One of the things we have to know as first-generation money makers who are making money moves in our family and in our friendship circles is that we have to understand that our net worth is tied to our self-worth.  You have to feel like a millionaire if you want to be a millionaire.

There is this quote by Suze Orman that says “Lasting net worth comes only when you have a healthy and strong sense of self-worth.” When you know what it is that you want to achieve with money, believe that you are deserving of it, and recognize that you are in control of how much or how little you have, with just a simple shift in your mindset, your net worth will begin to increase.  

For me, growing up in August Town, Kingston Jamaica,  with a single mother, we never had a lot of money, so we never had discussions about personal finance, building wealth, and investments.  We didn’t have those conversations, in fact, we couldn’t even fathom having extra money because we were just focused on just getting by each month. 

Education, however, was a top priority because my mother knew that education was key to getting a good paying job and so she ensured that we received the best education possible, our school fees were paid, school supplies were bought and we were fed. 

When I got older I began to apply what my mother told me to do. I studied hard, focused on my education, found myself a good job, started making a good income, and then my savings began to grow. But I got to a point where I began to ask myself, now what? My mother didn’t have wealth, so she couldn’t tell me what to do next with the money I was now earning. 

So what do you do when you follow the rules, you play the game and you start making money? Nobody told me about the next part, the part about turning my money into wealth. 

Firstly, your mindset is critical because growing up poor you can find yourself struggling with your self-worth. When you grow up making a lot of sacrifices, you become used to sacrificing different elements of your life. Maybe, like me, you had to share your clothes with your brother and sisters, share meals, share a bed, and so on. So when you start earning good money one of the things you struggle with is “bwoy, do I need to share my earnings with everyone?” This is where understanding your self-worth comes in.

I want to challenge everyone reading this today to know that your self-worth has to be the leading driver of your net worth. When you prioritize taking care of yourself, you position yourself for a state of abundance where you are able to make decisions so that your net worth can grow and you can now take care of those important people in your life, like your parents, your children, and your family. 

Regardless of your background, your upbringing, or the challenges you have experienced in your life you have to remember that you made it this far, you did it, by God’s grace and your efforts. 

The next phase then is to build wealth and build your net worth and that comes from acknowledging that you are worthy, knowing that you deserve a life of abundance and having nice things, and when you get to that point in your mindset you can then prioritize building the net worth. 

You can then build a legacy, build generational wealth for your family, and help your community and by extension the country and future generations. 

We want the future generations to start realizing their self-worth sooner so that they can build their net worth much earlier, but it starts with us. We have to build our self-worth in order to increase our net worth and pay it forward by teaching the generations after us to do the same so we can have more people experiencing wealth but it all starts with your self-worth, it starts with believing.

Self-worth + Net worth = Generational Wealth