By Sylvia Juuko

When it comes to money, what kind of attitude do you possess? A healthy attitude towards money is one where you are always optimistic and think in terms of abundance. On the other hand, a poor money attitude is one is where you carry around negative energy with the belief that money is scarce.

During the current lockdown measures, a poor money attitude has to be kept in check. This attitude will not help if you are anxious and have to make key money decisions. While it's normal to be anxious, you need to work on this anxiety to ably survive during these measures. You owe it to yourself and those that look up to you to provide direction. Sadly, the current circumstances are unusual because of the loss of lives, the sick, as well as losses in income. However, an optimistic outlook is needed to navigate this period and the aftermath.

Prior to the current lockdown, I wrote about the need to work on your level of preparedness for any financial emergency whose expiry date has become a moving target. This was based on the assumption that lessons learnt from the previous lock-down could be applied to make the current one bearable.

Above all, navigating the current circumstances requires both a positive outlook and a good money mindset. This is needed to activate a solution mode as opposed to dwelling on playing the victim card. If you have any doubts about how your money attitude affects your bottom line, you can refer to one of the many studies that have been undertaken on this subject matter. One study that was a collaboration of the University College London, the Open University and BBC Lab UK, found that there are four ways of looking at money: Money as power (status spender), money as generosity (generous indulger), money as security (secure saver) and money as freedom (independence lover). The study also established that we are vulnerable to unhealthy ways of thinking about and using money. According to this study, the most common are worrying all the time about how much you spend, buying things to feel better (also known as retail therapy), and being in denial about spending habits. This way, how you look at money eventually manifests in your decisions and actions.

Given that the science is clear, we need to deliberately work on having a positive money attitude to shape our plans so that we arrive at our financial aspirations. One of the things that you need to take care of are the mantras you keep repeating to yourself either consciously of sub-consciously. Sayings, such as ‘I can never be good with money,’ ‘money is scarce,’ ‘I’m unfortunate and will never make it,’; Government is against the likes of me,’ and ‘my company doesn’t favour me,’ are the kind of mindset-driven sayings that leave you paralysed and unable to think about how you can improve your state of affairs and spot opportunities.

A positive money attitude will put you in a solution mode whenever you are faced with a challenging situation. You will focus on planning for any eventualities through saving, investing and minimising unnecessary expenses.

Further still, trying to impress your peers is another poor money attitude that does little to improve your financial state. Each of us has a journey, have our own circumstances, background and resources at our disposal. If your peers have better skills at managing money, that is a nugget of wisdom that can be picked to improve your financial state. However, this shouldn’t be used as a race to outdo them. You don’t have all the information regarding their source of income. Seek out those that you have something positive to learn from, do more research, learn new skills and shape your own financial journey.

In instances where you are paralysed by anxiety, you need to reach out to the people you trust and express your fears. Talking about these issues is better than bottling them up. In addition to the talks, take a break from sources of anxiety whether they are people or channels of information. Indulge in activities that clear this anxiety and then try and figure out how to apply the information you have got to improve your financial situation.

Once your state of mind is in the right place, you can now focus on your money situation. Review your goals, appraise your skill set, seek new financial information and look out for opportunities. Is there a service you can provide during this period? Who are your likely customers? Do you have a network to start with? Family and friends are your best bet. Once you have built your confidence and knowledge base, you are in a position to make informed financial decisions with a positive money attitude.

The writer works with the Bank of Uganda