My current reading situation is Dr. Dennis Kimbro’s The Wealth Choice. 

According to his work, there are 35,000 black millionaires in the US today. When I came across this number, I was a little   a lot underwhelmed. I started to wonder how many more of us could be millionaires if we could just get our basic finances in order. With our basic finances in order, we could focus on wealth building, entrepreneurship, and moving beyond surviving and getting by.

As Kimbro shared his interviews with black millionaires who started out with humble beginnings claim their piece of the black American pie, there was one quality that they all seemed to embody.

According to Kimbro, he found that financial powerhouses had a unyielding amount of faith in themselves— a financial fire within.

As I took notes on in the margins of the book, I had to stop myself and ask, “But how you do really begin to build financial faith in yourself if you’ve failed time and time again and don’t know how to start?”

I gave it some thought and have come up with the following steps.

Start with an apology. Financial faith and financial shame cannot occupy the same space. If you walk around with the financial shame of the past, you will never be able to move on to redefine your relationship to your finances. Since you can’t change your financial mistakes, why dwell on them? Accept what is and decide to do better.

Pinpoint your financial strengths. Part of having financial faith in yourself is uncovering what you do well— even if it is the smallest thing such as organizing bills in one place, making sure bills are paid on time, or ensuring that food is always on the table. Having a financial strength gives you financial hope and the beginnings of a strong financial foundation.

 Accept that financial success usually accompanies financial setbacks. Don’t let your financial faith falter if you make a mistake. That is really a part of the journey. When the number of mistakes you make are fewer than the amount of financial progress you make, you are building up your financial faith muscle. In other words, financial faith and financial perfection are not synonymous.

Create one easy goal to follow-up with in the 48 hours. Nothing builds financial faith like action. When you are working on building financial faith, make sure the pick an easy goal to complete. It could be a phone call, creating a folder, clearing a desk of clutter, or returning overdue books to the library. What is also important about reaching these goals is to schedule a date and time to do it. Could you do it tomorrow afternoon during lunch? While you wait for the rice and beans to cook on the stove?

Once you’ve done that, rinse and repeat.

Growing strong in your financial faith is a matter of changing how you think and act with your financial past and present. Any black millionaire or black millionaire-in-training will tell you that despite their shortcomings, their belief in their ability to reach their financial goals is part and parcel of their success.

Learn from them.

Frugal Feministas— What can you do today to help you build your financial faith so you can claim your seat at the black millionaire table?

Disclaimer: I have an affiliate link or two in this post. If you buy The Wealth Choice, I get a couple of coins from your purchase but this in no way impacts the cost of your purchase.  

If you’re waiting for a sign that it’s time to make a change, consider this it. Money Therapy may be just what you need to break through your financial blocks and release your money guilt and shame.