Money is important as it touches every part of our lives.

Yet too often, we lose sight of its true nature, and it becomes an emotional experience rather than a practical tool.

What if the biggest influence on your finances is not the markets but the story you believe about money?

At its core, money is just digits on a screen or printed symbols on paper without any real intrinsic value. It is not gold, it is not food, neither is it shelter. It is simply a human agreement, a collective story we have decided to believe. Its power comes entirely from that belief.

Yet when we think about money, the conversation rarely stays rational. The moment we attach a number to ourselves, to our worth, to our future, we step into a charged emotional space. Money becomes more than a medium of exchange. It becomes a mirror for our fears, desires, and insecurities.

The problem is not money itself. It is the stories we have created around it. Some of these stories are inherited from family: “Money doesn’t grow on trees.” Some are cultural: “You are successful if you have more than others.” Some are personal: “I am not good with money,” or “I will never have enough.”

These narratives live mostly in our subconscious, quietly shaping our perceptions and decisions. They become the lens though which we view and experience reality, influencing how we work, save, spend, and measure our self-worth. They affect our behaviour and how we “show up” in this world. The result is that money stops being a neutral tool and starts being an emotional trigger, something that clouds our judgment and pulls us away from what truly matters.

This is where simple awareness changes everything. Awareness opens the door to noticing how you interact with money, and how money makes you feel. Do you feel anxious when you think about it? Proud? Guilty? Where do those feelings come from? Without judgment, you begin to see the link between your inner stories and your financial behaviour.

And here is a humble truth: simple awareness, practiced consistently, will drive behaviour change. Not because you force it, but because once you see the pattern, you cannot unsee it. You start making different choices almost naturally. Once you are clear on your values, you can bring intention to your decisions. You shift from reacting to responding.

When you see the money story you are living, you can choose to write a better one.

When we strip away the unconscious stories, money becomes simple again. It is a resource, nothing more, nothing less. It is a means to enable choices, not a measure of who we are. The real challenge is not in “making more” but in staying awake to the money stories running our lives. Because until we see them clearly, they will keep dictating our relationship with money and by extension, our relationship with ourselves and with others.

Money is not the story. It is the paper the story is written on.

Change the story, and you change your life.

Make sure you are the author!

 

Written by Marius Kilian

 

Source

* “What’s Your Money Story? My Conversation with Carl Richards – Part II”, Michael Remedios, theartofwondering.substack, 7 Aug 2025.