mean really diving deep into your school studies, but more importantly it means listening to podcasts, reading books, or subscribing to financial newsletters. Like mine, which you can subscribe to here for convenient email notifications.
Whatever you do, make sure to keep learning. Those who learn are those who earn.
Money Mindset Shift #2: From Money is for Spending to Money is a Tool
Most people spend all their time earning money. Once they earn money, all they do is spend it. The biggest issue is that this leaves them exactly where they were before. Poor, broke, and feeling helpless.
The problem is that they don’t view money as a tool. They view it with only one goal. To spend. This is especially true for students if they get a little bit of money in their hands. So often I have seen a student complain about being broke, only to buy a $50 sweatshirt that they just “had to have…”
Shifting your money mindset to see it as a tool helps you focus on how money can build financial security, wealth, and a lifestyle you enjoy. Like using a hammer to build a house, a tool has a purpose. For money, its purpose is to make you more money.
Start investing your money. Start seeing money as a tool to help you build wealth.
Money Mindset Shift #3: From Consumer to Producer
Never once in the history of this earth has there been a wealthy individual who only consumed, but so often that’s what most of us do. We would rather read a book than write a book, watch YouTube not make our own videos, buy a product instead of creating one, and spend our money instead of investing it.
Millionaires have a producer mindset. A producer mindset asks, “how can I create value you for others through a product or service?” For me, I add value to the readers’ lives by producing (in my opinion) high quality content from a unique perspective that helps challenge their beliefs and pursue financial freedom and education.
If you want to be a millionaire you have to start thinking like a producer, even if that means just investing your money in the stock market. Whatever path seems best to you.
Don’t be stuck as a consumer. Start changing the world and be a producer.
Money Mindset Shift #4: From Short-term to Long-term
How many times have you said to yourself, “I just need to make it to the weekend.” I’ve heard it hundreds of times and I’ve said it a few times as well. This student money mindset shift is one of the most important. As students we are often focused on our next exam, the next class, the next semester, or even worse, the next weekend.
However, millionaires don’t just think about tomorrow or next week. They think about 1 year, 5 years, 10 years, or 30 years in the future. Instead of trying to have everything now, they focus on building things that last a generation. They have learned to master delayed gratification. Millionaires work hard now to enjoy the weekends later.
One of the most powerful examples of this principle is compound interest. A little consistent amount of money can grow to hundreds of thousands of dollars given enough time. The same way our money multiplies with time, so does our skillset, our knowledge, and our wealth.
Don’t ask “what can I achieve in 1 year,” start asking, “what can I achieve in 10 years.” I think you’ll find that the outcomes are endless.
Money Mindset Shift #5: From Wanting to Doing
Everyone wants to be rich. That’s why this student money mindset shift is so difficult to overcome. No one wants to be poor, but most students are. Why is that? Most people want things, but they don’t do things.
It’s nice to dream about being a pro athlete, but only those who put in the work and are dedicated to taking action every day succeed. Just like a professional athlete, if we want to be successful, we must be action takers. No one ever scored a goal while sitting on the sideline.
This mindset shift is crucial to success, and it’s one that has taken me a long time to develop. I used to never want to talk on the phone because I was scared, but recently I have started to consistently cold call people. Whether it was for a Facebook Marketplace sale, to ask a real estate investor to meet up for coffee, or to suppliers for a business idea I had, I have learned to be a massive action taker.
If you also struggle with being an action taker, I recommend doing whatever the smallest uncomfortable step is. For me, that was sending an email to a real estate investor. As soon as you take a small step you find that the next small step is a little less uncomfortable, and soon you’ve done something you didn’t think was possible.
Stop sitting on the sideline and start taking your shot. It’s the only way you’ll win. It’s the only way to wealth. Don’t wait, do it now. Invest today. Start that business. Call that investor. Book a meeting with a supplier.
Read my article on How to Stop Being a Wantrepreneur here and learn to take action fast.
Putting All the Student Money Mindset Shifts Together
If you made it this far, thank you, and please consider sharing with a friend or on social media if you think someone else could get value from this.
Now that we’ve talked about the 5 crucial student money mindset shifts, we can put it all together to start our journey to becoming a millionaire. When we combine aspects of learning, using money as a tool, producing, thinking long-term, and taking action, we have a powerful formula to not only change our mindset, but also the world around us.
If even just one of these money mindset shifts helps you to achieve your goals, I will have done my job well. Apply all of these and you’ll be unstoppable. If you want to be a millionaire even if you’re still a student, these mindset shifts will help you do that. Remember, broke is a mindset, before it’s a condition.
Until the next article.
**Hi, I am your author Ryan Lisota, and I am on a journey to educate students of all ages. I am young, just like you and I have a goal to be on Forbes 30 before 30. Help me make that dream come true by reading another article here or subscribing to my newsletter here.**
Thank you!
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Your point of view caught my eye and was very interesting. Thanks. I have a question for you.