Money Survival Moment 003: You Check Your Account Five Times a Day Because You're Anxious

This isn't about money or your bank account; it's about living with the constant feeling that money could disappear at any moment.

The repeated checking is how that fear expresses itself.

Your nervous system has learned that money isn't stable…maybe you grew up with a cycle of feast and famine, or your parents had money and lost it or you lived with constant financial uncertainty, so your nervous system developed one mission: 𝘕𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘺.

Constantly checking your bank account is a way of scanning for danger, just like someone who's experienced trauma might repeatedly check whether the front door is locked, your nervous system repeatedly checks whether the money is still there, in an effort to keep you safe.

At first glance, this doesn't seem like a problem, it might even look financially responsible because you're constantly checking your balance and you’re aware of your money.

Surely that's a good thing?

Is it though?

𝐒𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬

Hypervigilance doesn't stop people from saving, it can actually make them excellent savers, because having money sitting in your account can give a sense of emotional safety.

The problem is that the money isn't being saved for something, it's being saved because seeing it there calms the nervous system. This eventually impacts investments and by default, wealth creation.

𝐈𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬

Investing requires us to move money and to accept that there's a chance we may lose money.

As an investor, you have to accept that your bank account balance will go down today so you can invest in assets/education that will yield a higher return or income in the future.

And this requires us to hold uncertainty, but a nervous system that’s stuck in hypervigilance experiences uncertainty as danger, so it constantly searches for certainty before taking action.

So you keep delaying investments until you are certain you won’t lose money and you leave large amounts of cash sitting in accounts because cash feels visible and safe.

𝐈𝐧𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞

Hypervigilance makes people protect what they have, whilst wealth building requires us to take a leap of faith and go after things we don’t have yet.

If you’re hypervigilant about losing money and focused on holding onto what you currently have vs growing what you have, which slows down your income growth.

You're less likely to:

• accept a promotion that stretches you out of fear of failing and losing your job

• negotiate aggressively for a better income in case you lose your job

• increase your prices for fear of losing clients

• invest in your business in case it fails and you lose money

• hire support because that means spending money

• spend on marketing yourself and building your brand because it means spending money

• take calculated risks because there’s a chance you could lose money

𝐃𝐞𝐛𝐭

This one is interesting because it could go two ways:

Some hypervigilant people become intensely debt-averse.

Others become so afraid of seeing their savings decrease that they'll put necessary expenses on credit just to preserve the number in their bank account.

Either way the nervous system isn't making decisions based on long-term financial strategy, it's making decisions based on preserving the feeling of safety.

𝐇𝐲𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐲 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐚 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐰𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐡.

Listen, protecting money is important, but if protection is your only strategy, then money doesn’t actually grow or it grows very slowly which impacts your ability to build generational wealth.

Have you ever found yourself checking your bank account over and over again, unable to relax until you see the money is still there?
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