10 Ways the Poverty Mindset Might be Keeping You Homestead-Poor

The poverty mindset is detrimental to success on the homestead.  Change these 10 wrong ways to think about money now, so that you can release wealth to your homestead endeavors in the New Year.

The homestead mindset is not about money.  Just as wealth and prosperity are not about money.  While it might seem at first glance that you can’t have wealth if you don’t have money and if you don’t have money you are in poverty, that’s not the whole story.  Let me tell you a personal story to explain what I mean.

About 8 years ago our farm income had tanked.  My family took a job cleaning toilets and vacuuming a local church. We had let our house insurance go because we couldn’t afford the annual payment of $5,000.  The money we brought home from the cleaning job was just enough to pay for the gas to get to the job plus our electrical bill, with nothing leftover for food or even income taxes.

By February the food I had stored for winter was getting low. Our livestock still needed to be fed. We were discussing shutting off our power, afraid that we wouldn’t be able to pay the electrical bill and also buy hay for the sheep and goats, and some food for ourselves.  We were feeling very poor and broke.  Possibly the lowest we’ve ever felt.

We spoke to the pastor, before we started to clean toilets that day, about our financial stress.  He brushed it off, and told Mr. Joybilee he was foolish to stop our house insurance, that we couldn’t afford.  This was a hard thing for a man with an MBA, a CPA (accountant) and a CFP (financial planner) to bear.  The pastor seemed to gloat in our difficulties, as he planned a 3 month sabbatical trip he was about to take with his wife, to warmer climes.

That afternoon, the church ladies were packing away the winter clothes in the church free-store, and bringing out the spring clothes.  The ladies offered Mr. Joybilee a warm, winter coat.  Although it was used, it fit him well and was in decent shape.  It was much better looking and warmer than the old. ripped, chore coat he was wearing at that moment.

That night on the way home from the cleaning job, the wind was blowing wet snow.  The streets were icy and slick. We stopped by the grocery store to pick up milk and peanut butter.  As we waited at the check-out, a homeless man entered the grocery store and stood in the entrance slapping his sides with his arms to get warm.  He was dressed in a grey, cotton hoodie that was damp and caked with snow.  His lips were blue and his breathe was coming in gasps.

As we left the store, Mr. Joybilee took the good, warm coat he was just given and gave it to the homeless guy.   He came back to the car and put on his ripped barn coat.  He never missed the coat.

Just one year later, God gave my husband a city! He had a regular income again, that was enough to ensure that our daughter could finish her university degree without debt.  Sarah graduated from university magna cum laude, and Mr. Joybilee retired again, back to the farm.

Here we are 2 years since Mr. Joybilee retired from the city job.  We just returned from a trip to Israel.  Sarah is working in Jerusalem as a fulltime, volunteer writer for Christian Friends of Israel, a Christian aid organization.  We spent 5 weeks in Jerualem visiting her.  Now back at the farm, I can tell you quite honestly, we never missed the income from Mr. Joybilee’s fulltime city administrator/financial officer job.  Just like we never missed the warm winter coat.

What is wealth?

You are wealthy if you own the means to create wealth.  If you are homesteading, if you own land, if you own your own home, if you own a laptop and an idea —  You own the means to create wealth.  You are wealthy.  You may not see that wealth as cash in the bank yet.  It might not appear on the net income line of your tax return yet.  But if you own the means to create wealth you can create wealth.

On the other hand, if you lack the means to create wealth, or you think you can’t create wealth you may have money in the bank and still be in poverty.

The poverty mindset vs. the homestead mindset

I met a man when I was in Israel that had nothing good to say about anyone who he thought had money.  Mr. Meagre* talked as if there was a certain righteous amount of money that it was ok to earn but if you crossed the line and earned more, that was immoral.  He expressed a poverty mindset — money was a scarce commodity.  If anyone had too much then they must have taken it through dishonest means.  But what was too much? Mr. Meagre never actually said.

I met another man who was very generous.  Mr. Generous* fed and treated Mr. Meagre’s children and made sure their needs were met.  I couldn’t tell you if one man had more money than the other.  I don’t think so. In fact Mr. Generous may even have had less money in the bank.  But I can tell you for sure that Mr. Generous knew he was wealthy and Mr. Meagre knew he was poor.  How each man thought about himself, that was who he was. The reality of their respective wealth or poverty was not connected to how much money each had in the bank.

(*Mr. Meagre and Mr. Generous are real people. Their names are changed.)

Wealth or poverty, what’s the difference?

Mr. Meagre thought differently about money than Mr. Generous. Mr. Meagre’s poverty mindset was keeping him trapped in poverty, no matter the size of his bank account.  Here’s 10 ways that Mr. Meagre thought about money vs. the ideas that Mr. Generous had about money.

You see a poverty mindset can actually stop the flow of money to you, not as if some magical thing is happening.  But because we tend to live out the things we believe about ourselves and about how things work.  We might even subconsciously sabotage our own wealth creation, because of what we believe about money and about ourselves.

10 money mindsets

As you are contemplating these 10 money mindsets, think about the ways you can adjust your thinking to allow more wealth to flow into your homestead.

1. Money is scarce.  VS. There’s lots of money to go around
2. Money is mine and I can’t afford to spend it or it will be gone. VS. Money is a tool that allows me to be generous.
3. I have to be a good steward and give an account for every penny. VS. I am a channel to bless others with the money God has given me.
4. I work hard for every penny I earn. VS. Money comes to me quickly and easily as I serve others
5. I don’t trust anyone to tell me how to think about money. VS. I am always learning new ways to think about wealth and the abundant life.
6. How I think about money is just fine, thank you. VS. I  grew up thinking money was scarce but I know now that I was mistaken.
7. I can only earn money if I have a job. VS. Money comes to me through the relationships I have invested in.
8. Money is a direct result of the hours I spend working hard. VS. Money is a direct result of the positive transformation I bring to other people’s lives.
9. My wife/SO needs to pull her own weight and bring in money to keep us out of the poorhouse. vs. My wife/SO is an equal partner in our life story and our roles compliment each other to allow the flow of money and generosity.
10.  The government tells me I’m in poverty every time I make out my tax return. vs. The poverty line is an arbitrary amount that doesn’t reflect the true nature of wealth.

Is your money mindset keeping you broke?

As you consider what the abundant homestead life means to you, are you being purposeful about the way you think about money?  Do you recognize your own thinking patterns in Mr. Meagre or Mr. Generous?  You can choose.  The way you think about money will determine whether you are wealthy or poor.  And the good news is, you can change your thinking, so that it serves you well.

This printable workbook can help you

I created this workbook/printable to help you work through your core beliefs about money and wealth, so you can change the thinking that’s keeping you broke.  This workbook will guide you through the detective work to find your personal beliefs about money, prosperity, and home/homestead.  By discovering the beliefs that are keeping you broke and where they came from you will be able to replace these limiting beliefs with life changing affirmations based on scripture and truth, not wishful thinking.  This 23 page workbook guides you through daily exercises to build a healthy foundation in right thinking about prosperity, home, and the role of money in your life.

Using The Homestead Abundance Workbook, Taking off the Shackles that are Keeping You Broke, you’ll identify the limiting beliefs that are causing you to self-sabotage your own goals and desires.  You’ll discover the root causes of money problems in your life and reframe the core events that defined your current beliefs about money.  You’ll also discover an easy to implement system to guide you from broke to abundance.  Grab the Homestead Abundance Workbook and set aside the next 30 days to discover a healthy alternative to being broke.

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