Many people with modest incomes show the peace and generosity of living in a surplus mindset. Many others who have accumulated outward wealth can be described only as struggling. Even earners at the highest levels of income often have profound concerns about their financial security. They are not automatically happier than those with less.
How can this be? It turns out that making more money doesn’t equate to feeling financially secure or having an impulse to share. A surplus mindset isn’t about how much we have. It’s a conscious choice to think and act differently about everything we own or might wish we did. A surplus mindset means deciding we have enough for ourselves and enough to share.
The surplus mindset is where we all want to live. It’s the “new money mindset” we aim to grow into, and no matter where you are right now, you can begin to move forward. Remember that whatever money challenges you might face right now probably took a while to develop. They might take just as long to fix. In the meantime, as you work on your issues, don’t let your balance sheet determine your self-worth. We want to tell you that God loves you whether or not you’re buried in debt, and your family and other people love you too.
An excerpt from Your New Money Mindset by Brad Hewitt and Dr. Jim Moline. © 2015 Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.
Brad Hewitt is the CEO of Thrivent Financial, a not-for-profit Fortune 500 organization dedicated to helping Christians be wise with money and live generously. He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in mathematics from the University of Wisconsin—River Falls—and has completed the Harvard Business School’s program for management development. Hewitt and his wife, Sue, have two adult children and live in Minnesota.
James Moline, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist who earned his Ph.D. from the Fuller Graduate School of Psychology. He and his family live in Minnesota.
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