This week launches a full week of money talk. I love talking about money. I love having money. I love saving money. I love spending money. I love giving money away.  I can say a lot about my love story with money.

I remember I used to feel bad telling people I wanted to be a millionaire because I felt an immediate energy from them that they directed toward me. The energy was usually: shock, disgust, discomfort, anger, pity that I just didn’t understand what life was all about and judgement.

I grew up in a really religious community, and while they were so good and kind, there was always an underlying belief that money was good to have, better to give away, and that wanting too much of it meant you were destined for a life of living “of the world” and that it would corrupt your soul. I had to do some major mental shifts to finally shrug those beliefs off my shoulders and out of my life.

What were the beliefs around money in the community where you were growing up?

Believe it or not, the stories we learned about money in our childhood really play out into adulthood. We can each carry around beliefs from our parents, neighbors, childhood friends, community, and most especially… from our religious affiliations.

Now, I am pretty unabashed in talking about money, but I have also changed the Game of Life I play by making sure I surround myself with other people who want to be millionaires. And not just that, multi-millionaires. I remember a party I was at where I jokingly said something along the lines of, “I want a million dollars,” to a fellow entrepreneur, to which he responded with all seriousness, “D’Arcy, a million dollars isn’t very much anymore, you need to aim much, much higher.” That’s when I knew I had found my tribe.

What about you, do stories like the one above cause you to feel like people who want a million dollars are calloused? Or that they are materialistic? Or that they don’t know what’s really important in life?

If so, I’d challenge you to study and research the many millionaires and billionaires who are responsible for giving away billions of dollars each year to helping the world. It really would be a different place without them. I believe that having more money only emphasizes who you really are on the inside.

If you make $50,000 a year and you’re stingy and distrustful, if you don’t like parting with your money and don’t feel like you owe anyone anything–then I believe if you have $5,000,000 you’re probably going to behave the same way.

If you make $50,000 and you give 10% to charity, and then you give another 10% to your retired parents so their lives will be easier, and you give a percentage to helping women in Africa get educated, and then you put a percentage away for your niece’s college education fund and then so on….well, if you make $5,000,000.00, chances are, you’re going to do the same thing with that amount as you would with the smaller amount (you just might be wearing Jimmy Choos while you do it 🙂

It isn’t the amount of money you have that determines the person—money just makes you more of who you already are. Thus, it goes to reason that giving, loving, caring, intelligent, and passionate people should be proud to make money because of all the amazing doors that money does open in life!

So make sure to stay tuned to this week’s Instagram live to learn more about the POWER OF WANTING MONEY!