Wanting from a place of “I don’t have enough” is one of the most detrimental things to our financial lives. It immediately takes you out of gratitude mode and feeling proud of the things you’ve done, to a place of lack and not feeling good enough.

When you start to look around Instagram, Pinterest, or see that your best friend just got a sweet new house, or your family member just took a fancy vacation and allow yourself to say, “what’s wrong with me? I should be able to do those things too,” you lose.

Financial self-care is all about using money in a way that aligns with our goals, priorities, and values. The idea is to understand that we are in control of our money. We should feel empowered by every financial decision we make. We want to be able to look at our bank statements without cringing at a single line item, even after going out on a Friday night with friends. Financial self-care means having confidence in our financial choices so we can become our best, happiest, most gratitude-filled selves.

We measure our success against those around us. Who has more, who has accomplished what and where has life taken us. But we don’t all have the same start. As a kid, growing up in a low-income household taught me a lot about money and priorities.

I didn’t realize growing up that my family didn’t have a lot. My dad worked seven days a week so we never went without. We always had food, clothing, and our small home. We were a family of five until my grandmother moved in when I was 11. I didn’t know we were sometimes barely scraping by.